Vacations: Sites to kick-start your summer!

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May 22, 2009, 09:22 AM —  ITworld — 

Memorial Day Weekend traditionally marks the beginning of the summer vacation season. Let's assume that you're not going to spend the next few months chained to your servers or your IDE -- and that, despite the economic downturn, you've got a steady paycheck that can fund travel. You don't want to vacation like your parents, with nothing but a beat-up guidebook and a ill-folded map to get you on your way. In the futuristic year 2009, we may not be taking vacations on the moon, but we can at least mix a little tech in with our travel plans.

Getting there is half the fun

The most fascinating thing to watch about the airline industry over the past 15 years is how ticket reservation Websites have become increasingly abstract. It seems that every travel season, there's another site that is collecting from a larger and larger pool of data to find the cheapest fare. The current king of the hill in this category is Kayak, which scrapes its way over the travel clearinghouses, the various airline direct-sales sites, and numerous travel sites in its quest for the best fare. There's a hypnotic progress bar to watch as it searches, and if you're stuck for ideas on where to go, you can check out other users' saved trip itineraries. Enjoy it in the summer of 2009, because by 2010 someone else will probably have built a better mousetrap that drives down fares further. (And we wonder why they're charging us for pillows now?)

America is best seen on two lanes.

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