PLANNING A TRIP

I think that one of the best parts about a vacation is the countdown to the day of departure. We used to have annual family trips when I was a kid. I remember crossing out days in a little calendar I would keep in my pencil case.

10 more days… 8 more days… 5 more days—oh, gotta remember to bring my Nintendo Gameboy along for the trip...

Ah, those were the days. All I had to worry about is to pack my own bag for the trip.

Things a lot different when you grow up. You come to realize, amongst other things, that planning a vacation can be quite a pain. There are lots of things to worry about. Who’s to take care of the family dog while you’re gone. Who’s gonna water the plants. Clearing work before flying off. The flight reservations. And hotel reservations. Argh.

I prefer doing all the bookings myself than to get the travel agent to do it for me. Fortunately for people like me, it is possible to make flight and hotel bookings online. Sure beats queuing up for what would seem like an eternity to book your ticket at the ticketing counters.

HotelClub allows you to do bookings for hotels in most countries around the world. All you have to do is to key in the duration of your stay, and indicate whether you prefer a 3 star above, or below hotel.

Or if you like, you can browse to hotels by country, or the popular cities, such as London, Sydney, New York City or Paris.

Not all hotels allow you to make online reservations through their websites. Why, some hotels may not even have a website! Heck, HotelClub would have saved me the agony of having to stay in some of the shoddiest hotels all those years ago.