Booking flights, hotels, and car rentals together can significantly simplify your travel planning and often lead to considerable savings. However, with numerous online platforms vying for your attention, finding the Best Travel Website For Packages can feel overwhelming. To streamline your search and ensure you’re getting the most value for your money, we’ve rigorously tested a wide array of vacation package sites. Our goal was to identify platforms that not only offer competitive prices but also provide a seamless and user-friendly booking experience.
Our investigation revealed that the top-tier vacation package websites generally allow you to bundle any combination of flights, hotels, and rental cars. While some sites primarily focus on flight and hotel packages, many offer the flexibility to add a car rental during the booking process, even if it’s not immediately apparent on the initial search page.
It’s crucial to remember that the advertised savings from booking a package deal aren’t always guaranteed. Before finalizing your booking, we strongly recommend comparing the package price against booking each component (flight, hotel, car) separately. In some instances, booking individual elements might actually be more cost-effective, and it can sometimes unlock a wider selection of flight options. We noticed during our tests that default flight choices within packages occasionally included lengthy layovers or inconvenient departure times, such as very early morning flights.
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Be vigilant about hidden fees, especially resort fees. Many of the best vacation booking sites might not include these in their initial price estimates because hotels typically collect them separately. However, these fees can substantially increase the overall cost of your trip. Similarly, be mindful of airline baggage fees, particularly if you’re opting for basic economy fares. The transparency of these fees can vary across different vacation package sites.
Finally, it’s worth noting that the online travel agency landscape is more consolidated than it appears. Many leading sites for vacation packages are owned by the same parent companies. This often translates to similar inventory and pricing across different platforms. Understanding these ownership relationships can save you valuable time during your research, preventing redundant searches across essentially identical sites.
Top Websites to Book Vacation Packages
We’ve put the leading platforms to the test, evaluating their pricing, features, and overall user experience. Below are our recommendations for the best websites for booking vacations, presented in no particular order. Read on for a detailed analysis of each platform.
Expedia
Illustration of a laptop computer screen showing the vacation packages search page for Expedia
Laptop displaying Expedia Vacation Packages search, a top-rated travel website for package deals. guteksk7 | Adobe Stock & Expedia
Expedia has rightfully earned its reputation as one of the best travel package sites. This well-established platform offers a comprehensive suite of bundling options, including flight and hotel, flight and car, hotel and car, and the all-encompassing flight, hotel, and car package. Expedia caters to destinations across the globe, making it a versatile choice for almost any trip. Our price testing confirmed Expedia’s reliability; it presented the lowest price in two out of five test bookings and consistently offered prices that were better than average in the majority of our searches.
However, it’s wise to treat Expedia’s advertised package savings with a degree of caution. In some instances, the claimed savings didn’t accurately reflect the actual price difference when we calculated the cost of booking each element of the trip separately. In one test case, we even found it cheaper to book the flight, hotel, and car individually. Therefore, we advise verifying the package savings by independently pricing out the components to ensure you’re truly getting the best possible deal.
Expedia excels in user experience with its robust filtering system. You can refine hotel searches by price, proximity to the city center, guest ratings, package discounts, and hotel class. Flight options can be filtered by departure and arrival times (morning, evening, etc.), airline, baggage inclusion, and more. Furthermore, flight options can be sorted by duration, price, departure time, and arrival time. The integrated map view is particularly useful for visually assessing hotel locations.
Best Feature: Expedia’s extensive selection and consistent pricing solidify its position as a leading site for vacation packages. While it might not always guarantee the absolute lowest price, Expedia provides a broad range of choices at competitive rates, making it a dependable starting point for your travel package search.
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Expedia’s Sister Sites: Travelocity, Orbitz, and CheapTickets
Travelocity Vacation Packages Search Page on a Laptop
Travelocity’s vacation package search interface, mirroring Expedia’s functionality. guteksk7 | Adobe Stock & Travelocity
Many travelers are unaware that Travelocity, Orbitz, and CheapTickets are all part of the Expedia Group family. Consequently, these sites typically share very similar inventory and pricing with Expedia. Their website layouts and filtering options are also remarkably consistent. Like Expedia, these platforms offer comprehensive vacation package combinations encompassing flights, hotels, and/or rental cars.
In our pricing tests, it was uncommon for Travelocity, Orbitz, or CheapTickets to outperform Expedia. Generally, prices were either identical, especially on Travelocity, or marginally higher. However, Orbitz and CheapTickets did present slightly more affordable packages for one particular flight and car itinerary we tested.
Given the pricing similarities, searching all three sister sites in addition to Expedia is likely only worthwhile if even a small price difference is critical to your budget. Otherwise, the overlap in offerings might not justify the extra effort.
Best Feature: Travelocity, Orbitz, and CheapTickets include a convenient checkbox on their main booking page labeled “I only need accommodations for part of my trip.” This useful feature allows users to specify a subset of their travel dates and search for vacation packages specifically within that timeframe. This feature is also available on Expedia’s search interface.
Note: The Expedia Group also owns Hotwire. In our tests, Hotwire didn’t perform quite as consistently as its sister sites. For one itinerary, a nonstop flight option available on the other Expedia-owned sites was missing when booking a Hotwire package (although it was available when booking a flight separately on Hotwire). Additionally, pricing on some searches was slightly elevated compared to the other platforms.
Explore Expedia’s sister sites:
Priceline
Priceline Vacation Packages Search on a Screen
Priceline’s vacation package search engine, a competitor in the best travel website for packages category. guteksk7 | Adobe Stock & Priceline
Similar to Expedia and its affiliated sites, Priceline offers a full spectrum of vacation package combinations, encompassing flights, hotels, and rental cars. Its search results pages are user-friendly and well-organized, offering a variety of filters and sorting options, along with a map view for hotels. Priceline boasts a wide selection of hotel options across popular vacation destinations, catering to diverse budgets.
One unique aspect of Priceline’s flight search is that it presents departure and return flights together as pairs, rather than allowing individual selection of each flight leg. While this streamlines the booking process by reducing the number of clicks, it may require more scrolling to locate your preferred flight combination. It’s also worth noting that not all flights available when booking airfare separately on Priceline appear to be accessible when booking a package. Therefore, checking both options is advisable.
Priceline’s pricing performance in our tests was mid-range. It secured the lowest price in one of our test cases but was the most expensive option in two others. Overall, Priceline offered cheaper-than-average prices in 60% of our searches. To help users save money, Priceline features “Express Deals” for rental cars. This opaque option means you won’t know the specific rental car brand until after booking. Standard rental car options, allowing brand selection, are also available.
Best feature: Priceline simplifies hotel selection by retaining your chosen flight and rental car preferences as you browse different hotel options. This eliminates the repetitive task of re-selecting your flight and car preferences each time you consider a new hotel, saving valuable time and effort.
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CheapCaribbean.com
CheapCaribbean.com Vacation Package Website Displayed
CheapCaribbean.com, a website specializing in Caribbean travel packages and deals. guteksk7 | Adobe Stock & CheapCaribbean.com
As the name implies, CheapCaribbean.com focuses on a specific region, the Caribbean. While its scope is narrower than some other sites listed, it’s a valuable resource if you’re planning a trip to this popular destination, especially for package deals like honeymoons. In both of our Caribbean-focused test searches, CheapCaribbean.com delivered prices that were below average.
CheapCaribbean.com stands out as one of the best vacation websites for all-inclusive packages in the Caribbean. After entering your trip details, you can filter results by categories like “adults only,” “children’s amenities,” and “luxury,” allowing you to tailor your search to your specific needs and preferences. Each hotel page provides a list of current promotions, on-site activities, and the property’s Tripadvisor Traveler Rating, offering comprehensive information to aid your decision-making.
However, CheapCaribbean.com has some limitations compared to more versatile travel package sites. It lacks a map view for comparing hotel locations. Additionally, searching for flights from Houston is less convenient as it doesn’t allow grouping Houston’s two airports into a single search, unlike the option to select “all airports” for major cities like New York City and Washington, D.C. Furthermore, CheapCaribbean.com primarily focuses on flight and hotel packages; adding a car rental or creating other package combinations isn’t an option. However, you can add travel insurance and airport transfers for the destinations we checked. Despite these minor drawbacks, the attractive deals, particularly for all-inclusive Caribbean vacations, make it a worthwhile platform to consider if you’re seeking sun and sand.
Best Feature: CheapCaribbean.com’s “Deals of Fortune” offer unique value. These bookings allow you to secure a trip to a specific destination but keep the exact resort a surprise until approximately a week before your departure. This feature is ideal for budget-conscious travelers who are flexible about their specific island or property and prioritize savings.
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Kayak
Kayak Website Display on a Screen
Kayak’s meta-search engine for travel packages, aggregating deals from various websites. guteksk7 | Adobe Stock & Kayak
Kayak is a popular meta-search engine designed to save travelers time by simultaneously searching multiple best travel package sites. With a single search, Kayak scans numerous platforms like Priceline (its sister company), Expedia, and CheapCaribbean.com. However, Kayak’s package search is primarily focused on flight and hotel bundles by default. While you might be able to add a car rental on some partner sites after being redirected from Kayak, it’s not possible to directly search for flight and car packages or other combinations on Kayak itself.
Kayak presents results listing the most affordable packages from various source sites. It includes a map view and offers both flight and hotel-specific filters, enabling users to easily refine their search for nonstop flights, hotels with free breakfast, or specific hotel amenities.
During our testing, we observed that the prices displayed on Kayak didn’t always precisely match the prices on the source site upon clicking through to finalize the booking. This slight price discrepancy is a common characteristic of meta-search engines. However, we also occasionally encountered situations where clicking from Kayak resulted in a different price than searching the same itinerary directly on the booking site’s homepage. For instance, a Las Vegas package priced at $819 per person on Priceline via Kayak was only $783 when booked directly through the Priceline homepage. Conversely, another test yielded the opposite result, with a cheaper price after clicking from Kayak compared to booking directly on Priceline. The key takeaway is to double-check prices on both Kayak and the source website to ensure you’re securing the best possible deal when using a meta-search platform.
Best Feature: Kayak’s ability to search multiple best vacation booking sites simultaneously is a significant time-saver. Although Kayak might not consistently unearth the absolute lowest price, it serves as an excellent starting point to explore available options and gain a broad overview of the vacation package landscape.
Related:
The Essential Caribbean Packing List
Funjet Vacations
Funjet Vacations Website on a Screen
Funjet Vacations, a website providing flight and hotel vacation packages. guteksk7 | Adobe Stock & Funjet Vacations
The Funjet homepage initially presents a single package option: flight and hotel. However, you can add a rental car later in the booking process, either after selecting a flight and hotel package or during individual flight booking. Funjet provides numerous sorting options for search results, including price, hotel name, rating, points of interest, and location, allowing for customized browsing.
Similar to CheapCaribbean.com, Funjet has a limitation regarding airport selection. It lacks the “all airports” option for certain cities like Houston or Chicago, which can be slightly inconvenient for travelers flying from these locations with multiple airports. Furthermore, Funjet’s pricing consistency was variable in our tests, ranking as the cheapest in one instance and the most expensive in another. Despite these points, Funjet remains a worthwhile site to include in your vacation package price comparisons.
Best Feature: Funjet proactively applies relevant promo codes to your search results, eliminating the need to manually search for coupons across the web. This automatic promo code application simplifies the booking process and ensures you’re benefiting from available discounts.
Note: If you’re planning a trip to the Caribbean, Central or South America, Hawaii, or Mexico, consider exploring Funjet’s sister site, Apple Vacations. While Apple Vacations covers a more limited range of destinations compared to Funjet, our research indicated that prices were often slightly more competitive on Apple Vacations for these regions. It’s also worth noting that CheapCaribbean.com shares the same parent company as Funjet and Apple Vacations, Apple Leisure Group.
Book Your Stay With SmarterTravel Hotels
If you’re ready to plan your next adventure but prefer the flexibility of booking components separately rather than a pre-packaged bundle, you can still achieve significant savings by booking your hotel stay through SmarterTravel Hotels.
All of the products featured in this story were hand-selected by our travel editors. Some of the links featured in this story are affiliate links, and SmarterTravel may collect a commission (at no cost to you) if you shop through them. As an Amazon Associate, we earn from qualifying purchases.
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We hand-pick everything we recommend and select items through testing and reviews. Some products are sent to us free of charge with no incentive to offer a favorable review. We offer our unbiased opinions and do not accept compensation to review products. All items are in stock and prices are accurate at the time of publication. If you buy something through our links, we may earn a commission.
