Destination Anywhere, East or West, I Don't Care...
September 22, 2011 6:22 AM Subscribe
My favorite "last minute, destination-nonspecific" travel site just folded. Are there any others out there?
What I'm looking for is summed up by this previous AskMe -- a site that puts together deals for you (a flight and a car, a car and a hotel, or a flight and a hotel) based on your HOME city, and does not require you to input a destination. Lastminute.com USED to do that -- you'd tell it WHEN you wanted to travel, and they'd give you a list of possible destination deals ("a flight and a hotel in Chicago starting at $220, a flight and a hotel in Denver starting at $350, a hotel and a car in Boston starting at $150...").
Now, though, lastminute.com shunts you to Travelocity, which DOES require you to enter a destination. Is there any site still like the old lastminute.com?
What I'm looking for is summed up by this previous AskMe -- a site that puts together deals for you (a flight and a car, a car and a hotel, or a flight and a hotel) based on your HOME city, and does not require you to input a destination. Lastminute.com USED to do that -- you'd tell it WHEN you wanted to travel, and they'd give you a list of possible destination deals ("a flight and a hotel in Chicago starting at $220, a flight and a hotel in Denver starting at $350, a hotel and a car in Boston starting at $150...").
Now, though, lastminute.com shunts you to Travelocity, which DOES require you to enter a destination. Is there any site still like the old lastminute.com?
Response by poster: The inability to input the dates I want to travel.
posted by EmpressCallipygos at 6:32 AM on September 22, 2011
posted by EmpressCallipygos at 6:32 AM on September 22, 2011
Response by poster: Lemme expound on that: lastminute.com let you filter its search results by the departure date. They were usually grouped around a weekend (this weekend, departing Friday/this weekend, departing Saturday/NEXT weekend, departing friday.... etc.).
THAT'S what I want-- the ability to say, "hmm, I want to go out of town next weekend, are there any deals for that specific date?" without having to have a destination in mind.
posted by EmpressCallipygos at 8:07 AM on September 22, 2011
THAT'S what I want-- the ability to say, "hmm, I want to go out of town next weekend, are there any deals for that specific date?" without having to have a destination in mind.
posted by EmpressCallipygos at 8:07 AM on September 22, 2011
Try the everywhere search on Skyscanner.
posted by jetsetlag at 8:38 AM on September 22, 2011 [1 favorite]
posted by jetsetlag at 8:38 AM on September 22, 2011 [1 favorite]
Response by poster: Skyscanner appears to be flights only, though - this was something that combined a flight AND a hotel in one fell swoop.
posted by EmpressCallipygos at 8:42 AM on September 22, 2011
posted by EmpressCallipygos at 8:42 AM on September 22, 2011
I do believe you can do that with Kayak by going to "deals" and clicking on "today's top deals" on the upper right hand side of the search function. Good Luck.
posted by rmhsinc at 8:54 AM on September 22, 2011
posted by rmhsinc at 8:54 AM on September 22, 2011
Response by poster: Still not quite it -- it doesn't specifiy whether or not a deal is available on a particular weekend, and when I clicked on a link for a deal itself, it brought me to a completely different web site.
Maybe I should explain in greater detail what Lastminute.com did.
I would input the city I lived in and wanted to fly out of, and I would specify either "this weekend" or "next weekend." Then Lastminute.com would show me three different lists: a list of "flight + hotel" packages, a list of "flight + car" packages, and a list of "hotel + car" packages. Each such package was in a different place.
If I ordered one of the packages -- let's say I picked a "flight + hotel" package -- lastminute.com would let me select the exact TIME of my flight on the day I wanted, and then also let me select the hotel. (They would always show me the very cheapest rate, but also a couple of other options; some of those options would jack up the price of the package a few bucks, depending.) Lastminute.com would handle all of the booking. They took a cut, but I would save because of their packaging the flight and the hotel together, and also because these were last-minute unsold flights/hotels/whatever.
What I liked about that was: if I decided on Wednesday "I want to get out of town this Friday but can't decide where," lastminute.com could come up with a list of possible destinations by showing me a list of available package deals which they had assembled. So I could treat that like a list of "oh, there's an idea. North Carolina's got a good deal this weekend, I'll go there."
That's the kind of thing I'm looking for; I do appreciate the suggestions so far, but none quite matches that kind of service.
posted by EmpressCallipygos at 10:02 AM on September 22, 2011
Maybe I should explain in greater detail what Lastminute.com did.
I would input the city I lived in and wanted to fly out of, and I would specify either "this weekend" or "next weekend." Then Lastminute.com would show me three different lists: a list of "flight + hotel" packages, a list of "flight + car" packages, and a list of "hotel + car" packages. Each such package was in a different place.
If I ordered one of the packages -- let's say I picked a "flight + hotel" package -- lastminute.com would let me select the exact TIME of my flight on the day I wanted, and then also let me select the hotel. (They would always show me the very cheapest rate, but also a couple of other options; some of those options would jack up the price of the package a few bucks, depending.) Lastminute.com would handle all of the booking. They took a cut, but I would save because of their packaging the flight and the hotel together, and also because these were last-minute unsold flights/hotels/whatever.
What I liked about that was: if I decided on Wednesday "I want to get out of town this Friday but can't decide where," lastminute.com could come up with a list of possible destinations by showing me a list of available package deals which they had assembled. So I could treat that like a list of "oh, there's an idea. North Carolina's got a good deal this weekend, I'll go there."
That's the kind of thing I'm looking for; I do appreciate the suggestions so far, but none quite matches that kind of service.
posted by EmpressCallipygos at 10:02 AM on September 22, 2011
Response by poster: Oooh, that's promising, ames. Not sure it's got the same kind of "discounts from package deals" deal thing, but the interface is a LOT more like what I'm looking for. I"ll play with this.
Thanks; if anyone else sees anything, I'm all ears still!
posted by EmpressCallipygos at 11:00 AM on September 22, 2011
Thanks; if anyone else sees anything, I'm all ears still!
posted by EmpressCallipygos at 11:00 AM on September 22, 2011
It looks like Skyscanner has checkboxes for "hotel" and "car." So it is possible that it may do what you want.
posted by aniola at 2:07 PM on September 23, 2011
posted by aniola at 2:07 PM on September 23, 2011
This thread is closed to new comments.
posted by aimedwander at 6:27 AM on September 22, 2011