Rome2Rio.com
This website will help you answer those age-old questions: Where do I go after I land? And more important, how much will it cost?
» What it does: It’s a global trip planner that combines and displays not only flight information, but also train, bus and ferry options or a combination of all types. Hotel options are just one more click away.
» Cost: Free.
» What’s hot: Rome2Rio.com is blazing fast. In researching a trip with friends, I could instantly get prices (and multimodal routes) for their route from a small town in England; I could run the same test from my Southern California departure destination in a separate tab. I ran several destination options, and it was easy to calculate, on average, that Puerto Rico was going to be slightly cheaper than a trip to the Dominican Republic and a lot cheaper than a trip to Buenos Aires. I tested the website, but there is an app version as well.
» What’s not: This is not a new site, but there are recent consumer-friendly improvements that now display estimated pricing for nonflight travel modes, too. Click on the estimates, and the site takes you to another page where you can book directly with the provider. The process was easy, but once I added my travel dates, the prices went way up compared with the estimates. I would have liked guidance about how to get the rates it first displayed, because I didn’t have time to hunt and peck.
» Worth it?: Absolutely. If you’re thinking about taking a trip to a region you’ve never been to, the map-based display showing how you’ll get there is incredibly helpful.
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–Jay Leo / Los Angeles Times