Travel is becoming more and more affordable and accessible for everyone these days. There are so many websites and companies that offer trip planning services but the multitude of options can sometimes be overwhelming. Thankfully, a few years ago my dad introduced a new and innovative website to me – Skyscanner. He told me about the site to help me with my travels while I lived in Europe but he didn’t account for the fact that I now spend too much time on Skyscanner.
What is Skyscanner?
Skyscanner is essentially a search engine that makes it easy for travelers to search and compare flights, hotels, and rental cars for the best deals.
Using Skyscanner is very simple and offers a variety of options for the traveler. One of the perks of using this search engine is that they have over 1,200 travel partners that are all helping you find the best deal. I tend to be lazy when searching for flights and since Skyscanner has so many partners, I only need to visit one site and I have access to all.
Special Features
THE EVERYWHERE SEARCH
If you’re anything like me, I occasionally will get time off from work but have no specific travel plans or idea of where to go. I just want to get out of town and explore. Skyscanner has a very unique feature that lets you select your airport of origin and shows you flights to anywhere in the world. Since my main airport is usually LAX, Skyscanner will show me where the cheapest flights from LAX will take me. Through the everywhere search, I can decide where I want to travel to based off of how much the tickets are. One-hundred-twenty dollars round trip to Cabo San Lucas? Count me in.
THE MAP FEATURE
My favorite tool is Skyscanner’s map. Just like the other searches, you type in your starting airport. From there, you can select the map option and Skyscanner will bring up a map of the entire world. Main airports are represented by little dots. A green dot means there are direct flights available and red dots mean there are only connecting flights. I really like this feature because you can see what airports in the area are the cheapest.
For example, if I were in Barcelona and wanted to fly to Frankfurt, I would use the Skyscanner map to see that it is actually cheaper and more convenient to fly into Stuttgart on a budget airline and then take a train to Frankfurt.
PRICE ALERTS
As much as I wish I could spend all day planning trips, life gets in the way. If I know I need a certain flight, I use Skyscanner’s price alerts to notify me when the price drops. It is convenient for travelers because you don’t have to check the site every day and search for the prices – Skyscanner will do the hard work and notify you! Below is a picture of what the price alert looks like. Just insert your email and you are good to go!
MONTHLY VIEW
In the travel world, a few days can have a huge effect on the price of airline tickets. A ticket for a Sunday may be $200 and a ticket for the following Monday that is exactly the same could be over $700. With Skyscanner’s monthly view, you can see how much the prices fluctuate within a month. Who knows, it might actually be cheaper to plan your family vacation for July instead of June. Skyscanner can help you decide what the best option for you is.
In addition to flights, Skyscanner is also an excellent search engine for booking hotels and car rentals. Just like searching for flights, searching for hotels is very simple and the website offers several filters to narrow down your search. I can always count on Skyscanner to get the best deals. If you’re searching for a deal, Skyscanner even includes hostels in their search.
Traveling means being on the go, which means plans can change suddenly. Thankfully, Skyscanner has you covered. Their app is available for both the iPhone and Android and can help you search for accommodation and transportation – even if it’s last minute!
What makes Skyscanner different from other search engines or websites?
It is completely free to use and it offers features unavailable anywhere else. Where else can I enter the name of my airport and find flights to anywhere in the world at the touch of a button?
Even though I use Skyscanner extensively to plan my travels, a lot more goes into planning than just flights. I wrote a very detailed article that you can find here about how I manage to travel for cheap and how you can too!
Skyscanner is the search engine of the future. And with Skyscanner, the skies have no limits.
I am an affiliate member of the Skyscanner Ambassador Program but as always, the opinions I offer are mine because I actually DO love what Skyscanner does!
Vielen Dank für den tollen Artikel.