Travel Guides, Tips & Hotel Deals

Destination guides, hotel tips, and ways to keep more cash in your pocket when you travel.

Alicante Spain coastline with the city skyline and Mediterranean sea on a summer day

Alicante in 2026: Europe's Fastest-Rising Summer Destination

Tripadvisor's Summer 2026 Traveller Index put Alicante at the top of its European trending destinations list. Most American travelers have never considered it. Most European travelers have been sleeping on it too, routing instead to Barcelona or Mallorca without realizing there's a city on the Costa Blanca that offers the same sun and seafood at a fraction of the price. Alicante sits roughly halfway between Valencia and Murcia, on a bay that faces southeast and catches afternoon light in a way

Apr 29, 2026 · 5 min read

Travelers sitting at an airport terminal browsing smartphones and booking travel on mobile devices

TikTok Is Now a Hotel Search Engine. Here's What to Know.

TikTok is beta testing a metasearch feature that lets users view and book hotels directly through cards embedded in their video feed. It isn't live everywhere yet, but it's real, and it signals a shift in where travelers discover and book accommodation that has been building for years. This matters more than it might seem at first. The hotel booking industry has been dominated by the same handful of platforms since the early 2000s. Google Hotel Search, Booking.com, Expedia, and a few others bet

Apr 28, 2026 · 5 min read

Aerial view of Mallorca's rugged coastline with turquoise Mediterranean water and rocky cliffs

Mallorca in 2026: Where to Stay, What to Skip, and What's Actually Worth It

Mallorca is one of those destinations that gets dismissed before it's understood. The mention of it conjures images of budget flights and overcrowded beach clubs in the south. That reputation is real, but it belongs to about 20% of the island. The other 80% is something else entirely: Serra de Tramuntana mountains, medieval stone villages, fishing ports that haven't changed much in decades, and some of the clearest water in the Mediterranean. Search interest in beach clubs in Mallorca is at bre

Apr 28, 2026 · 5 min read

Ancient stone farmhouse on a hillside in the Italian countryside surrounded by rolling green fields

Italy Beyond Tuscany: The Regions Worth a Slower Trip

Search interest in slow travel Italy jumped 100% in the past month. That's not a coincidence. Travelers who've been to Rome and Florence are looking for the next thing, and Italy has more to offer than those two cities can contain. The regions that reward slower travel — more days, fewer kilometers covered — are the ones most American tourists miss. Umbria, Puglia, and Piedmont aren't secrets. But they're far less visited than Tuscany and Rome, and in 2026, that gap is a genuine opportunity. H

Apr 28, 2026 · 5 min read

Aerial view of Mexico City skyline with skyscrapers spreading across a vast urban landscape

Where to Stay in Mexico City: A Neighborhood Guide for 2026

Search interest in the best restaurants in Mexico City hit a 10-year high in 2026. That's a meaningful signal. It's not just that CDMX is having a travel moment. It's that travelers are arriving with a specific goal: eat well, stay in a good neighborhood, and actually understand the city rather than just see it. The neighborhood question is where most first-time visitors go wrong. Mexico City is enormous. Where you stay determines what your trip feels like, who you're around, and how far you wa

Apr 28, 2026 · 5 min read

Aerial view of a modern football stadium lit up for a major soccer match

How to Book Hotels for the 2026 FIFA World Cup Without Overpaying

Hotel prices in the 16 FIFA World Cup host cities have dropped about one-third from their 2025 peak. The surge pricing that spooked travelers a year ago has mostly unwound. But match nights are still expensive. The average hotel rate in Houston during match days runs $200 to $350 per night. In Atlanta, $200 to $400. In New York's venue area, expect to pay well above that for anything close to the stadium. The World Cup runs June 11 to July 19, 2026, across 16 cities in the US, Mexico, and Canad

Apr 28, 2026 · 5 min read

Aerial view of Dubrovnik historic walled city overlooking the Adriatic Sea

Destination Guide

Croatia in 2026: Where Flights Are Cheap and Hotels Still Have Deals

Airfare to Split, Croatia dropped 33% year-over-year in 2026. That's not a rounding error. That's the market signaling that it's finally cheaper to fly somewhere that used to be expensive to reach, in a country that was already a good value for hotels and food. Croatia has been on the overrated-and-overcrowded list for years. Some of that reputation is deserved, specifically for Dubrovnik in July and August. But the country is larger and more varied than its most photographed corner, and the pr

Apr 27, 2026 · 5 min read

Person relaxing at a cafe table with coffee on a sunny European street

Travel Savings

The Slow Travel Playbook: How to Find a Hotel for a Longer Stay

Slow travel hit an all-time high in 2026. More people are spending ten days in one city instead of rushing through five in two weeks. Staying in a neighborhood instead of near the airport. Eating at the same restaurant twice because it was good, not because the schedule required somewhere new every night. The concept gets talked about as a philosophy. What doesn't get talked about enough is how to actually book hotels for a longer stay. The standard booking approach designed for short trips has

Apr 27, 2026 · 5 min read

Tokyo city skyline with traditional temple and modern skyscrapers

Destination Guide

Why August Is Actually One of the Best Times to Visit Japan

Almost everyone who travels to Japan does so in spring, for cherry blossoms, or in fall, for the foliage. Summer gets a reputation for brutal heat and packed crowds and is largely written off as the wrong time to go. That reputation is mostly wrong. July and August are one of the cheapest times to visit Japan, with hotel rates dropping 20-40% from spring and fall peaks. And if you know how to handle the heat, the experience is different from any other season in ways that are genuinely worth it.

Apr 27, 2026 · 5 min read

Elegant hotel lobby with grand chandelier and modern decor

Travel Savings

Hotels Are Charging for Everything Now. Here's What to Know.

Hotels are charging for things they used to include. Not just the resort fees you've been paying for years. Early check-in is a fee. Late checkout is a fee. Daily housekeeping is a fee at some properties. The industry calls it "unbundling." Your bill calls it something else. This is worth understanding because it's accelerating. And because there's a right way to navigate it that most travelers don't know yet. What's Actually Happening The hotel industry spent the last decade bundling amenit

Apr 27, 2026 · 5 min read

Aerial view of Prague Castle and red-roofed historic buildings

Destination Guide

Eastern Europe Is Having Its Best Year Ever. Here’s Where to Start.

Seven of the top ten trending travel destinations in the world right now are in Eastern Europe. Prague search interest is up 180% year-over-year. Sofia is up 136%. Krakow up 106%. Budapest up 86%. This isn't a new story. Eastern Europe has been "about to have its moment" for years. But 2026 is different. The combination of falling airfares, new direct routes from North America, and genuine word-of-mouth from travelers who skipped Paris and London and came back raving about Riga has pushed the r

Apr 27, 2026 · 5 min read

Beachfront hotel pool overlooking blue ocean water on a sunny summer day

Travel News

What Beach Hotel Prices Actually Look Like This Summer

Tripadvisor's new Summer 2026 Index shows East Coast and Florida beaches dominating domestic travel demand. Here's what hotel prices at the top destinations actually look like.

Apr 26, 2026 · 5 min read