Despite the recession, a number of people are still buying flight tickets to visit their families for the holidays and use their vacation days. The internet is a vast sea of flight deals and cut-rate hotels if you know when, where and how to look. Having the right resources is critical to your success. If you value your time, first and foremost, then you may just want to call up a travel agent to find you a worthwhile deal. However, if you have a little bit of gumption and you're willing to do some surfing to find the best fares, then the following websites will be great assets to you.

Airline tickets are one of the most popular areas of search, when it comes to internet travel resources. Airfare Watchdog (www.airfarewatchdog.com) is a great site for travelers who are looking for the best airline deals either from their city or to another city. Users can visit the site to check for updates themselves or opt for automatic email newsletters advertising sales from their departure cities. This site also features fares from Southwest, Jet Blue and other lesser publicized airline carriers. Farecast (www.bing.com/travel) has now merged with Bing to run a unique "price predictor" service, which forecasts whether domestic fares are likely to go up or down in the coming days or weeks. Classic sites like www.orbitz.com, www.expedia.com and www.travelocity.com have some of the most user-friendly interfaces.

In addition to finding great deals on flight tickets, the internet is full of cheap hotel offers too. Sometimes the smaller, independently-owned inns and bed-and-breakfasts offer lower prices than area hotels, not to mention the best homemade breakfasts your stomach can handle! To find these offers, visit www.bedandbreakfast.com. Many rooms are outfitted with Jacuzzi tubs, fireplaces and large, fluffy beds too. Another popular choice is a vacation rental that has more space and amenities for less than standard hotel rates. At www.homeaway.com and www.villasintl.com you can search over 176,000 apartments, villas, town homes and cottages starting as low as $25/person.

If you can't be bothered constantly re-checking a site for your flight tickets, then you may want to sign up at a site like www.yapta.com, which is a newcomer to the scene offering low fare alerts and automatic tracking on your itinerary. Users may also track special deals on five of their favorite airlines. In the end, you will still have to actually book your cheap flight tickets through the airline or hotel. This means if you have a beef about getting refunds or changing seats, you'll have to contact the hotel or airline directly. All things considered, users say this is a small inconvenience for the site's many benefits.

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