Ready to plan your next vacation? This clever tool from Kayak is just the tool to assist with seeing how far your travel dollars can take you. Open up http://www.kayak.com/explore/ to take a look. The web site will pick up your current location, and pinpoint a local airport (based on IP address). You can, of course, enter a different starting location in the top toolbar. Then, use the slider at the top to choose how much is in your budget to spend on a round-trip flight. As you move the slider upwards, you’ll see more locations opening up around the world; listing the current bottom-out round-trip airline ticket price (per seat) you would have to pay for travel. Click on any of the price tags to see details on the flight, including total flight time and number of stops. Some locations will even tie in hotel deals and ratings. To further trim down results, you can select the time of year you plan to travel, as the default is “any time”.
The map is powered using Google Maps, and takes advantage of all the wonderful features built-in to their interface. Kayak partners with dozens of airlines, hotels, rental cars, and other online travel companies to bring this information to you. Their model is no-pay advertising, so the use of their site remains free to the consumer via ad space and affiliates.
