Francis Parker - Vietnam 2014

Day 4:  Hanoi

In our first blog, we noticed the "antitheses" that are prevalent in Vietnam. Today, this theme was driven home as we experienced blending of both ideas and cultures in our early morning run, visit to the Temple of Literature, and return to the Peace Village. Since the purpose of our trip to Vietnam is global education (learning about different models of community service, greater understanding of cultures outside the American/Parker bubble, etc.), the antitheses that we see enhance our understanding of Vietnamese culture.

Some of us began our morning following this theme as we finished our run around Hoan Kiem Lake.  In a plaza across the street from the lake, we saw elderly men and women going about their morning excercises: some were practicing zumba next to a group practicing the more traditional breathing exercises and tai chi, while nearby a large group of couples waltzed to a wide variety of music (including Western techno/pop and the Vietnamese anthem). We joined them in many of their excercises and were delighted (and more than a little surprised) when many of the members of the breathing excercises group often burst into spontaneous laughter--an expression of emotion that seems to be a part of Vietnamese culture.

When we visited the Temple of Literature with our pen pals after breakfast, we had our first encounter with ancient Vietnamese culture and the influence that it has on modern Vietnam.  Built in 1070 by Ly Nhan Tong, the Temple of Literature was the first national university in Vietnam. The university admitted students by a strict imperial exam and taught students Confucian values.  All studies were completed in traditional Chinese script (calligraphy still adorns the temple to this day); however, modern Vietnamese script is Romanized, so the majority of our pen pals couldn't read the Chinese script. Since today was Poetry Day in Vietnam, we were fortunate enough to see a mix of modern and ancient Vietnamese culture though the parades and poetry contests that were taking place at the shrines of ancient scholars and kings. Clearly, the Confucian emphasis on education remains intact in modern Vietnam. 

After lunch, we returned to the Peace Village to continue our interaction with the victims of Agent Orange dioxin poisoning. Returning to the Peace Village was not a part of our original itinerary, but we changed it because many American volunteers who participate in these kinds of community service projects often only visit for a day, and therefore the impact on both volunteers and the inhabitants of Peace Village is not as strong.  While we were still very much aware of the impact of warfare, Parker and Peace Village students were more familiar with each other after an afternoon of drawing with the children and making bracelets. At the end of our visit, many of us purchased some of the same bracelets that we helped make as mementos of our newfound connection with the inhabitants of Peace Village.

We finished off our day with a high-spirited karoke session with our pen pals that included both Vietnamese and American songs.  We were impressed by our pen pals' knowledge of American songs, and this helped us realize that while antithesis is a repeating theme in Vietnamese society, perhaps similarities present another powerful theme. We can draw comparisons from modern-day Vietnam to ancient Vietnam, the West, Soviet nationalism (e.g., hammer and sickle signs all over the city), and China. From what we've seen so far, Vietnamese culture is a unique blend of similarites that are presented side by side to form eye opening contrasts, or in literary terms, antitheses.

-- Alli

Day 4 Photo Highlights

This morning we had the opportunity to explore the Temple of Literature with our new friends from Hanoi University. The experience gave us all a better understanding of the importance of education; not only on the local and societal level, but also on the global level, which is the type of learning we are involved with as a group.

We were all surprised to see a parade come through the courtyard at the Temple of Literature. As a group, we were incredibly fortunate to experience this parade, which honors poets and poetry and happens only once a year, on the first full moon of the new year. It exposed us all to a very unique part of the Vietnamese culture, as we got to see traditional dress and national pride in addition to hearing traditional music and learning extra facts about their complex culture.

After we ate lunch, we returned to the Peace Village where we spent more time with the students there. Our second interaction was even more meaningful for us all: the students from Hanoi University, the students from the Peace Village, and the students from Francis Parker. The interactions between all of us today were powerful in more ways than one. We, as American students, were very graciously welcomed and offered jobs that were not available to us yesterday, including working on the loom.

The Parker students spent a great deal of time today dancing and doing crafts with the students here in Hanoi. These very human interactions were not only educational but also very moving because they allowed us to cross a border greater than the international one. We, as students, made a lasting connection to the people here, which can benefit us both in the future as we move forward to learn and better ourselves and our communities. 

~ Haley

Day 4 Video Highlights

Today we visited the Temple of Literature, which now is a great tourist attraction but actually has been part of Vietnam for over one millennium. Today is the day of the poet because it is the first full moon of the new year. We experienced a music performance by four ladies who played a variety of traditional Vietnamese instruments. One of the most famous Vietnamese instruments is the đàn bầu, a single stringed instrument that can produce a great variety of songs. With this great performance we were able to experience an important part of Vietnamese culture: their music.

In the Temple of Literature we also found a man writing a parchment with traditional Chinese characters. It was very interesting to see how through all the years the purpose of the place has not changed in essence. The man was writing were centuries ago the scholars would gather and study. 

As the days go on, we continue to know more about the Vietnamese culture. Our bonds with the students from the University of Hanoi grow fonder every day too. Tonight, after dinner, we went out to sing karaoke. The enthusiasm from both groups to form lifelong relations not only between the people but also between both of our institutions (Francis Parker School and University of Hanoi) is a result of such bonds.

See the videos here.

Francis Parker - Vietnam 2014

Day 3:  Hanoi

Our whole group expected today to be meaningful, as it was meant to be spent in service. However, it's safe to say that we were all surprised at just how many moments of unexpected beauty and fun there were. 

In the morning, some of us joined Mr. Taylor and Mr. Holbrook in walking and running around the city. The morning light lent a softness to the normally in-your-face colored advertisements, and the traffic had not worked itself up to its usual level of noise yet. As our group looped around a park, we passed men in blue robes practicing traditional Tai Chi--and teaching it to a group of French tourists. We loved starting our day like this, because it was a reminder that even in the most vibrant and chaotic places there can still be a sense of peace. 

This feeling continued a couple hours later when we arrived at the Peace Village, an institution for people affected by Agent Orange disease. All of the patients there have medical conditions ranging from epilepsy to deformed limbs as a result of the chemicals that American planes sprayed during the war. Our Hanoi University partners joined us in coloring and dancing with some of these children. They were incredibly sweet and smiley, and everyone had a lot of fun, but at the same time the experience was very sobering. It's the first time many of us have ever met  civilians who have been harmed by war, and it forced us to confront the past in a way that no museum ever could. 

We left the patients for our lunch break with our Hanoi University pen pals. Our conversations ranged from discussions of Vietnamese politics to our mutual love for American celebrities like Jennifer Lawrence. The Hanoi University student leader, Son, gathered us for some brain-teasing games that stumped everyone at first, then made us all burst with laughter as we gradually figured out his tricks. Many of us hadn't done activities like these since old summer camps, and we all loved bringing them back alonside our new friends. 

The students joined us on our bus and pointed out interesting features of the city as we drove to the United Nations International School of Hanoi. The patients of the Peace Village visit this school once a month to use the sports facilities and make art projects. We joined their games and coloring for a couple more hours of bonding, then said goodbye to them until tomorrow. We are so excited to visit the Peace Village again, because as we discovered today the best and most beautiful parts of this trip have been the moments of connection.  

--Christina

Day 3:  Video Highlights

At the Peace Village, which provides medical treatment, therapy, and education to children affected by Agent Orange disease, everyone in the room enjoys the serenade of Hannah's singing abilities and piano skills while we sat and listened.

Here Peace Village children and Parker students dance and laugh together. Quite a lot of fun and energy, indeed!

Ms. Primrose, an English teacher at the United Nations International School, introduces the upcoming tour of the 25-year-old campus that we will be taking with our Hanoi University pen pals and some children from the Peace Village. Each month a UNIS community service group hosts a visit of Peace Village children. This unity of people all in the same room watching the same speakers trying to help the same cause in many ways reflected one of the most important goals of Francis Parker's trip to Vietnam: unity and bridging the gap.

--Miles

Check out the videos here

Day 3:  Photo Highlights

Today we went to the Hanoi Peace Village to interact with people who are diagnosed with Agent Orange disease. Together with our Hanoi University pen pals, we drew pictures, danced the chicken dance, and even braided bracelets with the children.

Although the patients did not suffer from direct contact with the chemical, these are the later generations that have had their DNA fused with the poison and passed on to them from their parents. The Peace Village's main goal is to treat the children with physical therapy, acupuncture, and academic work. By stimulating their brains through activities, they hope that the young people will slowly recover to the point where they can return to their families, establish businesses with their families, or even have the opportunity to attend a university.

Together with the students of Hanoi University, we posed in front of the Peace Village.

After playing with the Peace Village children and eating lunch with the Hanoi University students, we bonded through series of games involving us attempting to learn and pronounce their names and vice versa. Some of the games we played also involved us trying to solve patterns that Sunh, a student of Hanoi University, presented to us.

This is the United Nations International School in Hanoi. This unexpected visit allowed us to bond with the Agent Orange patients more. This school is a lot like Parker with lower, middle, and upper schools and around 1,100 students in total. At this school, there is a community service club that hosts Peace Village patients once a month. After touring the school, we split into groups to play soccer and do art projects with the children.

Francis Parker - Vietnam 2014

Day 2:  Hanoi

As we continued to engross ourselves in the city of Hanoi on our second day of travel, we slowly began to notice the influences on the city, especially the nationalism of a country that has only been liberated from foreign rule for such a brief time.

Visiting the tomb of Ho Chi Minh was very telling of the nationalism occurring in Hanoi. While Ho Chi Minh, who our tour guide Alex could only say the best of things about, was an extremely modest man, his mausoleum was a complete contrast to the lifestyle that he is so greatly admired for. As Alex explained, Ho Chi Minh was given the French colonial governor's palace to live in as the presidential palace but instead opted to live in a normal electricians house which was nearby. If the late president could see what the Vietnamese government has done to his body, he might be furious, seeing as his wish was to be commemorated by three small shrines in each part of Vietnam: center, north, and south. This seems to be indicative of what we have been noticing so far in our trip; Vietnam is less involved in its communist ideals and instead idolizies its nationalism above all else. The Vietnamese are exceptionally proud of their victory over the "imperialistic" French and Americans and have expressed this pride by creating a great tomb for the father of their country. While Americans may have once seen Ho Chi Minh simply as a murderer and leader of the communist regime, the Vietnamese value him as one of their greatest leaders, lovingly giving him the name "Uncle Ho," as could be seen through the pure positivity of our tour guide Alex. 

The nationalism continued as we made our way to the Hỏa Lò Prison, more commonly known to Americans as the Hanoi Hilton, which acted as a prison for both the Vietnamese during French rule and for US Air Force pilots during the Vietnam War. While touring the prison, we were shown a documentary portraying the war through the eyes of the Vietnamese. Obviously, to them, Americans were the invaders trying to impose views on a country fighting for its freedom. The US was an imperialist country while the Vietnamese were the brave souls fighting to save their families from the uncertain hell that would ensue were the United States to defeat the valiant Vietnamese soldiers. Clips were shown of the atrocities and "evil crimes" (direct quote) that the US soldiers had done to the Vietnamese, while the Vietnamese were portrayed in only the brightest light. To say that these documentaries were subjective would be an understatement, and it was fascinating to see the war through such a different perspective as the one that has been fed to us since the 6th grade. 

Another large chunk on the documentary was dedicated to showing how well the Air Force pilots were treated at the Hanoi Hilton, which made us all smirk as we remembered the accounts of the prison we had heard from US veterans. The video stressed the Vietnamese ability to forgive, as most people would have wanted to torture and kill the men who hours before had been flying over Hanoi, flying the B-52 bombers. Whether or not this forgiveness was feigned or genuine, either way, It was surprising when we met our Hanoi University pen pals later in the day to see one of the students wearing a US Air Force sweatshirt during our tour of the campus and friendly soccer match. We may see the war as an unending hardship in the United States, but to the Vietnamese, it seems to have been just another chapter in their struggle for freedom. As Emily pointed out in our nightly debriefing, the "American war" was left out entirely in the pamphlet explaining the history of Vietnam on the plane. 

         From watching the city wake up during our morning runs to venturing our way through the organized chaos of traffic, it's safe to say that this is like nowhere we have ever been before.

--Mark

Day 2 Photo Highlights

This billboard was on a road near the Ho Chi Minh mausoleum.  After leaving the very nationalistic mood surrounding the mausoleum, seeing this clearly pro-Vietnam billboard was no surprise.  The hammer and sickle reminiscent of the Soviet Union can be seen all over Hanoi. 

This is the Single Pillar Pagoda.  Our tour guide explained that in 1049 a man wanted a son but did not have one.  He then had a dream that a goddess would give him a son if he built this pagoda.  The story goes that after he built it and prayed at it, he then had a son.  This is not a photo of the original pagoda, as it was destroyed by the French in the 1950s.

This photo was taken outside of the Ho Chi Minh mausoleum.  The embalmed body of Ho Chi Minh, called Uncle Ho by the Vietnamese, is kept here.  We were a bit unnerved by the body, but none the less found the idolatry and love that the Vietnamese have for him fascinating and understandable.  Our guide described Ho Chi Minh as humble and kind and above all as a man who loved his country. 

Here, we can see the harsh living conditions of the Vietnamese prisoners at the French-run Masion 

Centrale. In one of the cells, the prisoner was put in shackles with their head below their feet in order to get the blood to rush to the head as a form of torture.

This picture was taken at the Maison Centrale also known as the Hanoi Hilton, the sarcastic name given to it by American Air Force pilots who were kept there as prisonersin the 1960s and 70s. This engraving depicts the struggles of the Vietnamese prisoners held captive by French colonists.

While visiting our pen pals for the first time at Hanoi University, we played a game of soccer that helped us bond. Afterwards we visited the house of the pen pal organizer--a 19-year-old tourism major--and learned even more about each other.

--Emily and Sanjay

Francis Parker - Vietnam 2014

Check out the Francis Parker School Blog here.

Welcome to the 2014 Francis Parker School Global Studies trip to Vietnam blog. Students and chaperones will update the blog regularly as they explore Vietnam. Check back often to catch up on their latest adventures!

Day 1:  Hanoi

Antithesis: "a rhetorical device in which two opposite ideas are put together in a sentence to achieve a contrasting effect." Although this definition applies directly to literary works, it was a term that resonated within all the sights we viewed during our first day in Hanoi, Vietnam. The juxtaposition of completely different elements of a single culture immersed us in a world few of us had ever encountered. Our senses, our judgments, our expectations--all were tested within the beginning hours of travel to the jewel of Southeast Asia.

   Our first encounter with such a contrast occurred on our fourteen hour flight to Taipei, one that began at 12:00 a.m. on February 9th. Served by attendants who gave us the options of Chinese cuisine, we entertained ourselves with American movies and television shows. Intercom instructions were given in Mandarin, Cantonese, and English as we made our way towards our destination and continued to be given in Vietnamese as we transferred to our flight to Hanoi and landed at about 9:50 a.m. on February 10th. 

    Aside from the signs written in Vietnamese, the Hanoi airport presented us with only a glimpse into the culture of Vietnam. It was our bus ride from the terminal to the hotel, however, that gave us the greatest persepective. While we took in the skyscrapers against the foggy horizon, we gazed down at people using their water buffalos to plow their fields, perpetuated in a practice that originated centuries before. While we observed factories with names like "Yamaha" and "Panasonic" plastered on the fronts in huge electrical lettering, we witnessed the prized Vietnamese tradition of the water puppet performance. While we ate at a popular North Vietnamese Pho food chain restaurant, we took in the delectable scent of authentic cuisine that seemed to live in every part of the city. While we passed by shops bearing western designer items like Louis Vuitton and frantically avoided motorcycles coming from all directions of an intersection, we saw families participating in their daily practice of selling fresh produce on the street during our rickshaw tour around the city. Even our dinner was a buffet that consisted of more than one hundred types of food, portraying the influences of multiple countries from all over the world. 

     The presentation of such dramatic differences in Vietnamese culture just moments after our arrival sent us deep into the heart of Hanoi, a rapidly changing international center with a current population of 6.5 million. Each person we encountered presented us with a new story to add to the identity of the developing city. Our tour guide, Alex, portrayed the economic revolution that was occuring right before our eyes while our rickshaw drivers revealed the deeply embedded traditions that had managed to survive through the past few years of growth. We witnessed the old and the new, sometimes side by side, engaged in an anachornistic fusion that seemed to permeate throughout Hanoi and exist within the people themselves.

    "Antithesis" is often used in literary works to provide excitement for the reader; it uses contrast as a form of art to provide perspective. Perhaps Hanoi itself is also a work of art, a city forming its identity around the cultural differences it holds. With each new experience, we will contribute to its diversity and gain new insight. Although our time in the city thus far has been brief, we know that each moment spent here will only bring us closer to the unique character that is Hanoi. 

--Audrey

Day 1: Photo Highlights

A light lunch of beef or chicken pho.

On our afternoon rickshaw ride, we saw vendors selling cellphones, preparing livestock, and showcasing their homemade jewelry while we weaved through hundreds of motorcyclists through the streets of Hanoi.

At the water puppet theater, which dates back to the 1940s, we shuffled into a theater full of tourists from around the world, and were treated to a show displaying Vietnam's sacred animals (dragon, unicorn, tortoise, and phoenix) intertwined with themes of nature, unity, and hard work.

At Hanoi's largest buffet restaurant, our stomachs were treated to a wide variety of pork, chicken, shellfish that was fried, steamed, and sautéed in every which way we could imagine. For the more daring, we could try alligator, pig heart, or escargot.

--Chris and Hannah

How to Choose an Air Travel Search Site

Which airline booking sites offer the cheapest airfares?

If your answer was Expedia — or any of the other dozens of online travel agencies — you’re wrong. If it was “They’re all the same,” you’re definitely wrong. “It’s so overwhelming, I have no idea”? You’re getting close.

The real solution is finding the sites that best fit your specific travel needs — all the more true for the heavily budget-conscious. Each has different strengths offered through different interfaces that use different functions and produce different results. But where to go for what? Even for people like me who live on these sites, it’s not always clear.

So I designed a test — from Europe, as it turned out, where I was reporting on the road. I selected 15 online travel agencies, from the old stalwarts like Travelocity to an excellent (and increasingly robust) group of upstarts like Routehappy, which are more likely to take into account niche specifics like seat pitch. Then I put them through the wringer, shopping for six itineraries, from basic domestic to overseas-only to elaborately multicity: Miami-Chicago, Louisville-Portland, Los Angeles-Paris, Dallas-Singapore, Shanghai-Chengdu in China and, finally, New York-Guadalajara-Bogotá-Charlotte (presumably a Mexican-Colombian-American visiting family and the Nascar Hall of Fame).

I should note that I couldn’t include every site in my tests, and left out a popular one I couldn’t figure out how to use abroad: Bing Travel. As I learned too late from a spokeswoman, it only works in the United States. There’s a workaround — you can switch settings to “tailor” your search to “the United States — English,” But that’s one extra hassle I wasn’t willing to take on.

That said, the results? For one, my eyes hurt. But more important, I created what I hope is a useful (though not definitive) guide to which sites work best under which circumstances.

If Cheap Is All That Matters

The sites you’ve certainly heard of — Travelocity, Expedia, Kayak, Orbitz — were all dependably similar, their lowest offerings rarely differing more than a few dollars. But the upstarts occasionally beat them. For that Miami-Chicago flight, the old guard circled around $378. But Routehappy found one for $361, and I followed it through to just before the final click, and it was legit. (Momondo gets an honorable mention at $364.)

So the best technique here is to check one of the traditional sites, and then play around with the new guys and see if they can pull an upset. Then, before you book, check the airline’s own website to make sure it’s not even cheaper there. (And don’t forget that Southwest — by its own choice — doesn’t show up on most sites.) And as long as you’ve popped over, it’s almost always a good idea to do the actual booking from the airline’s site: It’s often easier — and rarely harder — to take care of the minutiae (entering your awards number, choosing seats and paying for extra luggage, as well as changing your reservation down the line if necessary).

When You Want Cheap — Within Limits

Sometimes the sites think more like soulless machines than like humans. On occasion they’ll list a $400 flight with a 12-hour layover before a $401 flight with a 90-minute layover — not a choice most travelers would make. Just ask it to sort by trip length, you say? Then that $401 flight might disappear under an avalanche of $9,999 flights with 89-minute layovers. O.K., that’s an exaggeration, but it’s a real issue: Even cheapskates will sometimes pay $50 to shave six hours off a layover.

That’s when you turn to sites like Hipmunk, where the default setting orders the flights by “agony,” dropping flights with long layovers or sky-high prices down the list. This worked especially well with that Dallas-Singapore route, where, after a great deal of sorting on Expedia and Travelocity, I finally decided the cheapest tolerable flight was $1,174, with a total trip time of 25 hours, 10 minutes out and 23 hours, 42 minutes back. When I tried the same search on Hipmunk, it put that precise itinerary right at the top. Routehappy’s algorithm includes other factors you might be willing to pay more for, including seat space and electrical outlets; their top choice (without changing the default preferences) was a $1,555 Korean Air itinerary with an extra three inches and three fewer hours. Worth it? That’s up to you.

If You’re Booking a Domestic Route on Short Notice

Priceline’s opaque bidding system works well with hotels — I’ve often saved 30 to 50 percent on hotels by placing an absurdly low bid and allowing the site to charge my card before it told me exactly which hotel I was paying for. Savings are less and more rare on flights, but do exist, particularly on domestic flights booked just a few days in advance. Savings top out at about 40 percent, so try bidding 10 or 20 percent below the cheapest standard fare. If your bid fails, no problem: Book through Priceline’s regular service, which fared as well as other big-name sites on my tests. Two caveats: You can choose the date but not the departure time of your flight (or the airline), and you might be stuck with an annoying layover. But other than advance planning, I don’t know a better way to shave dollars off a standard domestic ticket.

When Your Dates or Destination Are Flexible

Most of the bigger sites (notable exception: Expedia) offer to find you cheaper flights if you’re willing to fly one to three days earlier or later. That was a nice innovation in 2010, but these days their systems seem inflexible, and the resulting grids dizzying. Much better are the far more intuitive bar graphs you get on Momondo and Google Flight Explorer. There’s also GetGoing, which will give you a discount if you give it two destinations you like and let it pick one. And at Adioso, one of the newer sites in my survey, you start by just typing in your starting point and destination, and mold preferences from there. That won’t work for Thanksgiving visits to family, though, and the results can be hit or miss. (The company is promising lots of improvements in 2014.)

If You Have Commitment Issues

For a few bucks, Options Away will hold your reservation for between a day and a few weeks. That’s great if, for example, you need to coordinate plans with others. Two problems: It only works on domestic flights within a limited list of cities, and its base rates are not always competitive. On that Miami-Chicago route, the site’s best base price was $400, versus the standard $378 I found everywhere else. So in that case, the $10 premium you pay to hold your ticket for a week is actually more like $32 if you end up buying it.

When You Need a Complex, Multi-Leg Route

Not every site allows multi-leg itineraries. Of those that do, I used to recommend Vayama for multi-leg, international searches. But when it came time to test my New York-Guadalajara-Bogotá-Charlotte route, its “Multi Cities” function flunked on two attempts, issuing a “We’re sorry, Vayama could not find any matching flights” message. Meanwhile, Expedia and Orbitz didn’t bat an eye, spitting out multiple quality choices as easily as if I had asked to book the New York-Washington shuttle. The best options were packages for about $1,040 adding up to about 30 hours of travel time. Travelocity did too, but only after I finally found the multi-leg function hidden in “Advanced Search Options”; Hipmunk and Momondo wasted my time with flights that disappeared when I went to book them; and Kayak simply overwhelmed me with too many options, forcing me to click through page after page of near-identical offerings to find something different (and their filters barely helped).

If Your Trip Starts and Ends Outside North America or Europe

This one gets tricky. American and European sites often can’t find cheap fares on regional carriers elsewhere in the world. So start elsewhere. Googling or asking foreign friends is a good start; they might lead you to sites like Brazil’s Submarino Viagens (alas, not in English) and China’s Ctrip (sometimes buggy). That’s where I began my Shanghai-Chengdu search, finding a $253 nonstop using Shanghai Airlines out and Air China back. When the site kept demanding a phone number that I had already given, an online chat representative helped me with a workaround so I could book; of course, I could have also gone to the airlines’ sites. As expected, the regulars mostly bombed: The best deals on Expedia, Travelocity, and Orbitz topped $500; Hipmunk and Cheapoair were over $400.

But then a surprise: Kayak and Momondo unearthed a $233 flight on Spring Airlines, a low-cost carrier that Ctrip left out. I was sent to the airline’s site to book, but it worked smoothly. Quite an upset, but don’t count on that happening every time.

When You’re Pressed for Time

For those who want to book an entire trip — flight, hotel, car rental — in one place, the traditional sites will definitely save you time. But if you’re focused just on flights, there are other considerations. Most straightforward is the amount of time it takes each site to process your searches. The clear winner there is Google Flights (a different offering from Google Flight Explorer), with shockingly instantaneous results — you’d almost think they’d invented the modern search engine. But it occasionally costs you time while booking. They’re not alone in forcing you to other sites to book, but only on Google did I sometimes have to re-enter my search details once transferred. (In one case it even told me to call a travel agent!)

For a Better Online Experience

Some sites are particularly pleasant to use, in both superficial and substantive ways: Hipmunk’s graphic displays of flights and layovers; Kayak’s input simplicity; Momondo’s clear presentation of great information about options. Losers here were Cheapoair, for frequently kicking me off to a results page before I had completed my search (I must have continuously hit some shortcut key accidentally, but it didn’t happen anywhere else) and Travelocity, which has an unpleasant interface. One strike against Momondo: I was often directed to European booking sites, which charged me in euros, forcing me to seek out conversion rates and making me nervous about whether my own card would give me the same rate. (Some cards, though not mine, also charge for international transactions.)