Gay travel: Bermuda opens up

That's the question posed by K.C. Summers, the longtime editor of the Washington Post's Travel section, on our partner blog, Travel Log. She wonders "if travel guidebooks have become irrelevant -- outdated before they even hit the shelves." Budget Travel has compared the pros and cons of guidebooks, user review sites, and other sources of information in an article called "When Everybody's an Expert, Who Can You Trust?" Anonymous user-review websites are increasingly popular alternatives to guidebooks, of course. But like guidebooks, they also have flaws. Zagat reviews, for example, are powerfully influential. But this SmartMoney article accuses Zagat of grade inflation. What do you think about guidebooks and their alternatives? Feel free to add your two cents below. For another helpful resource, you can turn to the anonymous user-review websites, such as Trip Advisor.com. But with these "vox populi" sites, you need to be wary of what you read. BT's standard advice for making the most of such sites is to ask the following questions: "What if the reviewer is simply someone whose taste you wouldn't care about if you ever met him or her? Is the information in the posting even accurate?" In short, before you trust your money and your hard-earned vacation time with the advice of strangers, try to surf around online and use other sources of information to confirm any information you get from a user-review site.

One of the best bloggers covering budget-conscious travel is Tim Leffel, and today he spotlights a Spirit Airlines sale on flights to Guatemala from Fort Lauderdale and Los Angeles. Fares on this sale are as low as $176, plus taxes and fees. That's roughly $250 off typical fares on these routes, says Tim. Click here for details. And for the best vacation packages all over the world, check out our Real Deals, which you'll find by clicking here.

One in ten leisure travelers go on vacations alone, says a new report from the Travel Industry Association. Finding fellow travel-mates can be difficult. Budget Travel's assistant editor Naomi Lindt has rounded up some resources for women who'd like to travel on their own or with other women. Feel free to post any advice of your own below.

...We're just flying in it. More and more, airlines like JetBlue and Ryanair should be looked at less as upstarts and more like big-time players in the industry. Recent news points out that the growth of smaller airlines isn't going to stop any time soon--and that the traditional airline business model is in trouble. In the transatlantic market, Canadian carrier Zoom Airlines and Scotland's FlyGlobespan are expected to start flying from New York City (JFK) to London (Gatwick) and Liverpool, respectively, this June. Ryanair, the stalwart low-fare carrier with hubs all over Europe, recently said it also plans on getting in on the transatlantic market within a few years -- and get this, Ryanair CEO Michael O'Leary told a European trade publication that he expected to offer one-way fares crossing the Atlantic starting at all of $12! Some small carriers are also buying out older, bigger airlines. Air Berlin, another low-fare carrier that focuses on flights within Europe, is buying German carrier LTU, which has long had a hub in Dusseldorf and flies to several U.S. cities. Brazilian's low-fare Gol Airlines announced it is buying out Varig, Brazil's leading but struggling international carrier, which has been in business since 1927. Finally, Virgin Blue, Richard Branson's low-fare carrier Down Under, has plans in the works to challenge Qantas and United on transpacific flights connecting the west coast of the U.S. to Australia. One day not too far in the future, that flight from LAX to Sydney may regularly cost $500, instead of the standard $1,000 and up folks have become accustomed to paying. --Brad Tuttle.