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When you are searching for your next vacation idea, online versions of guide books and magazines can be a great resource. Many publications, such as Frommer's and Conde Nast have an Ideas section arranged by themes, such as culture, cuisine, and islands. In this section, you'll also find links to festivals, great hotels, and places to shop that you can plan your vacation around. You can also check out the Publications and Other Media Category to find websites with podcasts, blogs, and RSS feeds of travel articles.

Airfarewatchdog.com is a website that tracks airfares of major airlines as well as Southwest, Allegiant, SkyBus, and others. Once you enter your departure city, you'll see a list of discount airfares to international and domestic destinations. This is a good list to use if you have no destination in mind and are looking for possible destinations within your budget. Once a destination is chosen, the Airfare Details page provides links to sites that offer the discounted fare. Since these are published fares and not actual fares, the fare may or may not be available for your chosen dates. We conducted a test search for a round-trip flight between San Francisco and Honolulu using Cheapair as the booking site. Initial attempts returned fare not available for chosen date. But, after entering a few more dates, we were able to obtain the published rate. In short: Good place to find bargains if you don't have a specific destination in mind.

Concierge.com has an Ideas section where you can choose from a number of topics to read about. The topics are separated into interests such as Arts + Culture, Beach + Island, Budget Travel, Cruise, Culinary, Luxury + Spa, Parties + Holidays, Romantic, Ski + Adventure, Style + Design, and others.

An article by National Geographic Traveler that evaluates and ranks 115 of the world's best known places based on six criteria: culture, aesthetic appeal, environmental quality, archaeological structures, and others.

Frommer's Calendar of Events is a great place to look for events and festivals. It lists various festivals, baseball games, Arts & Crafts fairs, and others. A quick search of San Francisco found such events as "Free Shakespeare in the Park, and "Ghiradelli Square Chocolate Festival." To find events, enter the city (no country or state) and the desired dates. In addition to information about the events, such as description and costs, the site also provides links to the events' websites. Especially noteworthy is that, unlike calendar of events on other sites, you don't need to enter a destination. For example, you can enter Oktoberfest and get a list of Oktoberfests all over the world.

Frommer's has an Ideas section that's separated into two main areas: Activities and Lifestyle. The Activities area include topics such as Beach & Watersports, Cruise, and Cultural Immersion. The Lifestyle section has topics such as Family, Honeymoon, Student, and Senior.

Similar to Conde Nast Traveler and Frommer's, the Theme Guides section of Lonely Planet offers travel ideas based on themes. Some of the themes discussed are festivals, food, islands, music, roadtrips, and safaris.

The articles on MSBNC are divided into interests such as Golf, 24-hour, Family, Business, Luxury, and others.

National Geographic has a Shopping Guide that lists the best handicraft items to purchase in select countries around the world.

If you like to plan your vacation around an incredible place to stay, Travel & Leisure World's Best has a list of the world's best hotels, resorts, lodges, and inns.

Visa's Things To Do While You're Alive has videos and photos of things to do, such as Shop the Floating Markets of Thailand, Kiss the Blarney Stone, Enjoy afternoon Tea at Claridge's London, See all 28 of the 7 Wonders of the World, Ride a Cable Car in San Francisco, ... etc.