Wherefor Vs. Kayak: Who Has The Best Random Bookings?

Ever thought you definitely want to travel, but not really sure where to? Maybe you have a budget in mind, but have no idea where it can take you. Instead of endlessly searching one random destination after the next, in hopes of finding something that’s both affordable and works with your calendar, you can try a random booking service, like those offered by Wherefor.com and Kayak. Each allows you more freedom when booking so you can get creative with your travel plans, surprising even yourself.

Each site has its upsides and downsides. Kayak’s Explore feature is really just for flights, but that can be enough if you know you can find affordable accommodations elsewhere, such as through Airbnb. The search option can be a bit difficult to locate from their homepage, though you can find it here. This takes you to a page allowing you to input your starting point (pick the biggest airport within easy driving distance), a month, price range and flight time. To give you an example, I chose Newark (EWR), July and a price limit of $500 per flight per person. The first options that popped up on the map ranged everywhere from a $180 flight to Savannah to a $460 flight to Guatemala. Zooming in further on particular regions brings up more flight options. Since I set the price limit at $500, I didn’t receive any options outside of North and Central America, but there are still plenty of cool destinations to choose from. I’ve always wanted to visit Prince Edward Island, so if I click on the $450 flight there, it brings up the available dates (July 10–July 15) and the carrier (Air Canada) with flight route (Newark–Montreal–Prince Edward Island).

Wherefor.com, unlike Kayak, is strictly made for this type of random vacation search. The homepage immediately gives you the option to enter a budget, dates, starting point and number of people, then search. If you can only travel during a particular set time, this is a great feature, since Kayak only allows you to search within a month, not within a set of particular days. You also get to search for a hotel at the same time, and choose what kind of hotel you’d prefer (budget, standard or luxury). To receive results that are as similar as possible to what I experienced with Kayak, I choose a budget of $1,000 (since hotel is included this time), start at Newark, use the dates of July 10–July 15 and pick a standard level hotel. You can customize your results further by choosing select destination types, like beaches, mountains, wine country, family-friendly, foodie-oriented, etc. Unfortunately, the search only gives me three destinations — Orlando, Vegas and Toronto. I choose Vegas and Wherefor.com has me flying jetBlue and staying at Monte Carlo Resort and Casino, for a total cost of $728.

Overall, when the two services go up against one another, Kayak provides more options, but Wherefor.com allows you to be more specific. However, if you really want to go for a random trip, with no specifics in mind, do you really need to be as picky as Wherefor.com allows you to be?