Babyboomers.com

Although Microsoft coined the phrase “where do you want to go today” many years ago, travel search engine Kayak is now doing a better job of answering the question. CNET’s news.com reviewed the late comer’s newest functionality called “Kayak Explore” recently and inspired me to do some thinking of my own.

I remember the good ‘ole days where you had two options when taking a trip. The first being to wing it and not plan at all; just hopping on the road and seeing where adventure took you. The other alternative that many of us more cautious people can relate to was a trip to our local AAA office. After some conversation, explanation, and the acquisition of a thick guide book and triptik, we could visualize our way to our destination.

However, that was all done assuming you knew destination. As long as you could find a cheap enough hotel room or conserve enough gas you were on your way!

Kayak took that predetermined trip planning idea and flipped it on its head. Now you can enter how much you want to spend and see where it is that you can go for that amount of money (depending on where you depart from). In playing around with it for a short while I have found many interesting results that I never would have considered by myself. The fact that I am choosing to investigate an option is more fulfilling as I do not feel as though I am responding to some marketing aimed at tourists.

With budgets tight and “staycations” becoming ever more popular, it is once again fun to see how far you can stretch a dollar and what trouble you can get yourself into!