1. To some people any cruise is luxury, but to the discerning cruise-philes at cruisecritic.co.uk, some cruises are in a class of their own – and now a section of their own too. Like the rest of the site, the luxury cruise micro-site is a crime against website aesthetics, but it’s easy to navigate and rich in content, offering reviews, forums, features written by specialist cruise journalists, deals, and itineraries from a selection of luxury cruise operators. Also on the cruise front, there’s another site of interest that launched this month - ebookers cruises. The site has real-time pricing and availability. looks like its parent site, and takes bookings through specialist agent, Viva Voyage. It offers holidays with 23 cruise lines, a best price guarantee and access to cruise experts.

2. Going on a holiday with a group of friends is a lot of fun, but organising one is not – whether it’s commitment-phobe pal or the parsimonious friend who won’t pay up until the last minute, the experience is a thankless task. You can take some of the hassle out of it by using a new website that will collect names and money for you. www.wigadoo.com allows groups of friends to sign up to an activity or holiday and pay their money into a central account. When enough people pay up the “group leader” – yes, you can still carry that clipboard with you – you can transfer the money to their bank account or pay direct with through a Mastercard system. The site is simple, easy to navigate and has a small selection of ideas plus discounts on activities like theme parks - sadly it won't sort out the who-gets-the-best-room debate though...

3. Thomascook.com, which came 25th in a recent Hitwise list of the top 50 UK online retailers, has completed a long-overdue overhaul of its site. The tour operator has made the site easier to navigate with deals splashed across its homepage, and will soon add multimedia and user review content. There’s lists of the most popular destinations, more deals, a holiday planner and bookable holiday extras. Customer reviews and videos will launch in July – and about time too – rivals Thomson has offered these for some time – perhaps why it is at 11th spot in the afore-mentioned Hitwise list.

4. Had a crappy holiday? A blog by Times Online’s Michael Moran and author of Sod Abroad, helps you avoid another one by plotting the dismal experiences of others on a Google map – be it line dancing in Kilkenny or aggressive sheep in Anglesea. There’s also another interesting entry for the delay-averse – a link to Forbes list of the most annoying airports in the US – with stats on delays to back it up. Basically avoid all major US hubs…

BACKGROUND

• The 10 hottest travel websites to watch

• 10 travel websites to watch: July

• 10 travel websites to watch: June

• 10 travel websites to watch: May

• 10 travel websites to watch: April

50 best travel websites of 2007

Another year of innovation and refinement as travel websites continue to become more niche, focussed and useful

Times Online's top 100 travel websites

Once again, we've crawled, clicked and crashed our way around the world of internet travel to bring you our top 100 travel websites in 2009

5. The blog-turned-website AMB Cote d’Azur may not have a catchy name, but it’s got a growing fan base. Husband and wife Alice and Nigel Barker are big fans of the south of France and what started as an outpouring of their appreciation has become a handy travel resource for holidaymakers heading to France’s sunniest coastline. There are regular features and news stories about the region, details on markets, recipes, pictures, traffic reports and an events calendar (quite sparse at the moment) – it looks better on Firefox than Internet Explorer.

6. www.missedaflight.com is a travel agency that specialises in helping people who’ve haplessly missed a flight or been stranded by a cancelled service. The company claims to have expertise in rebooking hotels and car hire, finding last-minute seats on flights, getting onto flight waitlists and even looking at coach tickets to get you to your destination. It is, of course, manned 24 hours a day, although you need to call if it’s between 8pm and 8am.

7. The judicious hotel booking website Travelintelligence.com has spawned a little sister to cater for people who like their hotels small. Chic Retreats offers only hotels with fewer than 30 bedrooms that range from rustic modern. Like the original site, the entries have lots of detailed images of every property, live availability and offers – it could with adding location maps with each property though, like its rivals Sawdays and Mr and Mrs Smith.

8. It isn’t glamorous but it’s cheap, and greener than air travel – which means coach travel is back… Hoping to cash in on its new-found popularity, the Coach Tourism Council, which promotes the services of 150 UK coach operators, has launched a new website. The site will find the coach companies that offers tours starting near your home, some of which provide door-to-door pick-ups, and offer inspiration for day trips, holidays and breaks around events such as musicals or flower shows.

9. Google isn’t the only mapper – turns out Microsoft’s Virtual Earth is pretty natty too – we’re loving Active Hotels’ use of it for bird’s eye views of its properties. It’s all very well seeing your prospective hotel plotted on a map, but seeing an aerial shot of it can put that sea-view claim to the test. It’s not available on all properties – city ones are best covered by the service – like this Bath hotel. Ok, so it doesn’t beat Google’s Street View application – but with any luck that’s coming next…

10. Ever tried using Google to find the website of a national tourist board and got a suspiciously amateurish-looking site returned? If you want the real McCoy go through the website of ANTOR, the Association of National Tourist Boards. It’s just relaunched its site – and boy does it look better. The site opens with a bold, inspirational travel picture and couldn’t be easier to navigate, with clickable links to the member countries and an interactive map.

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