Hipmunk.com: Everything Right In A Travel Site (Except The Name)

I know it's already 2012 but I wanted to share my favorite travel site I discovered in 2011.
Check out www.hipmunk.com

Hipmunk.com Arrival Page

  
This site claims they will take the agony out of booking travel and after using the site for a while, I think they are really on to something.

Unlike traditional travel sites that show you grid-views or list-views of flight options, Hipmunk uses a fantastic visual interface that shows both arrival and departure times in a timeline view.

The new interface is so intuitively useful that you might be stunned at first with how quickly you can make your flight choices and decisions.  It's clearly a quantum leap forward for arranging travel.

The Hipmunk.com flight sorting view.

But the goodness doesn't stop there.  Hipmunk allows you to explore area hotels and attractions on an actual map, and these folks even allow you to create price graphs to make quick comparisons to choose the lowest priced flights.

The Hipmunk.com hotel map view.

The Hipmunk.com price graph view let's you quickly id the lowest priced flights.

If you choose to book a flight, Hipmunk will even offer you a set of choices on which site you wish to choose to wrap up your transaction.

I encourage you to give the site a try and don't be afraid to click around and explore a bit. In fact, I highly encourage it.  Be sure to check out the agony sorting option when booking a flight to see how miserable things could be, and then experiment with the heat map options if you are looking for a hotel.  At the very least, they will make you smile.

After using the site a few times, I think you will agree, these folks have gotten just about everything right...except their name.

Ashley