How to book hotels in Shanghai?

Q. I want to book a moderately priced hotel in Shanghai for a trip in June. What is the best, cheapest and safest way to do so? Can someone recommend me good reputable websites? I've never booked hotels online before. I've already bought the plane tickets from an agency but their fee is really high so I don't want to book hotels through them as well. Oh, I live in CANADA.

A. I trust and have booked hotels in China and around the world from these 2 websites.

http://www.elong.net
http://www.octopustravel.com

Although www.octopustravel.com is a major worldwide one, top end hotels to medium range one for the country in question, you will be able to get better deals with www.elong.net as it is a Chinese based one.

When is the best time to buy my plane tickets to Europe for next April?

Q. My fiance & I are going to Europe for our honeymoon- the wedding is April 12, so we'll go right after that. I was wondering when is the best time to buy plane tickets, book hotels... Is it cheaper to do it now or to wait a few months? I don't want to be too last minute (i.e., 2 weeks before the wedding), but would like to cut costs as much as possible. We're thinking of flying into / out of either Rome or Paris, or somewhere in between (cheap cities to fly into in either France, Italy, or Switzerland are also appreciated).
Sorry- we're flying from Cincinnati or somewhere close (Dayton, Lexington, ...)

A. From where? Please update your question iwith this very important detail, so I can check back and complete my answer for you. Recommended timing is different depending where you're starting from.

----- ok, from Cincy area

For April departure from North America, you have to consider when Easter is next year. The week before and after can be hard to find cheaper seats, unless you buy way in advance (like, January). I tried a bunch of cities, and cheapest currenly is Munich $703rt with USAir. But if you're not going around Easter, I think you can do better.

Is it cheaper to book hotels in the country or from your home country beforehand?

Q. I want to go on a holiday but to several places in the summer.
I'm currently living in England and i wanted to travel to Hong Kong, then Korea, then New York then LA.
Would it be cheaper if i book all the flights and hotels before i leave
OR
Just book the flight to HK from England and then the flight back to England from LA, and then just wait till i get to each country to book the hotel and the flight to the next country?

Sorry if its confusing!

A. The best way to do hotel booking is (in this order) to a) Look on the Web for pricing by consolidators and others. b) to contact the hotel group in your home country, if they are represented and c) contact by e-mail or fax the specific hotel directly. Make sure that you always ask the same questions (Example: double or single room; specific dates, room location; with or without facilities(toilet, bath or shower); breakfast, service charges and taxes included or not). For air travel you can follow the same principle, but it will be more complex. Here are some (there are many more sites) which will get you started: www.kayak.com; www.itasoftware.com; www.bing.com. I would start out with the airlines as several of these search groups also offer hotels searches.

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