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Travel sites that search all the major air lines are a dime a dozen. And in some localities, there are travel sites that at least pay lip service to searching major bus carriers.

But are there any travel sites that will search all major forms of transportation, and let you form a mixed itinerary? I'm thinking at least air, bus, and train.

For instance, if I want the cheapest way to get from Town A to Town B, I'd like options like:

  • Take Foo Bus Line from Town A to City Q
  • Fly Bar Airline from City Q to City Z
  • Take Baz Passenger Train from City Z to Town B

For bonus points, it might even include public transit options, in localities where it's actually feasible to take public transit between major cities.

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  • 2
    I haven't even seen websites that would reasonably link flights from different providers. As an example, I was looking at flying to Korea from London, then to Taiwan and return to London. The existing websites just didn't give me a reasonable option (e.g. buy LDN-Korea and Taiwan-LDN from one airline, and Korea-Taiwan from another)
    – Grzenio
    Jan 29, 2012 at 16:10
  • @Grzenio: That's because each leg of the flight would have been booked as a one-way ticket. I have seen instances where return flights are cheaper than one-way; one-way flights almost always cost more! Jan 29, 2012 at 22:13
  • @Grzenio: Yes, that would also be a great resource!
    – Flimzy
    Jan 30, 2012 at 4:35
  • @AnkurBanerjee: I wouldn't mind booking 25 one-way tickets if it meant getting a cheaper fare :)
    – Flimzy
    Jan 30, 2012 at 4:39

3 Answers 3

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Rome2Rio offers a very rudimentary version of this service, and has recently added prices (no idea how accurate they are), to at least some searches.

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You don't say if there are any specific areas or countries you are interested in. I doubt there is anything like this that covers most of the world.

However, for the UK, Traveline at least attempts to do this. The interface is dated to say the least, but it's otherwise quite capable. It covers walking, the train, buses, and coaches (although not air travel, AFAIK).

Deutsche Bahn also claims to cover boat and bus travel, and certainly does for some parts of Europe, although I suspect coverage will vary.

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Waymate is attempting to do this. As of June 2013, they advertise: "Seamlessly search and compare the time, duration and price of various transport options in one an easy-to-read timeline - ranging from trains and flights to travelling with your own car."

Also, on the results page, Skyscanner has an option called Non-protected transfers. When enabled, flights combined from different tickets are shown, often a combination of flights by low cost carriers. This is not exactly what you are looking for, but it can be of help: Once when traveling from the Canaries to Germany, I used that option, and then decided to replace one of the legs by a boat trip.

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