Combing dozens of websites to find the best travel deals is a pain. Wouldn’t it be great if you could go to a single site, make one search and be sure of finding the best and cheapest flight? Well, perhaps you can, by using a new generation of “sweeper sites”. These powerful tools use cutting-edge web-wandering technology to search the sites of airlines, hotels, car-hire companies and travel agents for the best deal.

The latest player is Sidestep. com. Launched in the UK this month, it’s already huge in the USA, claiming to refer more than $1 billion in travel bookings annually. It will compete for our business with the already established Travelsupermarket. com, Traveljungle.co.uk, and the European flight specialist Skyscanner.net So, which should you trust? We tested them out, searching for flights from London to Krakow on an April weekend and New York in June; and for a week’s car hire in Malaga

SIDESTEP.COM

The home page is uncluttered; searching is a doddle. Select an item and you’re taken straight to the seller’s site, at the point where you’re ready to buy — no further form-filling required.

In the Krakow search, Sidestep’s cheapest option was with SkyEurope from Stansted: £108 return, booked through the airline. But if I’d sidestepped Sidestep and visited Ryanair, I’d have saved £31. For New York, it found Continental Airlines from Gatwick for £349, through Ebookers. There were only four results for the Malaga car hire; the cheapest was £97, through Carbookers.com.

Verdict: the technology means that what you see really is what you can buy, but the car hire is pricey and missing that Ryanair option is unforgivable.

TRAVELSUPERMARKET.COM

Searching is simple and reasonably fast, but be vigilant: results include flights with a plane change on the way, even though we asked for direct only.

To Krakow, it showed the cheapest option as BA from Gatwick for £115, through Airline Network. Wrong: clicking through to Airline Network’s site, the lowest fare was actually £135. The first result for New York was £347 with US Airways, also through Airline Network. However, US Airways doesn’t fly nonstop; the best direct result was the same Ebookers deal that Sidestep found. The Malaga car hire produced results with seven companies: the cheapest offer was £60, through Valuecarrental.com.

Verdict: excellent for car hire, misleading for flights.

TRAVELJUNGLE.CO.UK

The main search page is easy to use, but not the fastest. Krakow options started with BA from Gatwick for £127, through BA.com, but the site missed out Ryanair and SkyEurope. Also, the click-through to BA takes you back to square one on the airline’s home page, so you have to type in a whole new search.

For New York, it came up with United Airlines from Heathrow or Continental from Gatwick, both for £348. The cheapest Malaga car hire was £77, through Auto Europe.

Verdict: good for long-haul, weak on no-frills, and needs to search through more sites before it can be relied on.

SKYSCANNER.NET

We couldn’t test New York or car hire, as this popular site searches only for flights within Europe. Unlike the other sites, results are displayed in one table for each direction, so there’s no scrolling through several pages of options. It can also display fares in handy bar charts.

For Krakow, it found Ryanair from Stansted at £77 as the cheapest option. Full marks.

Verdict: great for no-frills short breaks, though it does ignore some of the traditional airlines.

AND THE WINNER IS?

None of the sites is a perfect single solution, but using a couple at a time will vastly improve your chances of scooping the rock-bottom deal. Watch this space: advancing technology is leading to the truly comprehensive search, and maybe then we really can sidestep the shopping around.