At some point, I would love to go on a vacation. The problem is that I'm in college, so it can't be super expensive. I'm willing to spend good money, but I don't know anything about how to find a cheap trip. I'm assuming that you should look for deals on plane tickets and hotels, but I'm not sure where I should start. Where do you guys start when you are planning a trip? How are you able to keep the cost down?
It depends on where you want to go and how you want to get there. I would sign up with the low cost airlines as they always do deals and you could find a sale on. Then you can sign up for hotel or motel offers and see when they have their specials on too. Besides that Groupon do some good deals, but as you are a student you probably could find some student deals too.
That's great to know! Thanks, I think that I will try that out. I've heard that getting a bundle when you're going on a trip also helps to keep the cost low. I'll have to keep the student discount in mind though. I have heard that being a student can help keep the cost low.
There are quite a few places that allow you to cancel within 24 hours with no penalty, so always look at the cancellation terms. If you book online, most places allow 48 or 24 hour cancellation, so that's useful if your plans change. Getting bundles can save if you travel in a group, but rarely if you travel alone as there is a single room/person supplement unless you go on an adventure group tour. Those kind of sites also offer last minute discounts.
Yeah, thanks for that tip! It would be great to know something like that. I will make sure that I check for that when I decide to plan a trip. Even a last minute deal wouldn't be that bad. I know that sometimes booking way in advance will help keep the cost down. My mom will do that sometimes and it's helped her save some money.
We always monitor the website of "friendly" airlines here - those who occasionally offer cheap discounted plane tickets. For this year, we had traveled 2 times to other countries already and we have 3 more trips in the later part of the year. It's all because of cheap tickets that we purchase 6 months earlier. That's how long we plan our trips. In the last 3 years, we never traveled using regular fare.
Make a travel budget then work from there. Take into account your own personal situation. Got $800 and your a couple with no car in a major North American city near an airport? That has Caribbean all inclusive written all over it. Got even less say $400-$600 but you have a car and don't live in a major city? Find a cool major city near you that you have not really been to and spend a few days exploring it! Camping, hosteling and staying in college dorms can also save money on accommodations.
Wow, that is great. The thing that would be awesome is if I could get everything in included. That's what my mom is doing for ouur family trip, and I have to say that it is saving us some money. I mean all those trips that you have been able to take it amazing. Right now my boyfriend and I are trying to plan a trip to Cali because we can stay with his uncle and that would be able to save us some money. Which would be good.
I don't travel very often, but we have gone on some cheap getaways in recent years. If you opt to buy your vacation through a price comparison site like Travelocity or Expedia, you're probably not going to have any flexibility at all in terms of getting a refund or changing your vacation dates. Not only are they negotiating cut throat rates with the airlines and hotels, they also get paid a commission from them for referring you as a lead, so that really eats into the airlines and hotels profit margins. Plus logistically it's more of a hassle if they have to go back and try to reclaim the commissions they paid for your purchase if they were to refund you. If you instead book your flights and hotels directly, they are usually a little more flexible with you if an emergency arises. You can, and probably should, also purchase travel insurance, which helps cover the costs if you need to cancel or move your vacation. It's pretty inexpensive too. It's definitely worth it to spend an extra $20 or so for it, than be out of a couple thousand if an emergency arises. If you want to go really cheap, you may want to look into train or bus ride packages to various locations. We took a bus ride from Cleveland to Atlantic City, and the round trip ride plus hotel for 4 days was only around $275 per person, or $350 if you wanted a single room. That also included some gambling, food and drink vouchers. The bus was comfortable, and they made two stops along the way to stretch out and get some refreshments. It's almost all senior citizens though. But I just slept most of the way. Scope out the destination you are traveling to on Google maps to see how far your hotel is from everything you want to visit. You may not need to get a rental car at all depending on where you are staying and the public transportation available. In fact in some cases, it may make more sense to pay a little more for a hotel closer to your destination if it's walking distance since you're saving even more on not having to pay for a rental car. You may also want to look for some smaller local airlines, which offer limited flights to popular destinations. My friends save hundreds on their flights by taking these down to Florida each year, instead of using the Cleveland airport. You can keep the costs down on a daily basis by not splurging for food and too many cocktails. It's not beneath me to eat the hotel's free "continental breakfast" in the morning, and grab some McDonalds dollar menu for lunch, and a cheap street vendor for dinner. It doesn't really matter if you're eating "junk food" since you'll be walking most of it off anyhow, plus it saved you money. There are almost always local greasy spoon diners offering cheap specials too, for like $2.99 breakfasts and what not.
The best way to keep the cost down is to buy everything way in advance. Back when I travelled a lot I used to buy my plane tickets and hotel bookings almost a year in advance and it ended up saving me around 80% or more for the travel and accommodation expense. Of course I still spent a lot since whatever I saved I ended up splurging on either the local food or the gifts I bought, but that's way better than losing all my money on just the initial part of the travel itself.
