Tips To Help You Save On Travel
With the holiday season approaching, everyone is getting ready to hit the road and go for a much-needed vacation with your family and friends. While vacations can be great, especially this time of the year, it can also have a huge impact on your savings. The hotel bills, food and shopping expense are more than enough to put a big hole in your pocket. So, to get the most out of the money you plan on spending for your vacation, here are some great budget travel tips that can help you get a good deal.
Do not always rely on the internet for the best deals:
The internet has emerged as a great place to find the best travel deals with incredible convenience, but not all online deals are the best. In case of booking hotels, for instance, it might be best to call the hotel on Sunday afternoons and speak to the supervisor or manager on duty. If you call the toll-free number of the hotel, tell the attending employee that you want to speak to the supervisor or manager. Mention a lower rate and see if the manager is ready to match that, which he or she would be, especially if you are travelling with a large party.
This sort of bargaining can also work with airline tickets. It is easy to buy tickets online, which are available at pretty low rates as is, but you can get better deals if you look a little further. Call the airline and compare the total prices of tickets if you buy them online and through phone. In some cases, there may be an extra charge if you book by phone. A good strategy is to find an ideal flight on the phone and searching online for the same flight while holding the fare, since you have 24 hours to pay for the ticket if you do buy tickets through phone.
Avoid the travel destination clichés:
If you are not very good at bargaining and prefer to go the less-travelled road, a great budget travelling tip is to go against the traveler clichés and choosing destinations that are less likely to be on others’ lists. This means that they would be less crowded and in demand, which translates to a greater chance of getting discounts on rooms. Alternatively, you can look at booking rooms in hotels that are against their usual trend. For instance, you can book weekend stays at business hotels or weekday stays in leisure hotels. Business hotels can see pretty low business on weekends and are more willing to offer great deals to people during this time. Business hotels can be identified by brands and also locations. Shoulder season and off-season destinations are other great ways to get lower hotel prices using the rules of supply and demand to your advantage.
Look for tickets in repositioning cruises and flights:
Repositioning flights and cruises are done to move the aircraft or cruise liner from one port to another. Cruise liners reposition around twice a year, while flights do it more often. In any case, these repositioning tickets tend to be cheaper while providing similar services as that of regular tickets. If you are booking tickets for your vacation, you can ask if there is an option to book a repositioning flight.
In cases of cruise lines, repositioning cruises are generally longer than traditional ones and provide really good value for money. However, if you are in for just a short vacation, a repositioning cruise may not be the most ideal offering for you. On the other hand, a long cruise might be just perfect to relax and enjoy the high seas while planning the rest of your trip when you dock at port. Remember that repositioning cruises are one-way trips only, so you can use your saved-up frequent flyer miles to get tickets back home.
Do not be afraid of looking at less frequented destinations:
Over the years, a number of destinations across the world have been frequented less often by American tourists for various reasons. A long-past natural disaster and long-resolved political conflicts often results in a dip in tourism and makes the locations less appealing to tourists. This attitude can remain long past the problems are actually resolved. For instance, a number of American tourists are still apprehensive about travelling to China, despite it being a thriving and beautiful tourist destination. Because of this lack of business, you can find surprisingly great travel deals for a trip to China.