Don’t get me wrong when I say we save by staying at cheap hotels. We don’t stay at crap hotels or accommodations we just find hotels that have the best deals.

These days travellers need to dedicate a little time finding the best deals. We are on a pretty tight budget as I have to take a lot of expensive meds to stay active and alive. It’s important to my wife and I that we spend our money wisely but at the same time we don’t care to stay home just because we are in a recession.

The market has continued to deliver some real bargains when it comes to cheap hotels with prices that could be accommodated by even the tightest of budgets.

From what I have seen lately hotels at great travel destinations such as the Canaries, Greece and Turkey are doing a great job a keeping prices down during these times. Just take the time to look for the best bang for your buck like we do and you can either save money or maybe stay longer.

Gotta love the Internet for finding cheap hotels these days, without leaving the comfort of my home office.

I had a little trouble at the start because I have always associated ‘cheap’ with poor quality but in this case cheap means you save money but it’s doesn’t mean you have to stay in a stable somewhere.

So when you are searching using your favorite search engine, ours happens to be Googel, be sure to use words like ‘cheap’ or ‘bargain’ along with accommodations or hotel and don’t forget to include the part of the world you are interested in. That will help you find hotels that are bargains in the places that interest you instead of getting millions and millions of sites that won’t interest you.

Now, that you have pages of content to go through, be sure you check them out so you can tell what’s cheap but good and cheap crap.

We look for clean and quiet. It doesn’t have to be fancy, after all we only plan to sleep there, not have our entire vacation in the room. We expect to spend money on our vacations not just on the room we sleep in.

Related articles by Zemanta

• Picking the Right Hotel (travelinsurance.org)

Tweet This Post

My wife and I are baby boomers who love to travel. As the time to retire draws ever closer we are looking for places that we can travel to for months instead of days. Not that where we live isn’t beautiful because it is and the beauty is why I moved here. But we want to see other beautiful places and we have a spot in mind.

My wife and I are just itching to see the Na Pali Coast. I visited http://www.napali.com/ and my mouth dropped open. The beauty almost brought me to tears. It’s breath taking and a feast for the eyes not to mention the fact that is’t warm and we are sitting here freezing our buns off in -15 degree weather.

We have done the coastal tours, to see whales, where we live, we saw exactly one, and we really enjoy seeing the flower pots sticking up out of the ocean but it’s time for new scenery and warmth.

We won’t be going for another year at least but that gives up plenty of time to plan our trip. Our goal will be to experience the Kauai boat tours along with Kauai whale watching. I see this as a trip of a lifetime so it will just be my wife and myself, sorry son.
Our tours will be through Capt. Andy’s Boat Tours. He offers sailing adventures, which we have never done and raft expeditions as well, which we have never done. I feel like I am starting to twitch just talking about it.

Learn more through this online comprehensive Na Pali Coast Guide.

Tweet This Post

Transportation is imperative in the world we inhabit. In fact, most of us need to commute somewhere each and every day. It may be 20 minutes down the road or a whopping 90 minutes into the city. It all depends on where you live and where you’re employed. And let’s not forget the countless other reasons we have to leave the house. In short, we rely on our vehicles quite regularly. But let’s not forget about air travel. Some folks rely on flying everyday for their careers. The rest of us resort to this method of travel for vacations and yearly trips. While the speed of air travel is ideal, airline ticket purchases now days are not so cheap. And sadly they continue to rise.

Do you recall your last flight? I certainly remember mine because it was only last month. I took a four day trip to Myrtle Beach from Cincinnati and it wasn’t cheap. My round-trip ticket cost me a whopping 780 dollars. YUCK! That’s way too much for a trip such as this. However, clearly with airline ticket purchases it depends on when you buy them. Timing is everything. Now, if you’re like most of us these days, then you probably rely on the Internet for deals and specials. Let’s face it; it’s easy and convenient to book a flight via the web. You just hop online and BAM, it’s all taken care of. Then there’s the dark side of online airline ticket purchases. First of all you have a number of vying travel websites.

There’s travelocity.com, cheaptickets.com, travelation.com, expedia.com and several more. So what you basically need to do is compare them all. Search for the flight you need on each of these travel websites, and pinpoint the best current deal. It’s a bit of a pain, but doesn’t take too long. Then there’s the time issue. When you research airline ticket purchases is always crucial. One day can make a huge difference. I was shocked to see a 400 dollar plane ticket skyrocket to 670 overnight. As ridiculous as this sounds, it’s still our reality.

Any time you choose to fly, remember to arrive a couple hours early. Chances are you’ll be the one that gets heavily searched at the security check, and then be held up for a good amount of time. You don’t want to miss your flight! And be prepared for delays. They come standard now! You might as well expect them. Planes wait in long lines to take off these days. Air travel just isn’t what it used to be.

Tweet This Post

Your yearly vacation time is coming up, your savings are in the bank to fund your trip and you just can’t wait to get on the road or to the airport. You may have decided last year where you’ll spend that vacation.

However, surprisingly, many people save their money with only a vague idea of what they’re going to do with that long-awaited time off or where they’re going to go! With our busy lives today, we may not find the time to water the garden, much less plan our vacation. As a result, you may just give a day or two of thought to what destinations you might visit which fall within the reach of your budget.

Here are some ideas on how you can widen your possibilities and perhaps take a trip you wouldn’t have thought viable.

Long before your trip, preferably months in advance, make a stop at your local travel agent’s office. You can do this on a trip to the mall or before grocery shopping. Travel agents have loads of printed information available on destinations an hour away, or half the world away. Travel agents stock travel brochures, booklets and information sheets and are more than happy to answer questions about any aspect of travel.

On your first visit, simply look through the racks of printed materials to see what catches your eye. Don’t even think about expense just yet. These travel brochures are intentionally enticing, usually glossy productions with photographs of famous sights, with copy designed to capture your interest. Designers of travel brochures do their job well. It’s likely you’ll leave with an armload to peruse at home that evening. You’ll find travel brochures to world destinations, such as London and Paris, amounting to small books filled with every offering the area has to offer.

These travel brochures may include information on package deals, including prices. If you find a deal that you might afford with a little tweaking of your savings plan now, keep it in mind, especially when your travel date is months away. Start subscriptions to ezines which compile travel deals, which will give you a good idea of what is really a rock-bottom price. If you’ve found several attractive destinations in your collection of travel brochures, these ezines allow you to pick up on these deals in a one-stop alert in each issue.

Remember that travel brochures naturally emphasize the up side of any destination. There will be no mentions of rampant thefts of the contents of rental cars abroad. When you’ve settled on your destination, go to the library and look over guidebooks which will fill you in on the skinny. You needn’t avoid a destination for these reasons, you only need be informed.

Travel brochures will serve you well in your dream vacation search. Once your investigation is complete, you’re ready to consult a travel agent to make your vacation a reality.

Tweet This Post

I used to be somewhat afraid of Internet travel sites, but nowadays I use them to plan virtually every phase of my vacations and business trips. You see, there is so much good information on travel websites that you can’t afford not to use them. I remember the old days of vacation holiday planning. I would buy a Frommer’s guide, call travel agents, read articles in back issues of travel magazines – it would all take forever. The Internet has revolutionized the travel business, both for the producers and the consumers. What used to take hours and hours of research can now be done in mere minutes. Even better, the information is updated so quickly they can always be sure that it is current. Nevertheless, there are a few things you have to keep in mind when you are using travel websites.

One of the biggest problems with all Internet resources is that it is difficult to evaluate how good or useful the information is. With published books, it is comparatively easy. You can look at what publisher publishes a book, research their reputation, and lookup book reviews. Travel websites, however, are generally run by travel companies. As such, you can only expect that they will try to play up the good aspects of a destination while playing down the bad ones. They may look like they contain objective information, but in reality they will do anything to sell you cheap airline tickets, hotel deals, or all-in-one vacation packages.

That is why I usually still consult with Frommer’s or a Lonely Planet after I look at a travel website. The travel websites are good for the first stage and the last stage of vacation planning, but not very useful in the middle. They are good for picking out possible destinations and for making reservations, but between those two steps you have to double check the information that they give you. This still saves a lot of time, and gives you access to more information than you would be able to have otherwise.

A lot of the time, one of the best ways to check information is by making a simple phone call. Sometimes, the people who maintain the travel web sites are not the same folks who actually run the hotels, airlines, tour guide services, or other vacation related industries. If you can get them on the phone, you can have your questions answered and double check the travel information.

Tweet This Post