How to Find Great Deals on Vacation and Travel

March 31st, 2009 (by J.D. Roth )

Comments (56)

My wife and I have begun to explore the idea of taking a trip later this year. We re in the preliminary stages of our research and budgeting. Though we aren t ready to book anything yet, it s fun to look at what s available, and to dream of where we might go.

Over the weekend, I polled my followers on Twitter to ask their advice for finding great travel deals. Here are some of the tips and websites they recommended. I m sure I ll refer to this list often in the coming months.

You might also consider a home exchange with another vacationing family. You can broker these sorts of deals through sites like HomeLink and HomeExchange .

Airfare Watchdog allows you to receive daily or weekly e-mail updates about travel between destinations you choose. (My first e-mail included a $98 round-trip from Portland to Baltimore.) The site features its top 50 fares of the day. as well as a special fare of the day. You can even read the Airfaire Watchblog to keep up-to-date on the latest deals.

Rick Steves is a travel guru who is featured prominently on public broadcasting, both television and radio. His advice is down-to-earth and geared toward folks who want to experience Europe through the back door .

A recent New York Times article offered some great tips for saving on airfare. even after you book your tickets. The article mentioned a site called Yapta . which will automatically watch to make sure you re getting the best deal:

Using your confirmation number, Yapta.com will automatically track the price of your ticket, taking the airline’s fees into consideration. If the price drop exceeds the fee, Yapta will send you, without charge, an e-mail message or Twitter alert notifying you of the refund. You can then call the airline to claim the credit or pay $15 to have Yapta do it for you on weekdays.

Yapta is basically PriceProtectr for air travel.

Richard F. a veteran of many cruises, shared the following tip via e-mail:

Our upcoming Alaska cruise was base priced at $399 a week, leaving from Vancouver. We discovered it was cheaper to do the return leg, from Whittier (outside Anchorage) back to Vancouver, than it would have been book a flight from Anchorage to Vancouver. So we re taking two weeks, the second retracing our steps. These are the best prices we ve seen for cruises in years.

Though I m usually not a cruise kind of guy, I might consider one if the costs were low enough. Here are some additional travel tips shared by Get Rich Slowly readers:

While the information I ve collected here is useful to a novice like me, it s probably too basic for anyone who travels often. If you re interested in advanced travel information, visit my pal Chris Guillebeau at The Art of Non-Conformity. It s his goal to visit every country on Earth by 2013. Chris has produced two fantastic e-books based on his experiences:

• The Unconventional Guide to Discount Airfare
• How to Become a Travel Ninja

It s fun to play with these travel sites and to dream of where I might go: England, Antarctica, Australia. But to be honest, the more I think about it, the more appealing it sounds to just book a cheap rental home on the Oregon Coast. The important part of the vacation is spending time alone with my wife, not luxury hotels and fancy restaurants.

Do you have tips for finding great travel deals? Are there web sites you swear by? What are your favorite vacation ideas? How often do you travel, and where do you go? What tips can you offer to GRS readers?

Note: If you d like to help build future Get Rich Slowly posts, follow me on Twitter. I also tweet about personal-finance stories I discover (and a little about my daily life).

GRS is committed to helping our readers save and achieve their financial goals. Savings interest rates may be low, but that is all the more reason to shop for the best rate. Find the highest savings interest rates and CD rates from Synchrony Bank. Ally Bank. GE Capital Bank. and more.