How to Find a Cheap Vacation

How I afforded many vacations cheaply while living off a graduate student stipend!

Difficulty: Moderate

Instructions

1. Plan to travel in the off season, (Jan- March). Most resorts are practically giving away trips during those months.

2. Be flexible. This is most effective when your job allows you flexibility. Hotels and often have cheaper rates for Sunday and Monday nights.

3. Shop around to reputable discount travel sites. Get referrals from friends for good sites. I was able to go to England for less than 500pp with air and hotel from go-today.com.

4. Its much easier to find cheap trips if you dont have a destination in mind. Sometimes trips to Europe are cheap, while other times its trips to Florida.

5. Be prepared for small rooms, and but sometimes you can get free upgrades in the off season. I find it easiest to have low expectations, so I am rarely disappointed. I once got a free upgrade to a two bed-room condo with full kitchen and private hot tub!!

6. Fly stand by- if you can. I flew to South America first class by choosing stand by. It took an extra day to fly down, but worth it, and my ticket was only 1/5 the price.

Tips & Warnings

• Check out recommendations from Budget Travel.
• Read all the fine print before booking discount travel, often there are lots of hidden fees
• Don't expect good customer service from discount sites. But if you have a problem, you can contact the trip provider even if you purchased it from a re-selling website. Its much more difficult, but possible.
• Be careful where you book- use recommended sites
• Often discount travel can not changed, and are non-refundable, buyer beware.

[deluv24]

on 9/25/2009 Thanks