Remember playing tag when you were a kid? Slapping someone on the back and yelling, “Tag, you’re it!” Well, I’ve just been been ‘virtually tagged.’ My friend and fellow travel blogger, Shannon Lane, was ‘tagged’ to participate in the meme known as My Three Best Travel Secrets (a meme, which rhymes with cream, is a catchphrase or concept that spreads rapidly from person to person via the Internet). From what I understand, the game was started by Katie of Tripbase.com, the lovely folks who awarded me second place in the category of best North/South American blog of 2009 in their annual Travel Blog Awards.
After sharing three great secrets about her home state of Louisiana, Shannon ‘tagged’ me to be next in line to divulge my best travel secrets. My first reaction was, “Only three?” How could I possibly narrow it down to only three. In the end, I decided to reveal my secrets for booking last minute accommodations and transportation around the world without breaking the bank. Frankly, I detest being locked into definite travel plans. My preference is to book the first night at a destination (two nights at most), and then wing it from there. Fellow travelers are always eager to share secrets about spectacular, little-known towns or sites they have visited and not being locked into reservations allows me to take advantage of these tips, but it also means I am often looking for last minute bookings, which can be frustrating as well as expensive. However I do have a few tricks to help with this process, which I’ve detailed below:
HOTELS:
I regularly use Booking.com, Hotels.com, or HotelsCombined.com to find great last minute hotel reservations at affordable prices and the cheapest places to travel. I also read what travelers have to say about specific properties at TripAdvisor.com before booking.
FLIGHTS:
In the U.S. I never use the big online booking agents like Expedia or Travelocity because they don’t search all discount carriers. It takes a bit more time, but I go to the AIRPORT websites that I want to fly between, search to see which of the discount airlines serve those airports, then book directly on the airline’s web site. The best discount airline in the U.S. is Southwest. European discount airlines include Ryanair, easyJet, Norwegian, and Turkish Air. In Asia I fly AirAsia, Air India, Ukraine International Airlines, Nok Air (Thailand only), Scoot, and Thai Airways; and in Australia check into Regional Express (REX) and Virgin Australia.
EXTRA DISCOUNTS:
Once you’ve determined which hotel or airline you wish to book through, before making your final purchase, Google the hotel/airline name with the words “discount coupon code.” You will often discover an additional discount that can be applied at the time of making the online reservation. For example, I just Googled “discount coupon code hotels” and found a code for 15% off Hilton Hotels and 20% off the lowest rates at Best Westerns, among other deals. (TIP: this works well for all online shopping, from Amazon.com to individual stores like Crabtree & Evelyn, and there are numerous sites that search the Internet and display all these discounts on a single site.)
So there you have it, my top travel secrets (OK, I’m cheating; I’ve given you more than three – so shoot me). Now all that’s left is to ‘tag’ five other travel bloggers, and here they are:
- Mark H at Travel Wonders of the World
- Heather Cowper at Heather on her Travels
- Andy Jarosz at 501 Places
- Sebastien at Colliding Continents
- Lanora Mueller at Writing Travel
TAG! You’re it!!!
Sounds Great Barbara!!! I liked your post very much. Thanx for the Secrets 😀
Any wayz you guys already know that United Kingdom is the good place to enjoy your holidays. Here are some important tips for tourists who visits the United Kingdom for holiday . To enjoy the most UK places or destinations , then you must visit
Holidays in the UK
thx for this one m8
Hi Barbara,
I’ll add a secret I used alot when I travelled more. This works best when arriving by boat. I travelled light with a backpack and I never needed reservations for places to stay as there are rooms for rent if you walk through the villages. Works very easily on Greek Islands.
Love
Nirvan
Thanks Nirvan. That’s the way I travel as well – no reservations. Works for me!
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I just added your site to my favorites. I enjoy reading your posts. Thanks!
Google helped me find your site. Thanks for posting I will be back 🙂
If you can’t afford a luxurious travel to India, make sure that you plan your trip ahead of time. Perhaps you can do this a couple of months before the trip. This way, you will still have time to save for your trip. Aside from that, you will also have enough time to search the interest for cheap deals that you can use in your travel to India. By researching online, you can find out all the cheapest deals that can still meet your traveling needs. It will just take time and diligence.
Hi Barbara,
This is my first time to encounter your site. It’s such a big help and tip for me for future reference!
http://www.qualityresearch.org.uk
Hi Barbara, I totally agreed that booking air ticket online directly from the airlines could save us more money. I always book Air Asia flights when I wish to go overseas and Ryanair is my choice for flights in Europe… 🙂 Good information shared.
great! thanks for posting these tips. I am so glad that I came across your blog entry. it gave me ideas on how to handle such events
very nice article… it’s a good thing there are people like you who could come out with substantial blogs that provide us with information about certain topics that will help us in the future
Some excellent suggestions. It is amazing how much you can save with a little research and your list covers the two biggest hitters – accommodation and flights. I’ll be back to reference these again. I’ve responded to my meme tag discussing my home city of Sydney at http://www.travel-wonders.com/2009/12/three-travel-secrets-of-sydney.html
Wow! What a great post! I’m bookmarking this for my next trip. Never saw such good ideas all in one place.
Thanks!
Thank you Vera!
Thanks for sharing your location dependent websites. You really do need to know what websites to use based on where you are in the world…else you are probably paying too much. someone should simply do a blogpost about that! Hint, hint!
I especially liked the tip about searching the airport websites. Lots of people don’t want to do the extra bit of work but there are some good deals that the big online travel booking services don’t list.
Thoughts from DeeNice, the Hostel Virgin
Barbara, I wish I had read your valuable info before I made my maiden journey this past October 2009 into the world of Hostels.
The tip of Google-ing the “discount coupon code” was a great idea. I have struggled to find flights & accommodations last minute, and have been trying to find competitive last minute fares and the discount coupon will help alot! Appreciate what your offer on your blog.
BTW – I found this site SKYAUCTION.com recently, I don’t know anything about this site, thought I would ask your opinion. Have been reading comments on google and not sure about it.
Again, great tips to all who are committed to crossing borders, sharing lives, as my mentor Rita Golden Gelman (Tales of a Female Nomad) would say.
I loved reading about your transition in life in your 50’s. My feelings are the same as yours.
Take Care: DeeNice
Hi DeeNice:
Thanks for stopping by and taking the time to leave a comment. I’m afraid I know nothing about SKYAUCTION. I took a look at it and it’s probably not something I would use because with an auction you invariably have to wait to see if you won the bid, and when I want to go, I want to go now! I see you work with Rita Golden Gelman – I’ve read her Tales of a Female Nomad; we have a lot in common. And I was pleased to learn what she is doing with her organization, Birth of a Movement. You’re right about hostels (your story about Amsterdam was hilarious); you never really know what you’re going to get until you get there, but you have a better chance of landing in a good one if you check it out with the members of Lonely Planet’s Thorn Tree Forum beforehand. All the best – and keep traveling.
Barbara
Great money-saving tips Barbara. In Europe I’d definitely check out Ryanair & Easyjet before any other airline if your decision is price driven. However, some of the the other airlines are becoming more price focussed as a result of the competition and you’ll invariably get more extras and luggage allowance with the mainstream carriers.
On the vouchers – I’ve recently discovered the Voucher websites such as Vouchercodes.co.uk which often reveal an extra bonus discount you can get on a selected hotel. Check out my post about it – there’s a $50 Amazon voucher up for grabs if you leave a comment.
http://www.heatheronhertravels.com/money-saving-travel-deals-from-vouchercodes-giveway/
Now I’m going to have to come up with my best travel secrets
Googling for extra discounts! It’s so obvious once you say so, but I never thought of it. Great tip — thanks!
Love the info. Will sure to take a look before taking off somewhere in the future.