Saving Tips For Travel

[jeffrey]

1. Before using frequent-flier miles for an airline ticket, check the offers of partner businesses. You can sometimes save more money by using your miles to pay for a hotel stay or other service instead of an airline ticket.

2. Don't waste you hard earned money on sunscreen with a low sun protection factor (SPF) rating since it will do little to protect you from the sun's damaging rays. Always choose 15 SPF or higher.

3. If appropriate, try to arrange your travel plans to rent a car for an entire weekend instead of just one day. Weekend rates often offer a much better deal than daily rates.

4. If you find a good travel deal on the Internet, contact your local travel agent to see if they can beat it. Although the Internet has some good deals, travel agents often know about discounts & specials that can save you even more, especially when combining air travel and lodging. If they can't, then you know you found yourself a great deal.

5. When looking to book a rental car, check both different agencies and multiple car types to find the best deal. Sometimes larger cars present a better value due to supply and demand.

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6. When making air travel arrangements, make sure to check all the airports in and around your destination. Often an airport a short distance away will yield a less expensive fare.

7. When traveling abroad, wait until you reach your destination before converting your money into foreign currency (unless arriving at a time when exchange windows will be closed). You almost always get a better exchange rate once you reach your destination that before you leave.

8. You can earn free airline tickets without ever flying these days. Airline frequent-flier ticket programs have partnerships with hotels, phone, rental car and credit card companies just to name a few. Use these services and you'll be flying free in no time.

9. You can save 20% to 70% on your next cruise vacation by booking a "positioning cruise." Cruise ships that tour the Caribbean and Mexico in winter head to Alaska, Canada or Europe in the summer. By agreeing to depart from one port and return home from another you can get great savings.

[emily1067]

Tips for Travel

Share you travel tips here...

1. If you're traveling to a major city and you shcedule is somewhat flexible, you may want to take a shuttle van or public transportation to your hotel and rent a car once you get there. By doing so, you can avoid any airport surcharges and may even secure a lower rental rate.


....your turn



Emily

[lynclarke]

Re: Saving Tips For Travel

When traveling in Europe, consider renting an apartment for a week or two rather than staying at hotels which tend to be VERY expensive. Apartments are great to control food costs, laundry expenses, and you have a slice of home in that country. One example:We stayed in Venice for a week. The cost was approx $110/night. We ate 3 meals out in "mom & pop" type restaurants and all the other meals we ate at home. Our costs for the 18 meals in our apartment was the same as the 3 restaurant meals. Now I know some people hate to cook or do not want household chores on vacation but we love shopping in European grocery stores and we love the privacy one has in an apartment. Any more one can easily find rentals on the internet. We have rented in England - London, Midlands, Cotswold; Scotland, Italy, and Belgium in the past couple of years.

[gptmca]

Re: Saving Tips For Travel

When travelling within Europe, there are many low-cost airlines. They tend to fly into airports near the main cities, but this need not be a problem as there are often good bus connections.
One such airline is ryan air , they are a "no frills" airline and so offer no free inflight service and the price of things to buy onboard is very expensive, so if travelling with them, ensure to bring your own food supplies on board. Also note that the prices they quote on their website do not include a luggage charge for luggage you wish to place in the hold. The price does include carry on luggage.

[Oliver21]

Re: Saving Tips For Travel

Do some research, learn as much as you can about your destination.

Check to see what type of weather the area has so you can plan accordingly.

Check to see what type of paperwork and documentation you will need to travel.

Find out what type of diseases are common to the area you’ll be visiting and take actions to prevent your exposure to those diseases.

Check your own medical coverage to see what type of coverage you’ll have when away from home. Consider purchasing trip insurance.

If you plan on driving, get your car ready and investigate the local road conditions, laws and other driving requirements.

Do some research about the costs of local items so you can set your budget. Don't forget to budget for taxes and tipping. Many governments charge high taxes for travel related services.

Check the dates of local major holidays or festivals, since services may be limited on those dates.

[crazyliblady]

Saving Tips for Travel

I traveled to a conference out of town recently for work. I had never been to that city. While I did do some research to find out what restaurants were in the area and the costs of food in that area, I still was not quite sure what to expect. I cashed in a lot of my points from surveys I did at Lightspeed Panel, NFO, E-Poll, etc. for either cash or gift cards for places like Starbucks, Kentucky Fried Chicken, and Subway. This strategy helped me to save a lot of money on food. Also, because I have food allergies, I took a small amount of food (foil packet of tuna, fruit, trail mix, etc.) with me to the airport. This helps me to avoid the situation at the airport where there is nothing I can eat.

Another thing I learned is that the next time I go to a conference, I want to stay in a hotel either very close to the conference center so I can walk or one on the conference bus line. The metro transit system was great, but I missed out on a lot of great events because I did not want to walk around on the street at night.

[orchid]

Planning on going to Oahu in 6 months...any tips on travelling to Hawaii on a budget?

[kngavl]

Parking in Oahu can be a problem. However there are free parking spaces in the park, near diamond head. You can park overnight for free and definitly save yoruself a lot of money.

[Marketiva]

Saving tips if you would like travel to Paris, France

I'm sure everybody heard about Paris. It's a famous tourist destination but if you are not an expert maybe you can loose your money absolute needlessly.

When you arrive you should forget the TAXI (yellow cab), because it's very expensive.
You can use the services of RATP transportation company. There are meny RER
and metro lines so you can get to anywhere easily.
But there are something different between the pass for the tourist and local people in the price Most tourist people sometimes buy an expensive five days ticket. If you request the CARTE ORANGE you can save 32 EUR. CARTE ORANGE is a really pass so you'll need a photo about you for the validation. A CARTE ORANGE for one week is about 65 EUR, and the visitor 5 days ticket is 97 EUR. Do you feel the different? Unfortunately the CARTE ORANGE is buyable only weekdays (I know the plane tickets are cheaper on weekends), but if you arrived at Sunday the best thing if you wait until Monday with your purchasing.

SOUVENIR:
Everybody wanna buy an Eiffel Tower Don't wanna buy around the Eiffel Tower because the price will be very HIGH = 10 or 12 EUR, etc. Far away about 1,5 miles from the Eiffel Tower you can get an Eiffel Tower souvenir by 2 EUR Front of the Notre Dame is very cheap the buying!

About the plane tickets:
If you do live is USA and wanna take a trip to Paris, France I think the best choice is MALEV (Hungarian Airlines). You can buy a ticket which is OK from New York (JFK) to
Paris (CDG).

[jjc84]

great info cheers!

[Deelip]

Use much of the Internet, not only your travel company. The company who is arranging your travel might not know everything about the place you're going to visit but Internet has everything.

[loveviolet]

One tip on car rental: If you plan to travel, always book your car rental ahead of time. I usually use orbitz to reserve the car rental. The rate is so cheap if you book early, and no charge to cancel it, so why not book early?

[DannyGBWI]

Always negotiate hotel room prices. Hotel rooms are like highly perishable food: if they’re not used that day, they’re wasted. You can almost always get a better deal just by asking, but do it with a nice smile face-to-face when you check in, or with friendly calls direct to the hotels you’re considering. It won’t work if you just call national 800 numbers, because they can’t negotiate

[jerminix]

Just go ask in a travel agency to avail discounts and packages that will assist you in reserving for hotels at a low cost and as convenient as possible, they will also assess your budget for travel

[Alex_Adviser]

15 money-saving tips for business travelers

IN THE AIR
1. Refundable air tickets: While the lowest fares on most airlines are non-refundable, some airlines have more lenient policies than others for passenger-initiated changes and cancellations. On Southwest you may cancel a reservation and apply the funds paid for that ticket to any future ticket within the next year with no charge.
Booking on one of these airlines is an insurance policy against fare changes. If the price goes up, you're already locked in at the lower rate. And if the price goes down, you can always cancel that reservation and rebook the same itinerary at the lower rate.
2. Connections and alternate airports: if you are willing to make a connection or use an alternate airport it can lead to great savings.
3. One-way air fares: With the elimination of many fare restrictions it often pays to price your trip as two one way flights in addition to a round trip on a single carrier.
4. Combining trips: I often save air fare by combining two business trips if possible. By triangle-ing a trip to two destinations, it might mean one less flight and one less air fare to pay.

AT YOUR HOTEL
5. Contracts and negotiated rates: It's wise to check prices on discount hotel booking sites, with fewer unsold rooms, business travelers will increasingly find the best deals in the rates negotiated by their employers or the sponsors of a convention or meeting.
6. Avoid city centers
7. Corporate apartments and suite hotels: Such properties frequently offer lower rates than full service hotels which must bear the costs of restaurants, bellhops, the valet, and many other amenities.
8. Check individual night prices: I always check prices for individual nights as there could be a savings if you are willing to switch hotels in the middle of your stay.
9. Day trips and red-eyes: Another way to minimize hotel costs is to take day trips or fly an overnight red-eye flight whenever possible.
10. Avoid conventions and peak travel periods
11. Laundry: On longer trips I have often saved money by carting my dirty clothes down the street to a laundry or drycleaner rather than paying those ridiculous hotel prices.

ON THE GROUND
12. Public transit from the airport: If you don't have a lot of luggage, taking public transportation to and from the airport can mean big savings.
13. Optimizing car rentals: Car rentals can sometimes be the most economical alternative.
14. Off-hotel parking: On my recent trip I saved $10 per night over the hotel parking rates by parking in a garage down the street.
15. Skip the airplane: In some areas of the country, the train is a viable alternative to air travel.

Regards