Making sense of affordable travel, how and where to find it

All too often we find we are in need of a vacation. Long days at the office take its toll, and by the end of the week, we have an all too small paycheck to look forward to and it leaves us wondering “how can I take a vacation- on that?” Or maybe you are one of those unlucky ones who has put in long days handing out resumes and filling out applications, only to find that 1000 other people applied for that same position before you and another 1000 will be there after you.

Whatever your situation, and whatever your budget, you can take a vacation!

First, let’s take a quick look at the resources on the internet.

If you use google.com to search for the best travel deals, you will find there are tens of thousands of pages to skim through, and who knows what you might have to endure reading through to find what you’re looking for. You need to know who to trust, and what they can actually do for you.

So lets start with the beginning. Planning.

A cool new site introduced to me is called Ruba. www.Ruba.com is not quite like other travel sites. It’s unique format allows its visitors to search for different aspects of a trip, such as finding the cleanest beaches in California. Users of Ruba can plan their trip according to their desired method of travel (road-trip, flights, etc.) and incorporate a plan within a desired destination. You can browse lists to see what and where users just like you have been and what they did while they were there. Read user reviews and judge their experiences in a fair and “out of the horses mouth” design. You can generate your own list as well, and create a thorough plan including photos and maps to simplify your planning, and make your travels more exciting than ever before.
Similar to Ruba.com is www.travel-ticker.com. Their innovative site has been described as an “inspirational travel site”. Here you can also view user reviews, see what places people are visiting and what their real life experiences have been, and where they found the best deals available. Travel-ticker also allows you to search for hotels, flights, and much more.

Now that you have an idea of where you would like to go, you need to make reservations, research hotels, flights, or package deals. Where should you go? There are a lot of sites that have features that can help you with this. let me give you a quick review of some new and some not so new sites that can help you stay within your budget and plan a great trip at the same time!

www.dealbase.com Helps you to find and analyze hotel deals so you know what savings you‘re really getting. They share comprehensive guides on where to find the best deals, free offers, and they have a tab which features the worst deals they are seeing as well. www.dealbase.com allows you to search for all of your travel needs (hotels, flights, etc.).
www.kayak.com is a great search engine that allows a user to select which internet travel sites they want to search (www.expedia.com, www.priceline.com, www.travelocity.com, www.expedia.com, www.airfare.com, and much more), which enables you to find some of the best rates on flights, hotels, and travel deals around.
www.orbitz.com started with eliminating booking fees, and started refunding sums of money if you booked a flight and the price went down after you had already purchased your ticket, their price assurance policy. Now you can use Orbitz to post your travel plans on facebook and share your experiences with everyone you are connected to.
www.lastminutetravel.com The name really says it all. search for last minute rates on hotels and more, and take your last minute vacation to a new level of excitement by finding the lowest rates at the very last minute.

So you made your plans, you made your reservations, and now you need to know what to do next.

Dontforgetyourtoothbrush.com allows users to create your own handy „before-you-leave“ checklists. Maybe you bought your flight tickets and simply don’t have time to track the fare yourself in order to get a rebate, www.Yapta.com allows users to simply input their information with travel itineraries and automatically notifies the user if their fares have gone down, making a rebate available. Users may also use www.yapta.com to contact the airline on their behalf in order to expedite the partial refund (for a small fee) .

Maybe you have no interest in hotels, flights, or their expense and have decided to rent (or you already own) a motor home. Or maybe you plan to load the kids in the car and pitch a tent and spend a week or two visiting national parks.

www.nps.gov/ is the United States National Park guide and allows you to search through out the entire United States for a park that will accommodate your needs. Keep in mind, it was recently announced that state park fees in California have been raised for both day use and over night use. Be sure to check out www.parks.ca.gov/ before you go to see if the fees have been raised at your desired location, or to make your reservations online.

For more information on road trips, visit: How to create a successful vacation with a road trip.

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