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This is a collection of travel tips that I have learned over the years. It is by no means an extensive
list, and I'm not an expert on the subject, but hopefully you'll find some useful information here.
Tip #1 - Never use a Travel Agent. I know a lot of people will disagree with this one, but the
fact of the matter is, with very few exceptions, you can do everything yourself that a TA does and
end up paying a lot less money. Why will you pay less? Because you aren't going to charge yourself commission.
I listed this tip first because if you aren't willing to put the time into researching your trip yourself,
the rest of these tips will be useless to you and you will be better off getting a TA.
OK, that being said, there is one time when a travel agent can help. When going to a Caribbean resort or
going on a cruise, sometimes a travel agent can get you a good deal and/or a specific room/cabin. For example,
some TAs can get you upgrades on cruises or a specific wing for a room. Unless your TA is doing that, forget them. Even if
they are, do the research yourself first and see if you can get it cheaper.
Tip #2 - Research, Research, Research. Since you are reading this, I'll assume you have an Internet
connection. Use it. Virtually all destinations have homepages and Google
can help you find them...but don't stop there.
Trip Advisor is probably the best place
on the web for travel information (unless you are taking the road less traveled in which case you should use
Lonely Planet). Whereever you are going, someone else has gone there before and you can
ask them questions. This is always my first stop when planning a trip. I also like
Virtual Tourist for pictures of places, good forums, and advice. And
last but not least is Fodor's.
Tip #3 - Don't book through Expedia.com, Travelocity, Orbitz, etc. Don't use "clubs" like BestFares either.
These places don't list the smaller airlines (where you can often get the best deals). They also don't list the
more "unique" offerings like Europe By Air's $99 city
to city airfares. Instead of purchasing tickets through these sites, call the airlines directly or search their websites.
Do use Orbitz to search for large date ranges to see what types of fares are out there...but always book directly through the airlines.
See Tip #13 for specific ways to get cheap airfare.
Tip #4 - Check everything and everyone out. Take 5min., hop to Google
and just type in the name of what or who you are dealing with. Want to know if BestFares is reputable?
Type in Bestfares and hit search. Believe me, if there's something that isn't good out there, someone
will have reported on it. It's really important that you do this type of research
because when you are looking for good deals, you sometimes get what you pay for. Of course, the reverse
is true too. Lots of people pay big $ for something and then are severely disappointed. Save yourself a lot
of grief and check out who you are dealing with.
Tip #5 - Skyauction.com. This is
one of those things that seems too good to be true but really isn't. Skyauction lists hotel only, air only, hotel
and air, and cruise packages to just about everywhere in the world. You go to the site and bid on travel
deals; high bidder wins. It's just like bidding on Ebay. You can get amazing deals here by waiting until a
few minutes before an auction closes and putting in a winning bid. The other good thing you can do here is to
look at previous auctions to see what the winning bids were. This gives you a good idea of what you should
be paying for your trip (here or elsewhere).
Update 09/20/04 - SkyAuction has never been a good deal for cruises, and now it doesn't seem to be
a good deal for anything else. I attribute this to the site becomming too popular, coupled with the fact that most
bidders don't know how much something costs to begin with, so often overbid. I routinely see winning bids going
for much higher than you can buy them for outright. Bottom line - I've given up my membership.
Update 01/29/09 - SkyAuction is pretty useless now. But you might be able to find a good deal or two if you search hard.
Tip #6 - Travel light. When my wife and I go to Europe (a trip that will last from 10-14 days) the
only luggage we take are backpacks. And we carry those on! Let me tell you, clearing customs is a breeze w/o
any checked bags. I'm sure you are saying that you can't do this, and rather than me trying to convince you
that you can indeed do this (and still wear clean clothes!), let me point you to the master of backpacking in
Europe, Rick Steves.
*** Please note that we have not been to Europe since 9/11. My current thoughts are to pack a small suitcase with
wheels and check that so as to not have any luggage to be searched.
Update 09/20/04 - I have found the above note to be true. With the hassel of carryons, it is now best
to take a small suitcase with wheels.
Tip #7 - Language. If you're travelling someplace where English isn't their native language, take
the time to learn a few phrases. Please, Thank You, Excuse Me, Where Is, Yes and No will usually be enough
when added with numbers from 1-10. You'll get by much easier and you'll find people are more friendly to you.
Tip #8 - Money. Take very little. Pay for whatever you can with a credit card (almost everyone
takes them now) and, where you can't, use your ATM card. I don't think there's a city on the Earth without
an ATM machine. This way you never need to worry about losing money (or having it stolen), you always get
a good exchange rate, and, best of all, you don't have to worry about exchanging money.
Update 07/08/06 - Beware that most Credit Card companies now charge fees for transactions in foreign currency.
These can sometimes add up, so it might be better to withdraw cash from ATMs...you'll need to decide. However, make sure you
don't incur two CC foreign currency fees. This can happen when you are in a country that takes Euros, but doesn't use
Euros for their offical currency. For example, in Hungary, you might have to pay 100 Euros for a hotel room. If this is charged
to your card, you'll get a fee for Euros -> Forints (the offical currency) and then another for Forints -> Dollars.
Bottom line, make sure everything is charged in the local currency.
Tip #8a - Money. Want to know a good way to get rid of foreign currency? Pay for your hotel bill with it when
you check out. It's fine if it won't cover the entire bill, just pay for the rest with a credit card (or US).
Everywhere I've been, from small hotels to large, there have been no problems doing this.
Also, if you are driving, you can pay for gas with left over cash.
Tip #9 - Trains in Europe. Europe has the best train system in the world. If you are travelling
here, think about taking a train. In most countries even the smallest towns are serviced by trains. Trains
in Europe are inexpensive and run on time (mostly). There are also high speed trains (how about a day trip
to Paris from Brussels or London...it's only 90min. away). You can also get good deals on train travel by buying
a pass. There are too many types of passes to explain here (each country has at least one), but
this site
can explain them all to you.
This site
can give you timetables for any train in any European country, and
this site
links to the home pages of all of the European train companies. Passes for high speed trains are totally different from other rail passes.
Thalys does a good job of explaining it all.
Update 01/29/09 - Now that we've done more eastern European travel we've found that the above statement really applies
to western Europe. In Eastern Europe trains are good someplaces, but in others busses rule.
Tip #10 - Driving in Europe. Don't believe the hype...it really isn't that bad :)
If you are the type of driver who does 55 in a 65 zone in the left lane then you will hate driving in
Europe. If you are the type of driver who hates driving behind the afore mentioned driver then you will
love driving in Europe. A few things to note, however. First, gas is expensive...$4-$5/gallon. Second, expect
to pay almost twice as much for an automatic as a manual, but if you plan to do any city driving, spring
for the extra bucks and get the automatic. Lastly, if you are in Germany, rent a car and drive the Autobahn.
Tip #10a - If you are going to drive in Europe, try using Auto Europe.
They are an excellent company and they
guarentee their rates in US dollars so you don't have to worry about changing rates. They are a consolidator, which means they have the
best prices and also means you'll be driving a "name brand" car (e.g., Hertz, Budget, etc.). They'll also let you drive to countries that
other companies won't.
Tip #11 - Lodging. Call hotels directly and ask for their specials. Check out their web sites, too.
If you are flexible, don't even make reservations, just find a place to stay when you get into town. We follow
this method in Europe and have had excellent luck. For instance, we found a hotel in Paris with a view of the Eiffel
Tower from our bedroom (it was about 1/2mi away) for $50/night. All you have to do is to go to the hotel, and ask
for their best price. If you like it, take it, otherwise move on to the next hotel. Important, always
ask to see the room before you take it!
Tip #11a - Priceline. You can get incredible deals on hotels using Priceline.
Do not use them for airfare, though, as you will get a good price but with horrible flight times. But you can get amazing hotel deals - for example,
we paid $80/night for a nice hotel in Westminster (London). The rack rate was $250. Important, always go to
Bidding For Travel before making any Priceline bids.
Update 10/16/06 - DO NOT post on BiddingForTravel. The moderator there is a Nazi...seriously. Do a Google search
for "biddingfortravel" and "banned" and see the results. Instead, I recommend you frequent
Better Bidding
Tip #12 - Travel off-season. We try to travel in the shoulder season (the time between peak and
off peak) or off season whenever possible. Not only do you get great deals (prices 50% off), but crowds are
virtually non-existant and you aren't surrounded by tourists.
Tip #13 - How to get cheap airfare. Below are some tips on how to get cheap airfare, and
here is the coolest site for air travel you'll ever see. It lists
everything you ever want to know about all of the worlds major airports (e.g., layout, how to
get to and from the airport, homepages, etc.).
- Search this
forum daily. Amazing specials can be found. We flew first class to London for $400 from a deal we found here.
- Search Airline web sites weekly. All major airlines have weekly specials on their routes at
rock bottom prices. Flying from point A to point B might normally cost $250 and will be on sale
for $100. Or, maybe they have a 2-for-1 deal going on. These can be some of the best airfares.
What's the catch? Well, there isn't one really. You can't use this method to reserve tickets six
months in advance, but usually one-two months before your travel date you can pick up good bargains.
- No frills airlines offer some of the best deals possible. Want to fly form London to Venice for $30 including
taxes? Try Ryanair. National airlines sometimes offer incredible
deals too. Iceland Air always has excellent prices to
Europe (and they allow up to a 3-day layover in Iceland for free).
- Leaving from a major US hub can save you big bucks. Everybody knows this, right? But not everyone
can take advantage of it because they don't live near one. Wrong. Travelling from Cleveland to
Frankfurt might cost $600RT, but from Baltimore it's only $400RT. Well, if you hop on Southwest
Air you can get RT air from Cleveland to Baltimore for only $99. Add that to the $400 from Baltimore
and you've saved $100. You can even combine driving with this method. For instance, drive from
Cleveland to Pittsburgh, catch a plane from Pittsburgh to NYC, and fly from NYC to your final
destination. Yes, this is a lot of travelling, but if the end result saves you $100-$200/pp, it
can really add up depending on how many people you are travelling with.
- Leaving from a small city can save you big bucks. What? Often if I leave from Akron's airport
instead of Cleveland's (which is only an extra 10min from my house), I can save $10-$20 per ticket.
When I go on a family trip (there's five of us), that's $100.
- Check all routes to your destination, not just from your home city. The above two examples
illustrate this. Basically, check from your home city to your destination and from all places
easily reached from your home city to your destination.
-
Yahoo has a great page that lets you check the prices from a single city to various other cities
(both domestic and international). The above link is set for flights from Cleveland, OH, but after
clicking on it, just change the "cle" at the end to your city's airport code.
-
This guy has done one better and lets you check 4 cities at once.
- Frommer's has an excellent deals
page.
- Travelzoo is a good general deals page.
- Airfare Watchdog is a good last minute deals page.
- Fly open jaw. This means flying into one city and out of another. For instance, when we went to
Italy we flew into Milan and out of Rome. The advantage here is that you can travel in a straight
line and not worry about having to double back to catch your return flight. The cost is usually
the same or $25-$50 more at most. You can even do it between countries (e.g., fly into Frankfurt
and out of Paris).
- Lastly, here is an excellent
resource on airline ticket consolidators and on-line "auctions" (e.g., Priceline, Hotwire, etc.).
The one thing I'll add to it is this: Often when you get the really cheap deals you don't know the
airlines you'll be travelling on or the route (e.g., the number of stops). Well, here is where you
can use Expedia.com, Orbitz, etc. (I personally think Orbitz is the best and easiest to use). Plug
in your departure and arrival cities and look for the cheapest flight with the worst connections
and times. Odds are that's the one you are going to get. If that's acceptable to you, hop over
to Priceline or Hotwire and bid away.
Tip #13a - Airport Parking
- This site can get you a great
price for parking at the airport.
Tip #14 - Some cool links
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