Since my obsession with traveling is way out in the open, many of my friends often ask how I find some of my wicked deals. To be honest, I don’t follow a specific science, but I frequent a number of sites and apps and I receive a few different newsletters that I find really helpful. There’s a crazy amount of resources available to you online and it can get pretty overwhelming. Let me help with that:-)
Here are a few of my favourite tools that I use to feed by travel bug:
1. Kayak – Kayak.com
I often use this travel search engine to check on specific travel destinations for flights, hotels and car rentals. I love that it checks out a variety of sites and gives me a list of the best pricing. BUT the thing I love most: the price alerts. You can create specific destination alerts to notify you when flight costs drop. You can choose to get these daily or weekly.
2. Google Flights – Google.com/flights
This is by far my go-to site when I just want to check what destinations are cheap from my home airports. I find I get more selection of airlines with this site than Kayak.com. It’s even shows you popular destinations and starting prices from your location right on the home page. There’s also a little handy map that you can explore destinations around the world and it will show you the lowest return fares for dates selected.
3. Priceline – Priceline.com
I need a hotel, I go to Priceline. I’ve scored some awesome prices with their Name Your Own Price® tool. You can bid on hotels in a certain geographic area and star rating. They provide a median retail price for reference and then you put in a lower bid to see if they will accept it. I always start at least 50% below median retail price and go up from there. They only caveat is that you have to put your payment information in and if they accept your bid, you’re charged for it immediately. Previously, I’ve booked hotels for 40% off the median retail price. I loveeee saving money!
4. SkyScanner – Skyscanner.com
This is another site and app I creep to check flight deals from my home airport. I’m pretty obsessed with finding deals (every dollar counts), so I like to scope a few different of my favorite sites to see what’s out there. I really like the app because it’s super easy to use and it’s fast.
5. Travelzoo – Travelzoo.com
I’ve signed up to receive both the Canadian and U.S. version of these newsletters to get their regular newsletters of trip offers from a variety of service providers and sites. I like having the ability to quickly scan the deals available for a number of different destinations.
I hope you’re able to use some of my favorites if you haven’t already, and I’d love to hear what deals you’ve nailed.
