Guest Post: How to Score a Travel Deal

Hello made to travel-ers! I’m Jillian and I blog over at coffee, light and sweet, a place where I share snippets of my life in the city, recipes, fun links and the occasional sprinkling of organizational tips, beauty, fashion, diys and other miscellany.

You should come over and say hi sometime! When you’re done reading this, of course. Ha.

In theme with the title of this blog and Jamillah’s vacation, I’m here to share some tips on scoring a sweet travel deal.

I fancy myself an expert in bargain-hunting. I rarely pay full-price for anything because…why should I? And why should you? Right? So glad we agree.

1. Subscribe to a newsletter. Wisebread and Dealnews are two huge favorites of mine. Both websites pride themselves on hunting down the best-priced vacation packages and air travel from all over the web, so you can be sure to find quite a few quality deals with these.

2. If a daily email isn’t your thing, then consider following these sites on Twitter. Other travel sites to follow: Travelzoo, Hotwire, Farebuzz, and Travel Ticker to name a few. The bargains are aplenty!

3. Be flexible! A.) Be willing to travel in the off-seasons. B.)Keep a few destinations open to consideration. Case in point: I had been planning a trip to Barcelona until I saw a package deal (on Wisebread!) for a Paris trip that was just too good to pass up. So I put the Barcelona trip on the backburner and booked the one for Paris. I knew I eventually wanted to make my way to France anyway, so it wasn’t a terribly difficult decision. Point of the story is, keep your options open – the possibilities are in your favor.

4. Airbnb is an awesome alternative to a hotel. The idea is that you’re staying at a local’s home for a great price. And depending on the household, amenities tend to include free WiFi, cable, laundry room, access to the kitchen and closet space – pretty much anything you’ll find at a hotel (and possibly then some). Some hosts are even gracious enough to make breakfast for you and show you around town themselves (I wouldn’t mind staying here for $54 a night – gorgeous!).

5. AAA members, don’t forget you have access to various discounts off car rentals, cruise packages and way more. Click here to find out more.

6. Once you’ve booked that trip, follow a local’s or expat’s blog. I’ve found blogs such as HiP Paris and Lost in Cheeseland to be super helpful when planning a fun and budget-friendly itinerary for my own trip.  I also like Yes and Yes’s Mini Travel Guide series and The Everywhereist for general travel advice and recommendations. If you don’t know any local blogs of the region you’re traveling to, use Google’s blog search to help you find exactly what you’re looking for. Or just ask around. Bloggers are helpful people and we all follow a variety of different blogs from around the world.  Everyone knows someone!

Thank you Jamillah for letting me invade your page today! I’m honored and so flattered to be part of the lineup of other talented guest bloggers. I’m in very good company.

And thank YOU for reading. Any tips of your own you’d care to share?