Find out some tips to help you getting the best deal on your next trip!
Planning a trip (long or short) can easily become a stressful task. Where do you begin and what should you do first? It’s easy to get overwhelmed, especially when you haven’t done something like this before.
In this post I’m sharing with you the best travel websites when booking flights and hotels.
I book flights and plan trips on a monthly basis. I take over 20 flights a year and I sometimes still get nervous when clicking the “Book now” button because a stupid mistake in the planning can cost you hundreds of euros later!
These are some steps you should follow to plan and organize your perfect adventure:
Choose your destination:
Your first step is to choose a travel destination that meets your interests and travel budget. What do you feel like doing? Summer and Sun? Winter and Cold? Defining where you want to go sets a goal to work toward. Not only will your trip become more concrete for you and easier to commit to, but it will make planning easier as well. If you are planning to visit Rio de Janeiro during summer you should know that you need to go in December because it is in the southern hemisphere. If you go in July it will be colder!
Decide the length of your trip:
You can’t figure out how much you need to save if you haven’t decided on how long you’ll be in your destination. After you say “I’m going to Rome,” add “for 10 days.” Now, you have a concrete plan to search flights and hotels for it.
Research your costs:
Your next task is to research the costs in your destination at the style of travel you want. Do you want to backpack, or would you rather stay in luxury hotels? How much are hotels, restaurants, tours and attractions? Knowing will allow you to estimate how much money you’ll need for your trip.
Check out for example Expatistan, a free database of prices in the world. You can type down your city and a city in your destination and it tells you how much more expensive or cheaper it is.
Get a Travels Rewards Credit Card:
Getting money abroad can be costly. If you don’t feel comfortable running around with big amounts of cash you will probably get money from an ATM many times during your trips. Every time you pay a fee, sometimes it is a fix fee sometimes a percentage. But most of the time between €2 and €10. Don’t give banks any of your hard-earned money. Save every extra dollar you can by using a no-fee ATM card. There are lots of banks that don’t charge ATM fees.
Get a credit card with a partner program where you can collect points which you can redeem for flights, car rentals or accommodation. Collecting points and miles (which is called “travel hacking”) is what all the experts do to cut their costs and travel longer. It’s what has kept my costs down and me on the road for so many years. I am always doing this so I can travel for as cheap as possible.
Book your flight:
Once you have chosen your destination and planned your budget, next step is to book your flights. And learning how to find cheap flights will help you to reduce one of your biggest travel expenses.
Searching for flights:
When searching for cheap flights deals online I definitely recommend the following Web Sites:
-Esky
Please note that the price of the travel may vary depending on the point of sale concerned. You might find a cheaper price on kayak.de than on kayak.uk for example.
After you have used the flight search engines suggested above and found your best flight, go directly to that airline’s own website and see if you can get it for cheaper. Many airlines have lower fares only available on their own site.
Perhaps the most important requirement for getting cheap flights is having flexibility of dates. And not only to avoid times of great demand like the Carnival or the end of the year. Mid-week flights are usually cheaper than on Fridays, Saturdays, and Sundays (other than holidays). And it is not uncommon for a rate to vary 40% or 50% between two consecutive days, regardless of the day of the week. You should then also include in your research some days before and after your ideal date to see if there are cheaper airfares.
It should be noted that sometimes cheaper flights mean long waiting times at connecting airports. The cheapest flight is not always the best; sometimes it's worth to pay a little more to have a less tiring trip (shorter and less stopovers) and reach the destination more quickly.
I never buy a ticket from Portugal without doing one last check. I do not recommend this step to everyone, because it almost always involves buying two different tickets, with the inherent risks - but why not look for flights from other airports? This is because there are hubs in Europe from where, traditionally, fares are usually lower than in Portugal. It all depends on the routes and their competition, but London, Paris, Brussels, Amsterdam, Frankfurt and Milan are some of these examples.
Start your research as soon as you are thinking about visiting a place; even if that's 10 months away. That's what I usually do because prices tend to get more expensive when you book your flight last minute (except for the last minute deals that sometimes appear, namely in low cost airlines but it is always a risk because they may never show up for the intended destination).
Airlines fares are a sort of roller coaster. This means that in order to get low prices, you have to go researching regularly; because prices often vary without warning.
Therefore, I suggest you create alerts for your trip. Select to find prices for these dates. To find the best last minute flight deals simply choose your airport for departure and arrival, and enter the dates and number of passengers in the search engine. This way, you automatically receive price changes (ups and downs) for your flights. If there is a significant drop, it is probably time to buy the flights!
Book your accommodation:
Where you sleep is your other major fixed travel expense, so choosing the best accommodation for your needs at the best price will free up more money for activities.
For a long trip in one location I recommend to book an apartment. It offers several benefits:
Access to a full kitchen
You have your own laundry.
You can book a 3 or 4-bed apartment and split the costs with another family or friends.
These extra facilities on a long stay can make your trip so much more enjoyable. You can book it for example on the Airbnb site.
If you are more a hostel person you can check for hostels at Hostelbookers or Hostelworld. It doesn’t really matter which one you use, since the same booking group owns both. Alternatively you can also search and book via Hostels.com or visit the site of the hostels directly.
If you are more a Hotel person you can look for them on the following sites:
Hotels.com (offers 1 free night for every 10 nights spent if you sign up their loyalty program) Hrs.com Agoda.com (Get the App if you are traveling in Asia) Booking.com
Take advantage of the "Best Price Guarantee" policy of some of these sites after you book your accommodation: if you find a lower price with the same booking conditions of your reservation, you may be entitled to a refund!
You can also sign up for some hotel credit cards and get free rooms, too. Marriott has a great rewards card whose sign-up bonus is equal to one week’s free stay.
Alternatively, you can contact people on hospitality websites like Couchsurfing, Be Welcome and WWOOF and ask if they would be willing to host you. You want to do this in advance so people have time to rearrange their schedule and plan for your visit.
When to travel:
They say timing is everything. And no truer words have ever been spoken when it comes to planning the perfect holiday. The following Web Sites help you planning the best time to go for your trip, providing information like weather averages, raining days and water temperature:
I hope that with all these tools you find some clarity in your research and get excited to plan your next trip!