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"5 Tips on How to Get Cheap Travel Packages"

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Copyright 2006 John Navata The travel industry is an extremely fast moving one, and, asanyone who is familiar with booking flights or makingreservations knows, prices vary widely. Some price fluctuationis for obvious, seasonal reasons; while at other times it seemsthat fares and fees change for no reason at all. Here some tipson discount travel: The Direct Route Isn't Always the Cheapest In many cases there seems to be no rhyme or reason to howairfares work. There are seasonal changes, time of day changes,variations depending on demand, and then what seems like changesfor no reason at all. When searching for discount airfares, lookat alternate routes to get where you want to go. In many cases,a combination of 2 flights can be cheaper than one flight. This usually works by taking advantage of very cheap domesticflights within the USA. For example, a return flight from NewYork to Montreal, Canada, which is a trip just over an hour,usually costs around $300. For the roughly the same price youcan find return flight from New York to Los Angeles. The pointis that for reasons have to do with traffic, regulations, andtaxes, domestic flights are radically cheaper then internationalones, mile for mile. So depending where you want to go, you may find your airfare ismuch cheaper if you're willing to make a domestic flight first,before switching to an international one. If you live in thenorthern United States, for example, and want to go to Latin orSouth America, it will often be much cheaper to first take adomestic flight to a southern hub like Miami or Dallas and thenfly further south from there, as opposed to taking a long flightdirectly from a northern city. When exploring multiple flights,also keep in mind how close you are to a major airline hub - itwill be much more expensive to fly internationally directly froma smaller city then to fly to a major hub first. In many cases if you're willing to put up with the slightinconvenience of two flights, discount travel can be yours. Justremember that as it stands most discount flight websites don'tsearch for flights in this way, so you'll have to do somecreative thinking on your own. Eat Locally An often overlooked key to discount travel is food costs, whichcan be drastically reduced by shopping in local supermarketsrather than dining out. Most places you stay will take advantageof tourists as much as possible, and you often don't realizeuntil you do some currency conversion that you're paying $10 fora bad breakfast at your hotel. Instead, buy some healthy snakesand fresh food from a market to eat during your outings. Thisdoesn't mean, of course, that you have to cook - it just meansyou should grab something fresh that you can eat on the goinstead of stopping for lunch at a touristy restaurant. When you do eat out, you'll save a lot of money by dining ontruly local cuisine. Besides making for a more interestingcultural experience, the food the locals eat will be muchcheaper, and most of the time better. American style food -especially when it is quite different from a country's normaldining fare - will always cost a premium, and if you can'texpand your dining tastes you will pay for it. To achieve discount travel through food savings, especially whenyou are in a second world country, look to where the locals eat.Relatively, they don't have nearly as much money as you, so youcan safely assume that the restaurants in which the locals dinewill be not only more authentic but much cheaper. Avoidrestaurants and grocery stores filled with tourists, and sellingNorth American food and produce. Look Into Renting an Apartment If you're considering a long stay in a city, look into rentingan apartment. This is usually much cheaper than even thecheapest of hostels, and is a tried and tested method of thoseinterested in discount travel. Many countries that receive aninflux of North American tourists have a cottage industry ofpeople renting their apartments for a short time. Unlike North America, where it is difficult to rent an apartmentfor less than a few months, in many foreign countries you'llfind apartments for rent for times that are as short as 2 weeks.Even the cheapest of hotel accommodations is likely going to bemore expensive than a short term apartment rental. Renting an apartment also helps you in other ways. Firstly,you're likely going to become more immersed in the foreignculture by not staying in a hotel or touristy area.


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Secondly,you will presumably be able to cook in the apartment, which willgive you a radical savings on food costs. Sometimes you'll find apartments that are rented specifically tothose interested in discount travel, which will come with basicnecessities. But you should also look around for locals who arelooking to make a bit of money while they are out of town. Inthis case, you're likely to have a more enjoyable experience asthe apartment will be more nicely furnished and lived-in. Whatever apartment you choose, if you're interested in discounttravel and plan on staying in a city for more than a few weeks,renting an apartment is almost certainly the way to go. Be Flexible This is probably the most important concept overall in terms ofdiscount travel. The entire travel industry is basically gearedtowards charging people for comfort and convince and if thereare a lot of particular things that you want to do and see youwill no doubt spend more money while traveling. If you're willing to be more flexible, however -- if you'rewilling to be more interested in traveling to, say, "SouthAmerica" as opposed to a particular country in South America,you'll be privy to massive savings. While, granted, not everyoneis in a position to do this, if you can be flexible and open tonew things in regards to your destinations you have the optionof taking whatever is cheap, and you will often save lots ofmoney. Discount travel doesn't end with the flight, however. Once youarrive, do your best not to be picky, and remind yourself thatyou're probably going to pay for every bit of inflexibility onyour part. Every country you go to will present you with certainchoices that are much cheaper then others. Perhaps you'll findthat beef is a fraction of the cost of chicken when dining out,for example. Now you may much prefer chicken, but if you'rewilling to put that aside, you'll save a lot of money. The samegoes for drink: in much of South America, rum will beridiculously cheap, while other types of alcohol will berelatively expensive - maybe you don't particularly like rum,but if you're interested in discount travel, you do when you'rein south America. By basically sticking to a "when in Rome, do as the Romans" ideawith your tastes, you will make your trip much more affordable.And if you're willing to be flexible enough that you want totake a trip as opposed to a particular trip, you will find yourtravel is heavily discounted. Stay Put When you travel, the most expensive part of your trip is usuallyjust that: travel. This doesn't mean simply the flight to yourdestination, but also the traveling you want to do once you getthere. Bus trips, car rentals and train tickets will always berelatively expensive, and when you're on the go you also tend tospend more on food and accommodation. Many travelers arrive in a foreign land with a long inflexibleitinerary of things they want to do and places they want to seethat has them on busses and trains nonstop. In terms of discounttravel, consider the value of staying put for while. Not onlyyou will experience huge savings on transportation andaccommodation, but there's a good chance you'll have a moreinteresting and valuable experience. Although it is tempting to try and see as much as possible in aforeign country, if you are constantly moving, and in particularif you are constantly moving in touristy areas, its unlikelyyou'll get a good sense of what the country is like. If you stayin once place for while, though - let's say you rent anapartment for a few weeks in a city - you're going to get abetter sense of what it's like to live there. You can experiencethe culture a bit more, meet some locals, dine in localrestaurants etc. . . Besides saving you money, staying put will also allow you toavoid what many people get sucked into when traveling: beingconstantly on the go. Ask yourself if you really want to spendyour trip sitting on busses and trains, and never staying in thesame place two nights in a row. Not only is there a good chanceyour trip will be more enjoyable when you stay put, but it'sguaranteed that you will save a lot of money. About the author: John Navata owns a travel agency in Chicago, IL establishedsince 1998. Now he is helping travelers on how to find cheaprates on Hotels, Airfares, Car Rental, or Cruise rates. Speak toone of our agents at 1-800-226-6066. Use Promo Code: 75792. OpenMon-Fri 9am-6pm EST or visit http://www.jptraveldiscounts.com

Written by: John Navata

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