Many will say “good riddance” to the past year—and maybe the whole 00′s decade. In travel, on one hand this year brought lots of good developments (better price transparency, ever-easier online booking, better infrastructure in a lot of cheap destinations, smart phone aps). But there was a corresponding number of bad developments: gotcha baggage fees from legacy airlines, rapacious foreign transaction fees from most credit cards, and an even more unpleasant flying experience all around.
Some contrarian traveler saving strategies stay relatively constant though, so here’s how to bet the best bang for your buck in 2010:
1) Go to a cheap destination
Yes, this is dreadfully obvious, but most people pick the place they want to go first, then spend untold hours trying to figure out how to save money in say, Venice or Aruba, instead of picking a cheap place to start with and feeling rich as soon as they land. For ideas, you can’t do better than a copy of The World’s Cheapest Destinations.
2) Get a Capital One credit card
There’s one major American credit card that doesn’t ding you 2.7 to 3% on every foreign transaction—Capital One. This is now the only one I use on foreign soil and it has saved me a bundle in fees that go straight into bankers’ pockets. Their “no hassles” reward program is good too as it doesn’t tie you to a specific carrier or hotel chain. I just used a year’s worth of points to book a hotel night at a place that was going for $240—sweet. (If you’re European and you’ve found an equivalent there, please post it in the comments!)
3) Get a Skype number and subscription
Travelers unwittingly hand billions of dollars annually to their wireless carriers for international roaming charges, which are outrageous no matter what plan you are on. For just a few bucks a month, you can get a dedicated Skype number that people can call you on and with a few bucks more for a subscription, you can chat all day with the friends and relatives at home or abroad. A no brainer.
4) Use Hotmail and Priceline in the U.S.
The U.S. hotel and rental car market is standardized across the U.S. and for better or for worse, you’re buying a relatively similar experience from Avis or National, Hilton or Hyatt, Super 8 or Day’s Inn. So it makes sense to treat these options like the commodities they are and get the best price you can.
Nine times out of ten, that means using Priceline or Hotwire to take advantage of unsold inventory. But don’t do it blindly. First see what the going rates are on one of the regular sites like Hotels.com and also check the specialized message boards for what other people have paid: Bidding for Travel and BetterBidding. These boards will tell you which hotels are most likely to show up, so you can usually narrow it down to just a few.
5) Use a full arsenal of tools to find good international hotels and flights
There’s no one method you can use to score a good deal on international flights and hotels. You need a few different tools in different situations. For flights, try Vayama to see what the big legacy carriers are charging. Then use a site like WhichBudget.com to find out which budget carriers serve a specific route. Then you go book it direct.
For hotels, remember that many of the independent ones are not listed on the chain-heavy booking sites like Travelocity, Kayak, or Expedia. Specialized hostel sites (like HostelWorld) are helpful at the low end, but they have holes too. For Europe try EuroCheapo and for Southeast Asia try TravelFish. The best bet though is often to go old school: open up a guidebook. The good ones (like Moon Handbooks) are written by people who know the city/country inside-out and have seen the good and bad in person. Some of these places are not listed anywhere online except their own website, which is next to invisible in searches.
I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again: a guidebook is usually the fastest and most efficient way to find useful and accurate travel info. And it doesn’t require wi-fi or international roaming charges. For international travel (in developing countries especially) old school rules. The one exception to this accommodation advice is Lonely Planet: if you use their hotel recommendations, you’ll be following a very big herd.
6) Learn how to pack light every time
If you haven’t learned how to travel with a carry-on bag already, you had better be in a Southwest Airlines market or only be taking international flights that allow you one checked bag for free. Otherwise you will keep paying out the nose. Three times this year I saw couples in front of me in line get dinged for $100 or more in fees they had to pay on the spot when returning home. There are plenty of books and articles out there on how to pack well and we review a lot of gear that makes this easier on the Practical Travel Gear blog. Would you rather give an extra $25 to $50 to the airline when you go on vacation, or spend that money on the ground after arrival?
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