Footloose and Fancy Free?

If you are young and single or married and without kids, or even if you have kids you can safely leave with family or friends, another fun way to enjoy discount travel is to grab a last minute vacation deal for a quick weekend in the Caribbean.

Check your local papers and troll the cheap vacation websites for discount package offers mid-season. You may be limited on issues like flight times and hotel options, but for these prices, who cares?

Fun is what you make it! Just be careful and pack carefully for these expeditions. Bring your beach reading and your sunscreen. Also, don't expect a lot of freebies in terms of activities. These hotels have to make their profit somewhere, and if they can entice you to take out a jet ski or go parasailing off their beach, so much the better for them.

Plan your weekend budget and stick to it, or take advantage of the travel price break and spend that extra money on getting braided cornrows, duty free jewelry, and catamaran snorkeling trips!

Fun for the Whole Family!

Family vacations are fun, but traveling with kids and toddlers can sometimes prove to be a challenge. Be sure to choose destinations that have fun things to do for the whole family, not just the adults.

Check out resorts that offer activities for the kids or even day care. Some resorts, such as Sandals and Beaches, specialize in family outings and go out of their way to ensure that the whole family is occupied during their vacation. Also, by booking in advance, you can plan turn your family vacations into a cheap vacation pretty quickly, so be sure to start bargain hunting as soon as you can.

Plan in Advance, Save Money in the End

First and foremost in planning a cheap vacation is planning your airfare in advance. The sooner you can secure an air ticket, the more you are going to save. Last minute fare booking, especially around the holidays, can cost you up to six times the original price!

Once you secure your air travel, you should go right into researching a cheap hotel. Check out websites that offer reviews from other travelers, and look to travel in the off-peak seasons.

Lastly, if you are traveling out of the country, you should exchange your currency at a bank or certified currency exchange center. Exchanging at the hotel or local businesses will usually result in an average of 20% less in your exchange rate.

Discount and Cut-Rate are Two Different Things

When you save money on a new car, you don't think that you are getting a cut-rate car, right? The same idea applies to discount travel. Discounts can be achieved by a variety of methods.

By bundling airfare, hotel, and bus transfers, travel agents are usually able to secure a lower rate for those packages. In a similar fashion, most online booking agencies will purchase the right to a number of rooms to sell out. If you pre-book, the companies are willing to take less of a profit for the security of knowing the room is sold-out in advance and provide you a cheap hotel.

*There are some cases where deals are too good to be true, but those should be easy to spot (such as rooms for $25 per night, etc). Avoid those deals at all costs.

Finding the Last Minute Deals

If you have not visited travelzoo.com for a last minute travel deal, you are paying too much. TravelZoo specializes in worldwide travel by booking either way in advance or heading out last minute.

TravelZoo offers newsletters that will get mailed to you as deals come available. Also, the nice thing about their website is that their deals are hand-picked by people who spend their day searching for deals!

Cheap Isn't Always a Bad Thing

Striking the balance between quality and a cheap hotel is a fine line. Start by going with names you know. If you have not heard of a hotel and the deal is low, chances are it's a dive. By going to popular hotel chain websites, you can see some deals they offer for internet-only booking.

Another way to get a cheap hotel is by going to discount hotel specialist websites such as hotels.com. These websites claim to be able to get the lowest prices on your hotel room or they guarantee you a refund. That is reliability AND safety, and worth checking out.