The Traveling Fool
Traveling off the tourist path. Talking about those places most tourists just don't know about because, well, nobody ever told them. Also travel tips and news about travel and tourism to make your trip a little easier, cheaper and more memorable.
The Traveling Fool
Travel Deals 101: How to Hunt Down the Best Vacation Savings
Prices keep climbing, but the best travel bargains are hiding in plain sight. We walk through the smartest ways to cut travel costs using military portals, deal alerts, credit card strategies, and overlooked memberships that unlock private rates and perks. The goal is simple: stack savings on flights, hotels, cruises, and resorts without sacrificing quality.
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Hi, and welcome to The Traveling Fool, the show where we talk about travel destinations and the history and culture around those destinations, along with travel tips and news. I'm your host, Bob Bales. And last week we talked about how to find day trips near where you live without Googling that term "day trips near me", which always gives you the same old nonsense. Now this week we're going to talk about how to hunt down the very best deals and vacation savings. How to get that trip for a little bit cheaper. So stay tuned and we'll be right back. Also, if you know somebody you think might like these podcasts, send them a link to it. And if you're so inclined, you can sign up for the monthly newsletter, which you can find a link to on the website thetravelingfool dot com. I send it out once a month. It's just travel news along with a bunch of contests that you might be able to win you a free trip somewhere. So let's get started. Everybody loves a good deal, especially when it comes to saving money on travel, flights, rental cars, all kinds of stuff. Because Lord knows it's expensive to travel, especially if you're traveling like internationally or taking a long cruise somewhere. So if you can get the same trip cheaper, why not take advantage of that? That's what we're going to talk about today. I'm going to give you some sights. Doesn't apply to everybody, but it will apply to some people. And I'm going to give you some tips and some ideas on how to save some money when it comes to booking that next vacation or trip. And these work year round. I know it's holiday time now, it's just about Thanksgiving. In fact, this podcast will come out the day after Thanksgiving, so a lot of you were traveling during the holidays. A lot of you will be traveling at Christmas time, but these work anytime. And the first tips I'm going to give you deal with something near and dear to my heart. You may know I'm retired military. And there are a lot of travel deals for the military, but not just active duty military. Each one is a little bit different, and I'll outline some of the requirements for each of these sites. But don't tune me out if you've never been in the military because I'm going to give you some other deals afterwards. Now like I said, all of these sites have a little bit different requirements. The first one is a rmedforcestravel.com. Now, when the podcast is over, if you want to get links to all this stuff, they're going to be on the transcript which will be posted on my blog the travelingfool.com. You can read the entire transcript. But armed forces travel is supported by Priceline. It is the US Department of Defense official online leisure travel site for active military, guard, or reserve, plus U.S. Coast Guard, retired military, and everybody who is eligible for MWR, which is morale, welfare, and recreation. That covers a lot of people. There are over a million deals in more than 71,000 destinations globally. You can get fast, easy access to a broad selection of deeply discounted leisure travel. Eligible patrons have access to these privately negotiated deals and can save up to 50% on leisure travel. Now we're talking deals on hotels, rental cars, flights, entire vacation packages where you bundle the flights in hotels and rental cars together, cruises, and even event tickets, American Forces Travel.com. It's a great site. If you're retired, active duty, guard, reserve, or MWR eligible, check it out. You'll find some great deals on it. Now this next site is also for the military, but it it has an even wider category of people that are eligible. It's Armed Forces Vacation Club. Now I've been talking about this site for years, and I've turned a lot of people onto it. They've all had a blast using it. They've all saved a ton of money using it. Armed Forces Vacation Club. The website is AFVclub.com. It's membership of the Armed Forces Vacation Club is free to all current, all veterans, all retired members of the United States military, to include National Guard reserves, including Gold Star families, and civilian employees of the Department of Defense. Plus, members of the Association of the U.S. Army, AUSA, members and immediate family members of all those above, spouses, parents, and or children. So we're talking a whole bunch of people qualify for this program. They offer resorts, hotels, cruises, and properties worldwide. Now you can find properties that are listed anywhere from $329 a week up to over $1,000 a week. And that's not per person, that's for the property. Some of these $329 a week properties are in very nice resorts, have two bedrooms, and some of the high demand properties, which can go well over a thousand a week, and even all inclusives. They go for anywhere from $200 a week and up. But we're talking properties in the United States, Europe, Asia, Africa, South America. I mean, they're everywhere. They make deals with a lot of resorts, some timeshares, some other places, and they list everything. I mean, you can find some really, really nice places. Now you need to check the requirements though, because some of these also have additional fees, like some of the all-inclusives. It's not much. It may be like $65 or a little bit more for a two-bedroom or a daily fee for some of the all-inclusives. They might want to tack on like $20 a day if it's an all-inclusive, but you're still getting a heck of a deal. When you can get a two-bedroom that fits four people in it for three, four, five hundred bucks a week, you're getting a heck of a deal. So check them out. AFVclub.com. Now the next one, the military also runs its own hotels. Now you've heard of IHG. The big hospitality group has hotels everywhere. Well, IHG has teamed up with the Army, and they have IHG Army Hotels. They welcome everybody that wishes to stay with them, including active duty, Department of Defense employees, military contractors, retirees, and they're located primarily around the military bases, around the Army bases. You get around a U.S. Army base, and you're going to find an IHG Army Hotel. And like I said, all these links are going to be on the transcript, but it's IHG.com/Army Hotels. You're going to find the whole list of them everywhere. Now the Navy also has its own places. They have Navy getaways, RV parks, campgrounds, and vacation rentals. They also have what's called Navy gateway inns and suites and navy inns. Primarily they're around all the naval bases. The Air Force has Air Force inns. And they're for active duty and I think some retired Air Force personnel, but they're around the Air Force bases. So the military runs its own. Now, here's another one though. The Army MWR Armed Well, actually it's Armed Forces Recreation, the MWR Resorts. And their website is ArmyMWR.com/travel/ armed- forces- hotels-resorts. Like I said, all these links are going to be on the um transcript. These are exquisite hotels in high demand areas. Eligible patrons include all active duty military personnel to include Guard and Reserve and their families. And Department of Defense civilian employees. All retirees, veterans who have been awarded the Purple Heart, veterans who are Medal of Honor recipients, veterans who are former prisoners of war, and veterans with service connected disabilities. That's a big one because a lot of veterans out there have service connected disabilities. Now they run four hotels. One is Dragon Hill Lodge in Seoul, Korea. Gorgeous, fabulous resort. And there's a lot of people traveling back and forth to Korea because over the years a lot of military have been stationed there. And a lot of people want to go back and see Korea. It's the only one in Asia. It is a beautiful, beautiful hotel. They have concierge service, they run tours out of there up to the DMZ and other places in Korea. I mean, it's a gorgeous, gorgeous property. Another one is Edelweiss in Bavaria, in Garmisch-Partenkirchen. Now I've been to Garmisch. I didn't say at Edelweiss, but I was at Garmisch. They were running three different hotels there through the Army MWR. Edelweiss is the only Army MWR hotel there now. Beautiful property in Garmisch in the Bavarian Alps. It's the only one in Europe. They have one in Hawaii called the Hale Koa Hotel. It's in Oahu. Only one in Hawaii. So if you want to go to Hawaii, why not save some money and get with the MWR hotels of resorts? You're gonna find some fabulous prices at these places. And the other one, one of the most popular, and I believe my brother stayed there one time. Shades of Green Resort at Disney World in Lake Buena Vista, Florida. Everybody wants to go to Disney World. Well, most people do. I never have. Got no real desire to go there, but I hear it's beautiful. But if you're retired, active duty, military, or meet any of these criteria and you want to go to Disney World, Shades of Green Resort is right there on the property, or right next to the property. Now I have to tell you something about these. Especially Shades of Green, and the others to a certain extent. You need to book out in advance because you want to go to Disney World, you can't call them up and get a room for next month. You need to book out months in advance for these because they are premier properties and some of the most desired destinations in the world. But check them out, Armed Forces Recreation, the MWR Resorts. Now I told you this wasn't just for military folks and veterans. It's for everybody. A lot of people love cruises. And the cruise lines occasionally run deals. In fact, yeah, I know I said it wasn't just for veterans, but I'm gonna give you another veteran example. Margaritaville cruises just gave away a thousand free cruises to veterans. They were either free or discounted rates. And a lot of cruises give discounts. But if you sign up for some of these cruise line emails, you will get notifications when there's massive sales going on or when they're running contests for free cruises and things of this nature. So if you live next to a port or if you've got a particular cruise line you want to travel on, make sure you sign up for their emails. Check them out because they will blast out all the travel deals that they have, especially to their email list. Also, places like Busch Gardens, SeaWorld, and other places have discounted rates, as well as hotel chains and car rental companies. They do that for not only military veterans, but they do it for all kinds of people. You'd be surprised if you just check into a hotel somewhere and they say, Do you offer a discounted rate? And they'll start running off the list. Are you wanting a government rate, which is military? Do you have AAA? Do you have this? Do you have that? Are you a member of Costco? I mean, they start running the gamut. There's like seven or eight different criteria that they can give you discounted rates. And speaking of the major hotel chains, they run vacation clubs you can sign up for. Marriott, Windham, Holiday Inn, Hyatt, Hilton, they all have vacation clubs. And these vacation clubs can give you some fantastic deals in some premier locations. Some of the big box companies like Sam's Club and Costco, they also have vacation deals specifically for its members. AAA, they have its own vacation packages and deals. I've been a member of AAA for years. Bought it years ago mainly just so my wife and daughter could, if they had flat or car problems, they could call them up. But every now and then, maybe once a quarter, I'll get a little brochure from AAA Travel that has all their vacation packages all around the world. And they're five-day, ten day travel packages, cruises, just all kinds of stuff. And some pretty good prices too. Various unions. If you belong to a union, whether it's electricians, welders, longshoremen, whatever, a lot of unions offer perks. Teachers, they can get deals through the National Education Association. Members of the NEA can take advantage of up to 60% off of various hotels and travel packages. So I guess what I'm saying is check where you currently work at, see what kind of deals and offers you might get working through them. Or what clubs, SAMS, Costco, things like that you belong to. Credit unions, they may offer special deals. A lot of people forget about these things. Now you can save money on flights by signing up for newsletters and email alerts. I've signed up for a couple of them over the years and I still keep them. One of them is Matt's Flights, MattsFlights.com. Matt's Flights has a free and a paid subscription. And he sends out deals, I don't know, every week, two weeks, something like that. Alerts on discounted airfares going from everywhere. And Matt's Flights, you can sign up for their email newsletter, and if you pay for it, you get a lot better deals. It's tailored specifically to you. And I think if you sign up for the paid one, you can tell them where you want to go and they will put together the best flight for you at the cheapest rate. Another one you can sign up for is called Dollar Flight Club, dollarflightclub.com. They give you text alerts and stuff for flight deals. So you sign up for Dollar Flight Club, tell them where you're flying out of, where the nearest airport is, and they'll start texting you deals and when they come along. And a lot of these deals are quick. I mean when they text them to you, if you want it, you gotta jump on it because those deals don't last long. The airlines may drop a fare. And oh I don't know. I'm in I'm near Houston, so let's just say Houston to LA is normally $400 or $500 flight. You may get a deal that United has dropped its fare, but you need to take advantage of it now and fly within the next two weeks, and it could be eighty dollars. They they have some ridiculously cheap fares, but they only last for a few hours. So when you get these alerts, it might only last a few hours or one day and you need to book it. Another one you can sign up for is Secret Flying, SecretFlying.com. They find the error fares. And airlines will honor those error fares. That's when they advertise a ridiculously low fare by mistake. But they'll honor it if you book it. You can fly and find flights from the US to Europe or Asia or a business class fare that normally goes for five or six thousand dollars, you'll find it on sale for 900 bucks or something, be like, whoa, I'm gonna grab this thing. Another one you can sign up for is Secret Escapes, SecretEscpes.com. And they list all kinds of resorts and flights and everything on that one. And then there's the flight search engines. Google Flights, Google.com/Travel/Explore. Google Flights, believe it or not, it is a fast and intuitive tool. It'll allow you to see prices on a map and find the cheapest destinations that you want to travel to. So you do a map query, it pops up, and you go, well, I can go to Barbados, but I can go over here to Martinique and it's cheaper. So I'll go to Martinique. Sky Scanner also has the same thing, SkyScanner.com. Skyscanner will do a comprehensive search, and you can find deals on budget airlines and smaller websites that the others might miss. Kayak, they have a flexible date search, something called their explore feature, Kayak.com/explore. And it'll show you deals on the map. So you can explore where you want to go. You can say, Well, I want to leave in I want to go in April. And it will just show me. So we hit that explore, pops up on the map, and goes, here's where you can go in April, and here's the fares. And it lists them all over the world. Momondo.com. It's a lesser known site that a lot of people don't know about. It's a flight search engine. And it also has a tutorial on their site telling you how to search for the best deals as well as alerts that you can sign up for. And Hopper is like the rabbit, Hopper. It's an app that you can download to your phone and it predicts when the flight prices are likely to increase or decrease. So you put in there, I want to go from Houston to uh Salt Lake City. This is okay, well here's price, and it's likely to increase. So you may want to buy it now, or it's likely to decrease over the next week because it's going into a different season or whatever. So check those sites out, like I said, links to it on the website. Go down to the transcript. All this will be on there and you can check them all out. Now I tell everybody about this last one. I have for years. It's a very easy one to use, but it'll also get you in trouble if you don't have some discipline. Travel hacking. And there's websites that are just dedicated to this and people go into great detail with it. Rack up millions of miles to use on airlines. I don't do travel hacking, but I do use miles. And I do it a very simple, easy way. When you get these credit cards that offer miles, whether it's through Chase or Discover or one of these others, or if it's an airline branded credit card. And I've gotten both. I signed up for them when they increased the mileage award just for signing up. Because they all have awards. They say, okay, if you spend so much money in this period of time, you're going to get this many miles. But a few times a year, they will double or even sometimes triple those miles and give you a ton of miles just for signing up. That's when you want to do it. Now the only thing I will say is if you use an airline branded credit card like United, American or whatever, it's best to use one that has a hub in the closest major airport to you. For instance, Houston would be United, Dallas would be American Airlines. Now you don't have to, but you will maximize your miles that way. I mean, I have an American Airlines card. I live in Houston. American flies to Houston, they just don't have a hub here. So sometimes I've caught flights and I'll fly from Houston to Dallas and then go to my destination. But you will maximize your mileage points if it is a hub. Now no matter which card you use, whether it's a bank card or a branded card like through American or Delta or United or whatever, use it to pay for everything. Pay your groceries, your gas, your rent, whatever. Just make sure and here's the key, you pay off the entire balance each month. I mean it's money you're gonna spend anyway, you just using your credit card instead of your debit card or cash or a check or whatever you're gonna use or Zell or whatever it is. You might as well get miles and points for it. So when you first sign up, it'll say, well, if you spend $3,000 over the next three months, you're gonna get 50,000 miles as a sign up bonus. Plus you get miles for everything you buy. Well, $3,000, you're thinking, I don't want to have a $3,000 debt. Well, you don't have to. At the beginning of the month, you go to the grocery store and you spend $300 on groceries or $200, whatever, use your credit card. You fill up your gas tank, use your credit card. If you can pay your rent with it, use your credit card. Go out to eat, use your credit card. And then when the bill comes in, pay off the entire credit card, because all that money's just been sitting in your bank instead of being used with your debit card or checks or cash or anything else. It's just sitting in your bank, you've just been using your credit card. So pay off the entire bill, you have zero interest that way, and you rack up a bunch of miles. And I will just about guarantee that everybody would spend three thousand dollars in three months. Just by normal spending. But that key, and you have to be disciplined, pay off that entire balance each month. You will rack up a ton of miles and you can use those miles to fly for free somewhere. And a lot of these airlines, all these credit cards, the airline branded credit cards, they will give you a companion pass once a year. So for an extra ninety-nine dollars you can take somebody on the trip with you. But it's a great way to rack up a bunch of miles on airlines and get a free flight to go somewhere. And then use one of these vacation clubs to a major hotel chain to get you a great deal on a hotel. But these are just a few ways that you can save a ton of money when it comes to travel. And maybe you can afford to take that Alaska cruise because you signed up for the cruise line newsletter which gave you deals or a two for one or a free upgrade on your cabin or whatever. Or you're a veteran and you signed up for one of these and checked out the website where you could go somewhere and take your entire family and spend a week there for a fraction of what it would cost you otherwise. There's a ton of deals out there. Just look at all your associations, all your unions if you belong to one, your credit union, any memberships that you're paying for. Look at your credit cards. Even regular credit cards, a lot of times, just by opening a credit card account, will have deals and benefits associated with them. Whether it's uh maybe a free TSA pass. I know I've I've signed up for credit cards where I've gotten global entry for free. Or you can get all kinds of different deals through the credit card itself. So check out all of that stuff. Check out your school. Sometimes if you're an alumni from a college alumni, you can get various deals from being an alumni. Uh you can get deals for just all kinds of things. The key is you probably forgot a lot of benefits that you have that are sitting there waiting on you to take advantage of them. And by using a few of these little techniques and a few of these websites, you can save a ton of money. Travel to some destinations maybe you've always wanted to go to and always wanted to see. Or even if you were planning on traveling there, just save a bunch in the process. So that's it for today. A few ideas on how to save some money on your next trip. Next couple of podcasts, we'll be doing some more tips and a couple of destination specific uh podcasts, along with some of the history and culture around them. Other than that, that's it for this week. I hope you enjoyed it. Like I said, if you know somebody you think might enjoy these podcasts, forward it to them, hit the like or subscribe button. I'd really appreciate it. It's just me, I'm a one-man show here. But every little uh like and subscribe or every little thing that you send out a link to and get somebody else to listen to it helps out a little bit. So that's it for this week. I really appreciate you listening. And until next time, safe travels.
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