Nowadays travel agents are an unnecessary expense if you have the time to search for your own travel arrangements. New apps and simple google searches have made it easier to plan trips on your own. I have a standard method for vacation planning that’s quick and cheap. Although some Groupons and other pre-packaged offers might be great deals, I’ve been too skeptical to try any. I prefer buying travel accommodations individually. Here are three steps to planning the bare bones of any trip.
First, you should start planning your trip around plane tickets. Depending on where you’re going, plane tickets can be the priciest expense, as well as the easiest expense, to save money on. The least expensive flights are usually the last minute specials that can be found directly on the airline’s website. These offers are for flights in the near future that haven’t sold out yet. Sometimes you have to join an airline’s email subscription to learn about the last minute offers. I recently received an email about Frontier’s last minute offers. You can click on the screenshot above to see an example of their options. However, if you want to plan in advance you should search Google Flights. The search will comb through almost every major airlines’ tickets and find you the best prices. 
Simply pick the departure and arrival airports, and you’ll be able to see a calendar with the base prices for flights. Generally, larger airports will have more flights and cheaper ticket prices. Also, buying tickets 1 – 3 months in advance is usually the cheapest time frame. You can search for round trips to just one city, or you can look up costs for multi-city trips.
Second, hotel bookings are usually the next most costly expense. I like to stay in a few different locations when I go on my trips. Staying in different rooms lets you see more of the area, and it gives you more options for your vacation. It’s always nice to have at least a couple nights in an upscale hotel. I use Priceline, which will soon change its name to the company’s more popular worldwide name Bookings, to search for expensive hotel rooms.
Their express deals should save you at least 50% on the retail price tag. Sometime you can save even more than 60% when you use the name your own price option and place a bid for a room. With this tool you pick the area where you want to stay, the star rating for the hotel, and the dates for the booking. I’ve stayed in four star hotels in Chicago, Miami, and San Diego using the tool for less than $120 a night in each city. The downside is that you won’t know the specific name of the hotel until you’ve paid. However, if you pick a four star hotel in South Beach, for example, you probably won’t be disappointed. For the rest of the nights on my vacations, I use cheaper Airbnb rentals.
I was a little hesitant to try Airbnb, but my last couple of rentals in Miami and San Diego were fine. You have to create a profile, so you need to make sure you don’t wreck the place. Not only can you be billed for damages, you will be rated just like with Uber. The upside with Airbnb is you can usually find somewhere nice to stay for less than $100 per night, possibly an entire beach house or apartment. (Find the rooms to rent that don’t require a security deposit). The downside is that the place where you stay probably won’t be as clean as a hotel room. Our apartment we rented in San Diego smelled like a wet dog. Probably because the owner lived in Connecticut and would only hire a cleaning service to clean the apartment every now and then. Just like flights, buying hotel rooms 1 – 3 months in advance is generally the cheapest time frame.
Third, I would never get a rental car. Rental cars have too many hidden expenses: additional insurance, risk of damaging the car, gas, and parking fees. Instead, just take Uber and walk everywhere. Most of the time the Uber drivers are friendly and can offer recommendations on local spots, tell you funny stories about the area, or give you some sort of helpful insight. Our Uber driver in San Diego told us stories about all of his friends who lived in the San Francisco area and worked at Apple. You get a ride and a tour guide for less than $10. You also avoid the stress of having to drive and navigate on foreign streets.
The golden rule at any stage of planning your trip: Never pay full retail price for anything.
