Month: October 2024

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Best Travel Deals – Learn How to Use Travel Agencies

Why travel agencies will never have the best travel deals?

There is something that will always be against them. They need to win money from your bookings and no suppliers want to lower their prices and at same time give commission to travel agencies for the bookings. Both things will not happen at same time, so you will never be looking at the best travel deals when asking to a travel agency. Then, why should I go to find my best travel deals to a travel agency?

Travel agencies probably don’t have the best options but they do have information. Information is power, and you want this power in order to take the best decision possible to make your dream holidays. How to find your dream holidays? In travel agencies. How to get the best travel deals? Using the information travel agencies give to you. So, how should I use travel agencies information in order to get the best travel deals for my dream holiday?

Pretty easy in fact. Go to the travel agency with a piece of paper and something to write on it. Travel agents are good professionals but as everybody they commit mistakes. Most of the times this means that they will mention the name of a supplier if you insist in order to know it. Don’t be pushy or aggressive, but they need after all to satisfy their customers and avoiding to answer any of your questions would create a bad feeling to you that they want to avoid at all costs.

After you get some relevant information on this way, the best you can do is to smile and ask them to prepare a plan for your holidays with an estimated total price of the package. You’ll get some kind of document specifying the different parts of your trip with costs involved. Sometimes you’ll get supplier names such as airlines or hotel names or tour operators. Some other you won’t have this names and you’ll need to find out.

How to get the best travel deals using all this information?

Internet has the most erroneous information you can find in the world, but at same time is a powerful tool if used properly. Google in this case will be your intimate friend. In case you have supplier names, the task is very easy. Get to the web-page of these airlines, hotels or tour operators and check the prices for the exact dates the agency was proposing. You will notice they are always cheaper than booking directly from the agency. Be aware that you should never use a travel search engine, as they have affiliates and all the trips you can find will have an extra $10 fee to pay to the affiliates.

What happens then with the suppliers that are not mentioned by the agency?

Well, that part can be more tricky but usually it works in an easy way. Look at the parts of the document the agency gave to you where it appears information about this supplier, as many times travel agencies simply copy and paste the web-page information of their suppliers.

Get different sentences and copy them into Google between quotes. Almost probably you will find different places that offer this tour and one of this pages will be the mother page. You will know that because their prices are cheaper as no intermediate travel agents add commissions on them. If this does not work, any alternative in order to find the best travel deals?

Travel certificates is the answer, as there are a couple of places on the net that offer travel certificates for free simply for registering or making little purchases. And I don’t mean places that offer travel certificates for a determined price, because this is pure fraud. This guys are making a lot of money offering something that is free for a high price. In any case, in the places that are not fraud and offer them really for free, you will get discounts between 70 and 95% in hotels and flights.

So, which are those places?

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Guidelines for the Best Hotels

Planning for the perfect vacation can be challenging, and especially when you have decided to go somewhere new and exciting. Though it is easy to keep going to the same hotel in the same location time and time again; sometimes you want to break out and explore the new places you have always dreamed about visiting. This is where using some ways and means to help pick the best hotel for your needs, wants, desires and budget can make for choosing your hotel easier.

Check Independent Hotel Ratings

You can get great, first hand experience and feedback by reading through reviews written by real travelers who have an unbiased opinion of the hotels. This can give you the nitty gritty when it comes to the good, the bad and the noteworthy aspects of each hotel you are considering.

Hotel Chains and Facilities

If you are gun shy about choosing a hotel that has only one location, or if you are leery about small facilities; looking for a national or even global chain can help you get a level of quality and service that is more unified. Because chains have certain standards they strive to adhere to, choosing a chain hotel for your trip can get you the room you want, routine discounts and guaranteed services; all which are backed by a corporation dedicated to hotel travelers.

Location

Once you choose where you want to travel, you can also save some money on your room by opting to move a little further away from the big attractions of the area. For example, when going to an island or beach, staying a few blocks away from the water can result in big savings. The same holds true for major cities, where hotels on the outskirts of town can be less costly compared to downtown, prime properties.

Rates and Discounts

When it comes to crunching budget numbers for your vacation, the hotel portion can quickly add up to a big chunk of your allotted budget. This is why seeking out or even asking for discounts can work to your advantage. You can find discounts, package rates and even promotional specials to cut your hotel costs, which can sometimes translate in to enough of a savings that you can afford to stay even longer. You can also ask for discounts if you belong to any groups or associations that routinely receive such benefits as hotel discounts.

Boutique Hotels

If you really want to make the most of your trip, and experience a different and more unique hotel option; perhaps a boutique hotel is the option for you. Boutique hotels can be independently owned or part of a chain. The benefit of such a hotel is they are more geared towards pampering and personalized services, which can make your trip all the more special. The included services found at most boutique style hotels far surpass even the highest quality resort, as they treat each guest as a special patron.

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What To Pack In Your Backpack For Your Overnight Wilderness Backcountry Trip

So you’ve decided to take your first backcountry wilderness backpacking trip? You do realize this trip is away from civilization and not a simple two-day jaunt to the Holiday Inn. So you want to pack items which you feel are necessities along with some items which probably better fit into the comfort category. And you also realize you are going to have to carry these items on your back up and down the hills and mountains of the wilderness trails. So what do you bring along for the trip? What is really necessary and what is for comfort, and how much of both can you take?

Backpacking boils down to a balancing act of how much weight are you willing to carry to how much comfort do you want? Remember every extra ounce carried on your back is one extra heavy ounce at the end of the day. So the less weight you carry the easier the task. How much obviously is dependent on how long you plan on being out, how far you intend ongoing and how much weight your physical limitations can handle. There is plenty of lightweight gear in the market place today to help shed some ounces if you can afford this option. But you don’t have to be a “lightweight gear” freak to keep your pack weight down. I started backpacking in the mid 1970’s (pre-lightweight gear days) and managed my pack weight quite well.

Keep the “lightweight gear” philosophy in mind as you decide what you must have on your trip and avoid taking “everything but the kitchen sink”. As you become more experienced you will soon discover that some of the items you deemed necessary today will not even be considered in the future. For a 2-3 day trip a 60-65 liter pack will probably suffice. Longer trips may require the larger 70 liter packs and up. For a rule of thumb keep your packed weight (weight of items plus pack) to 30-40 lbs. for a 2-3 day trip. And weigh everything you are planning to carry prior to the trip to get your pack weight within this allowable weight. Too much weight makes a person more vulnerable to falls, back, leg, knee and foot problems.

Develop your personal backpacking checklist and use it to double-check yourself before every adventure, no matter how experienced you consider yourself an expert. Ten miles from the trail head is not a good time to find out you forgot fuel for your cook stove!

Basic items:

  • Pack
  • Tent (a 1 man tent weighs approx. 3 lbs and a 2 man tent weighs approx, 5 lbs)
  • Sleeping bag
  • Sleeping pad
  • Stuff sack
  • Water bottles
  • Water filter/tablets
  • Multi tool and knife
  • Flashlight and batteries
  • Map
  • compass or GPS
  • Food for each meal plus extra emergency rations
  • Stove
  • Fuel

Clothing:

  • Underwear
  • Socks
  • Pants and shirts
  • Head gear
  • Rain gear
  • Sunglasses
  • Boots
  • Campground sandals
  • Jacket
  • Thermal layering
  • Sleeping clothing

Personal items:

  • Sunscreen
  • Lip balm
  • Prescription medications
  • Tylenol, antacids, diarrhea meds, etc
  • Pillow
  • Walking stick
  • Toilet paper
  • Hand sanitizer
  • Insect repellent
  • Toothbrush
  • Biodegradable soap/shampoo

Safety items:

  • Extra flashlight
  • First-aid kit
  • Fire-starter
  • Water purification tablets
  • Pack cover
  • Whistle and signal mirror
  • GPS or compass
  • Emergency shelter
  • Survival knife

Additional items:

  • Plastic bags for trash
  • Repair kits for tent, stove, sleeping pad, etc.
  • Small trowel/shovel
  • Extra layers of clothing
  • Cell phone
  • Weather radio

Too much gear never used on the trip is a waste of hiking energy and too little gear needed on the trip makes for an unpleasant adventure.