airfarewatchdog.com for hot airfare offers
Airfarewatchdog is a popular site seeking and posting about the best airfare prices, discounts, and offers. The site has a focused area of interest, US local and international airfares, which while makes it more limited, probably gives it better value for US air travelers. The site sees it self different from others by focusing on “quality over quantity“.
Read more about how they separate themselves from others here.
Popularity: 2% [?]
Last Night Free at 700+ Expedia Hotels
Independent Traveler, if you’re not already following, is writing about the cool Expedia offer of last night stay for FREE at more than 700 hotels. offer expires at 9-4-09 and is valid for bookings through 15th May. Sadly enough, the offer does not seem to cover European hotels but is just for North-America.
See if you have qualified hotels for your destination.
Popularity: 3% [?]
Vacation Rentals could be smarter than hotels!
Do you ever consider Vacation Rentals when traveling? What are they you ask? They are the lease of furnished home or apartment on a temporary basis for travelers as an alternative to traditional hotels. A side from the lack of 24/7 regular hotel service, breakfast, and other luxuries, vacation rentals bring along a load of benefits.
- Cost: Cost of apartments are usually much lower than hotels, as they do not account for the service charges.
- Space: Don’t you hate hotel rooms where you can only sleep or walk outside? Apartments usually bring up much more space, including even multiple rooms allowing families to live together rather than in separate rooms.
- Facilities: With apartments, you can get your own kitchen with all you need to cook, your own washing machine, and many other things that would both make your stay more convenient, and could prove to be an extra saving as well. Cooking at home would be a lot cheaper than ordering from the hotel restaurant.
- Balconies?: While this is not for sure, apartments can have magnificent views from your very own balcony. Something you’re not very likely to get in a hotel.
- Quite: From it’s nature, apartments are likely to be less crowded than hotels from my experience, let alone leasing your own home where there is basically only you and your family.
- Service: Some apartments even have some kind of service available on a weekly basis, and a hot line to call if you need anything.
- Security: Some apartments have very strict securities and 24/7 guards on them, giving you more peace of mind.
Being an apartment leased by an individual sometimes, extra care need to be taken before booking. There are loads of trusted vacation rental sites however, giving you photos, sometimes a virtual tour of the place, and are very professional. My apartment experience at Cardiff Bay Century Wharf from A Space In The City was full of upsides, with few minor exceptions like the slow internet access and the water heater which wasn’t working. There was no cooling system also so for me it’s was too hot, but this seems to be a common thing in Europe and can’t be taken against them. Other than that, we got a large space, 2 tvs, DVD, MP3 Player, washing and drying machine, dish washer, balcony, and the whole complex is surrounded by security measures and access card based outside door.
Other sites that may interest you in seeking an apartment are CyberRentals.com, which seems really professional, have worldwide apartment listing, and include visitor reviews as well. Another site is Perfect Places, which is less organized but with still some good collection.
To read more about the subject, and get more advise and insight, I strongly recommend you go by the smarter TRAVEL article about the vacation rentals.
Popularity: 1% [?]
Why Travel Now?
Why would anyone choose to travel now instead of the summer travel season? I my self have just gotten back from Istanbul and could easily tell one of the reasons. There is simply no one there. That means by it self several things. For a start it means the city is less crowded, and so are the main tourist attractions. Isn’t it disappointing when you spend thousands of dollars to visit some historic or main attraction, only to be blocked and time wasted by the heavy crowd infront of you? Not only do you enjoy more freedom when traveling now, but you will have less headache in all your ticket, bookings, tour reservations, as they’re likely hunting for customers. We basically booked in the early morning for a hotel pick-up tour that starts at 8:30 AM.
Another reason is, less demand means less price. You are likely to get better rates for all your travel expenses, thus saving extra. The only drawback for people who hate it is the cold winter season. For me it’s an added value actually.
The Independent Traveler have compiled a more detailed list of 10 reasons why it is wise to travel now. What’s your preference?
Popularity: 1% [?]
12 ways for discounted rates
Newsday have published an article showing 12 ways you go out for discounted travel rates, saving you some of the extra burden. Some of my favorite tips in short are:
- Check sites compiling travel deals, perhaps even subscribe for their newsletter.
- Check with big travel sites for hot offers and deals
- Check for discounted tours and cruises.
- Work backward. See what’s a good and cost-effective destination rather than seek offers for pre-determined destination. You never know where you could end up and see.
And then, I would also add to the list using hotel and ticket comparison sites, such as our 7ojozat.com for hotels, and Mobissimo, dohop, or Fly.com for air ticket price.
For the 12 tips in details, see Newsday.
Popularity: 1% [?]
Home Rental or Swap Vs Hotels
In the age of the economic crisis, it is becoming more and more important to make saves on your travel, if you can at all afford it. Recently, it has become more popular it seems to swap homes or lease them, rather than swallow the high cost of hotel rooms whichs the extra cost of daily home service, and everything else that goes with it.
I have personally found it both money saving, and more relaxing to lease apartment as we traveled in a small group, bot I guess the option of a house for a larger family would make sense as well.
Read this article by Los Angeles Times about the home swap and rental service, and how does it compare to hotel one.
Popularity: 2% [?]
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