How to Find the Best Weekend Travel Deals

Deciding to travel at the last minute can be very exciting. If you find yourself with the time and desire to plan a weekend trip, or if a need comes up in your personal or professional life to travel on the spur of the moment, you'll need to take careful steps to ensure that you select the best options for the most reasonable prices. By keeping a few key tips in mind, you'll be on your way to knowing how to find the best weekend travel deals.

First, determine your destination and what steps you will need to take to get there, as well as what amenities you will need once you are already there. Planning weekend travel to a faraway destination requires far different planning than a quick trip to a nearby town. If you will be traveling quite a distance, you will need to find the best deals in either airfare or expedient ground transportation. For closer destinations, you'll likely be concerned only with the arrangements that need to be made for your stay itself.

Next, if your travel needs include transportation, begin looking at both standalone and package pricing for airfare or ground transportation such as train or bus travel. Ground transportation is not often discounted, but if a large number of open seats exist at the last moment, there are still great deals to be found. Traveling by air at the last minute is often a different story. Most airlines would prefer to sell at seat at a lower cost than let it remain empty for the flight. So long as the price charged is more than the cost of an extra passenger, it makes sense to offer greatly discounted tickets that turn into great weekend travel deals. You may need to be flexible, however, and take flights at off-peak times in order to find seats that are priced below market levels.

Package options also offer a great opportunity for finding last minute weekend travel deals. Hotels operate under the same principles as airlines - an open room is earning the property zero money, so it is better to sell it at a discounted rate than have no chance at revenue at all. By visiting travel related web sites, you can often find last minute offers that combine the cost of a hotel room and airfare and save a tremendous amount of money. Some packages even add in destination ground transportation like airport to hotel transfers or rental cars.

You can also find terrific weekend travel deals just for the hotel portion of your travel. For many chain hotels, you can dial an 800-number and learn about rates for multiple properties with just one call. One proven travel trick is to tell the operator that you can only afford to spend a certain amount per night and they can often look through the various rates and terms in their listings to find discounted options that will suit your needs. If you belong to any loyalty or group programs, ask for any associated rates.

Finally, you can consider your options for last minute ground transportation at your destination. While cabbies and bus lines will not negotiate, you can often find some leeway in pricing for rental cars. This is an opportunity for you to balance car rental agencies off one another. Use the internet to find the most competitive rates and then call the second best rate, tell them what you were offered elsewhere, and ask them to beat it. It may sound like an old-fashioned trick, but you will often find yourself with a lower rate than you could ever have expected. By following these tips and tricks, you'll be well on your way to enjoying your weekend travel deals.