Save Money with Discount Airline Websites and Rail Passes for Travel

Looking to take a vacation but don't want to spend a fortune? Well here are some travel tips that will help you to retain more of your hard-earned cash whether your traveling to Europe or Disneyland. I did an online search for myself because I will be taking a trip later in the fall so I wanted to see what kinds of deals I could get on travel, accommodations and food. I checked out some good discount airline websites and was surprised that they had such good deals. I started my search for airfare first. I was able to get discounted flights from the discount airline websites that offered the lowest fares, information on cheap hostels for rooms, and cheap places to eat in the area where I would be staying. In my case this would be Dublin. So here are my figures based on my trip just to give you an example.

My plane ticket: $554.90 including tax and booking, Round Trip for 14 days
from Cleveland,Oh to Dublin, Ireland on Delta Airlines(through Farewatch.com)

My Hostel (through Hostels.com) Issac's Hostel 8-bed Female Dorm 2-week stay $344.00

Good places for lunch or dinner meals under $15.00 USD
Courtesy of TripAdvisor.com

Lunch: Epicurean Centre (Abbey Street), Nude (Suffolk Street), Cornicopia (Wicklow Street), Govinda (Middle Abbey Street, Aungier Street), Cafe Bar Deli (Georges Street, Grafton Street), Steps of Rome (Chatham Street), Munchies (William Street South, IFSC, elsewhere), Wagamama (Under Stephens Green Centre)

Grand Trip Total $1318.90 including food
150.00 extra for sightseeing,buses or train travel around the city, and souvenirs.

Airline Tickets

Comparison shop when it comes to airline tickets. Sites like Orbitz.com, Expedia.com,Travelocity.com and Priceline.com sometimes have some good deals if you book in advance. There is also a site called Farewatch which is very nice because it lets you compare their price with lots of other sites to get you the best deal. Also it will give you other options for lower fares based on location and flexible dates. The best days to fly out are Tuesdays and Thursdays. Also sometimes if you look for an earlier flight or have flexible departure dates you may get a lower fare.I have found some really reasonable priced tickets with some of these sites. I have only had trouble with one site in particular, not listed here, and that is Cheaptickets.com. Sometimes they try to sell you tickets they don't have. Or it will be listed on the site but they'll say they don't have it if you call. I was trying to fly someone from Ohio to Arizona and they were showing 1 good priced ticket for $384.00, but when I called to order the ticket I was told that they couldn't sell it to me but they could sell me a more expensive one.

US Rail Pass

Another cheap travel option is by rail. Amtrak travels to over 500 destinations in the US. You can purchase single tickets or a rail pass that's good for up to 45 days of travel. Rail Passes start at $389.00 for 15-day Pass for Adult and $195 for children ages 2-15, 30 Day Pass for $579.00 for Adult and $289.50 for child, and 45 Day Pass for$749.00 for Adult and $374.50 for child. Rail passes are great ways to travel the country for less.

European Rail Pass

If you'll be traveling to any European countries you may want to get a Eurail Pass. This is for the European Rail. This is a great deal if you'd like to travel to more than one country. Single Country pass starts at $49.99 USD, Regional Pass from $169.00 covers 29 regions, Select Pass 3,4 or 5 countries starting at $299.00, and a Global Pass for 21 countries starting at $475.00 USD. The plus side of having a European Rail Pass is that you can visit many cities in the same country, or even cities in neighboring countries for less money. I Was wanting to visit London and Ireland and found out that Ireland has a ferry that will take you to London for about $90.00 this is great because I was trying to figure out how to squeeze in travel for both countries.

Some more helpful ideas for saving money when traveling:

Food

Always plan ahead when you travel. Look online for area restaurants that are close to where you will be staying. There are online sites and forums where you can find the best cheap places to eat in the town where you are going. Jot down a list of names, addresses and food costs listed and then look them up on Google maps for that area so you will know exactly where to go to find food cheaply.If you're afraid of getting lost in a strange place, call for takeout instead. Another good standby is to find a grocery store and stock up once you arrive. Most hotels know that people bring their own food in, everyone does, the only thing they don't want is people cooking in the rooms. Fire Hazard. So if you find a store stock up on cheese and crackers (you'll probably get a mini-fridge in your room) salami or pepperoni slices, bread, peanut butter, soda (vending machines suck when your traveling) little containers of canned sandwhich spread, pickles, chips,and anything in a can providing it has a pop top; ravioli, spaghetti-O's, beef stew, and chicken and dumplings. Of course if you'll only staying a short time you may not need all this but for a week long stay it's definitely worth it. You'll save a lot of money by not eating out. If you want to try the local cuisine and your budget isn't too tight opt for breakfast or lunches, always cheaper menu items than dinner ones.

Hotel and other places to stay

Hostels are becoming more and more popular here in the US. Hostels are very popular with European travelers because they save a lot of money on hotel rooms. Most hostels can be a double occupancy room with 2 or more beds (called a dorm) usually gets cheaper the larger the dorm is. For example a 16 bed dorm room is cheaper than a 4 bed dorm per night. Perfect for college students and backpackers who travel light and don't need much in the way of accommodations. Basically it's just for sleeping. There is usually a recreation area with big screen tv, fireplace and billiard table. Go to Hostels.com and check out some of the places. You can see photos of the rooms and rec areas and the basic amenities of the rooms. You will most likely have a shared bathroom unless you pay more for a private room. There are some family hostels that have private rooms for families traveling but there aren't many of them around. If you'd like to compare prices go to www.hostels.com. They list all the available hostels worldwide.

For cheaper hotel prices look up flight and hotel information on Expedia.com, Orbitz.com, Travelocity.com, Priceline.com and Hotwire.com

Orbitz.com also has information for car rental and rail services. Sometimes if you book more than one service from an agency you get a discount on the second one.

http://www.gofox.com/flights/farewatch.php
http://www.orbitz.com/
http://www.tripadvisor.com/Travel-g186605-s504/Dublin:Ireland:Cheap.Eats.html
http://digg.com/business_finance/15_Tips_for_Cheap_Travel_2b_How_to_Find_Cheap_Plane_Tickets
http://tickets.amtrak.com/itd/amtrak/selectpass/
http://www.eurail.com/