How to Find Last Minute Weekend Travel Deals

Anyone who loves to travel dreams of packing a bag and heading off for a long trip – for some, the longer the better – but the reality of work, school, and family schedules means that long trips are often not possible. Rather than give up on the idea of taking a trip altogether, however, an excellent option is to take as many short trips as you can. And what better way to do that than take advantage of all those three-days weekends on the calendar?

Weekend travel is incredibly popular, whether you pack those days with as much adventure as you can cram into every hour or you just hope to melt into a beach chair and pretend Monday isn’t right around the corner. Getting a great bargain on weekend travel doesn’t have to be difficult, either – especially if you’re not as picky about where you go. For those whose goal is to get away for the weekend regardless of destination, the best option for getting a great deal is to look at last minute weekend travel deals.

Here are some things to keep in mind when you’re looking for last minute weekend travel deals.

Get Notifications via Email

No matter how much you might need a break from your everyday routine, that doesn’t mean you have time to spend ages each day hunting for the best deals on last minute weekend airfare. Luckily for you, there are some travel websites dedicated to helping you find what you’re looking for without spending a ton of time searching.

Many websites let you sign up for email notifications on particular routes. This is handy if you’re choosing between a few destinations based on which is cheapest right before your trip, because these emails will tell you instantly which flights have the best deals. But even better than that are the sites that let you sign up for last minute specials from a particular departure airport. SmarterTravel.com is one of the sites that will let you do this – when you sign up you indicate which airport is your “home airport” and then you get an email each week with the last minute deals on airfare for that coming weekend.

If you’d prefer not to clog your email inbox, you can usually check websites that offer last minute email notifications for the same deals – you’ll just have to do the work of checking each website instead of having those deals delivered to you. On the “Dream!” tab of this travel deals site you’ll see the latest airfare deals listed from whatever airport you type in, and this site specializing in last minute travel deals has a listing of the latest last minute deals right on the front page.

Adjust Your Schedule if Possible

Technically speaking, your weekend starts at the end of work Friday and ends when work begins Monday. But if you have any flexibility to add an extra day to your weekend, you might be able to find an even better deal on a last minute trip. Flexibility with travel scheduling is one of the best ways to save money on airfare, no matter when you’re traveling.

Friday and Sunday tend to be expensive days to fly, so if you’ve got Friday or Monday off you could avoid more costly flights. And if you can move your “weekend” to mid-week – swapping Tuesday and Wednesday for working Saturday and Sunday, for example – then you’ve got an even better chance of scoring a killer deal (not to mention traveling when most people aren’t).

If you can’t adjust the day you fly, however, you can still incorporate a little flexibility into your travel planning in an effort to save money. There are certain times of the day that are cheaper to fly than others, so booking your trip for those times is often cheaper. The earliest flights in the day are usually cheapest, followed by the late-night and red-eye departures.

You Can Find an Adventure Anywhere

When you’re dreaming of a trip, whether it’s a month or a weekend, you’ve probably got a few dream destinations in mind. But if you’re planning a last minute trip and you don’t have unlimited funds to spend on it, you might have to embrace the “beggars can’t be choosers” mentality.

Sometimes there are last minute travel deals to popular destinations at busy travel times. This tends to happen when tourism numbers are down for one reason or another and hotels, resorts, and airlines would rather have customers paying a discounted price than no customers at all – so they release rooms and seats at sharply cut prices. But you won’t always luck out and find your dream destinations on the list of places that have last minute weekend travel deals on offer. Again, this doesn’t mean you have to give up on the idea of a trip.

Are the destinations on the last minute weekend travel deals list unfamiliar to you? Do a little quick reading online to see what that place has to offer. Unless you’re looking for something very specific, you can find activities and entertainment to interest yourself just about anywhere – if you’re willing to be creative, be inquisitive, and be adventurous.

photo by Alaskan Dude