Summer Travel - Travel Deals

Finding Cheap Trips in the Summer

summer4Let’s say you’re the kind of person who doesn’t like to run with the crowd. You’re the sort of traveler who prefers to hit any place others might call “out of the way” instead of destinations listed as “popular.” But despite your contrarian ways, your only opportunity for a vacation is smack dab in the middle of the summer when everyone and their brother is also taking a trip somewhere.

Now, your choices are to skip the trip altogether or to make the best of it and plan to travel anyway. So if you’re in the second camp (and you should be), then here are some tips to help you avoid the worst of the summer crowds – and to help you save money on your summer trip while you’re at it.

>> Don’t miss how to find cheap summer airfare, and in case you want to be where everyone else is you might want to learn more about finding summer travel deals to popular places.

How to Find Summer Travel Deals to Popular Places

summer3It’s all well and good to have someone suggest you take a trip to a previously-unknown-to-you destination for your summer break, because even if such a trip would cost less there’s a certain contingent that just has their heart set on a specific spot for their summer vacation. For those people, nothing – not even the lure of big savings – will tear them away from their dream.

And we understand. There are some trips that just seem tailor-made for summer. Summer road trip? Summer vacation to Europe? Summer cottage at the beach? Sure, you can take the “summer” out of all of those things, but they lose something in the translation. So if it absolutely, positively has to be one of those incredibly popular destinations for your summer trip – the places that are always more expensive in the summer – then here are some tips to help you avoid paying a small fortune on your travels.

How to Find Cheap Summer Airfare

summer1Travel experts can talk until they’re blue in the face about how people should avoid summer travel and stick to the shoulder seasons, the fact remains that the time when most people are still going to travel is the summer. This could be driven by school schedules that only allow for extended vacations in the summer, or work schedules slowing down in the summer, or your own personal desire to only get out and about when it’s warm. Whatever the reason, summer is still the busiest travel season.

But even if you’re like the millions of others who’ll be headed out on vacation this summer, you can at least stand out from the crowd by learning how to find cheaper airfare for your trip.

Because summer travel is so popular, that’s also when travel tends to be most expensive. You don’t need to be a travel expert to notice that the deals you see advertised for cheap airline tickets to France in the winter are much better than the lowest prices you’ll find for similar flights in the summer. So unless you have enough miles to cash in for a ticket or you have buddy pass privileges from a flight attendant friend, you’ll end up spending more for summer airfare to many destinations than you would in the low season. That doesn’t mean you need to pay full price, however.

In this article you’ll find tips to help you find cheaper airfare for summer travel. Many of these tips will be helpful at other times of the year, too, as they’re just good tricks to finding cheap airfare anytime. But when you’re talking about a trip during the busiest travel season of the year, it becomes even more important to pay attention to tips like these to avoid paying too much for your air ticket.

Summer travel deals are still super hot

airplane-departingAlmost everyone is tightening their belts these days as family budgets for just about everything seem to be smaller. However, luckily you aren’t the only one who has felt the effects of the shaky economy. The travel industry has also been hard hit, making for some great deals that allow you to still take that vacation this year without having to worry about busting your budget. In fact, there are lots of offers for free nights and rewards when you book travel, including a July sale at Expedia that gives you $50 back when you book your vacation. Expedia July Sale: Book a qualified 3+ night hotel stay & get a $50 Prepaid MasterCard® card for gas!

Summer Storm Season

The stormy summer months have been causing havoc for airlines around the country.

With another month of storms still on the forefront, hundreds of flights have been delayed, canceled or re-routed because of torrential rainfall in the Midwest and Northeast.

If traveling this summer, give yourself ‘emergency backup plans’, especially if you have a connecting flight, where you might find your luggage still on the ground at home and you halfway to your destination.

Get contacts of people who live in the area, or know which hotel you plan to call for a warm bed – or what corner of the airport you plan to sleep in.