Travel Hacking: What To Book (And Not To Book) Online
Four Things To Book Online
1: Cheap Air Fares
Many discount airlines are not listed on comparison sites, although Skyscanner has good coverage. Even where you find cheap flights, always compare prices on the airline’s home page. In and around Australasia, check sites such as AirAsia, China Eastern, Virgin Blue, Tiger Airways, Cebu Pacific and Jetstar. For Europe and North Africa, start with EasyJet, Ryanair, Germanwings, Wizz and Blue1. For the Americas, try Jet Blue and Spirit Airlines. If you’re looking for round the world flights, Roundtheworldflights.com has a great flight planning tool.
2: Travel Insurance
Travel insurance is critical – here’s why. Costs of insurance vary widely, but it is always more expensive if you buy through a travel agent, let alone an airline. Use comparison sites to research the best deal for you. If you leave home without travel insurance or your policy runs out, World Nomads lets you buy or extend while on the road.
Always read the policy wording to check what you are covered for, where you are covered for and have receipts as proof of purchase of any expensive items.
3: Airport Parking
Longstay airport parking fees can be extortionate, and if it makes sense for you to drive to your departure airport, you are generally best off pre-booking online.
4: Hire Vehicles in the Developed World
Comparison sites are useful to find good value hire vehicles in the developed world, although a Google search that extends beyond page 1 results will be most effective. Relocation RVs, if you can find one that fits your time frame, are always noticeably cheaper than RVs marketed to tourists and travellers.
Four Things Not To Book Online1: Hire Vehicles in the Developing World
1: Hire Vehicles in the Developing World
One easy way to feel sick as a dog? Book a car through a big name organization online, then find you could have got the same thing for half the price without haggling, or a quarter of the price with haggling, from the chap at your guesthouse, the rental place down the road or the tout in the street.
2: Ultra-Budget Accommodation
The easiest way to find super-cheap accommodation in most places is to head in the general direction of Lonely Planet’s top budget pick. It will probably have put its prices up in the wake of the publicity, but a bunch of neighbours will be there to soak up its overflow. The cheapest places don’t spend money on websites or check their email often. And, when you’re talking ultra budget, it’s always nice to give the place a onceover before you commit to sleeping there.
3: Organized Tours
As with cheap guesthouses, cheap local operators do not tend to be visible online, and tours booked through an agent out of country are always more expensive. The exception to this? Certain very popular climbs and treks, such as Machu Picchu and climbing Mount Kinabalu, have limited numbers and you will need to prearrange permits.
4: Visas
Applying for a visa is generally not that complicated, and unless you’re a very high earner, it makes sense in many places to do the application yourself rather than pay an agency to do it for you. As a general rule, visas are easiest and cheapest to obtain from consulates in cities close to the country border.
So you don’t recommend using Hostelworld/Hostelbookers for developing countries?
Top tip: consider CouchSurfing!
airlines search engine: http://www.flylowcostairlines.org
also for a longer list: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_low-cost_airlines
No, I wouldn’t. Anyone switched on enough to list on there is going to be at the higher end of the range. Plus, when it comes to cheap, you need to check what it’s like before you commit. You know. Vermin. Bedbugs. Mossie nets or otherwise…
I’m finding that the airfares in Australia are astronomically high. I can fly from Los Angeles to Sydney, to Perth, stay a month, fly to Sydney, stay 2 months and then fly back to LA for $1400. If purchased in Australia, a trip from Sydney to Perth is $1100 alone! Flights to my next location from Australia are $2500 (versus $750 in the US) – it makes sense for me to fly round trip to Australia, return to the US and then fly on to Europe. Who would have figured that flying to Europe by way of America would be cheaper than a flight directly from OZ. I’ve seen the same in Canada – it is cheaper to drive to America and fly out than to buy a Canadian ticket – I wonder airline TAXES are the cause…?
That’s because of the currency, in Australia. Lots of things, from electronics to airfares, are still priced at the old AU$2-US$1 rate. Cd it be something similar in Canada?
Virgin Blue have cheap flight deals on Tuesday lunchtimes (I think) — a happy hour. Tiger Airways are dirt cheap on the routes they run. Surprised that Sydney-Perth is that high, to be frank. The other thing to do is Qantas airmiles. Get amazing deals, and they rack up quickly.
When I was looking for tickets to China from Seattle, I found one that flew via Vancouver. I found the same exact flight (same day, same time, everything) from Vancouver to China and it was more expensive! It was cheaper for me to fly from Seattle-Vancouver-China than just to get on in Vancouver!!! I have no idea why. Airport taxes, I guess.
How bizarre. I have no idea either. Unless they’re super-keen to fill their Seattle-Vancouver flights.
smart tips – thank you!!
A pleasure…
Spot on T–wholly agree with your list, although the airport parking was a new one to me! We recently discovered when my sister was planning a visit to us in Melb that she could book a car rental through the US website for pick up in our suburb for nearly half the cheapest price that i could get calling those same companies locally and directly, even using various affiliations to get a better discount (ie union memberships, etc). It was crazy to believe that the tourist in this case was getting a better deal than the locals could!
great list!
Thanks! It’s that sort of crazy exchange that makes Australia so pricy at the moment for anyone not earning AUD. It’s really obvious when buying, eg, electronics, that the Australian dollar price is still set at 1.5 x the US price, even though the currency has moved, and I’m sure they’re still doing the same thing with car rentals. I mean, if people will pay the end price, why would they shift it?
Fantastic tips! Col and I have just been talking about the different approaches you need to adopt for travel in developing countries vs developed. Often in developing there’s no point booking accommodation ahead unless it’s a holiday. What’s the worst case scenario – all the cheap hostels are booked so you pay an extra $5 for a nice guesthouse. In the developed world, if you miss out on a hostel for some reason you’re often stuck in full price hotels with ludicrious last minute rates paying at least $100 more per night! We found this one out the hard way last weekend in Sydney when for some bizarro reason all the hostels in Coogee were shut between 1-5pm (cause no one wants to book into a hostel then right? hah!) and ended up having to stay in a hotel as we had somewhere we had to be by 3pm.
That is bizarre. My Sydney experience was I booked the YHA by the station ahead of time, ended up paying over $40 for a *dorm bed* plus $10 for wifi, while there were places down the street advertising beds for twenty bucks. In the UK, a lot of cheap places aren’t on the engines yet. But you’re right, it’s two different sets of rules.
In Albania, we found a guesthouse for US$3 (about 300 leke) a night! We found it in a guidebook, but nothing online, so it fits your criteria. It’s wasn’t NICE, but for $3, it was fine. Gross toilet that we had to ask the key for each time, but for ONE night, it was ok. 🙂 A good story, if nothing else! 🙂
By the time you get to $3 almost anywhere in the world you’re looking at dubious bathrooms. Though we have had ones with clean bathrooms at $3 in Laos…
Very good travel tips. These are very useful. Thanks.
Have you heard of airbnb? Another way to get relatively cheaper accomodation from the web.
I’ve heard of airbnb, though I have to say their prices don’t seem that impressive to me compared to the standard short-term rental deal…