Comments on: Five Frugal Travel Secrets

By: Dalaman

Dalaman — Sun, 12 Apr 2009 08:41:15 +0000

Finally someone who can write a good blog ! I loved your post and will be telling others about it. Subscribing to your RSS feed now. Thanks

By: Bob

Bob — Wed, 06 Aug 2008 14:46:06 +0000

I recently booked a Cancun getaway for a long Thanksgiving weekend with my family. I contacted the travel agent my company uses for business travel. They came in well below
the second quote I had from a mega on-line site and I always had the same agent to talk to with my many questions.

By: Jess

Jess — Tue, 05 Aug 2008 16:51:25 +0000

I agree, these are good tips. I was especially proud of how you mentioned a travel agent’s ability to offer better deals most of the time. Knowing travel agents myself, I am amazed how many avenues they have access to that the public does not. With the changing rules and regulations of traveling nowadays, it’s nice to have someone in the loop at all times who can let me know when my airline has added baggage fees or weight restrictions on carry-ons, etc.

Booking online can be very easy, but remember to check their policies very carefully, or you may be out alot of money. My last suggestion is to always get travel insurance, even if it’s not for the entire cost of the trip. Who wants to pay $75K to get evacuated after being in some kind of accident abroad? Always a good idea to be covered.

By: Money Under 30

Money Under 30 — Wed, 30 Jul 2008 12:54:50 +0000

Thanks, Emily. I had fun putting this together. I'm definitely planning to take advantage of the packing food tip next week while I'm away! I think a lot of people---especially our age---assume that self-booking Web sites have rendered travel agents obsolete. As I've booked a lot of travel for work in the past few years (and learned a lot of secrets about saving on airfares and hotels), I don't think I would use a travel agent for domestic travel anymore, but I'm inexperienced traveling abroad, so I appreciated the hand-holding. Even in cases an agent can't find a lower fare than sites like Kayak or Expedia, if you don't book travel often (or aren't thrilled about spending hours on travel Web sites), an agent may be able to find the lowest fares faster than you can. Of course, there are pitfalls to watch out for when using a travel agent, too.

By: Emily

Emily — Fri, 25 Jul 2008 21:43:29 +0000

Love this post, Dave! Lots of great ideas, especially the eating one. In Paris a few weeks ago, I really benefited from having a grocery story next-door. While I didn’t have a kitchen or fridge in my tiny hotel room, it was a great place to get cheap snacks, and water bottles were 30 cents there — in other places in the city one was 2 or 3 euro! I also found a lot of places with tasty and cheap sandwiches to-go. I limited myself to one nice restaurant meal a night and made sure to get by on cheap eats the rest of the day. That way I was able to really savor tasty French food but not break the bank. Btw, I didn’t realize it could be so much cheaper to use a travel agent — I’ll definitely look into it next time!