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It’s Not Too Late to Grab Deals for Summer Travel

Be smart to snag bargains

a woman packs her suitcase for a trip
Getty Images
By

Elaine Glusac,

 
AARP
Published June 05, 2023
/ Updated July 13, 2023

Once upon a pre-pandemic time, making vacation plans at the last minute often meant scoring a deal on a discounted hotel room or tour. Now, strong demand for travel — a recent survey by the planning website The Vacationer found nearly 85 percent of Americans plan to travel this summer, up nearly 5 percent from last year — suggests procrastinators won’t be rewarded.

But don’t get discouraged; get smart. The following are strategies for how, when and where to travel to stretch your vacation dollar this summer.

Save on getting there

Flying or driving, transportation is a major travel expense that warrants careful research.

“Inflation is putting pressure on everything globally, and the airline business is without exception,” says Brett Keller, chief executive officer at the online agency Priceline. “Even the high cost of the snacks you’re eating on board your flight contributes to price hikes.”

Priceline predicts the average domestic round-trip ticket this summer will cost $450; the average price in 2022 was $378, according to the Bureau of Transportation Statistics.

Going.com, a membership service for inexpensive airfares formerly known as Scott’s Cheap Flights, puts the ideal window for finding domestic flight deals at one to three months in advance. If you’ve missed that, try searching more creatively.

Going suggests investigating open-jaw flights in which you depart from one city and return to another. So, you might consider flying from Miami to San Francisco and returning from Oakland to Fort Lauderdale, or any similar combination. Click “nearby airports” or use the “multi-city” option on flight search engines like Skyscanner, Kayak or Google Flights to get a robust list of choices.

If you’re driving, download the app GasBuddy, which will show prices for gas stations, allowing motorists to comparison shop. Google Maps also allows you to search an area for gas stations and lists their prices, while the app Upside has cash-back offers on gas purchases. Memberships at discount retailers like Costco, Sam’s Club and BJ’s Wholesale Club can also save on gas.

If you’ll be traveling on toll roads, get a payment transponder, which is both more convenient and offers better rates. E-ZPass works in most states from Maine to Florida and several states in the Midwest.

Flexibility rules

Timing, as usual, is everything. Avoid holiday weekends, when rates tend to peak. According to the bus-and-train-travel-booking platform Wanderu, vacation rentals in New Orleans climb by as much as 172 percent over the July 4 holiday, and they more than double over Labor Day in Saratoga Springs, New York. “Be creative with timing,” says Ted Rossman, a senior industry analyst with the personal finance site Bankrate. “Fly midweek instead of a weekend. Stay Monday to Friday in a hotel rather than Wednesday to Sunday. You’ll get the same number of nights but cheaper.”

For best results, be flexible on timing and on your destination. House-sitting, for example, can be a rock-bottom means of travel — you stay for free in exchange for light housekeeping and possible pet-sitting — but it can be hard to align a dream destination and ideal dates. If you’re flexible this summer, you might find a home in Kauai, Hawaii, for a week, or a two-bedroom house in Sausalito, California, on the listing service TrustedHousesitter.

Let the deal suggest the destination by browsing travel sales sites like Travelzoo, Priceline or Expedia. A recent listing on Travelzoo featured 10 nights in the Galápagos Islands for $1,599, including flights.

Many last-minute deals require you to find your own hasty airfare, which can eat up any savings. To get around this, check out the bundled listings of airline-owned vacation operators such as American Airlines Vacations and United Vacations. For example, Southwest Vacations from Southwest Airlines recently listed five nights at the Walt Disney World Dolphin Resort in Orlando, Florida, for $737 a person, including flights.

Lodging hacks

Like air travel, hotel pricing is highly dynamic, subject to how busy a hotel is, its location and the amenities. To get the lay of the land, use the search engine Google Travel, which allows you to input a destination and dates to generate a map of available hotels. For example, search New York City to see where and how much hotels cost, from a $845-a-night luxury hotel on Central Park to a $198 bargain option on the Lower East Side.

Don’t forget to search vacation rental platforms for more overnight options. The service Vrbo maintains a page devoted to new listings, which are often offered at a 20 percent discount. Airbnb allows travelers to search with flexible dates over a weekend, for a week or even a monthlong stay, which can turn up slow periods when rates are lower.

Thrifty destination ideas

Deals this summer may be elusive, but they’re not extinct.

The personal finance website WalletHub recently conducted a study of destinations around the country based on factors like cost of living and travel costs and hassles — which includes flight prices as well as delays and length of travel — to come up with the best summer travel destinations. The top three with the lowest costs and fewest hassles are Santa Rosa, California, a good base for exploring the wineries and coast of Sonoma County; Milwaukee, with vibrant art and culture on Lake Michigan; and Salt Lake City, gateway to more than 60 state and national parks within a few hours’ drive.

Wanderu also picked Salt Lake City among its top four least expensive summer destinations based on vacation rental prices, alongside Oklahoma City, Baltimore and Albuquerque, New Mexico.

Editor's note: This article was originally published on June 5, 2023. It has been updated to reflect new information. 

Elaine Glusac is a freelance writer in Chicago who regularly contributes to AARP.org and writes the Frugal Traveler column for The New York Times.

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