Tag Archives: Travel

I Want to Travel Cheap and Not Spend Too Much Money – Do Travel Agents Save You Money?

If you want to travel cheap and save a bunch of money on your vacation, the first thing you need to do is plan in advance. The people who save the most money are usually the ones who begin planning for their trip at least a month in advance.

But what are the advantages of using a travel agent as opposed to just doing it yourself? After all, most of this information is readily available all over the Internet.

One advantage of a travel agent is, because they book so many trips, they can more easily negotiate a great deal for you with the airlines, the hotels, and the car rental agencies. If you are looking for the best deal for your money and the cheapest way to travel, a good travel agent can find you the best deals.

Now, I know what you are thinking. It’s a lot faster and easier to just do all this yourself online. But one thing that might happen is some companies will add on extra fees. For example, cruise lines may add an extra fee per day for fuel or airlines may charge you for luggage. A good agent can help you avoid these fees by directing you to companies that don’t charge them. This can save you a good amount of money in the long run.

Travel agencies often also get different travel promotions which they can let you know about. So if you want to travel cheap and get the best deals for your money, don’t forget to consider calling or visiting your local travel agency just to see what they can offer you. But don’t wait till the last minute! Plan ahead.

Do All Travel Agencies Handle Group Travel Packages?

When you finally get that much needed vacation time, if you’re like most people, you’ll want to spend your time at an exotic destination. The upside to this is the fact that it will be a fantastic time that you will remember forever. The downside to the vacation of a lifetime is the fact that it’s usually extremely expensive. However, if you work with a travel agency that puts together group travel packages to exotic locations like Fiji, Nicaragua, Costa Rica and other tropical paradises, not only can you have that ultimate vacation but you will be able to actually afford it fairly easily.

The main reason is because businesses like transportation companies, hotels, restaurants and tourist attractions know that they will have a known number of people spending money with them and are willing to give a better rate to each person in the group. As an example, a restaurant that is a part of the group travel plan can be assured of making $10 on each person in a ten person group for an overall profit of $100. However, an individual that comes by may only make them $15 in the same amount of time. This means the restaurant is being more profitable. Hotels can only make money when occupancy is high so taking in groups, thereby filling more rooms means they’ll be making more profit, even though the process of working with the travel company to build a group travel package means that each room is discounted. Tourist attractions that have an entrance fee also discount heavily to travel group packages as well. This gets more people in the gate, spending money on souvenirs, food and beverages so discounting the gate ticket only makes sense. The same principle applies for concerts, entertainers and shows as well.

Some travel companies don’t offer group travel plans because they cater to a more corporate clientele. But most travel agencies do offer group packages multiple times per year. The prices you will get on group rates will include everything you need whether its airline travel, cruise rates, hotel rates, an itinerary for entertainment and going to attractions and being part of a group is guaranteed to save you money. Being part of a group can save you anywhere from 20 to 40 percent of the amount you’d be spending if you were to try to make the same plans yourself. If you are looking to go on that ultimate, once in a lifetime vacation, taking advantage of group travel packages is definitely the way to go.