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Planning your family vacation? Travel deals come in all sizes this summer
Wooo hooo! This is so exciting!
Families, we have a plethora of deals and trips to choose from. Many hotels have started “Kids Stay Free” campaigns and it’s looking very enticing on my end.
If you are in the midst of booking your family vacation, be sure to outline all of the perks that are important to you and your family. For me, it’s AMAZING guest relations and never ending amenities. Today’s article will help you get your thinking caps on for planning your summer getaway.
The Today Show via MSNBC.com
Planning your summer trips advance will help get you the best deals — of which there are boundless choices for families this summer. Whether you are looking for the educational excursion, a beach pampering, or a city exploration, there is something for every family. And one very important thing to keep in mind when searching for the best deal is that you want to look at the overall value package — which means that finding the best deal isn’t necessarily just about finding the “cheapest room rate,” but rather finding the packages that give you the most for your money, where you will not be nickle-and-dimed for every subsequent thing you do on your vacation apart from sleep.
Here are some of Conde Nast Traveler’s favorite family summer deals that will give you the biggest bang for your buck:
1. Look to your favorite hotel chains for company-wide deals
One of the best ways to find deals for the summer is to consult your favorite hotel chains to see what company-wide deals they may be offering. This can give you the opportunity to visit any of their properties around the world for significant discounts. (READ MORE)
This Economy Reveals That Everything is Negotiable, Even Your Hotel Bill
Parents, I thought this might be helpful.
Today’s article covers topics other than travel, but I found it interesting that toward the end of the story, it reveals how you can negotiate your hotel bill. 
Did you know that you should request the concierge floor or ask to be upgraded to a suite, without the extra cost? Seems hotels are more willing to work with guests considering occupancy is at an all time low. Give these strategies a try during your next stay.
These strategies can help you talk down your doctor, your dry cleaner and your hotel.
(Money Magazine) — 1. Your doctor bill
Why now: Your MD knows times are tough. And he’s used to negotiating his fees — he does it all the time with insurers.
Strategy: If you have to shell out a chunk of cash for a covered treatment, offer to pay the doctor and hospital upfront in exchange for a 10% to 20% discount, says Andrew Cohen of the Access Project, a health-care advocacy group. They’ll often accept to avoid the hassle of dealing with your insurer. No coverage for a dental crown or physical therapy? Offer the lowest rate your provider charges an insurer(typically 30% to 50% off “retail”). To find those rates, check big insurers’ websites or go to vimo.com.
2. Your dry-cleaning bill
Why now: The recession is squeezing small businesses hard. It’s easier to get a discount at an independent shop than at a large chain store.
Strategy: Use your clout as a regular: Tally up your typical monthly tab and show it to your dry cleaner when no other customers are around. Then ask for a 10% to 20% discount, says Herb Cohen, author of “How to Negotiate Anything.” If you need to sweeten the deal, offer to pay cash (credit card fees are costly to retailers) or to drop off and pick up your clothes on slower days of the week.
3. Your hotel bill
Why now: Companies slashed travel budgets, and Americans are staycationing in droves. Hotel occupancy is expected to average less than 55% this year.
Strategy: When booking, call the hotel directly(not the 800 number) and ask the front desk or a reservations manager for a discount on the published rate. No deal? Suggest an upgrade to a suite or the concierge floor, which comes with amenities such as free breakfast and evening hors d’oeuvres at no additional charge. If you’re a member of the hotel’s frequent-stay program, mention it — you’ll have more leverage.
Yikes! Hefty Baggage Fees to Accompany Iternational Flights
OMG! There’s no getting around this one. Flying from LA to NY, I could usually just stuff most things in my carry on luggage or ship my Very Important Things (VIT) ahead. Now, airlines are working in a way to add $50. baggage fees to international flights. There’s NO WAY I can get by with JUST taking a carry on to South Africa. I’m going to look into timeshare jets. This might be the route to take, just get your own plane.
Associated Press, Joshua Freed
MINNEAPOLIS — You can leave the U.S., but it’s getting harder to leave behind baggage fees.
Fees to check bags on international flights are creeping in and may be here to stay. In the past three months, all the big U.S. carriers have added $50 fees to check a second bag on flights to Europe. Delta and Continental are charging second-bag fees for flights to Latin America, too.
We’ve flown this route before, with domestic bag fees. United Airlines started with a fee to check a second bag last year, and other carriers followed. The wave of international bag fees got started July 1 when Delta began charging to check a second bag between the U.S. and Europe.
By limiting baggage fees to domestic flights, the U.S. carriers left out a huge chunk of their traffic. More than half of Continental’s traffic this year has been international. At Delta, which started the move toward international bag fees, almost 39 percent of its traffic is international. (READ MORE)
Sites Offer Easier, More Convient Way to Manage Frequent-Flier Points
Becoming a member of a discount program requires proper management to get the full value . When it comes to managing the dates at our timeshare, or figuring out if we’ve earned that roundtrip ticket, I usually breakdown. Now, I don’t have to. According to an article in the LA Times, there are websites that will do all of the managing those frequent-flier miles for me. This should be helpful.
Los Angeles Times, Scott J. Wilson
With 23 frequent-flier accounts in his household, Scott Wilson knew there had to be a simple way to monitor them. He test-piloted several websites that range from free to $15 a year. One came out ahead.
I’ve long collected frequent-flier miles haphazardly. With each flight, 1,000 or so miles go into one of several accounts I have with various airlines.
I don’t fly a lot, so the miles don’t add up fast. But it’s like putting loose change into a jar each night — you hope that someday it’ll amount to something.
Still, keeping track of my miles has become a chore. This is compounded by the fact that I also monitor the accounts of my wife and our two children. When I looked recently, I found 23 frequent-flier accounts in our household. The only way to keep track of the miles was to log in to each account online, one at a time.
There’s got to be a better way, I thought. And there is.
I recently tried out six online services that offer to track your frequent-flier miles for you. I wanted one that would show all my family’s miles, plus the expiration dates (it’s no use accumulating miles only to see them suddenly disappear). Ideally, all the information should be on one page. And if I could get it all free, all the better.
None of the six met all those criteria. But five of them will help simplify your frequent-flier monitoring. (The sixth is not ready for prime time.) The cost ranged from free to $15 a year, and in one case, whatever you want to pay. Most of the services also allow you to track miles earned through credit card, hotel and car rental reward programs as well as through accounts established directly with the airlines. (READ MORE)
Back to School Means Fewer Lines and Lower Costs for Families Who Can Get Away
Now that America’s kids are back in the classroom and parents are getting back into the routine of things, this is a good time to take advantage of the less hassle you’ll find at airports, hotels and other travel destinations.
Today’s article lays out why planning your travel now is a smart thing to do. This fact is one of the reasons my husband and I decided to get married toward the end of August. Travel rates drop tremendously at this time, which allows us to travel on our anniversary year after year.
Tribune Media Service, Ellen Ogintz
If you’re toting a stroller and diaper bag or home-school assignments while everyone else is waiting for the school bus, your family may be ready for some low-hassle travel.
You and your kids can fly down the alpine coaster at Park City Mountain Resort, party with the “Sesame Street” gang at Beaches resorts in the Caribbean, explore nature with Appalachian Mountain Club guides in New England or learn crafts (ever see a barrel being made?) in Pigeon Forge, Tennessee, the gateway to Great Smoky Mountains National Park.
The best part — besides the great deals everywhere: “There are no lines at anything,” whether you are heading to a theme park or a new museum exhibit, says San Diego mom and blogger Sugar Jones, who is homeschooling her 7-year-old daughter and 5-year-old son this year so that they can continue to travel, learning as they go at butterfly gardens, museums and mountaintops. (Follow their adventures at www.SugarJones.TV.)
See how much fun science can be at Kid City, designed for young children at San Diego’s Reuben H. Fleet Science Center. Also in kid-friendly San Diego, your kids are the ideal age for Legoland, the San Diego Zoo and Wild Animal Park and SeaWorld, not to mention the beach. A number of museums in Balboa Park — where the Reuben H. Fleet Science Center is located — have special programs for young kids and, of course, there’s the park’s miniature railroad and carousel. SEA LIFE Aquarium just celebrated its first birthday and is especially geared toward younger children. Look for discount tickets at Costco. (READ MORE)
Parents Reflect on Summer of Staycations Only to Find, it Wasn’t That Bad
I found this story to be encouraging. Many of you wrote about not taking a vacation this year due to lay offs and a down economy. Some families opted for staycations [a vacation that you don't have to travel far to experience, usually local] and found that the memories are just as heart warming.
In spite of the economy, I hope that you, too, took advantage of your time together as a family this summer.
World-Herald, Henry J. Cordes
When Kate McKinney of Overland Park, Kan., told her four young children about the family’s upcoming vacation trip to Omaha, they’d never heard of the place.
“Is that in the United States?” one asked.
“Do they speak English there?” asked another.
They found the city wasn’t quite that exotic, but they still had a lot of fun.
They had a blast camping out in their hotel room.
They had such a good time in the children’s museum they had to be dragged out of the place.
And in the end, their mom got just what she was looking for, too: a memorable family getaway that was relatively cheap and close to home.
As the 2009 summer vacation season winds down, it appears that it will indeed go down as the year of the “staycation.” (READ MORE)
Disney Cruises Entice Parents by Offering F*R*E*E Deals for the Kids
I told you this was a great time to cruise with the family. I don’t know about you, but we’re hopping on this one. Sales are down in the travel industry, but Disney has a plan to keep their ships sailing. Here’s what I found…
Walt Disney World Events Examiner, Jeff Titelius
The Disney Deals just keep coming and Disney Cruise Line has a KIDS FREE offer for January through April next year. Last week, I mentioned the “Kids Free” promotion on all Mediterranean cruises next summer aboard the Disney Magic. However, that same offer is now available for three- and four-night Bahamian cruises too! There are some really great travel deals out there and all you need to do is look for them to take advantage of savings that we’re probably not going to see again.
Here are the details. Starting in January, kids under 18 will sail for FREE aboard the Disney Wonder when accompanying the same stateroom as two adults on most three- and four-night Bahamian cruises from January 7, 2010 to April 15, 2010 — that’s a savings of $300 to $700 per child depending upon what kind of stateroom you book. Both the three- and four-night cruises call on Nassau and Disney’s own private island, Castaway Cay. (READ MORE)
Are You Looking for That Last Minute Labor Day Deal?
My family and I won’t be traveling this Labor Day. As you are reading this post, I’ll be welcoming my third child into the world. But for those of you who are itching to get away one last time before the school season starts,we’ve learned that Budget Travel can help you find some interesting deals.
Happy Trails!
Budget Travel, Thomas Berger
Made Labor Day travel plans yet? If not, these last-minute offers may be of interest.
Expedia has 174 deals for the holiday weekend; hotels are up to 50 percent off (most are 30 to 40 percent off). Note that the phrase used is “Hotel from”: The “from” is important, because the rooms at the best rate may sell out, and then you will see a higher rate. For example, the W New Orleans is listed as “from $62″ if you stay three nights, but the best rate as I’m posting this is $397 for three nights, not $186.
CheapTicketLinks has a page of Labor Day deal links, and their “Top Deals” of the day section (not limited to Labor Day) is searchable by category (cruises, hotels, car rentals, and packages).
Travelzoo has end-of-summer specials, most of which end right around Labor Day. For example, they have a Bahamas deal with the third night free at an all-inclusive in the Bahamas and rates for the two nights you pay for from $125 a night.
CruiseCompete has gathered together all of its cruises that include Labor Day; there’s a lot to wade through. They do have a five-night Caribbean cruise that sails from Fort Lauderdale and starts at $330.
Don’t forget to check lastminutedeals.com, and if you’re on Twitter consider signing up for the feeds of your favorite companies such as Priceline, and JetBlue. Or become a fan of your favorite companies on Facebook, finding their pages by searching on their names. Companies often use these social networking tools to get the word out about special offers.
Slump Economy Makes This Time Better Than Ever to Cruise as a Family
Cruising has its rewards. Once you’re on the ship, you never have to leave if you wish not to, the food has already been paid for and there’s childcare for parents. Before now, many families shunned the idea of a cruise vacation when they would consider the cost of sometimes $399 or more per person, no matter the age. If you have a party of five, the cost can add up, fast. 
In today’s economy, cruise lines are barely scraping by to meet their overhead demands and stay in the red. This is to our advantage. Now, you can find four day, three night deals at $199. per person or less. Please note, not all cruise ships are family-friendly. Family Travel Suite highly recommends Carnival and Disney Cruise Lines.
ABC News Travel, Tom Dwyer and Susan Wagner
In this slumping economy, sailing off for exotic locales might seem outside most people’s budgets. But that’s just one myth that even many seasoned travelers believe about cruises. There has never been a better time for cruise deals and discounted travel packages. And you only have to unpack once.
So, we set sail on Holland America Line’s Mediterranean Romance Cruise — Venice to Barcelona — to help bust the biggest myths about cruising, and to visit some of the world’s most beautiful ports.
Myth No. 1: Cruises Are Expensive (READ MORE)
Travel Agencies Making a Comeback as Some Travel Sites Prove too Overwhelming for Customers
At first it seemed like the more convienent, more independent thing to do. Why spend time driving to a travel agent’s office perusing through brochures and forking over a fee, when you had everything you needed right at your fingertips on the internet?
Well, with the overstock of online travel sites and enhanced, hidden fees, more travelers are turning back to that good old one-on-one service of a travel agent. After reading this article, it is highly likely that I’ll be booking our winter family trip to Hawaii through an agent to ensure that we get the best deal.
How about you? Do you prefer online booking or going through an agent? Chime in.
CNN, Stephanie Chen
(CNN) — If you’ve booked travel online, you may have been there.
Online travel sites flooded with overwhelming options, all claiming the best deals. Extra fees nestled into the fine print amid blaring advertisements. Pounding 16 digits into the telephone after you’ve booked the wrong flight before finally getting a human voice.
A few weeks ago, Darin Kaplan, a tech-savvy 27-year-old California restaurant manager, clicked his mouse hundreds of times, surfing the vast choices offered by online travel booking Web sites like Expedia.com and Orbitz.com to plan his 28th birthday cruise to Mexico before he gave up in frustration.
“It’s a cut-and-paste experience when you’re booking online. None of these sites are going to tell me what I can do with different options,” said Kaplan, who uses the Internet for many purchases, including his basketball shorts and music tickets. “Travel agents know what they are talking about. It’s more comforting to hand my money to someone who has the knowledge and experience.” (FULL STORY)
