MONEY-- SAVING TRAVEL TIPS

Learn a few cost-cutting tricks to stretch your vacation budget.

Work the Internet.
           Sign up for every travel deal newsletter and e-mail alert you come across online.  Travelocity and Travelzoo send weekly specials on hotels, flights, cruises, car rentals and entertainment items, like tickets to theater programs, concerts and sporting events, as well as museum passes and spa deals.  Individual airlines and hotel chains send bargains by e-mail, too, so sign up for your favorites on their individual websites.

Find hot hotel deals
          Hotwire guarantees a great bang for your buck when it comes to hotel rooms.  You won't know what hotel you've booked until after you've paid, but you do select the city, neighborhood and star-rating.  For example, a typical hotel room at a four-star hotel in Midtown Manhattan might run you $300 or more on the weekend.  Using Hotwire, you can find a hotel with those specifications for half that price.
          Hotel loyalty programs are a bargain if you're a frequent traveler.  National chains offer incentives for your allegiance, like free stays and luxurious upgrades.  If you travel often for business (or pleasure), you can save hundreds of dollars a year.

Be flexible.
           Traveling on weekdays instead of the weekend is almost always a deal.  In large cities like Chicago and Dallas that are popular for business travelers, you might find a better deal on the weekend than during the week.
            Last-minute vacation packages are popular ---- and usually a great value ---- for cruises and popular tourists spots like Las Vegas and Hawaii.  But last-minute deals may have some short-comings.  You might be able to save a bundle on a short-notice cruise package, but airfare to your port designation could be sky-high.  Look for deals in port cities you can travel to by car.  For example, cruises shipping out of Baltimore go to Bermuda, the Bahamas, the Caribbean and Canada.

Save on air travel.
            Unless you're using frequent flier miles for a specific airline, always comparison shop to find the best deal.  Kayak is a great search engine site for comparing multiple sites at once.
             Track airfare prices using FareCompare before you buy, and Yapta before and after you buy.  Yapta will even send you price-drop alerts on flight tickets you'vealready purchased.  Many airlines will refund or credit the difference, though you'll have to check with each carrier individually, and if you purchased your tickets through a second-party site like Orbitz or Expedia, limitations may apply.
             Southwest Airlines doesn't charge for checked baggage, but most other airlines do.  Pack light and carry on your belongings to avoid costly fees.  Or group your checked items into one suitcase.  For example, without a doubt, a family of four with a baby will have to check some items.  Instead of checking one bag per person, however, this family could pack only items that must be checked ( like large bottles of shampoo, baby formula and tubes of toothpaste) into one suitcase and carry on the rest.
             Usually it's the toiletries that throw off the carry-on baggage plan, so figure out if they're worth the $25 to $50 per flight fee.  Can you ship them to your designation hotel or a local post office in advance?  Can you buy them at a drug store or supermarket once you get there?  Or can you do without them altogether?  It's hard to justify paying $50 extra in order to bring a $15 bottle of body spray or $9 bottle of tanning oil.

Split the costs.
             Plan a trip with family or friends to split costs and share the fun.  Rather than booking individual hotel rooms, bundle your money and rent a vacation home.  Share the osts of a rental car and gas.  Buy groceries for the week together and take turns cooking meals.  It takes some coordination, but you may be able to afford to see and do more while you're on vacation if you can save on some of the big costs like accommodations and food.

Be a frugal traveler.
             Airfare, hotel rooms, car rentals, museum passes --- it all adds up, even with great deals.  Save more money by stretching your dollar.
              Book a hotel room with a kitchenette, buy food from a local grocery store, and skip the cost of dining out for a few meals.  Buy fresh fruit, a loaf of bread and a bottle of jam, and eat breakfast in your room instead of paying $10 a meal in a diner or cafe.  Pack a sandwich, a bag of pretzels, and a bottle of water for a light lunch later in the day.
              Splurge on lunch, not dinner.  Many restaurants offer lunch menus with their dinner entrees for as much as 30 percent off of their dinner prices.  (And if you have leftovers, bring them back to your room for dinner or a late-night snack.)
              If possible, skip paying for a rental car and use public transit instead.  Or rent a bicycle or walk to places of interest instead of taking taxis.

A few overseas insights...
             Before you travel out of the country, review your credit card and cell phone policies to avoid international fees and rates.  It may be better to pull a lot of cash out of the ATM ---- and carry it in a money belt ---- than to use your credit or debit card for every transaction.  Some wireless carriers charge exorbitant rates for international calling, others don't, so check with your wireless phone provider before you overspend.
             If your travel plans are flexible, visit places with good exchange rates.  The value of the dollar in euros may be better than in British pounds, for example.