If you are reading Budget Travel for the first time, you should know that every one of our issues from the beginning has carried a listing of 20 "money-saving tips." Including the 20 here, we've thus far divulged a total of 380, and we've already bought the bubbly (a California brand for less than $25) for celebrating the day--six issues from now--when wereach a grand total of 500.
A tip, for us, is a brief gem applicable to a great many of your trips. It refers not to specific dates, nor (usually) to a particular hotel or restaurant, but to matters more general. Send us your own ideas (to Tips Editor, Arthur Frommer's Budget Travel, 530 Seventh Ave., New York, NY 10018) and we'll award two-year subscriptions or extensions for those wepublish.
In the meantime, here are 20 brand-new ones.
1. Many city art galleries promote their exhibitions by offering free receptions on Friday evenings, with fare from wine and cheese to full buffet meals. Scan the weekend section of the major local newspaper for art gallery announcements that include the words "free opening reception."
--Lori Klasowski, Sarasota FL
2. You can travel to the Caribbean and Mexico from many major U.S. cities for $250 to $325 round-trip if you let a company called AirTech choose the destination and the date of your departure (usually within a four-day time frame you specify). Better known for its flexible flights to Europe, AirTech maintains a less-publicized program serving up to a dozen spots in the Caribbean and Mexico from cities such as Newark, Philadelphia, Baltimore, Chicago, Denver, and Oakland. If your sole aim is to fly far into the Tropics from your own wintry home, and you don't care where you'll alight,AirTech is for you. Details: www.airtech.com or 212/219-7000.
3. An easily accessible British Web site, www.venuemasters.co.uk, represents a number of university residence halls in London and other major U.K. cities that offer single rooms in summer at an unbeatable average of ?22.50 (less than $32). While not the ultimate in luxury, even the most basic residences include everything you really need--a bed, a desk, and access to a bathroom and, in London, a nearby Underground station. Rooms are cleaned daily and usually include breakfast.
4. In addition to charging no annual fee (other than an initial issuance charge), an MBNA credit card does not add a pesky 1 to 2 percent extra over and above the 1-percent transaction fee imposed by Visa and MasterCard on use of the card in a foreign country (as many other bank-issued credit cards do). By maintaining those traveler-friendly policies, MBNAclaims to have become the world's largest independent credit card issuer. (There is, however, a charge for use of its card at foreign ATM machines.) To apply for a no-annual-fee and no-transaction-charge MBNA card, saving you asmuch as 2 percent on your payments overseas, phone 800/932-2775.
5. A new Web site called TravelChums (www.travelchums.com) enables younger travelers to find travel companions andthus share costs and avoid single-room supplements. Though it seems to lack the personal service of the longer-established Travel Companion Exchange (631/454-0880, www.whytravelalone.com), it appears to cater to a younger clientele and has already acquired over 10,000 members.
6. If you are planning a longer-than-average stay in Paris (say, two weeks or more), you'll find invaluable money-saving information in English in a monthly 78-page magazine called FUSAC (France USA Contacts). Each month, it runs scores of classified ads for short-term Paris apartment and room rentals, requests for English-speaking baby-sitters, low-cost Frenchlanguage instruction, English/French conversation clubs for evening entertainment (budget-level), and short-term jobs for English speakers (for which work papers are generally required). For a single issue ($10 by first-class mail, $7 by third-class), log on to www.fusac.com or phone 212/777-5553.
7. The many Las Vegas Web sites are powerful tools for finding discounted prices at hotels on the eve of departure. Such addresses as www.vegas.com and www.lasvegas.com are better sources for last-minute discounts, in our experience, than those maintained for any other city. With their advanced technology, streaming video, panoramic shots of hotel rooms, daily revisions, and up-to-date price cuts, they are mighty impressive and highly effective. On www.vegas.com, simply insert your dates; on www.lasvegas.com,click on "Hot Travel Deals."
8. Travelers over the age of 50 can stay overnight in nearly 2,000 private homes all over the country and a few abroad, receiving breakfast, for only $15 double, $10 single, per night, by joining the 20-year-old Evergreen Bed & Breakfast Club and also agreeing to accept an occasional guest in their own homes. The annual charge is $60 to $75. Getdetails from www.evergreenclub.com or The Evergreen Club at 201 West Broad Street #181, Falls Church, VA 22046, tel/fax 815/456-3111. Families with children, unfortunately, can't use the service.
9. After getting a bargain offer from one of the general Web sites for hotel discounts, always access the hotel's own Web site or that of the chain to which it belongs (like www.hyatt.com) to see whether it's offering an even better rate. Often, hotels or hotel chains post sensational last-minute discounts on their own Web sites without passing them on to the sites dealing with the entire hotel industry.
10. Seniors arriving in any major city here or abroad should immediately seek out a resident of senior age (or the local tourist board) to inquire about the transportation and other discounts that virtually all such cities make available to people 65 or older. New York City, for instance, cuts the price of subway and bus fares in half for seniors, but youmust request the discount when paying your fare at a subway ticket booth. In San Diego, seniors pay only $1 to ride the city bus ("the Flyer") downtown from the airport and pay only $6.75 for an unlimited bus (and trolley) pass for thesecond half of each month.
11. A Web site run by BreezeNet's Rental Car Guide & Reservations (www.bnm.com or www.rentalcarguide.com) is a comprehensive source of discounts at both airports and nonairport rental locations all over the country. In over 100 major U.S. cities, it lets you compare the rates offered by several auto rental companies for your dates, and often there are considerable savings by choosing the best-priced one. In other instances, it lists the companies offering discounts off their normal rates (in your city and for your dates) of between 15 and 25 percent. And a feature called "11th Hour Specials" offers last-minute bargains. You should never commit to a car rental without first consulting these sites.
12. For an upcoming trip to Orlando or Anaheim (America's theme park capitals), you will almost always secure a sensational lodging rate by logging on to www.choicehotels.com and then clicking on "Hot Deals." Choice Hotels--consisting of Econo Lodge, Rodeway, Sleep, Comfort, Quality, and Clarion Inns and Hotels--has so many properties in the Orlando/Kissimmee and Anaheim areas that several are nearly always posting bargains for Web site users, like the recent offer of an upscale Clarion Hotel room for only $45 a night including buffet breakfast for two and shuttle to Disney, or a Quality Inn room for $39.95 including continental breakfast for two and free airport shuttle.
13. Making your wishes precisely understood, by pointing to pictures of the product or service you want, is a key to saving money in countries where English is little used or understood. Pick up a Kwikpoint Translator--a brightly illustrated, laminated card covered with pictures of objects and places you can simply point to, such as a post office, a pharmacy or clinic, foods and utensils, a toilet, a hotel room with bath, without bath, with one large bed or twin beds--before leaving. The smallest one has 100 pictures, folds to the size of a credit card, and costs $4, while the largest folds to passport size, has 600 pictures, and costs $10. Phone 888/594-5764 or access www.kwikpoint.com.
14. In addition to the airfare consolidators (discounters) that accept bookings directly from the public, a number of other powerful consolidators deal only with travel agents and can often be the source of extremely low fares. When a travel agent writes you an air ticket to any part of the world, always ask him/her to contact a member of the United StatesAir Consolidators Association, which will surely offer an advantageous price for your ticket. The Web sites of the ten members of UACA are www.cnhintl.com, www.der.com, www.dfwtours.com, www.diplomattours.com, www.jandoair.com, www.pacificgateway.com, www.picassotravel.net, www.skylinkus.com, www.solartours.com, and www.transamtravel.com, of which only DFW and Solar take reservations directly from the public.
15 While it is true (as stated in a previous tip) that you should always keep calling the car rental company as the date for which you've reserved a car approaches (in hopes of finding that the price has come down) you should never give them the phone number under which you made the original reservation. If you do, they will find your original reservation in their computer and simply re-quote the same figure to you. Only after getting the lower price quote should you then give them the original confirmation details for your new reservation.
--Larry A. Brotman, Marina del Rey CA
16. On a trip to Europe, you'll greatly increase your chances of being upgraded to a higher-category rental car at no extra cost by picking up the car late in the day, when the rental agencies have run out of their economy category vehicles. This has worked for us on three recent trips to Paris. Instead of picking up the car we had reserved earlier at theairport on arrival, we took the train or bus into town and picked up our car at a train station. Twice, the free upgrade was two categories higher!
--Lorna Laurienzo, San Francisco CA
17. If you live in a location lacking inexpensive transport from your home to the airport, and you are leaving on a long trip requiring a hefty long-term airport parking fee, rent a car at the airport for one day on the night before departure. This will require driving out to the airport with another person who can drive your own car back while you drive the rental car home. Next day, you drive to the airport in the rental car, drop it off, pay the one-day rental charge (about $17 in my case), and you've saved the $140 to $160 you would've paid for long-term parking there. On the return trip, you again rent a car for one day on arrival, drive it home, and then the next day turn it in, accompanied by a friend or relative who drives your own car to the airport and then returns you home. This tactic works well for me, but mightnot in cities where car rentals might be more expensive.
--Ren Calixto, North Miami Beach FL
18. If you want to vacation at the wonderful Atlantis Hotel in Paradise Island, Bahamas, but can't afford the Atlantis' luxury rates, book a room at the much cheaper Comfort Suites directly across the street and then get free use of all facilities (beach, pool, aquarium, etc.) at the Atlantis. This arrangement between the Atlantis Resort and Comfort Suites continues to this day. My travel agent reluctantly told me about it some years ago after I made it clear that there was no way we were going to pay for the Atlantis.
--Sheila F. Greenfield, Great Neck NY
19. When you have several hours between flights, jump on the first free shuttle to any major airport-area hotel; the food there will be better and often cheaper, and the surroundings a change of pace. The time will fly by, and sooner than you think, it will be time to hop back on the shuttle for the trip back to the terminal and that next flight.
--Vikki Kristic, Ferndale CA
20. If you can wait until a Monday to reserve for the following weekend, you'll be guaranteed at least 40 percent off the nondiscounted rate at hundreds of Holiday Inns worldwide at www.weekendwebsavers.com. These rates are posted every Monday for the following Friday, Saturday, and Sunday nights, and the site's very friendly to use. Most discounted rates in the U.S. seem to average $45 to $55 per night, although my wife and I stayed recently at the Jekyll Island branch in Georgia for an amazing $25.50.
--Earl Johnson, Live Oaks FL
Editor's Note: In the "20 Tips" in our Nov/Dec 2001 issue, we printed a reader's suggestion that visitors to Orlando ask their chambermaids about the unused theme park passes (say, a four-day pass on which only three days have been used) that some hotel guests discard in their hotel rooms when they check out; these, apparently, are often sold at bargain prices to newly arriving guests by such hotel staff. We have been advised that Florida law prohibits such resales, and we apologize for inadvertently conveying an improper suggestion.