How to Organize Your Vacation for Pennies: Websites with Cheap Air Tickets and Travel Packages

Finding great travel deals is a skill that can be honed. Lifehacker tells you about the best travel sites where you can find cheap travel deals.

Skyscanner to find the cheapest flights

Google Flights is more user-friendly and has cool features. But if you’re serious about finding the cheapest flights, Skyscanner — this is what you need. Here you will find flights that won’t even appear on Google Flights. Skyscanner has a Google-like search tool. You simply enter your local airport, select “all month” for dates, and hit “search” to find all possible cheap destinations for that month.

You can catch last-minute flight deals and set up cheap flight alerts.

SecretFlying to set up alerts for fares with errors

Airlines sometimes make mistakes. You have to be prepared to take advantage of those mistakes.

On the subject: How much does a holiday in the most expensive resorts in the world cost?

SecretFlying — is a travel deal site that works like all the others. However, it has a special tool for finding cheap flights that are caused by airline errors. For example, last month there was a tempting roundtrip flight from Chicago to London for just $58.

Travel Arrow Expansion

Travel Arrow is an extension you can install on your browser that will match your Google Flight information with Skyscanner, Kayak, Trip, and Expedia. It’s a free tool for booking cheaper flights. Keep in mind that some flights may be cheaper because they have long layovers.

Vacation Package Sites

There are many websites that will sell you travel packages. They include flights, hotels, food, tours, and even transportation for a much lower price than if you tried to book everything separately. The problem is that these packages usually have strict dates and bad cancellation policies. But you can find amazing deals in places you otherwise wouldn’t be able to afford.

For example, the Gate1 has been around since the 1980s. The resource helps travelers visit expensive places on a budget. Their best promotions are weekly specials. You can sign up for their newsletter and hot deals. Here you can find multi-day tours with big discounts.

For example, you can take a 13-day trip to Thailand for $2249. The tour includes:

• Roundtrip airfare from Los Angeles to Bangkok;
• domestic flight from Chiang Mai to Bangkok;
• 11 nights at the hotel;
• taxes, fees, service charges and porter fees;
• 18 meals: 11 breakfasts, 3 lunches, 4 dinners;
• excursions in a modern air-conditioned bus;
• services of an English speaking tour manager throughout the entire route;
• Entrance tickets according to the route.

Here are some more sites similar to Gate1 where you can find great deals on packages for your next trip: