12 More Money-Saving Travel Tips

The first set of 25 Money-Saving Travel Tips from the editors of The Insider Travel Guides was a huge success, so we are releasing our second set:

1. Whenever you can, schedule your air travel for Tuesday, Wednesday, or Saturday, Those are the off-peak days for business travelers and week-long vacationers, so you're more likely to get a good deal.
2. Don't forget to compare all the additional fees, like those for baggage, reserved seats, etc., when you compare flight prices online.  These can vary from airline to airline and so can really affect your bottom line.
3. Planning a weekend get-away?  Consider staying at a hotel ­located in the business district of your destination city.  Hotel chains like W Hotels, Westin hotels, and Sheratons (all members of the Starwood hotel company) are not only bursting with amenities, like health clubs and room service, that entice business travelers but make a weekend stay pleasant, too, but they also frequently drop their prices by up to 50 percent on weekends.
4. For longer trips, we have long been proponents of hotel alternatives, such as renting a vacation condo or staying at a bed & breakfast. So we were delighted to see the rise of online services that link travelers with private homes, whose owners rent out their apartments or houses on a nightly basis. Staying in a private home is the ultimate way to have an insider's view of the place you are visiting. And it can often provide a much more affordable option to pricey hotels.  Check out web sites like AirBnB, istopover, 9Flats, Roomorama and Wimdu to learn more.
5. Sign up for flash sale sites that offer travel deals, like Groupon Getaways, Jetsetter, Living Social Escapes and TravelZoo to receive time-sensitive but almost too-good-to-be-true prices on hotels, flights and more.
6. And while you're at it, sign up with sites like Bloomspot.com, Google Offers, Groupon, LivingSocial, Yelp, Yipit and Zozi for the location you are going to, so you can save on restaurants, sporting events, museums and attractions, and other activities throughout your trip.
7. But as helpful as the Internet can be in finding travel savings, for the best last-minute deals, you are often better off in dealing directly with discount airlines and with hotel properties by phone.  Note: while an airline's toll-free hotline generally yields the best last minute airfare deals; for the best hotel deals, you should call the location where you want to stay directly and speak with the manager, who has the best incentive to fill unreserved rooms.
8. Whenever you are driving, follow the tips in The Insider's Guide to Saving Gas to make sure you aren't spending more for gas than you absolutely have to.
9. You can avoid the now-standard $25 fee that most airlines for checked luggage when you fly JetBlue or Southwest Airlines, neither of which has yet adopted the fee. Or you can shave a few dollars off (usually $2 or $3) by checking in online. But if you have lots of luggage and/or heavy or over-sized items (think skis, snowboards and golf clubs), you might do better to have the items shipped ahead. The Postal Service, UPS and FedEx provide this service, of course, but you can also try one of the companies that have risen up to take on this task. Check out our list.
10. If you are traveling with children, consider places that welcome your kids with wonderful freebies. For example, Holiday Inn lets kids stay and eat free, which can ending up saving you a lot.
11. Many hotels offer freebies for adults, too. Look for free parking, free newspapers, free Internet, free gym and pools, and best of all, free meals, like the cooked-to-order breakfasts offered by Embassy Suite Hotels.
12. Take at look at the nine suggestions in The Ultimate Guide to Free Travel -- while all of them might not be for you (house-sitting, for example, might be more work than its worth), you might find something that that will allow you to enjoy a wonderful vacation - for free!