Spend St. Patrick’s Day in Ireland 2.29.12

The Emerald Isle is a top destination on many travel bucket lists, but what most of those people don’t realize is that Ireland can be so affordable. For those that want to spend the St. Patrick’s Day holiday there, they can do so on a budget. Aer Lingus Vacations wants to help you make your vacation dreams a reality with this great deal:

Spend six nights in Ireland, complete with daily breakfast, round-trip airfare from New York (other departure cities available) and rental car. All this, including a stay in a castle from just $999 per person. Everything outside of where you stay is up to you. Drive all over Ireland to see what you want. Book by February 29 for this deal. If your budget is fairly limited, you can find some affordable activities:

Visit the national museums – The national museums that are centrally located in Dublin have free admission and they are a great way to learn about the history of Ireland for nothing. National Museum in Kildare Street, National Museum in Collins Barracks and Natural History Museum are just a few of the ones that you can enjoy for free.

St. Patrick’s Cathedral – For just €5.50 admission, you can celebrate the church’s namesake. You can get in for free if you are there to worship, but know that all your entry contributions directly go back into the church upkeep.

Discover the native plants and flowers of Ireland at the National Botanic Gardens in Dublin. Arrive on a Sunday and get a free guided tour at noon or 2:30pm. The gardens are great any time of year, as there are plants growing all the time, including fruits and vegetables.

The nature preserve on North Bull Island is a little-known tourist destination. Some 25,000 wading birds also reside on the island’s bird sanctuary. You can also visit the Royal Dublin Golf Course, for those of you that like to golf around the world.

Visit and learn about 23 different tourist attractions in Dublin when you board the Hop-on Hop-off tour bus in Dublin. Obviously, I am a big fan of the double-decker bus tours, because you can stay on for one circuit and get a whole guided tour and you can also get on and get off at any of the stops. It helps you save on transportation (or having to drive around and find parking) and tour guides. The bus will run you €16 (€6 for children) and if you buy tickets online, you can save 20% off! You won’t waste any time between stops either, as the bus runs continuously every 10-15 minutes.

If you have a bit more money in your budget, spring for a Dublin Pass and get entry to over 30 attractions and skip the ticket lines. Enjoy activities, like the Dublin Zoo, Christ Church Cathedral, Guinness Storehouse and more from just €35. Each pass comes with a map and guidebook and gets you discounts to shops, restaurants and other awesome things you’ll want to see and do. 

How to Rent a Car on a Budget 2.25.12

Sometimes you just need a car to get around, like Orlando in the off-season. I don’t know if you’ve noticed or not, but a lot of times you try to book a car and find that the rates are astronomical. What’s that all about? Should you really have to pay the same per day from a normal rental company for several days as you do for a Zipcar for 4 hours? I think not. So, what do you do? You use Autoslash!

Honestly, if Jonathan Weinburg – the owner of Autoslash – hadn’t contacted me to tell me about his new page when it was just starting out, I probably still wouldn’t know about it, but I’m so glad I do. The concept is simple. You look for a suitable rental car for the dates at your destination. You choose a rental rate from the chart of available cars and rental companies. The price you see is the MOST you will pay for your rental. Of course, it may be a bit steep, because that is “rack rate”. You aren’t obligated to go through with your rental, as you never give your credit card info and can cancel at any time.

Autoslash is free and easy to use and they make planning a vacation THAT MUCH easier on you, because while you’re busy deciding the rest of your trip details, they are working hard behind the scenes trying to get you an even better deal. They search every day for discounts that can be applied to your rental, as well as lower rates on the same reservation. When they find one, they tell you, but they also rebook you at the lower rate. You don’t have to do a thing! They will work until the day of your booking to get you the best price. If the rate drops 10 times, they will change your booking 10 times. It’s true!

I booked a 4-day car rental with Dollar through Autoslash. The original price was $210. Ridiculous, right? The next day I checked my email and they had applied discount codes to my rental and it dropped to $145. The next day I received another email telling me that they found a rental with discounts that was just $135! I saved $75 in just two days. I still have two weeks to go before my trip, but even if my rate doesn’t change again, I am happy to know that Autoslash found a much lower rate for me than I could have found on my own, because the cheapest rental I could find – for an economy car – was $190. You don’t have time to keep checking car rental rates and neither do I. Let Autoslash help you out and then tell your traveling friends about the amazing discount you ended up with to spread the word of this awesome company. You can also find them on Facebook and follow them on Twitter.

Spring For a Budget Break 2.22.12

All the kids are counting down to it and so are you, but probably for very different reasons. Spring Break is almost here and that means you have a whole week to think of how to entertain your children (if you have them) or worry about your college student (if you have one) or figure out how to fit your travel plans into your budget (if you have one). Spring is a great time to travel; however, it can get a bit dicey during the month of March, because Spring Break varies across the country, making it impossible to know when you will have to share your space with a bajillion hard-partying college kids – and sometimes those well out of their college days – or have to pay twice as much for hotels and airfare. Luckily, with the economy still kinda sucky, deals are easier than ever to find. You just have to pick one, pay for it and go. But where?

Somehow, I feel that now that I’m an adult and I want to travel during Spring Break, because I’m not actually getting a forced vacation, like so many school kids and their parents, I shouldn’t have to pay “holiday” rates, because it doesn’t affect me. Too bad that’s now how it actually works: You don’t get Spring Break, so you don’t have to pay Spring Break prices…Until someone figures out how that works, we will have to continue to avoid the crowds and search for discounts. I suppose if anyone shouldn’t have to pay holiday prices, it’s the poor parents that have just come off of Christmas and already dreading planning how to keep their kids out of trouble and entertained for the three months of summer that’s right around the corner, but I digress.

Where to go that’s family-friendly – or at least less likely to get you crushed by drunken 20-somethings – for your free week? One of the best deals I’ve found is for last-minute cruises from Expedia. Last-minute includes next week, next month or two months from now. If you have the desire to cruise and want to visit the Caribbean or Mexico (despite the Spring Breakers), then this is a great time to book one. Rates start at just $219 per person for an inside cabin. Obviously, rates vary by cabin and length of cruise, but if you book by February 29, you are likely to snatch up great sailings, like a 7-night Western Caribbean cruise from Port Canaveral for just $449pp or an 8-night Eastern Caribbean Cruise from Miami for only $499pp. Got more time (and money) on your hands? Check out a 17-night transatlantic cruise from Fort Lauderdale for $799pp or a 21-night cruise from Fort Lauderdale to the Southern Caribbean (ports include Aruba, St. Thomas, Curacao and Half Moon Cay) from $1449pp.

What else is out there? Well, you can always do the old standby and plan a frugal trip to Vegas. I’ll be flying into Las Vegas for my next trip, though I’ll be driving to St. George, Utah to meet up with friends where we will go hiking, visit a ghost town, get pedicures and do family cookouts. I found a great deal on airfare and also a rental car for my trip and so can you. Southwest, JetBlue and many other airlines are offering deals to Sin City. If staying on the Strip, skip the car rental and book an airport shuttle instead. You could save $100+ on a week stay and can take the free tram from one end of the strip to the other instead. Your trip can be super budget if you need it to be. Here are some free and cheap Vegas activities to do while you’re there.

South America is always a great Spring Break destination, because not only is it not a destination college kids look at to par-tay, but it's also budget-friendly. If you are looking to spend about half the price for a vacation, then South America (and even Central America) is where you should look. You'll have a less traditional Spring Break, save some money and help a struggling economy. Brush up on your Spanish and pack your warm weather clothes!

Need a hotel or even a whole package? The CheapTickets Winter Hotel Sale is on through February 29. Save on your hotel or flight & hotel package with big discounts, free nights, resort credits and more. Enjoy some of the lowest rates of the season and also read up on tips that can help save you even more.

Are you traveling for Spring Break? Where are you going?