This article is in partnership with KAYAK. As always, all thoughts and opinions are our own. Holiday travel can be tough. Not only are there more people in the air, on the roads, and in hotels all around the world, but prices also tend to skyrocket during the holidays. To help ease the pain of holiday travel, we’ve partnered with the world’s leading travel search engine KAYAK to showcase some of our best holiday travel tips and hacks to make holiday travel easier. First as a couple, and now as a family of four, Charles and I have travelled together since 2002. In those 15 years, we’ve managed to learn a few things about holiday travel. Some were tougher lessons than others.
Sometimes, we’re the ones who’ve made the mistake, like the time we were stuck in a small Thai town for 3 days because we forgot to check if local transportation shut down for the holidays. Other times, we’ve learned from the mistakes of our Barefoot Nomad community, as well as friends and family. Either way, those mistakes have taught us plenty. Here are our best, hard-learned travel hacks and tips for holiday travel to help you save money and travel more smoothly this holiday season.
Don’t wrap gifts before you flyWe’ve been guilty of this one. Wrapping gifts before your flight sounds like a great way to save time when you’re flying, right? Unfortunately, no. Airport security can ask you to unwrap gifts to see inside, meaning you may have to wrap them twice. We’ve also found that gifts often get little tears and rips in transit, anyway. Instead of pre-wrapping our gifts, we now bring tape and wrapping paper and child safe scissors for this reason. Gift bags are also a great solution, as you can easily pop the gifts into the bags at your destination. Even better, consider shipping your presents to your destination ahead of time. You can also have presents shipped directly to relatives through Amazon as a gift. Just be sure to tell your recipients not to open them before you get there! Sign up for price alertsPrice alerts have saved us a lot of money over the years. Last year, we needed to fly over the Christmas Holidays in late December from Calgary to Cancun, Mexico. You could have knocked me down with a feather when I first saw the high prices. Even worse, almost all of the flights had a long connection somewhere in the USA. Luckily, we had over a month to find a better price, so I set up a flight alert. Boom! A few days later I got a flight alert saying that there was a sale on direct flights on one of our favorite Canadian airlines. Taking two minutes to set up a flight alert saved us hundreds of dollars, and also a lot of time. You can set a Price Alert on KAYAK to get customized alerts to your email Inbox. You can even get alerts for hotel price changes as well as flights! That way, if your flight or hotel price drops, you’ll get an email letting you know right away.
Take advantage of cancellation policiesWe’ve rarely seen this tip anywhere else, but it could save you a lot of money. Book in advance to lock in a good price, but make sure that your hotel or flight has a clear, no cost cancellation policy. Then, mark the last day you can cancel by on your calendar, and set a reminder for a day or two before. If your plans change, or if you find a better deal before the cancellation date, you can cancel without penalty. If your plans don’t change, you’ll have grabbed a good early booking discount. Stay flexibleIt’s hard to have a lot of flexibility during the holidays, but if you can use an alternative airport, or fly on alternative days, you can save a lot of money. Even managing to move your flight or hotel reservation a day or two can be a big money saver. Here’s how to get flexible dates on your flight searches. When you search for airfare on KAYAK, enter your travel dates and use the Flex Search feature by adjusting the depart and return options from the dropdown box. This shows you how much money you can save by showing up to three flexible arrival or departure days. Here’s an example of how much you can save using Flexible Dates. We searched for a flight from Vancouver to Toronto over the holiday season at the end of December. We used the Flexible Dates feature on KAYAK, giving us three days flexibility for either departure or arrival dates. The most expensive flight was $973 from December 22 to December 30. With a little flexibility, we found a flight for $630 from December 20 to December 29. That’s a savings of $343 a ticket! Even better, the cheaper flight was a non-stop flight with Air Canada. As a family, we book four tickets, so the Flexible Dates we found on KAYAK could have saved us a whopping $1,372 ($343 per ticket times four)! Consider Christmas in early DecemberEven if you’re incredibly flexible on dates, travel during holiday peak season costs more, and attractions are almost guaranteed to be more crowded. If you can reschedule your trip, consider travelling during low season. Not only do prices drop, there are also fewer people around, and you’ll have a better choice of accommodation.
Be prepared for delaysUnfortunately, since the holidays often bring poor winter weather and busier airports, delays become more common. You may end up having an extended wait at your gate, or even a delayed flight. Be prepared by having a movie on your phone or laptop (Netflix now lets you download many shows for offline mode!) in case airport WiFi is overwhelmed or spotty. Strongly consider buying trip cancellation and interruption insurance that covers you for itinerary changes or cancellations. Choose alternative airportsWant to save even more money or get a more direct flight? When selecting your destination on KAYAK.com, check the little box that reads Nearby Airports at the top of the drop down menu. You’ll automatically see results for airports close to your original choice, which can help you snag a flight with a chance of fewer connections or at a better price. Miami and Fort Lauderdale are perfect examples of this. We’ve saved hundreds per ticket by flying into one airport and departing from the other. We’ve also saved by flying into one place and renting a car and driving down to another. The nice part is that we’ve often incorporated the drive into the journey. Like the time we flew into Las Vegas, stayed for a few nights then rented a car and drove to Arizona to visit family. Not only did we get to check out Hoover Dam but we also had the opportunity to see the Grand Canyon and the picturesque town of Sedona. The nicest part was that we saved so much on our tickets by flying into Las Vegas that it paid for the cost of our rental car and a few nights in a hotel. For Canadian flights, depart from the USA insteadFor Canadian departures or arrivals, you can save a fair bit of money choosing an alternative airport at a border city in the United States. It’s common practice for Canadians to do this, but it’s not common practice for other nationalities flying into Canada. You’ll need to drive, or grab a bus or taxi from Canada, but you can save a lot of money. We did this for a trip to Oahu, Hawaii back in 2012, choosing to depart from Bellingham, Washington instead of Vancouver, Canada (the cities are 56 miles or 89 km apart). We saved hundreds of dollars on that flight, plus we got a better direct flight, and had a chance to do some shopping in Bellingham on the way back. Common US border cities are:
Book two one-way flightsSurprisingly, booking two one way flights with different airlines can save money over a round trip ticket with the same airline. At KAYAK, they call these Hacker fares, and they can get you more affordable fares, and better flights.
Fly on the actual holidayWe’ve found some smoking hot airfare deals by being willing to travel on Christmas Day and even New Year’s Day. Since most flyers want to be at their destination early, tickets for flying on the actual holiday are often more affordable. We’ve flown on Christmas day and New Year’s Day several times over the years when trying to see both sides of our family during the holiday break and have found it to be one the quietest times to fly. As a bonus, companies often include holiday perks like special snacks and holiday themed meals. We even had the president of Canadian airline Westjet join us on our December 31st flight to wish the passengers Happy New Year! Ready to book?Start your travel planning at KAYAK.com, and try out some of these hacks. Want to share your best hacks? Hit up social media with the hashtag #KAYAKTravelHacker! from The Barefoot Nomad http://www.thebarefootnomad.com/travel-tips/our-best-holiday-travel-tips-and-hacks/ via Tumblr https://cabaretedr.tumblr.com/post/166392588808
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