If you have your heart set on a particular vacation; let’s say it is a cruise to Jamacia; then you may need to book the cruise quite some time ahead to ensure that you are on that cruise and that you have a reasonable cabin and so forth. However, if you are very flexible with your dates of departure etc., then you can find some really good deals.

This is because it is better for the vacation provider to have somebody in that cabin, on that tour, in that plane seat, in that hotel room, or staying in that resort, at a cheaper price than nobody at all. At least they will be making SOME profit, which is better than no profit, from the deal.

If you are patient, or even if you are looking for something in a hurry, it would be in your interest to check out, “Last Minute Deals” on the web. You will be surprised at how many cheap vacations, holidays, flights, and hotel rooms are available. Once again, if you really MUST be somewhere at a certain time then you may have to pay full price.

It seems that prices can be quite reasonable when packages are first released. Then they become more expensive when many of the deals are taken are there is a possibility that you may miss out. After this, the large discounts are put on offer when it appears that not all bookings may be taken up.

Some “last minute” deals are actually several weeks in advance for things such as cruises where it may be necessary for passengers to obtain visas to foreign countries etc.

When I did the Cherry Blossom Cruise from Australia to Japan earlier this year, I was surprised at how much could be saved if I had had the flexibility that others had. In fact it was rumored that some passengers found out about cheap passages on offer and worked out that it was better for them to cancel their bookings and lose their deposit, and then re-book at the much cheaper rate. I understand that they saved a couple of thousand dollars AND got the same cabin that they had when they cancelled their original booking.

We departed from Sydney and on our return we docked at Brisbane before returning to Sydney. Many Queensland passengers decided that it was in their interest to disembark at Brisbane. This left a lot of vacant cabins for the overnight trip to Sydney and many new faces could be seen duting that leg of the cruise. Many people must have received a good deal to enable them to experience the luxury on board of the Dawn Princess, albeit if it was virtually for less than a full day.

I understand that there were quite a few travel consultants learning first hand what their clients may experience when they undertook such a cruise.

The recent economic downturn has caused a lot of people, especially pensioners, to cancel pending vacations. This has opened the door for a lot of cheap vacations coming onto the market.

Some search terms that may assit you when looking for these cheap holidays are; last minute, cheap, inexpensive, value for money, cut price, cut rate, reasonable, dirt cheap, reduced, off-season, student, backpackers [travel, holidays, accomodation, airfares, flights, cruises, tours, vacations, resorts, hotels, train trips].

Posted on July 24th, 2009 by Travel Bug
Filed under: Vacation Tips