Holiday Travel Tips That Beat The Holiday Rush

Tis the season for travel.

Mr. Scrooge just approved your holiday vacation and you are ready to take a trip to someplace sunny and sandy. But the last minute travel plans are sure to eat into your holiday budget. It doesn’t have to, however. Here are a few tips to help with your last minute travel plans.

It seems that price gouging is just a part of the holiday cheer. Travel during this time is naturally more expensive and deciding last minute only adds to that cost. After all, you shouldn’t be punished for deciding to go home for the holidays. One of the first things that you can do is think about your mode of transportation. When people think last minute travel, they immediately think about flying and all of the hassle that comes along with that. But have you thought about using another means of transportation? Obviously, depending on where your holiday might take you, it could be more cost effective to take the train or even a bus. By the time you factor in all of the security and arriving early to the airport, it might not be that much faster than taking the bus or train.

If you have to fly, changing the way you fly might be more cost effective, even during last minute holiday travel. Depending on your airport and destination, it might actually be cheaper to book two one-way flights than it would be to purchase a round trip ticket. In fact, you can even add to the savings by subscribing to one of the various price alerts that can actually tell you when the tickets are the lowest possible price. Airlines will severely slash prices on flights up to a week before the major holiday, just to make sure that there aren’t any open seats.

Regardless of how you end up traveling, just be flexible and be happy that you have a place to spend the holidays.