Blogs
Nomadic Matt was one of the first travel bloggers and has the largest number of subscribers of any travel related site. Lots of good information.
Doctor of Credit has a ton of information not only on travel cards but also on bank bonuses, great deals to save money and tons of other useful information. It is my goto for checking the best current sign up bonuses. I really like that they don’t make any money off of referring you to credit card offers. I love to refer people because it is a win win, but you do need to be careful of some sites that push cards because they get a nice bonus but it may not be the best time to get that card since sign up offers are constantly changing. Check Doctor of credit before you sign up for a new card to make sure it’s a good deal.
Loophole Travel is another blog I follow. Good information.
Flight Resources
Here’s a great post on Thrifty Traveler A great paid service for smoking airline deals.
Google Flights is a great place to start looking for good airfares.
What are airline alliances?
Star Alliance. route map. Used this a ton to plot our around the world trip. Major US carrier is United.
Oneworld route map. Major US carrier is American Airlines.
Sky Team route map. Major US carrier is Delta.
After you find your flight Seat Guru is the place to go before you choose your seat.
Lodging
I’m a big fan of Airbnb We like to stay in more local areas and out in the country where there are not any hotels, and Airbnb is great for that. We usually rent entire houses that have a kitchen. So much bigger and nicer than most expensive suites at hotels.
We’ve also used VRBO. A lot of the same homes are listed on both VRBO and Airbnb. Check both. A place we stayed in Maui for a week was cheaper on VRBO as well as one in Virginia Beach and a place we stayed by Mt Vernon.
For the ultimate in cheap travel try Couch Surfing! It was a total lifesaver for our son Tristan when he was 17 and was traveling to Camp Woodrow in Pennsylvania and had to spend the night in Philadelphia before flying to State College the next day. I had reservations for him at an SPG hotel right next to the airport. The night before Molly and I were leaving to Kauai I called SPG to make sure the shuttle would still be running at 10:00pm when he got in. Long, long story short, he wasn’t allowed to stay in any hotel in Philly because he wasn’t 21. All the youth hostels were sold out, you have to be 18 to stay in an Airbnb… Then I remembered Couchsurfing.com. I sent out 15 requests, got back 14 replies all of whom wanted to help. He ended up staying with a guy who used to teach the photography course he was going to at Camp Woodrow. He picked him up at the airport and drove him back the next day. All for free. It’s a great community of people even if you just want to connect with some locals for a drink in a foreign land. Definitely going to seek some out in our upcoming travels.
Car Rentals
Other than the usual suspects, some other rental ideas to look into are:
If you are a Costco’s member they can have some great deals. We used them for 8 days on Kauai and it was almost 1/2 the price of the major agencies.
For something unique try Turo. The 1st time we used them was in Chicago where we rented a Jaguar for much less than the cheapest, tiniest car we could find from a traditional agency. Next time we used them was for a long weekend in Sonoma. A Porche Boxter sounded like a good idea and was fun on the coast, but stiff manual transmission + hilly San Francisco + traffic = sucked. It was pretty quick though and the same price as a Taurus from Hertz.
Travel insurance is something that can be pretty important. I always use World Nomads They seem to get the best reviews.