Inexpensive, last minute vacation deals

[stillmovingforward]

What is a good way to find last minute, super cheap vacation deals?  I work strange and hard schedules and often find myself with a three to four day weekend.  I love to travel and often get the urge at the last minute to do so.  I am not picky and have no burning desire to go any particular place.  Just somewhere new.  I DO NOT want advise on how to travel by car.  That I have down pat.  I DO want help finding excellent deals on last minute trips by plane or train.  I live near a major airport and train hub so that isn't an issue. 

I want ideas for: inexpensive, train or plane, last minute, arrive at my destination as I don't want to rent a car.  I'm good with Uber and buses.  Trip should be a long weekend, I want a plane and a hotel (decent to excellent).  Is there a deal site that lists these?  I've tried Expedia but the trips rarely leave from my neck of the woods.  Or am I asking too much?  I really don't care where I go as long as its sort of safe.  I have a passport and sturdy boots.

[zibazinski]

I'm not sure where your neck of the woods is located but I'm a huge fan of Charleston and Savannah.

[Deleted]

I would sign up for email alerts from the airlines that you would use.  I used to get emails every Wednesday from American and Delta with the last minute deals for that coming weekend and if you could drop everything and go with only a couple days notice, there were some amazing deals.

[Wisconsin Beth]

Also check different hotels resorts.

We found out earlier this year that the Mt. Olympus resort will discount some rooms, down to $40 per night, which includes passes to their water parks.

[movingforward]

Does Southwest fly out of your city. Southwest Vacations has some great deals.

[movingforward]

Also, I don't know if you like cruises or not...for me it depends on the destination. Certain places I would rather not cruise to because I want to stay a while hang out with local people, etc. but for something like the Caribbean I find cruises extremely relaxing and fun. They have last minute cruise deals a lot.

[The Walk of the Penguin Mich]

When I was flying monthly from KY to WA, I had the ability to fly out of 3 airports.  I signed up for a bunch of 'last minute' flights out of all the airports, looking for a flight into Seattle or Vancouver, BC.  Usually airlines release the seats on Tue or Wed for a Sat flight, returning Monday or Tuesday.  I guess about 1/3 of my flights out here came via this.  The one thing that I HAVE noticed recently is that these flights tend to be crappier flights, with long layovers or multiple legs.  

A lot depends upon what airport you want to leave from.  Certain places are more accessible than others.  For instance, from the west coast, it is not a great idea for me to look for a long weekend in the Caribbean because many of the flights would take us over 24 hours to get there.

For hotels, I use Hotwire a lot and have never been burned.  I also read the info on the hotel very carefully.  This is really a good way to get an airport hotel, if you have a very early/very late flight and don't want to get up at 2 am (we have a 2 hour drive to our airport, and that's assuming that we don't get caught up in I-5 road repairs).

What I do NOT do anymore is book my flight through a consolidator (like Expedia).  I prefer to book my flight directly with the airline.  It sometimes costs more, but you have the protection if the flight is canceled, you are dealing with the airline - not the consolidator.  I had a flight canceled over Christmas (by the airline, before I flew) and I had a horrible problem getting it rebooked by (I think) Expedia.  They finally refunded my money and I was able to rebook directly with the airline instead.  I was able to get flights that were not available to Expedia.  As this was before I left, it was just a pain to be on the phone for so long.  I'd hate to see what trying to get rebooked through Expedia would have been like if I was at an airport and one of my legs got canceled.

My sister has used a website called bookit.com for vacations and she's gotten good results.  When I tried it, I was able to get better rates/flights/connections when I booked hotels and flights independently. 

[tskeeter]

May 17, 2017 21:25:48 GMT -5 stillmovingforward said:

What is a good way to find last minute, super cheap vacation deals?  I work strange and hard schedules and often find myself with a three to four day weekend.  I love to travel and often get the urge at the last minute to do so.  I am not picky and have no burning desire to go any particular place.  Just somewhere new.  I DO NOT want advise on how to travel by car.  That I have down pat.  I DO want help finding excellent deals on last minute trips by plane or train.  I live near a major airport and train hub so that isn't an issue. 

I want ideas for: inexpensive, train or plane, last minute, arrive at my destination as I don't want to rent a car.  I'm good with Uber and buses.  Trip should be a long weekend, I want a plane and a hotel (decent to excellent).  Is there a deal site that lists these?  I've tried Expedia but the trips rarely leave from my neck of the woods.  Or am I asking too much?  I really don't care where I go as long as its sort of safe.  I have a passport and sturdy boots.

I used to live next to a family that worked for a major airline.  The wife was telling about how they approached vacations.

They made a very basic decision.  Warm weather or cold weather location. Beach or mountains.  Then they went to the airport and checked to see what flights they could get on while flying standby.  They didn't know where they were going to end up.  A beach vacation could be Hawaii, the Mediterranean, or another beach location.

Would some variation of this approach work for you?

[stillmovingforward]

WOW GUYS! There are some great ideas here! Thank you all so much

I did not know about refund hassles on Expedia.  Nor had I ever thought of just hanging out at the airport.  That is brilliant as I am close enough to do this and I have no care about exactly where I end up.  I will sign up for the airlines I like and have been thinking of trying a cruise.  Again, thank you all for the great ideas!

If you have more, please keep listing them!

[Bob Ross]

Google "vacationing in Delaware".

[NoNamePerson]

I've used Travelocity dot com - I signed up for newsletter years ago and they have some good deals but lots have a short "shelf" life so be able to go on the fly. I've been pleased every time I have used them.

[jitterbug]

My son does a lot of last minute deals on Spirit Airlines. I'll see a post on Facebook that they're in New Orleans or NYC or Florida - some times for as cheap as $43 per person round trip!  I think Spirit has trouble keeping to their schedule and I believe they nickel and dime you for things - but they basically go for 1-2 nights, put their clothes in a large tote (purse or backpack, basically) - and go! So if you're patient and look at it all as part of the adventure - you might like it! I believe they have joined the Spirit Club that gives them all the last minute deals.

[saveinla]

farecompare is a site that semms to have a lot of deals - they send good deals on car rentals, flights and all inclusive vacations.