Despite the rising price of everything else, great travel bargains are still plentiful. So called flash deals provide limited time sales on everything from hotel rooms to airfare, but especially vacation packages. Vacation packages that include hotel and air (and sometimes even a rental car) are all the rage, and are favorites of customers of sites like Groupon and Living Social. Although known for their local deals, Groupon and Living Social have created a substantial niche within the vacation package marketplace.

If price is a major consideration (and when is it not), it is imperative that you remain somewhat flexible on your destination. The best deals may not always match up with your first choice, so being able to roll with a second or third option for your destination and your time window of travel will pay big dividends.

8 Best Sites To Find Flash Travel Deals

1. Groupon Getaways

2. Living Social Escapes

3. Travel Zoo

4. Jetsetter

5. Kayak

Airfare Only

6. Airfare Watchdog

7. Genius Flight

8. SkyPicker

Airfare watchdog, Genius Flight and Skypicker are fantastic sites for those trying to put together their own vacation package when airfare is not automatically included. Genius Flight offers sort of a reverse search approach which I find very interesting. You decide up front how much you have to spend on airfare and the search feature will determine where you can go based on that amount. With this information, you could grab your airfare and then pair it with a discount hotel deal.

Airfare Watchdog has a number of great features, but it most well known tool is the airfare alert. This allows a consumer to receive an e mail notification when a flight to a given destination goes on sale. Check out the video below which is an excellent demonstration of how to use Airfare Watchdog to do city based search to create a list of cheap flight options.

Skypicker is another airfare search engine with a twist. Consumers can select a home city (or radius from their home city) and a time window. The site will then show you a complete range of destinations and the associated airfare cost. Again, this is an excellent tool for those that want to put together their own land and air package. 

Taking the time to learn to use these travel search tools can make a huge difference in your vacation experience. My wife and I just spent five days in San Francisco and paid only $120 per night for a wonderful little hotel on the San Francisco Bay. In this case, we used the AAA travel search engine (which I did not mention in this article but has been mentioned previously on this blog and is available only to their members). One thing is for sure, there are travel deals out there for those willing to invest just a little time to find them.

Helping you make the most of God’s money!

James L. Paris 
Editor-In-Chief ChristianMoney.com 
Follow Me on Twitter Twitter.com/jameslparis
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