rebelleader's blog

Why book ahead of time? Have you ever wanted to fly by the seat of your pants and not plan every leg of your trip ahead of time? If you've got the right tools, this flexibility can be yours. At first glance, Venere is just another site that allows you to book hotels in Europe. However, Venere's extensive range of hotels allows you to choose from simple, affordable hotels to lavish, expensive ones, in every European nation.We've used Venere on many of our trips, and its great selection of hotels and ease of use has allowed to book our hotels the night before we arrive in a particular city. On several of our more recent trips to Italy, we've decided to forego booking hotels until we arrive in the country (since we usually have a place to stay for the first couple of nights.)

All aboard! Every week, Amtrak announces a special sale for some of its routes. If you're traveling in August, you can take advantage of some of these deals.

Head here for more details and tickets.

If you've got a passport, why not use it? There has been a lot of negative press lately about the new passport requirement for Americans travelling to Canada, Mexico, and the Carribean. There has a been a temporary lag in issuing passports, which has forced some people to change their travel plans, and stressed out many others.

See America, at bargain basement prices! If you're a citizen of an EU country, and feel like visiting your neighbors across the Atlantic, its never been cheaper. Recently, the dollar hit an all-time low against the euro, thanks to our national defecit and speculation that our housing market is tanking.

What does this mean for the travellers of the world? If you're European, this little imbalance means you can get a taste of travelling in style. A 30 dollar dinner is costing you only 23 euros. 100 dollars a night is really only 76 euros a night. Sure, we can all do simple arithmatic, but its nicer when you're ending up with smaller numbers.

However, if you're an American and taking a summer vacation to Italy, for example, you're going the other direction. Not so nice. Unfortunately, there isn't anything much that you can do to mitigate this situation. All you can do is watch the currency markets and cross your fingers.

Everyone loves finding a good travel deal, and it turns out there is some logic to the process. Our friends over at Lifehacker turned us on to a few good tips that could save you some hard earned dough on your next trip.

If you're in the market for a plane ticket, the best times to find great airfare deals are Tuesday nights & Wednesday mornings. Airlines initially release sales over the weekend, and get into pricing battles, which usually settle out mid-week. We can back this up, as we've found great deals to Europe in the middle of the night. Thanks insomnia!

If you happen to live in Seattle, or even the Pacific Northwest, and have a hankering for a trip to Mexico, Aeromexico's newest non-stop route might be of interest to you. Starting July 4th, travellers can take advantage of non-stop flights between Seattle and Mexico City, with an option to continue on to Guadalajara.
Mexico doesn't sound very appealing in the middle of the hot, hot summer, but come fall and winter, laying on the beach or checking out some ruins will seem much sweeter.

Right now, flights in December run around $425, but if you check tomorrow night or Wednesday, they may be cheaper.

See the 'roos without breaking your piggy bank.

If you've ever wanted to head down under, but haven't been able to stomach the typically massive airfare, Qantas has started a deal for you. If you take advantage of their Aussie Airpass, you can get roundtrip tickets, plus 3 flights within Australia starting at $1099 US. Compare that to $800+ for just the round trip to/from LAX and Sydney, and you've got yourself a bargain in the making.

We wish that they had more US departure cities, as these deals are only good leaving out of Los Angeles, San Fransisco, Honolulu, or New York. But, its likely that you can get to all of these cities without spending too much money.

For more details, check out Qantas' website here.

A traveler's best resource when planning a trip is other travelers. Whether you have a friend who lived in London while he was in grad school, or an Internet buddy who lives in Italy, you can get something that's impossible to get from a guide book: personalized recommendations. Your friends probably have similar tastes to yours, so they can help you make the most of your trip.

In order to encourage student travelers to branch out and find similar people all over the world, STA Travel has created a social networking site for student travelers, STA Travel 193. You can blog your travels, find the best cheap places to eat all over the world, or find out where you should avoid. So, next time you're planning a trip, hop on STA Travel 193 and find a new travel buddy.