I decided last minute to head down to the Travel Goods Show this weekend in San Diego.

I hopped online yesterday morning and started searching around on a half dozen websites for the best deals. Most of them, including Orbitz, Expedia, Kayak and Southwest Airlines (I checked their site before hearing the news about their grounded planes!), couldn't do any better than about $550 for either an overnight or two-night trip.

Then I started looking around on Last Minute (formerly Site59). What I discovered was that if I chose the Last Second Deals option, I had very limited flights to choose from and had to stay at least a couple of nights. Even then, it was still spitting back options in the $500 range though they did include either a hotel stay or car rental.

BUT, if I just searched for a flight, I got a much better deal. I booked a two night stay with a three day car rental for under $300. Hot Dang! I'm San Diego-bound!

Over the holidays, I discovered another great deal when booking just car rentals. New Jersey is notoriously expensive for car rentals (it's THE most expensive place I've ever rented a car). However, I was able to book a five-day rental at Christmas time on Hotwire for half the price than if I were to go directly through the rental car company or through one of the travel booking engines.

The catch is that they charge your credit card up front and there are no making changes. If you're solid in your plans, make sure you try Hotwire before booking elsewhere. Don't assume that Hotwire will always give you the best deal, however, sometimes it's the same as booking directly with a rental company but you've got less flexibility with Hotwire.

Now, on to San Diego. Anyone have a couch I can surf down there? :-)

Travel Well!

(photo courtesy of ppdigital)

Please read about my travels on my Wanderlust and Lipstick blog.

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