I really must catch up with this

Many bargains have been found and had...just been busy and haven't reported them. Maybe because I'm the only one who comes here anyway? LOL. I'm a travel bargain island. Lovely. However I'm still helping many friends and relatives. Glad to help if I can.

The Reality

Travel bargains are only bargains if you are paying outright for them. Paying interest rates really defeats the purpose, huh? Although it's better than paying full price AND interest.

sigh

I can help others better than I can help myself. What can I do for you? Please ask, as I really enjoy getting my thrills vicariously.

Helping my Brother-In-Law

The day we got home from our Embassy Suites/birthday celebration (the day we came home to the blown water heater), my brother-in-law called from Omaha saying they were at a party and wanted to spend that night. Could I get them a deal on a room? Heck yeah! How about this? (as posted on better bidding.com:

Just helped a relative get a last minute room for tomorrow night in Omaha. Even though there were 4 re-bid zones available, I suggested we start the bidding process at $45, since regular rates were looking pretty high, and there would be no re-bidding in 24 hours.

First bid was accepted for: Courtyard By Marriott Omaha Downtown 4/19.

$45
Taxes & fees: $15.32

Total: $60.32

Lowest rate on Courtyard's website was $169

(Found out later that the hotel was very nice...they were very pleased!)

Then the hot water heater blew

Right before our trip to Omaha/Sioux Falls, our water heater went out. So we did this: (as posted on Trip Advisor).

We "won" this hotel on Priceline at 8:00 at night, for that same night. (thanks to our water heater busting), for just $31. (The lowest price on the hotel's website for the same night was $129). Since we live in this area, we knew the Brownstone is old. Very old. So our expectations were for an old Holiday Inn 3-star. And that's exactly what we got. We also knew we would have free parking, which is always a plus, and LOOK free internet...grab the laptops and let's go!

The lobby of this hotel really needs a major overhaul, as it looks ancient. Feels ancient. Is ancient. I have heard through local gossip that the whole hotel is due for an overhaul in a year or so. It really does need updating.

Check-in was cordial. I asked if a King might be available. Type type type. Would the first floor be okay? Sure.

The room was exactly what one would expect from a 3-star Holiday Inn that's very old. Very okay. Clean. Is there hot water? Yes. We're happy. We both pull out laptops to utilize the free internet. To make a long story short...it never worked. For either of us. Not at night. Not in the morning. If we were staying there on business, this would not have made us happy.

Okay, I'll read then. Tried to turn on the light on my side of the bed. It won't turn on. Bulb perhaps? No. That's not the problem. Come to find out, it wasn't plugged in, because there isn't an outlet for it to plug into! Moral of this story? If you're by yourself, or on the left side of the bed, no problem. Right side? Bring a flashlight.

The bed was okay. Bathroom clean. Two bars of soap and one bottle of "Clean" shampoo/conditioner (that was the name of it)...NOT conditioner, however. It's shampoo. Just like most hotels, if you want real conditioner, bring your own. Shower pressure is okay and water was nice and hot. Just what we wanted!

In the morning, there was a USA Today at our door which is a nice touch. We did not eat breakfast at the hotel, but I will tell you that if you are staying at the hotel for lunch or dinner, and you like pizza, Ledo's is GREAT. This is not just a local hotel hole-in-the-wall restaurant. Ledo's is a chain. Perhaps you remember Oprah's show a few years ago, where her friend Gayle searched the country for the best pizza? Well, Ledo's was on her top list, and for good reason. It's different in that it is square, not round, but very tasty! We crave it sometimes, and go there when we do.

Now for some local tips...Besides being right by NCSU, if you go right out of the parking lot on Hillsborough Street, and stay to the right when the road bears off onto Morgan, you will find (on the right), Irregardless Cafe, which is a one-of-a-kind restaurant that is very good, and if you're a vegetarian, there are always vegetarian and vegan specialties as well as items for meat-lovers. Right past Irregardless is Goodnight's Comedy Club. They bring top talent to town. It can be a very fun place, depending on who is playing! There's a very casual restaurant in the basement called "Old Bar", and the top floor, called "The Grille" is fancier and more expensive.

If that doesn't sound good, go past Goodnight's, and turn left onto Glenwood Avenue. This brings you to a part of town called "Glenwood South". There are lots of restaurants, shops, and some art galleries here. Want Thai? Try Thaiphoon Bistro. Casual sports bar with a good happy hour and good food? Try Tobacco Road. Or High Five (where everything on the menu is $5). There are coffee shops, a Dunkin Donuts. Bogart's is a very good restaurant. So is Red Room for tapas. 518 West, if you want some homemade pasta. The list goes on and on.

Want to shop? At the Brownstone you are very close to Cameron Village. An outdoor shopping center, with a variety of shops, plus some interesting restaurants including "Flying Biscuit Cafe", "Carolina Cafe & Bakery", "Noodles & Company", "Cameron Bar & Grille", and others. From the hotel, Cameron Village is a couple blocks in front of it.

Now, if you go left out of the hotel, you'll be on the main part of Hillsborough Street. Best restaurant choices, imo are Porter's and Fraziers. Porter's being the more casual and less expensive of the two. Both are very good. Player's Retreat is an old Raleigh standard that is known for doing its' part to be Green. (also known for good food and good prices). Parking on Hillsborough Street is usually a problem, and if you park in the wrong placed you are very likely to get towed. Better off walking, if you're going left out of the Brownstone. To the right, you might want to drive.

You are also very close to Downtown Raleigh, which is full of great restaurants & entertainment. Raleigh isn't the sleepy Southern town it used to be. It is wide awake now. Enjoy!

So much since the last post

Inspired by the Embassy Suites deal I got for friends, and with my husband's birthday to celebrate, I did this: (as posted on Trip Advisor)



It was my husband's birthday and I chose the Embassy Suites/Crabtree "American Idol" package for $114 per night. Note: the lowest price available was $109, but I decided the chance to win a trip to Hollywood was worth the extra five bucks, plus two Diet Cokes were supposed to be included in the package. How exciting is that? :)

I am a Priceline gal. Most of our hotel deals are Priceline. I did try to get a deal, but no 4-star was biting. The next best deal to me, was Embassy Suites. If one properly utilizes the manager's reception and full-cooked-to-order breakfast, than this is a great deal, imho.

I kidnapped my husband for our retreat, and we checked in early afternoon. Check-in was friendly. They were out of diet cokes, but offered to send them up to our room. Up we went to our 6th floor suite. How wonderful to see that they have renovated the room since our last stay in 2007! It is a huge improvement. The furniture is much more contemporary looking. Bed is comfy.

Now here's the biggest thing we learned...Raleigh is really a GIRL. I don't know why, but I always assumed Raleigh (the bird in the lobby) was a boy. At check-in we learned "he" is really a "she". Now most of you could care less, and I understand, but Raleigh has been around since I can remember, and I've been talking to him (her) for so many years, and that's okay, but now I'll reconsider how I talk to her. We get a kick out of trying to talk to Raleigh (speak softly, and still be ignored...but walk by Raleigh without saying anything at all and you might be spoken to)...anyway...whatever you do, DON'T be an energetic kid. At breakfast, we watched Raleigh pretend to sleep whenever an active kid approached. Kid would leave, and Raleigh would suddenly be wide awake. I know, this is all really irrelevant to the hotel's amenities, yet, to me it's all part of the hotel's charm.
One of the best features of this hotel is still LOCATION. Directly across from Crabtree Valley Mall. Besides shopping, look for two incredibly happy hours across the street: McCormick & Schmicks and Brio, both have great happy hours that start before the manager's 5:30-7:30 reception at the hotel. Do enjoy the reception, as it includes beer, wine, mixed drinks, soft drinks, chips & salsa. It is crowded. This is when you find out just how many people are staying in the hotel. How many kid's basketball teams.
Service was excellent, despite the huge crowds. We made sure to tip well for the great service.
Despite the full hotel, we found the night to be a quiet one. I don't know if we just got lucky, or if the design of the hotel (with bedrooms in the back of the atrium-style hotel) were the charm, but we found it to be quiet. Our diet cokes never did get delivered. No big deal. We got them on check-out.
Breakfast: 7-10am is a full cooked-to-order breakfast. GOOD. Be prepared for crowds. So have a strategy & be patient.
We enjoyed wonderful omelets, pancakes, bacon, sausage, fresh fruit, and more. Then went back to the room and watched a movie on HBO before we checked out.

The reason for that suggestion

When I was looking at hotels for them, there was a comparable suite that was a Hyatt Place for $113 per night. However, that didn't include anything else.

Compare that to $109 per night that included a manager's reception (FREE BOOZE), and a fully-cooked breakfast for each person (worth $10 per person, perhaps?)...I made it clear to them that this was a really good deal IF they made good use of the manager's reception and the breakfast. Still not a bad deal if they didn't, but especially good if they did. Say you have $20 worth of drinks and snacks at the reception, and even just $30 worth of breakfast...thus the room rate becomes $59 for FOUR...and a suite, with a separate pull-out couch. PERFECT for the teenage boy that doesn't want to touch another family member.

Note: Embassy Suites can be much more expensive. It just depends on the timing and the town. But it's often worth looking into.

See-I CAN recommend something other than Priceline!

So, Saturday morning I get up and check my email. There's an email from a friend saying they would like to stay in Columbia, SC Sunday night. Family of 4. Visiting USC. Can I find them a good deal on a hotel? Uh, I don't know, but I'll try! Do some looking, and am not feeling the hotwire nor priceline thing for this area, considering they are a family of 4, with older children. Remembering back to when my boys were that age, the thing to look at, imo, was suites. Boys that age do not want to sleep in a bed together. Mine would curl up on the floor, in the bathtub, on a luggage stand...ANYthing first!

My suggestion, after much searching, to the family was: Embassy Suites, Columbia SC.

Rate per night:			109.00 USD
Total for Stay per Room:
	Rate		109.00 USD
	Taxes		11.99 USD
	Total		120.99 USD
Total for Stay:			120.99 USD

Rental Car Games

This was really weird. Tried for a few days to get a rental car deal in Omaha. I knew from past experience that it was unlikely that the deals would get better the closer to day of departure, as had happened in other cities.

Finally got this, (as posted on better bidding.com):

... I've been bidding for awhile now, particularly on compacts, and haven't gotten a win. Previously I had gone up to $17 for a compact. Oddly enough, I bid $18 for a compact first. Got rejected. Changed it to a mid-size and it got accepted. I see here that someone got a mid-size for $15 per day, so now I don't know if I could've done better leaving the compact out of the equation?


Your Offer Price: $18.00 (per day)
Total Rental Days: 5 days
Subtotal: $90.00
Taxes and Fees: $38.40
Total Charges: $128.40
Lowest Published Price: $344.99
Total Savings:* $216.59 (You saved 63%)

The thing to remember here is to keep in mind WHERE you're bidding. In hindsight, I remember that having gotten a rental car in Omaha before, we were offered a choice of TWO cars for compacts. Therefore, it's not crazy that a mid-size would be accepted when a compact would not. It's all about supply and demand.

I will say that I had bid this same bid a couple times and it had been rejected. Notably: this changed exactly two weeks before departure. Perhaps would've even gone done more a week before? That theory was tested last trip and it did not, for Omaha. It HAS for other cities. So, it really just depends.

It's all a GAME. A fun, fun game.

Savannah Easter weekend

Helped a friend get this today. We started at $60 for a 4-star. Added 3 1/2, then added re-bid zones. Was at $85 with only one re-bid zone left, when I asked her if she wanted to go to $90 or $95 (knowing that the Grand Hyatt had been showing up at $95, and the Marriott at $90). She opted to go with the somewhat safer bet, to go ahead and get this booked.

Room Cost (avg. per room, per night): $95.00 (USD)
Number of Rooms: 1
Number of Nights: 1
Room Subtotal: $95.00 (USD)
Taxes and Fees: $21.39 (USD)
Total Room Cost: $116.39 (USD)


It is Easter weekend, so I don't know if we could've gotten it for somewhere in between $85 and $95. The lowest rate for this day on the Marriott website was $159.95, so it's still a deal and she's happy.

Priceline Teamwork!

There are no free re-bid zones in Sioux Falls...thus, it takes teamwork. The Holiday Inn Centre City was showing up on Hotwire for these dates (my guess because of the amenities shown) as $56 per night. I decided to do a $41 bid on Priceline. (knowing that the 3-star could be the Holiday Inn, the Sheraton or the Residence Inn...any of which would've been okay with us. It came back with one of those notices that said if we upped our bid by $12 we could have it right away.

That's when I called my husband into action, and asked him to go in and bid $45. It was accepted.

$45 per night for $135. Plus taxes & fees $21.96.

Total: $156.96.

Note: that rate was via Travelocity for United Airlines via Chicago. I checked United's website before booking and rates were higher than that. We also discussed not checking bags, otherwise this rate would go up for checked baggage.

And now, the challenge will be car rental. That's not an easy thing for a small airport like Omaha. So I started tonight, and went to $13 for a compact. No go. That's okay, we all know rental car deals usually get better the closer the date. Although not necessarily for Omaha. We shall see.

New Travel Challenge

So tonight I came home to a new travel challenge...the decision had been made as to a date for the Graduation Party for my Stepson. It would be Saturday, April 25th in Sioux Falls, SD. Yikes! That's not that far off...I knew I needed to get on it fast.

Sure enough, in the time it took me to book airfare, I saw it go up ten dollars per person. Not a lot, but STILL...

Of course, I checked for Raleigh to Sioux Falls. Would be great. But over $400 per person is not great. I knew Southwest was now flying to Minneapolis, so that sounded like it would be good. However, when checking for airfares, the lowest possibility was $99 each way before taxes. Again, not good, though better than Sioux Falls airfares. We were still talking almost $500. Checked Omaha next. Southwest. Same thing as Minneapolis. No lower fare than $99 each way. This wasn't looking good. Checked Hotwire, Orbitz, Expedia & Travelocity. Checked different dates, as we didn't care which days we travelled. Finally found a $175 rate Thursday through Saturday. Checked something else, came back and that had now gone up to $185. DARN. Oh well, booked it as this:

2 adults:	$275.34		( $137.67 per person)
	Taxes & Fees:	$96.46
	Total:	$371.80

My review of the Wyndham Orlando

Again, as posted on Trip Advisor:

After "winning" this 3 1/2 star-rated hotel on Priceline for the rate of $49 for one night (3/24/09), I was very concerned to read the reviews on TripAdvisor. So concerned, that I wrote to Priceline to question their 3 1/2-star rating. They researched it and responded back that they stood by their rating. Reassured, I went into the reservation with an open mind and hopeful heart.

We arrived late at night after a full day at Animal Kingdom and Epcot. Check-in was friendly and quick. We were told we had a double on the first floor of building 11. I asked if a king might be available, and after some typing on the keyboard, we were given a room on the second floor of building 11. Seeing building 11, I was very glad we were moved to the top floor, as I don't know that I would've felt overly secure on the bottom level.
This "resort" is very large, land-wise. Having just stayed a few days before at the 3-star-rated Coronado Springs at Disney (which is also very large), I have to say there was no comparison in looks. Having read here on TripAdvisor that the Wyndham's landscaping was beautiful (one person even compared it to the Polynesian), I must admit I was expecting better. Instead, it was okay. Large. Plants all around. But the buildings are, well, old-looking and more motel-like than resort-like. Sorry, but that's what it seemed like to me. We pulled up in front of building 11, got out and looked for the elevator. Couldn't find one, so my husband carried our luggage up the stairs, past the old-looking laundry area. I was very pleased to see that a card-key was necessary to access the top floor. Our room overlooked the "courtyard" (parking lot), and had a balcony. Why anyone would sit on such tiny balcony and gaze at the parking lot, I do not know...(smokers perhaps?)
The room itself was definitely not one of the renovated ones. It had old carpeting, old furniture, but nothing bad, icky nor insect-infested as I have read about here. The bed was comfy and dressed as a 3 1/2-star hotel should be. The amenities book in the room indicated all the kinds of services one should expect from a 3 1/2 star...room service, business services, etc. It is a convention-center hotel, so many amenities are available, except for one great-big one...there's no internet access in the room! We couldn't find a free nor paid-for version. The bathroom, though obviously old, had a shower with nice-pressure and plenty of hot water. Towels were of 3 1/3-star quality.

A few years ago, I stayed at the Crowne Plaza that is within site-distance of this property. I believe it is also considered a 3 1/2-star property. That lived up to the star-ratings, and I would not hesitate to stay there again. The Wyndham felt nowhere near the same level, imho.

TripAdvisor has this place listed as a 4-star. I strongly suggest that is revised. It certainly has some 4-star characteristics, and is trying hard to fall into that league. Unfortunately, unless they tear down some buildings and re-build, I don't know how they could bring these motel-rooms up to that level. To compare (again): Disney's Coronado Springs, is also called a "resort" and is also really "motel-style". However, the major difference is, there is some kind of security, in the sense that you have to have a room key to get into the parking areas at Coronado Springs. This gives a sense of security that doesn't exist at this Wyndham. I also know that "resort" in Orlando usually means many motel-like buildings on sprawled-out property. It also usually means extra resort fees. Happily, not so at this Wyndham.
Good news: we were not charged a resort fee, nor parking fees. We got a good night's sleep. Driving by other buildings on the way out, I will say that some of the other buildings (such as building 5), looked much better from the outside, with extra fences, and such. My recommendation should you be staying there for more than a night like we did, is to make sure you get a room in an interior, renovated building, instead of an older non-renovated building on the outskirts of the property.
The morning we departed, we couldn't see online how to check-out, so we stopped by the lobby where there were two ladies working the desk. Both were busy with just one customer a piece in front of us. Must of been complicated issues, because it took forever! By the time it was our turn, there was a huge long line behind us. It took us ten seconds to check out, which would've been lovely to accomplish without the long wait. I don't know why we couldn't check out online, but we couldn't.
We love to travel, and most of the time we are sorry to leave a hotel we've stayed in. This time we were ready to go, and would rather not go back. Not because it was awful. It wasn't. It was actually just like these reviews have said. Both really okay and not what it should be. The Wyndham is trying hard to be what it wants to be...however, how they will achieve that without blowing up some old buildings and starting over, I really don't know. My rating would be that this is a 2-star with 3 1/2-star amenities, thus a compromise would be to call it a 3-star. And even then, my estimate would be that you'd still have some happy people and some very unhappy people.

My review of Intercontinental Tampa

As posted on Trip Advisor:

What a shame to only have one night in this wonderful hotel! This was truly a fabulous Priceline "win" for $67 for the night of 3/23/09. Check-in was quick and friendly. We felt welcome. Our room on the 6th floor was clean, contemporary and comfortable. The large king-bed was high up and dressed with plenty of comfy-pillows. The shower was full-pressured, and the bathroom was stocked with everything we needed.
Parking is free and in a convenient deck right next to the hotel.
We didn't have time to hang out in the lobby or bar or restaurant, but would've liked to. It looked like it catered very nicely to the business traveler. We didn't have time to check out the fitness center, nor the pool either.
This is a 4-star hotel that not only lives up to its rating, but has free parking, and free internet, unlike most 4-stars of its' caliber. Can we go back now, please?

Ready to Enjoy some Bargain Travel!

Getting organized for our upcoming trip on Wednesday. Once the bargain plans are made, the bargains are ready to be enjoyed. And we will.

And now some Washington, DC FUN

Thrilled with her Baltimore success, my friend had me help out with the next night of Easter weekend in DC. What's a gal to do who doesn't want to pay $200 a night for a 4-star in the heart of everything? Uh...Priceline, of course!

After much research (better bidding, bidding for travel, orbitz, hotwire, expedia, travelocity), we decided to rule out certain areas. This is what we ended up with (as I wrote on better bidding):

Helped a friend get two rooms for the Saturday night of Easter weekend. Was bidding in the Downtown area, Dupont Circle and Capitol Hill areas. Previous bid was $75. Received counter-offer to raise it by $22. No thanks. Added free re-bid zone and upped it by $5 to $80.

Offer accepted for $80 per room. (2 rooms) $160 + $31.38. Total for both rooms is $191.38. Less than it would've been for one room on their website.

Renaissance Mayflower Hotels
1127 Connecticut Avenue Northwest
Washington, DC 20036

Started via the PRICELINE link from this website, as always!

My friend is very happy with the results!

More Baltimore Priceline Fun

Happy from her Priceline win in Baltimore, my friend has a friend decide to join them and wants to know if we can get them the same deal. Uh, we can probably get something comparable, but can we get the same hotel? Maybe, maybe not. I make it very clear what the possibilities are, and she's okay with the chances, so after more than 24 hours from the last Baltimore success, we bid again, using the same technique. Even though I have seen that others have gotten other hotels for a few bucks less (i.e. $72 for the Hilton), we decide to skip from the $70 bid, to the winning $75 bid, as we had done previously, to hopefully increase our odds at getting the Intercontinental again. And it worked!
This is what I posted today on better bidding.com:

Got the same deal as I got for my friend a couple days ago. Now that they have other people going with them, we tried for it, hoping to get the same hotel, although they knew it was possible to get a different one. Very happy to get the same deal. Bid the same way as the other day. Previous bid was $70.

$75+$18.07 for $93.07 total.

Intercontinental Harbor Court
550 Light Street
Baltimore, MD 21202

Started via PRICELINE link on this website.

Baltimore Priceline fun!

So, Tuesday a co-worker/friend asked for my help in acquiring a hotel room in Baltimore for the Friday of Easter weekend. She was looking at 4-star hotels that were around the $200 mark for a night. I told her she could do a lot better than that.

This is what I posted at Better Bidding.com after researching what our possibilities were (via Hotwire, bidding for travel, better bidding, orbitz, travelocity, expedia)...the results:

Helped a friend get this lovely looking hotel for the Friday night of Easter weekend.

Started at $50, working up at $5 increments with free re-bid zones to $75.

Intercontinental Harbor Court
Inner Harbor Area-Downtown
550 Light Street
Baltimore, MD

4/10/09 for $75 + $18.06 in taxes & fees. Total: $93.06.

Lowest rate for a 4-star for that date on Hotwire was $93 before taxes & fees ($111.34 total).
Lowest rate on Intercontinental website for that date was $180 with Advance Purchase.

My friend is VERY happy.

And I'm extremely happy to have helped her and had Priceline FUN.

Tampa WIN

Oh my, have I had some Priceline fun lately! Yet, I've been very busy, so have been neglectful in keeping up-to-date here.
Last Friday, I was pleased to have gotten the Tampa 4-star deal I've been hoping for. Got the Intercontinental near the airport for just $67! This 4-star is regularly more in the $200-range, and it looks really nice.

This is what I posted at Better Bidding.com, after gleefully getting this deal, via the Priceline link on their website:

Been bidding for about a month now, pretty much every other day or so.

Today, I was rewarded with the Intercontinental Tampa (Airport) & Westshore for $67.

Taxes & fees $16.07

Total $83.07.

Started at $50, working up to $67 with free re-bid zones. Previous bid was $65.

I'm very happy with this! The hotel looks really really nice, and the lowest price on their website for this night is $179.

And Another Tampa Bidding Day

Inspired by a post of a winning bid on Bidding for Travel, of $50 for the 4-star Grand Hyatt in Tampa, for a date after the one I'm trying to get, I started my bidding lower than last time. Started at $50, working up to $65 with free re-bid zones. No go. Yet.

Another Tampa-bidding day

Started with a peek at Hotwire. Nothing new and exciting there. Continued with the next step. Better Bidding dot com. Looked to see if anyone had won anything particularly exciting. No, nothing new that would help me for Tampa. Still going for a 4-star in the airport area of Tampa. Started with a $55 bid. Knowing I could get a 3-star in the Busch Gardens area for probably $56, my goal was to get a 4-star for no more than ten dollars over that. So, I raised the bid using free re-bid zones, to $66. No go. Okay. Will try again in 24 hours or so. Such is the joy of Priceline.

And now the Ghost Story

I learned recently that I will never ever bait a ghost again!
For Valentine's Day, I did one of my Priceline tricks, was bidding on a 4-star in the Triangle area. Ended up getting The Carolina Inn in Chapel Hill for $60. Having never even stepped foot in it before, I did some research online, and saw that it was possibly a bit haunted by a doctor who liked to play pranks.
So Valentine's Day we arrive in the early afternoon. At check-in, I joked with the Hotel Clerk about the hotel being haunted, and asked for a haunted room. She mentioned that was primarily the king suite on the second floor (which of course, we weren't going to get for $60), but she put us on the second floor, room 228.
We go up to our room, walk in, and again joking, I said "Okay, Doctor, here I am, have fun with me". Of course, there was no response. We went about our day. Had lunch in the restaurant. Walked around Chapel Hill. Had a very pleasant day and evening. Went back to the hotel, watched some tv and went to bed.
I slept soundly until, of course, I had to wake up to go the bathroom...which is an every night thing for me...so routine, that I've got it down pat in that I try to barely open my eyes, and wake up as little as possible. I might add that I was especially exhausted due to having just finished working a LOT of hours that week for our Radiothon for Duke Children's Hospital.
Anyway, I go the bathroom, and am washing my hands in the sink when I realize that my reflection in the mirror appears to be a lot closer than it had earlier!
I open my eyes wider, suddenly more alert, and realize that a round make-up mirror (that I hadn't even noticed earlier was in the room) was now directly over the sink. Hmmm...okay, maybe my husband moved it for some reason? So, I push it back to the wall (noticing that it's not that loose, it took a little force to push it back). Went back to bed, where my husband was snoring. Normally, I'm not the kind of wife to wake a sleeping husband, especially since he had had a terrible time sleeping the night before, but I was just uneasy enough to want to know for sure that he had moved that mirror. Woke him up. Uh, no, he hadn't moved it. And, of course, he goes right back to sleep, leaving me to ponder this, and now slightly more uneasy. I look around the dark room, but don't see anything unusual, nor do I feel anything unusual. Start to go back to sleep, when all of a sudden, I feel three very distinct taps on the top of my head! Wake up my husband again, and ask why he just tapped me on my head. He said he didn't, and showed me where his hands were. Under pillows, and nowhere near my head. There was no way he could've done it even accidentally! He mumbles something about me holding on to him, goes back to sleep, and I cling to him, looking all around, knowing this isn't going to be easy to get back to sleep. I might add that I looked the clock when I came back to bed from the bathroom and it was 3:20. Wide awake, I see 4:30 go by. Sometime after 4:30, I do manage to get to sleep, but went into one of those nightmare dreams, where you know you're dreaming but you're scared & want to wake up but can't. Managed to wake myself up from that, and decided to give up on sleeping. Husband was still sleeping well though. Good for him! (cough) Anyway, now I'm looking around the room, and I see a dark shadow over near the closet. The closet is painted white, and slides open from the left and from the right. Before we went to bed to watch tv, my husband had opened the left side, hung up a shirt, closed it. I had opened the right, hung up a shirt, noticed there was one robe in the closet, and asked my husband if he wanted it. Being the smart guy he is, he had said, "no you can have it". So, I had closed the closet, and put the robe on for television watching.
Now, I'm laying there wondering what that dark shadow is that I'm seeing, that I swear wasn't there before I had fallen back asleep. There's no way I'm getting up to look, nor am I waking my husband for a third time, so I laid there pondering this one. I knew I wasn't really seeing a figure there. Logically it looked like my husband's dark shirt, but I couldn't figure out how I could be seeing it, since I knew that closet door was shut. Sometime around here, someone stuck the bill under the door, like they usually do at hotels. And eventually, as it got lighter in the room, I could see that, sure enough, I was indeed seeing my husband's shirt, and somehow that closet door had opened! When we investigated it, it was not easy to move those doors, plus they were noisy. I can only assume it moved when I went back to sleep, or I would've heard it.
We also checked around the bed to see if there was anything that could've tapped the top of my head. No, not unless pillows could suddenly do it. When finally awake, my husband said he had gotten up before I did in the middle of the night to use the bathroom, and had noticed the make-up mirror moved out slightly at that time, but had thought I had done it. I had him show me where he saw it, and it was not out as far as I had seen it. He also said that when I woke him that first time, he was actually dreaming that he was looking into that round mirror and that an old man's face was looking back at him.
When we checked out of the hotel, I mentioned to the Clerk (same one who had checked us in), that she could add room 228 to haunted parts, told her the story, and she said she'd add it to "the list". Uh, what else is on that list??? She said, mostly sightings of possible moving dark shadows. I'm just glad I didn't actually SEE something move.
Anyway, it wasn't a restful night. I learned that I won't joke about ghosts anymore, and I sure as heck won't invite them to have fun with me!
The only other possible ghostly-encounter I've ever had was years ago, on the Battleship in Wilmington, when I got to go along on an actual real Ghost Hunt with some pros. We only heard a couple things that night that were unusual. Plus cameras in different parts of the ship that they set up, all turned off at the exact same time, even though they had plenty of battery power. But nothing touched me or made me uneasy that night!

Flyer Talk-Another Favorite Website

Another one of my favorite websites, for much broader reasons, is www.flyertalk.com. Their forum is truly wonderful for ANY kind of travel talk. There's much on there for the bargain-travel hunter. Much! Whole threads dedicated to Budget Travel. There's one dedicated to online booking and bidding sites. (my favorite, of course!)

I have not had much experience (yet) with International Travel. This website is particularly helpful if you are looking for International travel advice. My son is waiting to hear back from a summer program he has applied for in Japan. Wanting to research where to begin for getting a good airfare to Tokyo, I thought immediately of Flyer Talk, posted a question in their forum, and got lots of good advice right away. So wherever you may be going in the big world, I suggest you start with a stop at www.flyertalk.com!

Better Bidding!

What's a Bargain Travel Gal's best friend? The right website!

Truly one of the most informative, useful, helpful, and FRIENDLIEST website for both Hotwire and Priceline help, is: www.betterbidding.com.

I start at this website literally every time I begin the bidding process. I don't care if I just bid yesterday, I return to better bidding, and am happy to click on their website links to hopefully help them out, when I access Hotwire and Priceline. I will do what I can to help them keep going, because this website is INVALUABLE to bargain travel hunters. It is important when bidding in a certain area, to know what other people have won in the past, and what they're winning now. At Better Bidding.com, people post their wins. The moderators even have a Calendar of wins where you can look for what people have gotten for specific days.

I credit this website for helping me learn the true ART of bargain travel bidding, and helping me get the confidence to do informed bidding. I absolutely love Better Bidding dot com. (and no, I have no affiliation with them, other than to use all their provided resources and to post my own wins).

So, my number one piece of advice to anyone who is unsure of themselves with bidding for travel...head straight to Better Bidding.com and learn all you can! This is a friendly site, which might seem like a no-brainer, but there's another website out there, that I do like to check in on before bidding, but I NEVER post there. Nor do I access Priceline through their website. Why not? Because, I'm honestly afraid of their Moderator! I have never ever seen such a MEAN moderator of a website. I've seen good-intentioned posters over and over again get chastized for asking a "wrong" question, or accused of not reading the right posts first, or berated for this and that. Even worse, many are banned from the website for such ridiculous reasons. Can you get useful information off that website? Absolutely. And only because patient, brave people post there. Of which I am appreciative. But again, I will not post there myself, and I encourage any and all bargain-travel bidders-to-be...head straight over to Bargain Bidding.com and see for yourself how wonderful, helpful, and friendly this website is!

Still Trying For Tampa

I'm still experimenting with getting us a deal for Tampa for our one night up-coming stay for Monday, March 23. I tried again yesterday, aiming this time for a 4-star in the airport area. Having seen on Bidding for Travel that someone had posted a win of the 4-star Renaissance for $60, I decided to go for it. However, that person had been bidding for a 3 1/2-star and was actually unhappy to have been "upgraded". (wtf???-some people don't get it, huh?)

Anyway, I didn't feel comfortable bidding on a 3 1/2-star in that zone, as it seems like most people have been getting the Sheraton Suites, which has gotten horrible reviews on Trip Advisor. So, yesterday, I decided to stick with the 4-star rating only, started with $50, and worked up to $61, using free re-bid zones. No go.

The past few times I've tried, I've been aiming for the Hyatt at Busch Gardens (3-star), that folks have been getting for around $56. Both areas, the airport, and Busch Gardens seem to be around the same distance to the relative we plan to visit, and both areas look like they have free parking. I would consider the downtown area, but it sounds like parking fees are pretty high, and we're just not going to be hanging out around town to make it worthwhile to pay the fees. I feel confident the Hyatt would be very nice, but $56 for a 3-star just doesn't meet my bargain-hunting needs as satisfactorily as $60 for a 4-star would.

So, I will keep trying at 24-hour intervals, and keep aiming for the best bargain deal. The fun isn't over for this one yet!

A Priceline "Win"...or not?

I "won" this 3 1/2 star for Tuesday March 24th, for our last night in Florida on our up-coming trip:

Wyndham Orlando International Drive
8001 International Drive
Orlando, Fl 32819

$49 + $13.82 in taxes and fees.

$62.82

Not a bad win, normally for that price for that star level. However, when I looked at Trip Advisor reviews they are all over the place. Some are horrendous. Others are very good. Others are so-so. But a LOT were very very bad. From what I could read, parts of the "resort" seem to be renovated, others not. Seems like those that get the renovated rooms are quite pleased. This is when one can only hope Wyndham is not using Priceline to dump their icky rooms. My experience in the past is, fortunately, not that way at all. At this point I'm praying for bug-free, crime-free and clean. I was concerned enough about the reviews to write to Priceline, asking if they felt sure about the 3 1/2 star rating. I'm pleased to report that the first response I got from Priceline came within two hours of my email to them on February 23, the same day as my "win".

"Dear Lori,

Thank you for taking the time to send us an e-mail. We understand that
you are concerned with the star rating of the Wyndham Orlando
International Drive since the hotel's own website rated it as a 3 star
hotel.

We have forwarded your e-mail to our Customer Relations team who will
further research your question(s). We will respond via email within 2
business days.

Thank you for your patience while resolving this issue.

Sincerely,

Pallav K.
Customer Service Specialist"

Then, the next day on February 24th, I received this:

On Tue, Feb 24, 2009 at 11:49 AM, 'Customer Service
<OriginatesCR2@service.priceline.com> wrote:
> Dear Lori,
>
> Thank you for your patience while we researched your issue with
Wyndham
> Orlando International Drive.We apologize that you are unhappy with
your
> upcoming hotel accommodations. We do evaluate each participating hotel
> on many different criteria, including cleanliness, guest satisfaction,
> décor, etc. We are sorry to hear that this hotel falls short of your
> expectations.
>
> We have researched to find that this hotel does meet our expectations
> for the star rating selected on our website. Our competitors also rate
> this hotel as follows:
> Orbitz.com = 4.0
>
> Expedia.com = 3.5
>
> Travelocity.com = 3.5
>
> Per our Quality Experience Guarantee, your hotel has been star-rated
by
> priceline according to our rigorous rating system. This means that our
> hotel staff has researched your hotel, reviewed customer comments and
> compared star ratings assigned by other rating services. The hotel you
> get will meet priceline's strict quality standards.
>
> We do feel that this hotel is properly rated through our system and we
> are not willing to offer compensation at this time. However, if you do
> find that you experience problems while at this hotel and the front
desk
> is unable to assist, please contact our Customer Service department
for
> further assistance.
>
> Thank you for giving us the opportunity to assist you!
>
> Sincerely,
>
> Sandeep C.
> Customer Relations Specialist

I felt much much better about my "win" after receiving these emails from Priceline. I wrote back, thanked them, told them they hadn't let me down in the past, and that I would use the reservation with an open mind and hope for the best.
So overall, I will conclude that I will consider this a win, until proven otherwise, which I sincerely hope doesn't happen. I'm pleased with the price, although It's not a "steal", as the hotel's own website has deals for the same night as low as $79. Not that I don't love to save $30, I just love it when it's even more of a savings. However, we're likely to just sleep there, since we'll be in Tampa the day before, and leaving for home the following day. It's likely we'll be in Disney all day that day as well, needing the hotel for just crashing.

Positives: It looks like the Wyndham has free parking, and a low "resort fee", which makes me happy. The grounds are supposed to be gorgeous. One reviewer on Trip Advisor said it reminded them of the Polynesian Hotels' grounds. It also sounds like the public areas...lobby, gym, bar, restaurant, etc are all decent.

So, whether this is a true "win", or not...time will soon tell. The joy of Priceline should never be: "You get what you pay for". My experience has almost always been: "You get a LOT more than you pay for." ( Although there was that one downtown Kansas City hotel.) But one out of many, is not bad. Hopefully this won't be two out of many!

Even if it turns out to not be too good, I would like to add that it would be my own fault! I had done enough research to know that this hotel with that star level was a possibility. When bidding, I was aiming for one of the Downtown Disney hotels that people have been getting for around $54-$56 for a 3 1/2 star. My mistake came when adding in the Universal/SeaWorld zone. I knew the Crowne Plaza was in that zone. Having stayed there with Mom & Tom in the past, I would've been very happy to get that one. But, in the heat of the bidding moment, I forgot about the Wyndham possibility. So, should this turn out badly, it will be MY fault, not Priceline's.

Tried again today. Today was an Orlando day. Yesterday was Tampa. Neither was successful at the rates I went for. Went as high as $72 today for a four-star or resort in Orlando, using every zone and starting at $50. Having gotten the Hilton Resort in Downtown Disney in the $60 range, in the past, a couple times, I'm not happy with the rates I'm seeing. No big deal, however, as I can have fun still trying.

This is What I posted on Trip Advisor.com

I started a month before, bidding on Priceline for a 4-star in Raleigh or Chapel Hill for Valentine's Day. We live in the area, so it wasn't a necessary trip, but a fun getaway, if and only if, we were to get a deal. My bidding was unsuccessful for weeks, until two weeks before, all of a sudden, a $60 bid came back successful for The Carolina Inn. Having actually attended the university many years ago, I still had no connection with the hotel, never having set foot in it. I had, however, heard great things about it, and we were very excited to have a night out in this elegant Southern hotel. Especially considering regular rates were more in the $200 range per night.
We arrived in Chapel Hill a little before 2:00 Saturday afternoon. Assumed valet parking was our only option, but we were told that there was self-parking. She raised the gate for us, and in we were. (self-parking was $10 for the night, by the way). Off to the front desk, where check-in was gracious and involved chocolate chip cookies. Apparently management is Doubletree hotels. Here, I made what was possibly an error on my part, as I mentioned that we heard the place was haunted, and asked for a haunted room. She seemed to shrug off the whole haunted thing, but mentioned that a king suite on the second floor had had some activity, but we knew we certainly weren't going to get that for a Priceline price. We were, however, put on the 2nd floor. A Queen "supreme" room. (which was probably even nicer than we should've been eligible for...very nice!) Up the tiny elevator we went. Please note that this is a very historical hotel. Therefore, you cannot expect modern anything! Expect to step back in time to Old Southern Elegance. Put the modern world behind you or you will have a hard time adapting.
Our room was close to the elevator. Small but had everything we could need. A queen-sized bed, small desk, nightstand, armoire with tv, chair...the window was a full-length curtain, behind which was a wall, but up high was a narrow window. Guess they built windows differently back then. The bathroom was a decent size, with full bath-tub & shower, sink, and bed-and-bath body products (coconut lime). The shower, the next morning, was wonderful...great pressure...nice and hot!
We were hungry and went down to the restaurant for lunch. We were concerned that they might be closing down since it was near 2:00, but we were told it was okay. There were only a few other tables full in the restaurant, there were several wait staff nearby, yet it had to be at least 20 minutes before a waiter came to take our order. We had been brought water and bread, but the long wait to order was strange, because staff seemed to be all around, but they weren't even looking at us. Eventually a waiter arrived who actually asked us if we needed more time to look at the menu! Uh, twenty minutes is more than enough to read a tiny menu! I ordered a sweet potato and onion bisque along with a spinach fried-oyster salad. My husband ordered a salad and beef/portabello mushroom sandwich. I had to ask for a wine list. Nearby was a table that was frustrated with waiting for a long time to have their plates cleared and a check brought. It was after 3:30 by the time we left, but the food was very very good. We had coffee & shared a dulche de leche creme brulee as well. It came with starfish, berries, and little chocolate cookies. Very nice! Where the food was very good, we found the service to truly be downright strange and inefficient.
Afterward, we wandered a bit around, trying to find the stairs, which were quite a distance from our room and the elevator. We were glad to read later, when looking at historical information, that the hotel was built to be fire-proof, because with no windows to jump through, nor stairs near the room, if God-forbid there would be a fire, it could be a disaster, even being only on the second floor. However it's nice to know it's fire-proof.
I found the display on the first floor near the gift shop, fascinating! You can truly get a feel for the history of the place there. Just walking around the hotel is so pleasant and elegant. No sign of any kind of security, however, so I don't know that I would've been overly comfortable to stay there as a female, alone. Luckily, I didn't have to worry about that.
After venturing out into Chapel HIll, we came back to our room where we found we had received turn-down service. Didn't know that was going to happen. Very sweet. I won't go into detail, but I will say that the rest of the night was not uneventful. It involved not one, but three incidences that made me realize I will never ever, even in a joking way, ever ask for a haunted room anywhere ever again. Though nothing ever seemed harmful, it was still unusual enough to keep my eyes wide open, when I would've otherwise be sleeping.
Walls are very thin in this hotel, but that is to be expected considering the age of it. We found it to be beautiful and charming. There was a wedding reception on the first floor that was truly stunning. This hotel must be a perfect place for a party or reception. The location is great. We found the front desk, the bar staff, bell-staff...all to be incredibly friendly and helpful. Don't know that I could ever get my husband to go back into the restaurant, however, although I would
I would be curious to hear if anyone else experiences anything unusual in this hotel around 3am. I know i will never forget our stay.

Funeral Travel

It's tough. It's last minute. No one plans their death around Southwest Airlines' latest sale. (although, honestly, I'll try when my time comes...I do care about all of you, and if anyone should do it, it would be me)

Friday January 16...Uncle Rick contacts me that a sad death has occurred and he needs to get from Sante Fe, NM to Rochester NY. He's thinking of flying Monday, perhaps coming back Thursday, yet not knowing when the exact funeral will be. Okay, I have the flu, but I'm up for this challenge, as it doesn't involve driving or being around others who could get infected. Besides, Uncle Rick's voice is shaking, he's really upset, and I would genuinely like to help him not spend an arm and a leg to get there. Immediately, I checked Travelocity and Expedia, and was alarmed to see that not only was he looking at over $1000 airfare, but he was going to have to travel 3 legs each way. Grueling! Awful! I hated that for him. What else could he do? I checked Orbitz. I looked on Southwest. Considered the options. Southwest only flies to Buffalo though, not Rochester, is that an option for Uncle Rick? Call Uncle Rick, and he knows he doesn't want to drive in the snow between the cities, but is there a shuttle? What I hear is that he's open to options, he'll consider alternatives, however Buffalo doesn't seem to be one of them this time. This is important! Alternatives could be other airports. Could be other dates. Could be all kinds of flexibility. My job was to discover what options he had. I also had to keep in mind that it's a tough winter, with tough weather in the North.

Other dates seemed to be the best idea to me. I played around with Sunday, Monday, Tuesday, coming back other days than Thursday...the only lower fare option that kept coming up was Saturday to Saturday. By now it's, oh...8:00 on Friday night. I'm wondering if Uncle Rick would consider leaving, at...oh, 6am from Albequerque Saturday morning? Cause that's the only time the airfare is going down. Call Uncle Rick. In the time it takes to reach him, that airfare is GONE on Expedia. Not available anymore anyway. Okay, fine...I'll try elsewhere. Meanwhile, other options show up but they involve Washington, DC, which is about to face the Obama Inauguration. Airfares are coming and going, literally by the minute. Scared, worried, I'm really wondering what else I can pull out here? Over $1000 for airfare and traveling three legs each way, is not, imo, an okay option...PERIOD. Yet, what else can I do? I fumble around the keyboard and internet, and stumble upon a Travelocity option that involves Uncle Rick hopping a plane the next day (Saturday) afternoon, on Northwest, via Minneapolis. Just two legs going. However, coming home any day other than the following Saturday presents an expensive challenge and 3-tier grueling challenge. The following Saturday has only one "low-fare" option, which is Rochester via US Airways to LaGuardia at 8:30am, arriving 10:05am, connecting with Delta 12:55 to Atlanta 3:35, then Delta 4:45 to Albequerque 6:27pm. Having experienced an airline terminal change in New York at LaGuardia before, I wouldn't wish that on anyone. Switching from US Air to Delta, I wouldn't wish on anyone. However, I tried to reinact anything like this, with a similiar price on either US Air or Delta via their own websites, brought back those nasty over $1000 airfares. Stumped for any other options, I called Uncle Rick and told him my best suggestion was to leave the next afternoon, and proceed with the Travelocity plan which was $305.12 plus taxes and fees for a grand total of $379.49. Not a fee I'm particularly proud of, because I like bargain travel, however under the circumstances, to save him $600 or more, I consider a plus.
Since then, I have heard from Uncle Rick who said everything went off well. I'm glad to have been able to help him out. Let's face it, when we're dealing with a crisis, and emotional, that's when the travel industry could most take advantage of us, unless we keep a level head, and have the patience to pursue various options. Uncle Rick, being flexible like he was, meant I could help him get a better deal. I'm glad it all worked out.

Valentine FUN!

There are times when travel is not necessary, but could be fun if the price is right. Such is when you have the most financial travel POWER...when you don't have to go somewhere, but it would be nice if you get a killer deal. Consider this the perfect scenario to have some travel deal FUN.
Valentine's Day 2009. So what, really? A "holiday" created by a card company, yet one with a good message. I love the theme of love, but I hate being told I should celebrate it. How about, let's celebrate it, but let the price is right decide how we do so?
We live in what is known as the "Triangle" area of North Carolina...Raleigh, Durham, Chapel Hill. A growing, thriving community that has recently been blessed with a couple new 4-star hotels, as well as having had some historical, and a few other 4-stars of varying nature. We even have our first 5-star in Cary, NC...called The Umstead. (which has an incredible spa). Anyway, being curious about the new 4-stars (Raleigh Marriott Center City and the Renaissance at North Hills) inspired me to look on Hotwire and Priceline to see if the 4-star category would finally show up. In the past, I really haven't seen 4-stars show up on either website. So, just for fun, I decided to start looking at what possibilites might exist for Valentine's Day 2009, which just happens to fall on a Saturday this year.
In the middle of January I began to play around with low bids for 4-stars in the Triangle, utilizing the "free re-bid zone" technique on Priceline. The theory was, either I get a killer deal, or we stay home. Okay with me either way, although I always always prefer a killer deal. It's FUN.
Besides checking Hotwire and Priceline, I did my homework as well, checking out the area 4-star hotels and seeing what prices they were charging and looking for any possible package deals. The lowest-priced option I could find was a special weekend rate at the new downtown Raleigh Marriott. For $119 you could get a room and breakfast the next day. Not a bad deal, just not a KILLER deal. Not to mention, it was an advertised deal that ANYone could get, so where's the fun in that? The new North Hills Renaissance didn't seem to go lower than $149 for a night. And 4-stars in Chapel Hill like Sienna and The Carolina Inn were going for over $200 per night. I low-balled some bidding anyway, and Priceline basically laughed at me. Okay fine. I can handle it, cause remember, I'm in power here. I don't care. We don't have to go anywhere!
Some days I ventured out farther, rejected by Priceline, I looked into Wilmington & Wrightsville Beach, where I was laughed at further. Not to mention they didn't have 4-star options, so I was rejected with my low bids on 3-stars. FINE. We stay home. The cats will appreciate my failure!
January 25, I bid as high as $80 for a 4-star, using up every free re-bid zone in the Triangle. Priceline scoffed at me! January 29, only went up to $70, but still rejected!
Decided to give it a rest...well, I just got busy, really, but just for fun, February 3rd, I'm thinking, I'll do my free rebid zone thing and have fun seeing Priceline come back with: "sorry..."
Having been rejected up to $80 before, this time I started at $55 for a 4-star in Raleigh (still thinking that the Renaissance or the Marriott was going to cave first). Of course I saw "we're sorry...can you change one thing and try again?" Yeah yeah yeah, I'll add in Chapel Hill, bump it $5 to $60 and they'll laugh at me again. Priceline does its' thinking, processing thing, and oh my gosh, comes back with...(check my glasses, open my eyes wider...) does that say, your price has been accepted??? By who? The Carolina Inn!? The expensive, usually over $200 Historical Carolina Inn in Chapel Hill that friends have paid way more for? For $60? For Valentine's Day? YUP!
The moral of this story is....timing is everything! Not to mention, that just because Priceline rejects you to a certain point one day, doesn't mean you have to start at a certain price point the next time. Because I bid a certain way due to losing out on my bids in January, I missed the opportunity to possibly get it even lower. I won't know now if I could've gotten it below the $60. Because I was thinking I'd need those free re-bid zones to get even higher, I missed the possible opportunity to start lower and work my way up. However, $60 is an incredibly good price for this hotel. Prices for even the smallest rooms there are more around $200 per night. AND, it's supposed to be haunted. Hopefully we'll get a friendly ghost thrown in to sweeten the deal. Consider every day a brand new day with Priceline and Hotwire. (Hotwire, by the way, now showing a 4-star in Chapel Hill for $82...which reinforces what a good deal I got).
It's not too late to find YOUR own Valentine Deal! Go for it! We're sure gonna have fun with ours.

Travel as a Gift!

I wanted to surprise my husband with something special for his birthday in April of 2006. He is a huge Lord of the Rings fan. Searching the internet, I discovered that a stage production of Lord of the Rings was being presented in Toronto. I quickly did a search, but was sad to discover that airfare was well over $300 per person to Toronto. That was too high for this Bargain Travel Diva. I was going to drop the idea until I remembered that Toronto was not that far from Buffalo. I had gotten great airfare to Buffalo in the past. Sure enough, I was able to find a great rate. I can't remember exactly, but I believe it was around $118 per person round-trip. I then started researching hotels. Got the Westin Harbour Castle (4-star) in downtown Toronto for the Hotwire rate of $67 per night for 3 nights. I then decided it might be fun for him to see Niagara Falls, since he had never seen it before, so I booked us for one night on the way back at the Doubletree Resort Lodge & Spa. This was a 4-star that was $88 thanks to Hotwire. Not one of my better deals, but for Niagara Falls at the time it was the best I could do.

So for my husband's birthday in April of 2006, I gave him two tickets to The Lord of the Rings show. And told him that we were going the following month over our anniversary weekend.

What started off as seeming like an impossibly expensive gift, with some creativity, turned into a reality. We had a GREAT time, and loved Toronto! I managed to survive the show itself, although the cast was lucky I didn't jump down there, grab the darn ring and throw it away!
While we were there, we stumbled upon Second City and went to a show they did that poked fun at Lord of the Rings.

Go peameal bacon!

Travel To Visit Family

Living in North Carolina, and having relatives in South Dakota has presented some interesting travel challenges for this Bargain Travel Diva. Airfares between our states can be outrageous.
Back in August of 2006, my husband and I decided to make visiting family in South Dakota, a road trip. We thought it would be fun to stay in cities we had never stayed in before. We also didn't want to go too far out of our way, so we wanted routes that made sense. At the time, my son was living in Nashville, TN, so we wanted that to be a stop on the way. We also had friends living in Kansas City, who we wanted to visit. That's how we ended up with the hotel deals I posted earlier.

We left Raleigh, NC...drove to Nashville, TN, visited my son and spent the night at the Radisson Nashville Airport (3-star) for $46 thanks to Priceline.
The next day we drove to Kansas City, visited friends, and spent the night at the Kansas City Crowne Plaza for the Priceline rate of $43. This was the only disappointment of the trip, as the hotel was not in good shape. We were really glad we only paid $43 for it.
If I remember correctly, we drove to Omaha the next day and spent the night there. Unfortunately, the hotel we stayed in must have disappeared or something, as my review of it completely disappeared off Trip Advisor, and I can't remember the name of it. It was an older hotel in downtown. We really liked the place, and I know I got it at a good price. The next day, we drove on to South Dakota.

Coming home, we took a different route that took us to Saint Louis where we stayed at the beautiful Saint Louis Hyatt Regency (4-star) for just $57 thanks to Priceline. We also spent a night in Charleston, WV at the Marriott Towne Center for $52 for a Saturday night.

The joy of booking these before our trip, besides saving money, was being able to Mapquest one destination to the next, so we knew how long we would be traveling, and where we would end up.

Trip Down Memory Lane

Looking back at some deals I've gotten...thought I'd share some from when I started keeping track of them. Early on, I see that I went more with Hotwire. That was because I had not really educated myself about Priceline. Thanks to websites like biddingfortravel.com and betterbidding.com, I soon learned the art of Priceline. And it truly is an art! I love it! As a result of educating myself, more often than not, I end up with a Priceline deal. Anyway, some of my earliest successes:

Nov. 2005: 3-Star Sheraton Suites Orlando Airport for 3 nights @ $48 per night. (Hotwire)

May 2006: 4-star Westin Harbour Castle Toronto for 3 nights @ 67 per night. (Hotwire)
May 2006: 4-star Doubletree Resort Lodge&Spa Niagara Falls, 1 night for $88 (Hotwire)

Aug.2006: 3-star Radisson Hotel Nashville Airport, 1 night for $46 (Priceline)
Aug.2006: 4-star Saint Louis Hyatt Regency, 1 night for $57 (Priceline)
Aug.2006: 3-star Kansas City Crowne Plaza, 1 night for $43 (Priceline)
Aug.2006: 3 1/2-star Charleston,WV Marriott Towne Center, 1 night for $52 (Priceline)

Sept.2006: 4-star Richmond, VA Omni 1 night over Labor Day Weekend for $71 (Priceline)
Sept. 2006: 4-star Hilton Walt Disney World Resort, 2 nights for $62 per night (Priceline)

I have had so many people tell me I should either write a book about how to get the best travel bargains, or become a Travel Agent. I would absolutely love to work full-time in the travel industry. However, I don't see how I could make a living helping people get travel deals, because the whole idea is to help people SAVE money.
My interest in Bargain Travel comes from my love of travel, but my lack of funds for doing so. There is nothing that makes me happier than a great airfare, a four-star hotel for the what others pay for a Red Roof Inn, a rental car for ten bucks a day, or a six-night cruise for under $300.
Let's talk Bargain Travel!