When my family and I travel we only use vacation rentals. If we’re headed to Tahoe or St Kitts we check out http://www.vrbo.com which lists properties all over the world. If we’re headed ot florida we use more area specific sites like http://www.floridagulfvacation.com for rentals on the west coast of Florida. You can search almost any city and find what you need.

The biggest savings comes from cooking yourself. We generally make our own breakfast and lunch and have a nice dinner out. with what we save on the first two meals we can really afford to splurge on dinners.

Generally speaking you get more room, for less expense. Sure you have to clena up after yourself but the benefits far out weigh the five minutes a day it takes to straighten and make the beds.

Also, I always try to fly into a major hub and then just use a budget airline to your final destination.

Another approach that has worked for me is booking two separate tickets on the same airline – Ticket 1 from home to major hub, and Ticket 2 from hub to destination, and then having the airline desk connect both flights for you at the airport and check your luggagge all the way through!

I´m also getting itchy feet, and would like to minimize cost for my upcoming trip around Europe. Skyscanner can be good for shopping around for flights, but even better is Dohop (www.dohop.com) – especially for European flights.

Happy traveling!

I plan on doing Barcelona and Rome next year, but I’m lucky as I’m from England, so the flights etc are much cheaper.

Did you check out skyscanner.net to see if you can get a cheap flight on one of the Spanish airlines for Barcelona to Rome? It could save you a good bit of time.