A lot of people think traveling is expensive, but it doesn’t have to be unless you know where to find the deals.

I’m always looking for flight deals. I may not have a destination in mind, but when the deal is good, For flights, I only have 2 main places I look. The first is Google Flights (flights.google.com). Google Flights has a calendar style search that shows you which dates are the cheapest to to fly out and fly back in. Highlighted in the screenshot below, you can change the amount of days your trip is and the prices will reflect in the calendar. You input your departure point, destination, and the dates of travel, and this calendar will pop up. 

Once you’ve selected your dates, you’ll get a list of airlines and times to choose your flight. The top three are the best departing flights which give you the best times and the best price. Sometimes the best flights aren’t always the cheapest, but some people pay more because of the time of the flight. My advice, if you can sacrifice time and save money, take a different flight. The cheapest flights are always highlighted in green and  the more expensive flights are in regular print. 

Other departing flights are almost always connecting flights. Some connecting flights are slightly more, but still cheaper than a regular priced flight. I always try to avoid a connecting flight unless its extremely cheaper than the direct flight or I have no other choice to get to my destination because there are no direct flights offered.

Another tip that A LOT of people don’t realize is you don’t have to buy a round trip ticket. A lot of the time, depending on the destination, buying two one way tickets will save you some money as well.

My next go-to is Scott’s Cheap Flights (scottscheapflights.com) which is God sent. Scott’s operates on an email basis so you have to sign up to receive deals. You can sign up for a free or paid subscription of $39 a month and have deals sent straight to your email. The paid subscription is worth it if you travel often being that you’re sent more deals like mistake fares and peak season deals. With the free subscription, deals like those aren’t included, but you still get some good deals.

An email sent to you will look like what’s pictured above. The title of the email will give you the destination, price, and the time of the year the deal is valid for and it’ll show you the airports the flight is operating from, time of year again, the normal price, airlines operating the flight, and when is the best time to buy. The best time to buy is always accurate. These deals disappear quick so if you see it, grab it while you can.

Scott’s directs you to purchase the tickets via Google Flights. The search is the same as if you were going straight to Google Flights directly and inputting your search requirements.

There are many different sites to find a hotel, but I strictly use Booking.com Booking.com gives you the total amount as your’re browsing so that you’re not in for a surprise when you check out, they offer a genius discount which is usually 10%, they price match, they have travel communities where you can chat with people who’ve been to those places or live there to get more information to plan your trip, and they have an option to filter your search for the best places to stay for solo travelers (my favorite).

Booking.com doesn’t only offer hotels so if you’re the AirBnB type, apartments are also offered so you can book an apartment without all of the Airbnb fees.

These 3 are my go-to and I haven’t really used anything else. I’ve planned all of my trip with these sites, and saved a lot of money doing so.