Creative ways to work the system for cheap travel

by Alison Brick on

Call it cheap. Call it resourceful. But when you’ve got travel on the brain and you’re on a budget, you gotta do whatcha gotta do.

A post on MSNBC.com embraces the cheap with ingenuity. They’ve pulled together a list of ideas for shaving a few dollars off of some of those travel necessities. Some are a little questionable, others are tried-and-true favorites, but they all do the trick. Try them for yourself:

  • Access free wi-fi from hotel parking lots. (“As long as you don’t camp out for too long, you’ll rarely get hassled.”) Holiday Inns and Best Westerns come highly recommended.
  • Ask for the flagpole/boiler/ice machine room (the one that nobody wants because it’s too noisy)
  • Earn a free Whopper at Burger King after answering the phone survey found on receipts
  • Ask the parents to come along so you can use the senior discount
  • Grab food from the complimentary breakfast and save it for a snack or lunch
  • Snatch pre-read magazines from seat-backs on the way off the plane
  • Buy food souvenirs from local grocery stores instead of tourist shops
  • Make your own oatmeal, with the help of the in-room coffee maker
  • Take advantage of membership discounts through Costco, AAA, and AMEX

What about you? What are your own unusual tips for saving money?

Airfarewatchdog’s 2009 tips for saving on airfare

by Grant Martin on

Our friends over at Airfarewatchdog are still working hard, day and night, finding cheap tickets for America. Their grass root efforts have gained them a cult following, and these days, most people I know subscribe to their newsletter.

To help us in our daily scouring, George and the team put together a list of 10 tips for saving on airfare in 2009. With the evolving airline industry, crazy oil fluctuations and new carriers on the market, this sort of stuff is important to keep track of every year.

AFWD’s tips range from the simple, like “use flex searches” to the subtle, like using direct airline websites instead of booking engines, but each of the points is relevant, significant and important to keep in mind while doing your fare searching. Make sure you stop by and take a look at the entire list — it could save you a bundle!

Budget Travel: Detroit

by Grant Martin on


Editor’s note: Today’s Budget Travel post comes from guest contributor David Landsel, editor of the New York Post’s travel section.

Summary

Detroit is a place of big doings. Everything it has ever done, it has done spectacularly, from meteoric rise to the total cratering that has left the city half empty, more than sixty years after the unstoppable decline began.

But the Motor City, the land of the Model T, Motown and Madonna (and other famous musicians too numerous to mention) isn’t just an empty shell. Nearly a million people still live here, for starters. As startling as its collapse is the fact that the city continues to move on as if things were almost normal. For sure, this is a place of grand ruins, hopeless politicians, monstrous mansions and grinding poverty, but somehow it all just works. Sometimes just barely. Sometimes surprisingly well. There simply isn’t any place like it. Not in the Rust Belt, not in the Midwest, not anywhere.

Even as times get tougher, there are so many reasons to drop in on Detroit. You can come for the music, for the art, the bars, the history, the cars. Come for the gambling, or the grand architecture. Don’t be surprised, though, if you leave most impressed by the people.

Some of the most genuine folks you’ll find anywhere in the country live in Detroit. Sure, the streets may appear mean, but mostly, the people are anything but. So, talk to strangers. Ask them questions about the city. Find out where they like to go drinking. Don’t worry about coming off like a crazy person – around here, that can often work to your advantage.
Getting in
With the automotive industry so influential in the greater Detroit area, large scale public transportation never took real shape in the city. Metropolitan buses are available, but routes are anemic and schedules sparse, so if you’re going to visit the city you’re almost certainly going to need to rent a car. Luckily, vehicle rentals are fairly inexpensive at Detroit Metro Airport (DTW) and around the city.

Northwest Airlines’, hub at DTW can be a mixed blessing. While one can access almost any city in the country in one stop, prices can be monopolistic and expensive, and therefore it can sometimes be difficult to find a budget fares into the city. Luckily, Spirit Airlines and Southwest Airlines have recently paid closer attention to the city, and routes that compete with their cities are often very inexpensive.

Chicago, Baltimore and Washington DC are all places from which you can reach Detroit for often around $100, and on a good day you can visit from New York for about $150. From the west coast, prices sneak in around $250 – $300.

Amtrak will lead you into the city center as well, where the closest stop to downtown is on Woodward in the New Center area. [thanks to Michael Kellermann for the coordinates]

Where to Stay
While the city is 143 square miles massive, most of the action in the city is centered either in or near the downtown area, a one mile-square, very walkable area that sits on the Detroit River, facing south to Windsor, Ontario. Conveniently for visitors, Downtown is not only the safest place in town, it also happens to contain the city’s best hotels, some of them quite expensive.

For example, the sparkling new MGM Grand with its top-notch, Tony Chi-designed spa, commands rates of $259 and up, while the beautifully renovated Book Cadillac hotel, a local institution that is up and running again under the Westin flag, often goes above $200 a night. (Stop in at the Motor Bar for a pint of locally-brewed Ghettoblaster Ale, even if you don’t stay over.)

To find bargains, though, you don’t have to resort to the mediocre, or the frightening. The Doubletree Suites Fort Shelby (another historic renovation, just completed) offers rates under $150 at non-peak times, as do the reliable Hilton Garden Inn and perfectly fine Holiday Inn Express, both conveniently located right in the city center.

For more unique lodgings, head for Midtown. Just north of the center and walking distance from most of the city’s main cultural attractions, the inspired Inn on Ferry Street is spread out among a handful of grand old mansions along a peaceful block just around the corner from the massive Wayne State University campus. You can find rates around $150 online when they’re not busy.

What to See

The best way to see Detroit is with people who know the surroundings, mostly because the city is more interesting when you’ve got a Detroiter to show it to you, whether we’re talking downtown’s appealing architecture or the city’s diviest dive bars.

Inside Detroit offers weekly tours of downtown highlights for $10 as well as custom tours of anything (anything legal, that is) within city limits that piques your interest. Co-founder Jeanette Pierce grew up on Detroit’s East Side and has a seemingly limitless supply of local know-how. Even if you don’t take a tour, stop by the Welcome Center at 1253 Woodward Avenue, for advice, maps and brochures.

To focus strictly on architecture, look into the summer tours offered on Saturdays and Tuesday evenings by the folks at Preservation Wayne, most cost just $10. For even more adventure, Wheelhouse Detroit re-opens in March, offering bike rentals (just $10-$15 for two hours), regularly scheduled tours, group rides on Wednesdays, as well as custom outings on request.

While getting the local perspective is always recommended, there’s plenty you can do on your own around town. Here are a few must-do activities to get you up and running.

DETROIT INSTITUTE OF ARTS The star of the Cultural District (pictured, right) is home to Diego Rivera’s remarkable Detroit Industry murals – a must see for any fan of the Mexican artist’s work. The DIA, though never quite as flush with cash as it would like to be, has managed to complete major improvements in recent years, presenting a treasure-trove of art in an almost celebratory way. Admission is just $8. The museum hosts an excellent film series and an occasional “Brunch with Bach” in t
he museum’s beautiful Kresge Court.

EASTERN MARKET Many cities have used their historic market districts as a major driver for tourism; in Detroit, the sprawling wholesale food district just northwest of Downtown just happens to be there. That’s not to say Eastern Market is not loved. Every Saturday, in good weather or bad, it seems like a whole chunk of the regional population is waiting in line for breakfast at one of a handful of worthy venues. There’s always something that’ll catch your eye, whether it’s gizzards for sale in the Gratiot Central Market building or the array of spices at one of the local shops. In season, though, make sure to look for the gardeners behind the budding Grown in Detroit movement, selling their parsnips (and the like) here.

BELLE ISLE While Frederick Law Olmsted is best known for his work on New York’s Central Park, Detroiters known him as the architect of their favorite park, Belle Isle, which is roughly twice the size of Central Park and receives a fraction of the visitors. In the middle of the Detroit River, accessible via bridge from Detroit’s East Side, Belle Isle is, like Central Park, so much more than a patch of grass. It comes complete with a zoo, aquarium, conservatory, a stand of thick forest and a long, sandy beach. (Now, ask what percentage of the amenities on the island are still in operation.) True, today’s Belle Isle is running at half mast, if that, but a loyal group of supporters has ensured that the park receives as much love as possible. Key stops include (in season) Cass Gilbert’s whimsical Scott Fountain (pictured) and the year-round Whitcomb Conservatory, with its modest orchid collection. In warmer months, the beach scene heats up, and there’s even a rather impressive water slide. Central Park can’t boast that.

AFFORDABLE JAZZ You’d have to really work to find a night when there isn’t something cool to do around town, and whatever your tastes, there’s a venue for you. Notably, though, Detroit is a great place for jazz lovers. Baker’s Keyboard Lounge — just one door down from 8 Mile Road — is celebrating its 75th anniversary this year; it offers a good schedule, as well as soul food dinners for under $20. Downtown, the much newer Jazz Café sells advance tickets for as little as $15, while over on Park Avenue, Cliff Bell’s, the well-executed revival of a famed 1930’s venue, has affordable cocktails and a lot of covers under $10 – when it charges a cover at all.

David Landsel is Travel Editor at the New York Post. He lives part-time in Detroit, because he has grown accustomed to its face (and affordable drink prices.)

Hotels cut back on fruit, everything else

by Tom Johansmeyer on

At the low end and high end, hotels are slicing away amenities. Some are the little things that you may not notice, but others will stand out. However you stack it up, you get less for your money. When you hit that discount rate, realize that you may be getting a discounted experience.

What’s disappearing? Several Marriott properties have stopped leaving hand lotion in guestrooms, requiring guests to call the front desk and ask for it. You’ll find fewer towels at Wyndham hotels, and those in the Ritz-Carlton family are shortening operating hours for restaurants, retail shops and spas.

Sometimes, the impact is noticeable, even if the cuts are not. Check-in lines are likely to get longer, and you’ll be disappointed if you expect to enjoy a cup of coffee while you wait. Lobby food is disappearing across the country. This is what happens when hotels compete on price.

[Thanks, Bob Johansmeyer (yes, we’re related), [Via the Wall Street Journal, photo of amenities at the Ritz-Carlton Golf Resort, Naples, FL]

Budget Travel: Boulder, Colorado

by Aaron Hotfelder on

If there’s any city in the US that you could compare to Amsterdam, Boulder might be it. Located about forty-five minutes from Denver, Colorado, Boulder is widely known as a hippie hang-out and boasts some of the most liberal laws in the country. But like Amsterdam, there’s more to Boulder than it’s tie-dyed, dreadlocked image.

Fantastic outdoor activities like hiking, rock-climbing, bicycling, and white-water rafting lie within easy reach of the city, which is situated at the foot of the unique Flatiron rock formations (see below).

Boulder is also home to the main campus of the University of Colorado, which ensures that there’s never a shortage of cultural activities. A Shakespeare festival is held on the college’s campus each summer, and the Pearl Street Mall (below), a four-block pedestrian walkway in downtown Boulder, is home to street musicians and artists of all kinds, as well as some great local bookstores. The Boulder Farmers Market takes place on 13th Street between Canyon and Arapahoe on Wednesdays and Saturdays between May and October; don’t miss it.

Also located on 13th Street, the gorgeous Boulder Teahouse, a gift from Boulder’s sister city of Dushanbe, Tajikistan, is also well worth a visit. From 1987-1990, the ceilings, tables, and columns of the teahouse were all hand-painted or hand-carved in Dushanbe, and they were then flown to Boulder where they were eventually assembled. (Boulder, for its part, opened an internet cafe in Dushanbe, albeit 20 years late.)

Sounds great, right? But can it fit your budget? Of course it can!

If you plan on visiting Boulder during the summer, my advice to you is simple: rent an apartment on Craigslist. Thousands of students abandon their apartments during summer break, and many of them would be glad to rent them out for a week or two for even a nominal fee. Couchsurfing is another great (cheap) option, and there appear to be plenty of available hosts. For something more upscale, try the historic Hotel Boulderado. Built in 1909 and with the original Victorian interior, the hotel is simply stunning.

Boulder’s vibe is youthful but not immature, artistic but not pretentious. It’s a great destination for anything from a family vacation to a solo camp-out– and best of all, it doesn’t have to break your budget.