Daily Travel Deal: $13.95 car rentals

by Grant Martin on

Our theme of discounted vacations continues, with yesterday highlighting the opportunity to score 100 hotels for under $100 each and today bringing car rental deals.

Hotwire is now hosting a sale on vehicle rentals across the board, from as low as $8.95 per day in Minneapolis to over $20 near New York City. Combine that with a dirt cheap hotel and discount plane ticket and you’ve got yourself a short little vacay that’s only a shade more expensive than that exotic STAYcay that you were planning. Just make sure you book early because availability is limited, and this deal could expire.

Don’t forget to loop back to AOL’s top five travel deals if you haven’t gotten your daily fill of discount mayhem.

Daily Travel Deal: 100 hotels for under $100

by Grant Martin on

In rough times like these, it’s important to save money on every facet of your travel, whether it’s business or personal. Airfares are controlled pretty tightly by the industry, but hotels are a great way in which you can cut a few costs.

Short of camping in the park or staying at a youth hostel, there are plenty of hotels that you can find at reasonable rates, especially in this economy. To that end, AOL travel has compiled a list of 100 great hotels for under $100, separated by domestic region and international destinations.

It’s a handy check during your hotel scouring to see if there are any super steals for your destination.

Check out the list of 100 hotels for under $100 here, and make sure you swing back to the hot deals section for any up to the second updates. And remember, inventory is limited so travelers should act quickly to take advantage.

Daily Travel Deal: $31 Vegas Strip Hotels

by Grant Martin on

One of the few great advantages of a smaller tourism market this year is that markets that rely heavily on vacationers are slashing prices. Many hotels and casinos in Vegas are hurting for business, which means that when you and I show up on the strip we can reap the profits.

The Excalibur in Las Vegas is a prime example. Prices for this three star property just dipped to as low as $31/night, some of the lowest prices that we’ve ever seen on Gadling. $31 isn’t for a crummy motel five miles off the strip either — The Excalibur is attached to the MGM Grand and nestled among all of the Vegas greats.

Find out more about the deal at Hotels.com, where you can also check out photos and take a virtual tour of the property.

Swing back to AOL’s discount travel for more fancy deals including the Hot 5.

%Gallery-40270%

Fare alert! Tokyo on sale for under $600

by Grant Martin on

Cherry blossom season is almost upon us, and that can only mean one thing for airfares: it’s time for the annual sale on tickets to Tokyo.

Most years there is a bit of a run on tickets to the Far East around this time of the year, but in this year’s prices, you can sense a bit of desperation. The economy is down, loads are light and the airlines are doing whatever they can to interest the American consumer in traveling again. Including slashing fares to Japan.

This round brings fares to anywhere between $550 and $600 from departure points all across the country. Plugging “flexible dates” into Travelocity, I’m finding $584 spring fares from LGA-NRT (that’s New York LaGuardia to Tokyo Narita,) while Los Angeles and Chicago are returning similar results.

All fares are on American Airlines (with some on United,) and travel appears to be good all of the way through May.

Need some help finding good tourist spots? Check out Big in Japan’s Cherry Blossom guide for a great start.

Score some $500 tickets to Australia with STA Travel

by Grant Martin on

Jealous of all of those blokes who got in on the first round of tickets to Oz on V Australia? It’s true, some of us snagged sub $500 fares to Australia late last year when The Pacific’s newest airline started selling tickets, but it’s not too late to cash in your chips.

The latest installment in STA Travel’s “fast finger fares” give students one last chance to score that dream vacation down under. As a bonus, a welcome package with two nights of (dorm style) lodging, meals and extras is also included in the price. That’s a steal. So how do you get in?

  • Twenty packages will available at exactly 12PM on Monday, the 9th of March. That’s tomorrow.
  • You can only book the packages by going to your local STA travel or by calling (800) 360.9273, so you either need to get to your local office and sit on a travel agent or use four cellphones and call non stop starting at 11:58. Yes, you can wear your Kappa Kappa Gamma sweatpants to the STA office. No, they don’t make your butt look big.

In the worst case scenario, if you miss out on the twenty best deals, STA still has Sydney, Brisbane and Melbourne on sale from Los Angeles for about $650, which isn’t a bad deal.

You can read more about the sale at STAtravel.com.

%Gallery-44162%