Travel and Life Resources to Save Money and Increase Liberty

Hello, dear reader! Here are tons of delicious ways for you to save money and time, and to increase liberty and awesomeness, both at home and during travel. If you enjoy this website or my other site, TeachingTraveling.com, please consider using the links on this page to do your searches and purchases, as a small percentage will help support this blog at no extra cost to you. Thanks, and happy liberty-izing!

Part 1: TRAVEL RESOURCES

Accommodations (Hotels):

TripAdvisor, for years, has been my go-to in order to research hotels, but did you know that you’re now able to BOOK accommodations through their site? Since they opened this feature, I’ve used it a number of times and have been pleased.

HotelsCombined lets you compare almost all of the other hotel search engines to find the best price. I also enjoy their polar bear mascot. :)

Hotels.com is rightly well-known for offering excellent deals and an easy user interface.

Accommodations (Home or Condo Rentals):

Vrbo.com (Vacation Rentals By Owner) is a platform for renting vacation homes that I’ve used numerous times and love. Again, in addition to using these sites to find a place to stay, consider making extra money by renting out your own place while you’re away!

FlipKey was the home and condo renting service we used on a recent vacation, and had a splendid experience. I like the search filters you can use to narrow down your perfect (in our case, beachfront) accommodations. You can also pick up extra income by renting out part or all of your own place through FlipKey.

TripAdvisor Vacation Rentals is a revelation now that I have kids and realize how much more practical and economical it is to rent a whole condo or house (with a kitchen and multiple rooms) versus all squeezing into a tiny hotel room. We did this during our stay in Puerto Rico and saved a ton of money and stress… and we were two steps from a gorgeous beach! (In fact, I took many of the photos on this page during that Puerto Rico escapade.)

AirBnB lets you rent a room or whole house from someone else’s home, and is sometimes much more affordable and comfortable than a hotel room. Here’s the tip that most people don’t realize, however: Becoming an AirBnB host — even for just one busy weekend — can earn you a LOT of money to fund your own travels! We always rent our our place during the Boston Marathon because lodging is so in demand, and funded our entire Finger Lakes vacation from one guest! If you haven’t signed up yet as either a traveler or host, click here for the link to get a $25-$35 credit from me!

Flight Search Tools:

CheapAir is an exciting new find offering price drop payback (YES!), flight price alerts, and easy phone support. I really like their interface and savings, and my brother recently got an excellent deal with them.

Kiwi.com is an exciting new flight search tool that travelers love.

FlightHub has good prices and filters to get the type of trip you most desire, and offers a free email alert for notifications of flight deals before they’re gone.

Sky-Tours is a unique, customer-friendly search tool for flight deals.

Expedia and Travelocity have flights, hotels, rental cars, vacations, so on, thus should be in ALL of the following sections, but I don’t want to be a redundant bunny, so just know you can use them for all of that.

Specific airlines like Hawaiian Airlines, or Iberia often have the best deals on their own websites, so scope those out.

Flight Management Resources:

Points.com allows you to manage all your airline and points loyalty programs in one tidy bundle.

Park ‘N Fly is a much-needed service for airport drop-off and pick-up in your own car.

ParkSleepFly has super convenient airport parking, hotel, and shuttle bundles.

Vacations Packages and Cruises:

Travelocity Cruises have some mind-blowing deals, and make travel mighty easy.

Travelocity Vacation Packages tie everything in an affordable, convenient bow.

LivingSocial has slews of rotating travel deals, from vacation packages, to hotels, to flights. Sometimes I just like to browse the beach photos and let my imagination wander. They also have at-home life deals, too.

Insight Vacations: This luxury tour and vacation service looks delightful!

Sandals and Beaches.com are relaxing all-inclusive resort vacation portals.

Group Tours to See the World:

G Adventures is another excellent tour company with group travel options for all budgets and destinations. Plus, its founder has as his Twitter icon a picture of Beaker the Muppet!

City Sightseeing:

Trusted Tours and Attractions packages easy sightseeing in major U.S. cities.

Rental Car Deals:

Hertz is a standard for car rentals during travel.

Auto Europe Car Rentals is not just for rentals in Europe!

Zipcar (click to get $25 off!) has affordable, convenient short-term car rentals, whether you’re at home or traveling. I love the term “Zip Trip” for a mini-vacation using these vehicles.

Travel Insurance:

Travelex Travel Insurance is smart to look into for big trips, or situations you are nervous about. I know quite a few people who have worked with them and had a good experience.

Europe Train Travel Packages:

Eurail train packages are a great way to see Europe. Ahh, I have such happy memories of the hours I spent journeying by rail from Switzerland to Italy…

Learn to Teach English Abroad to Make Money for Travel:

LoveTEFL allows you to get certified in teaching English as a foreign language through an online course, and having that skill can fund your travels!

Travel Gear:

People frequently ask me what camera, or shoes, or bag I use, so here is the specific list of my most beloved and useful travel product recommendations. The nice thing about these Amazon links is that once you click through, you can choose to purchase another brand or even totally different item, and a commission will still support this site. Thank you kindly!

TECHNOLOGY: The camera I currently use is this Sony mirrorless camera which is an ideal combination of compact, affordable, and high quality. If you want a more inexpensive and bite-sized option, I’d highly recommend this tiny point-and-shoot camera I used to use. That said, phone cameras are getting better and better, so you might just want to invest in a good smartphone and practice smart photography tricks like holding your hand steady when you take a photo. For a computer, I swear by my Macbook Air. It is skinny and durable, and has lasted since 2011!

LUGGAGE: After graduating from my solo backpacker days to the world of professional luggage, I fell in love with this suitcase, which has now lasted since 2009, over countless miles. To hold my valuables every day at home and on the road, I use this travel purse which is sweet and small, and has a mighty cross-body strap to resist snatchers.

APPAREL: Even if it wasn’t my college friend who stared this travel dress company, I would still stuff my suitcase with Leota’s cute but durable frocks. For footwear, I am ALL about comfort shoes, and spend every day on the road or home in these supportive but cute shoes or these brilliant sandals. When I was seeking comfortable shoes for my wedding, they were one of the only stores to carry formal shoes that I could dance happily in!

Gear for Travel With Kids:

Click here for my guide to Baby Travel Gear, and find the Toddler Travel Gear list here.

Part 2: LIFE RESOURCES FOR MORE LIBERTY:

Time and Sanity-Saving Services:

Amazon Prime: It is almost embarrassing how much we rely on Prime as new parents, from getting our first baby’s giant crib delivered through it (the free 2 day shipping Prime is famous for even applied to that crib!), to binge-watching all of the free TV and movies available on there on nights our second baby wouldn’t sleep. Click here to get a 30 day free trial of Prime.

Amazon Family is an automatic subscription service for diapers, paper towels, and other (often bulky) things a family (or single person, for that matter!) needs, but may not have time to get every month. The prices are the best we’ve found on all the diapers our kids blaze through, and the convenience of having the boxes delivered to our door has been priceless. I HIGHLY recommend this service either for yourself, or as a present for someone you know who’s feeling stressed in balancing all of life’s chores. Get a 30-day free trial — including 20% off diapers! by clicking here.

Amazon Wedding Registry and Baby Registry make me grin, because everyone at your wedding thinks you need a thousand utensil sets, and everyone at your baby shower thinks you need a million tiny onesies, but with this registry you have 90 days to return those “perfect” gifts and buy yourself a luxe massage chair instead. :) Just saying.

Happiness-Inducing Products and Sites:

Sonos is the company we use for our beloved speaker system, both for our TV and music in the dining room. They’re operated via your smartphone and thus (in addition to sounding fantastic) make you look very futuristic.

CanvasWorld lets you take your snazzy travel and life photos and turn them into fancy wall art!

Audible audio books that I download to my phone and play while doing another activity at the same time are the only reason I’m still able to read while holding down two jobs and raising two kids. I’m even part of a book club in my neighborhood because of Audible’s help! Click here for a free 30 day trial.

Walgreens has beautiful discounts on drug store basics.

Seat Geek gets you the best tickets for events like concerts and sports games at low prices.

Curriculum Help for Teachers (Like Me!):

Teachers Pay Teachers is where teachers can buy and sell curriculum they’ve made… like mine! :)

Pant, pant, pant… That’s a lot of recommended stuff! What questions or comments do you have? Which of these services and products have you tried, and what was your experience?

Do share, and do please consider supporting this site (at no extra cost to you!) by using these links for your shopping excitement. For those who have asked for how to donate a small tip directly, here is my PayPal page. Thank you, liberty-loving readers!