Hi, I love to travel and am constantly scouring the web to find the best travel deals and travel deal sites, so I created this hub to share my favorite deal sites and occasionally post some of the best deals I run into.

Be flexible!

I can't stress this enough - the best way to get great travel deals is to have a ton of flexibility, both in where you want to travel, and when you want to go.

My best New Years Eve ever happened when I took 3 days off of work between Christmas and New Years with no real plans.  I started watching the travel deals and picked up a week in Paris starting the day after Christmas for my girlfriend and I.  I paid somewhere around the going rate for ONE plane ticket, but got all of our transport and a week at a 4 star hotel.  Of course, being from California we had to buy some jackets and scarves when we got to Paris, but a cold New Years Eve under La Tour Eiffel made for a very memorable experience.

Target the off season

With the exception of some wild adventure travel and backcountry spots, virtually everywhere you'll want to go as a tourist is somewhere that a bunch of people call home, meaning they LIVE there during the off-season.  So while there may be a time that is considered "best" to visit a destination, that's also usually the time with the biggest crowds and the highest cost.

Shifting to another time can give you access to great deals.  It will also result in an experience that may be altogether unique.  Some places take on very different character depending on the time of year you go.

Take advantage of fear

If you're independently-minded and don't mind getting some funny questions from your friends ("what, you're going THERE, are you nuts?!"), keep your eye on the destinations that are getting some negative press.

For example, Mexico has been getting quite a bit of bad press in the U.S. for a while now.  First, they've been having a ton of trouble with drug cartels, especially in the border towns.  And more recently, the outbreaks of swine flu in several cities have caused Americans to avoid the country in huge numbers.

Now I'm not suggesting you fly into a war zone or the middle of an epidemic.  But, in spite of these things going on, you'd probably be very safe on the Yucatan peninsula at the moment.  And I have a friend who just returned from Puerto Vallarta who had a great time and no inconveniences.

Book early or late

I find the best time to make reservations (assuming you have a job like me and can't just take off whenever you want) is either well in advance of a trip (anywhere from 3-9 months) or at the very last minute (1-3 weeks before the trip).

If you're a bit less daring or have a fairly short list of destinations, I'd go for the early approach.  This will give you the most flexibility in finding something close to what you want at a price you can afford.

But if you want to take a chance and don't mind rolling the destination-dice, I find some of the absolute best deals can be had at the last minute.  Excess capacity can often be had for ridiculously discounted rates if you're willing to chance it and take advantage of whatever happens to be discounted at the time of your vacation.

Mileage programs

Many people have great luck with various airline mileage programs.  This is one I don't take enough advantage of.  Most of the various deals and deal-following websites that I mention on this hub deal with a ton of various carriers, and I usually just go with the best package deals.  I do use a credit card with points for everything, and may experiment more with mileage programs in the future, but at the moment someone else could cover this topic much better than me.