We recently attended a sales presentation for one of those "travel club" companies. The pitch sounded tempting -- deep discounts on condos, cruises, travel packages, etc. Naturally it came with a multi-kilobuck membership fee. I was able to access their services for a few days and determined their basic member website just showed the same prices (hotels, airfare, etc) you could get at Orbitz or at vendor websites. No surprise, since they said the travel packages &etc were where they really save you $$. I tried having them book a business trip for me (air/hotel/car) and their prices were basically identical to what I got in Orbitz. It's possible their cruises &etc are good deals (but we don't cruise) but it didn't look to be worth the membership price to me.
But I figured there have to be sites like that on the web. Where can you go to find genuine good travel discounts, last-minute deals? (E.g. this club had a 12-day African safari in May for $1100 p/p land-only, and very reasonable prices for things like Sandals resorts, driving / cabin vacations along the Irish coast, etc.) There MUST be places for travelers to find these deals on their own. Help?
Thanks!
Gary
Reply to this Hello Gary 😊
There are indeed places for travellers to find deals on their own. It involves trawling the internet and newspapers for reputable services offering a special offer. I buy flight and train ticket special prices. I get the best prices when I am flexible about where I go to and when.
Mel
Reply to this So it's a matter of 1) unlimited hours spent dredging the net, and 2) guessing whether an attractive site is reputable, or doing additional research to chase with BBB &etc. and still not knowing if the place is legit or just hasn't been around long enough to draw complaints. If that's the only option, the multi-kilobuck membership fee starts to look a lot more reasonable...
Aren't there any better options??
Reply to this Well, I feel the disadvantage of planing travel through a 'TravelClub' is that usually you get the tourist destinations only. You may feel you get a better deal bcoz they have tie-ups with hotels and other service providers but if you actually want to travel and truly experience the place you are visiting than its better to spend some time doing the additional research bcoz its worth it. You can make your own travel plan and indulge in activities you enjoy.
A travel blog like this one, infact is perfect. There are recent experiences from people who have traveled and reading through those and these "Forums' gives you quite a clear picture of where to go and how to go about it.
Reply to this True dat. We spent several weeks in Thailand a about 6 years ago. Some of the stuff we did was typical touristy stuff -- we had our young kids with us so we did the elephant ride, the bamboo raft ride, etc. But we also spent 5 days on a tiny island in the south that I found after lots of digging and research. All the "usual" Thai beaches are gorgeous but they've been overdeveloped with condo towers, McDonalds' and Pizza Huts. But the island where we stayed (Koh Yao Noi, if you're wondering) was a beautiful throwback to a simpler time. And our two beachfront bungalows cost about 1/10th or 1/20th what a stay at Phuket or Krabi would have cost.
On the other hand we did a trip to Peru about 15 years ago, the only "organized tour" trip we've ever been on. And it was *fabulous*. It was really great to let somebody else worry about all the logistics and the connections. We just had to show up and there was somebody there with a bus to take our stuff and schlep us off to the next stop. We got hooked up with the best local providers, and we got to see and experience things we **never** would have found on our own. So a good and carefully-chosen "tour" can work really well too. And as I get older (I'm in my mid-50's) I find myself getting lazier and more willing to let somebody else do the work so I can just enjoy myself.
Reply to this I've looked at several Travel Club type setups, and was wondering if anyone has run across
. Tanya is right that travel clubs tend to only have deals for the big travel spots, but this one seems to have something at least close to just about everywhere. After reading garyfritz's notes, there are big ticket packages, but it looks like they've got some atypical programs that finally let you in on the good stuff without the big membership fees. Seems really innovative. I'm so thankful for the internet! comments? Reply to this Hello Randall 😊
If Gary or anybody else reading requests the name of the company I snipped from your post, would you please send it by private message. Do not post it on the forums again. Sorry to inconvenience everybody like this but we get a lot of SPAM on these forum so we remove company names and URLs from the posts of new members to discourage it. 😊
Mel
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