Great vacation tip No. 4: Track deals

Now that you know when you can take off, and where you want to go, you know which destination deals you want to track.mooringsbeach

There seem to be a grillion (and possibly more) websites out there that will help you. Here are a few worth checking. (Please share you faves, too!)

Smartertravel.com. Subscribe to this website for a daily email on the latest airfare and package deals, along with articles written some of the consumer travel industry’s most knowledgeable experts. (If you find the daily newsletter more irritating than entertaining, you can subscribe to Unroll.me and have it put into your daily email roll up.) . You can also sign up for alerts by city of origin, so you can track all the cheap flights from your local airport.

AirfareWatchdog, a sister company to Smartertravel (both are owned by the same people as Cruise Critic and TripAdvisor) offers terrific alerts on air deals. Unlike most sites that lean entirely on computer algorithms, AirfareWatchdog has actual humans who test the deals before sending out alerts. The site also allows you to watch specific route pairings.

Online booking sites Travelocity and Expedia also offer deal alerts. Travelocity’s Destination Watcher lets you designate whether you’re looking for air, hotel or car deals.

When it comes to getting a deal on a business-class fare, TravelZoo is one of the few sites that regularly highlights these; you can find them on their own tab under airfares. Better yet, sign up for their alerts. Skyluxtravel.com also highlights business class sales.

Luxury travel is a different conversation — one we’ll get to. So are cruises, hotels, packages and tours. We’ll get to those another day.