How I Plan & Book My Trips! — Life With Marianna

Happy Friday everyone! So glad its the end of another long and stressful week. I wanted to end the week by writing about my planning and booking process when it comes to traveling. For every trip I book, I always get asked questions such as "How do you find such good deals?" Or "What search engines do you use?" Or "What are the best days to book a trip?". These are all questions I used to ask myself when I first started traveling on my own. To be honest, I feel that planning a trip requires tons of research. I create a ton of list and spreadsheets to calculate cost and expenses. I usually set a budget for each trip because as a college student who pays rent, who can afford to splurge? I use multiple apps and set up so many alerts to notify me whenever the prices drop.

To be honest I feel that everyday is a good day to book a trip. I have heard things such as Tuesday's are better and Wednesday's as well. I think that it all really depends on the airline. If you can wait a week or two to see price changes, that's great but some of them fear higher prices if we book later. I usually check everyday of the week to see if any flights have changed. If nothing, than I usually just buy whichever one works for me.

Which Apps to Use?

Skyscanner is the most used app on my phone. It allows me to search flights from any airport and gives me the best prices to places all around the world. This is great for people who aren't set on a destination yet. You plug in the dates and it gives prices to hundreds of flights in and out of the United States.

Hopper is another great app that I am always using. This app gives you information about pricing dropping or even going up. It will give you an estimate on the best time to purchase and when they think the prices will start going up. What I love about this app is that you can add alerts on a ton of flights to notify you on and price change.

Google flights is another major site I use when it comes to checking prices. It will tell you the cheapest time to travel to that destination. I like how I can use their explore tab to see prices for a bunch of places for the dates I am traveling to. I recommend checking here first because they list all the airlines and their prices.

Main airline sites such as Delta, United, American and so on are very important to check before purchasing on any other third party site. I have noticed that sites such as Cheap O'Air and Expedia may have higher prices than the airlines main site. Not saying that I dont use them but it is very important to check everywhere before you book so you can get a good deal. I do love Expedia and Cheap O'Air because I can always find a coupon online or in my emails. Whether its 10% off or $40 off , it's still saving you money.

Where Do I Stay?

When it comes to stay, I usually either do Airbnb or Marriott. Airbnb is such an easy way to stay in new cities and live like a local. I have done from shared apartments to whole houses and I have never been let down! In Europe, Airbnb's are so easy and affordable. When it comes to hotels, I usually go with Marriott just because it's my favorite hotels. I love apps such as Hotels.com because they offer such discounts on hotels. They are always sending coupons and secret prices if you sign up with them. They even have a reward system that after your 10th hotel stay, they give a free night. Who doesn't love rewards like that?

I love helping people plan their own trips. There are probably so many other questions that you may have so don't be afraid to comment down below or even shoot me an email. I recently came across an Instagram account of a couple who travel the world on a budget. They have an amazing free e-book with a bunch of travel information and ways to save money when you travel (Link to their site -> Two Wondering Soles) I really recommend reading their e-book and following them on instagram for all the travel inspiration you need! Hope you enjoyed this post! Next week I'll be doing my December 2017 Italy trip recap which I am so excited to talk about! Have a great weekend y'all !

XOXO MB