The Eclectic Rebel Blog and Travel Guide

This is part three in a three-part series on using Priceline and Hotwire to get killer travel deals. See part one: The Secret To Getting Best Travel Prices on Priceline and Hotwire, and part two: Beat The System: Killer Priceline Tricks For Hotel Deals.

Priceline.com can be used to get incredible hotel deals – if you know how to work the system. But you’re taking some risks to get a good deal, the worst being unable to cancel for any reason. But you might also encounter problems at the hotel because you’re a PRICELINE guest.

I found this great post on a random website from a hotel worker, telling the honest truth about what the hotels think of Priceline customers. I’d love to attribute it but he posted anonymously.

Rule #1 — If the hotel is full, you’ll get the worst room, and if it’s oversold, you’ll be first to be relocated to another hotel (after all, you didn’t choose the hotel in the first place, did you?). Flip side, if the hotel is empty, you might be able to sweet-talk your way to a suite. Read the rest of this entry »

This is part two in a three-part series on using Priceline and Hotwire to get killer travel deals. See part one: The Secret To Getting Best Travel Prices on Priceline and Hotwire.

So you’ve gotten a good deal on cars, now it’s time to use Priceline get to the REALLY good deals: hotels. However, Priceline is not for the faint of heart. To get a really good deal, you have to do your homework.

Bidding on Priceline can pay off royally – getting 50-75% per night off lowest hotel prices – but it comes at a cost. You don’t get to pick the hotel, and if you screw up, you are stuck. Priceline’s cancellation policy is ironclad – they don’t give any (except in EXTREME circumstances). Are you willing to do the work and take the risk? Let’s go! Read the rest of this entry »

Hitchhiking used to be the domain of happy hippies and kings of the road like Kerouac. But in these days of serial killers and just plain distrust of your fellow man, is it still possible to bum a free ride?

While many hitchhikers have perfectly wonderful experiences and meet lots of oddball characters, hitching is now generally frowned upon. Whereas guidebooks used to at least provide the best places to hitch, most of them now totally advise against it.

Let’s Go publications, which had a hitchhiker’s thumb as its logo for decades, dropped it in its most recent edition. Editor Tom Mercer said: “Though Let’s Go readers might still choose to hitchhike in certain circumstances, we felt that the logo was no longer emblematic of budget travel.” Today’s budget travelers are most often backpackers. The writers at artoftravel.com said, “…the vast majority of travel backpackers rely on public transportation and never hitch rides.”

So how do budget travelers get around? Read the rest of this entry »