Squeezing Your Summer Travel Dollar

May 30, 2006 — -- Most of us have had the wonderfully chilling experience of committing to a summer vacation trip before checking the prices, waiting too late to get the best deals, then feeling compelled to pay a much larger price to get there and back.

Sometimes, in fact, there's not a lot of coin left over to enjoy the destination, which is why late May is the right time to go over some very effective ways of staying in charge of your travel budget.

If the hotel or resort dates are already set in concrete, just put more time into searching for the best fares, and do not just take the first thing that looks good on Expedia or one of the other third-party Web sites.

Also, try to start and end your trip in the middle of the week, because most everyone else is looking for weekend travel.