Vacation On The Cheap!

Susan Koeppen Suggests Innovative Ways To Beat High Price Of Gas And Weak Dollar

(CBS) 

"COUCH-SURFING"

Head to CouchSurfing.com and find that you can stay on someone's couch in a multitude of countries around the world -- for FREE! The couchsurfing.com mission statement says, "CouchSurfing is not about the furniture, not just about finding free accommodations around the world; it's about making connections worldwide. We make the world a better place by opening our homes, our hearts, and our lives. We open our minds and welcome the knowledge that cultural exchange makes available. We create deep and meaningful connections that cross oceans, continents and cultures. CouchSurfing wants to change not only the way we travel, but how we relate to the world!" More than 560,000 members in 230 countries around the world participate in the Couch Surfing process. As for its safety, the Web site purports, "This is one of our most commonly asked questions. CouchSurfing has implemented several precautionary measures for the benefit of its surfers, hosts, and community. Every user is linked to the other users he or she knows in the system through a network of references and friend links. In addition to the solid network with friend link-strength indicators and testimonials, we have our vouching and verification systems. Some of these are new technologies invented by the CouchSurfing founders. In addition to the rigorous safety measures in place for hosts and surfers, we have a safety measure in place for the project. CouchSurfing is incorporated, which simply put means a body that is granted a charter recognizing it as a separate legal entity having its own rights, privileges, and liabilities distinct from those of its members. This insures the safety of our members and volunteers from lawsuits (except in cases of individual gross negligence). Non-incorporation passes liability directly to individuals. To the best of our knowledge, CouchSurfing is the only major hospitality network with this legal status."

SEARCH FOR PACKAGE DEALS

Hotels, airlines, and other travel industry partners unload extra inventory -- the rooms and planes they know aren't going to have 100 percent occupancy -- and create fire-sale-type promotions, creating packages that will give you a tremendous amount of bang for your buck. Sites such as TravelZoo.com offer near give-away deals on plane tickets, and package deals including ground transfers and the like.

Sites such as Kayak.com and Expedia.com offer some good deals, as well: Through Kayak.com, we found a fare from Chicago to Barcelona and Ibiza for seven nights, including hotel and transfers, of $1,600.

For even more last-minute deals and packages, pick your favorite air carrier and sign up for their weekly fare/package deal e-mails: You can get some amazing last-minute deals from them, too. For example, if you log onto American Airlines' Web site right now, if you choose to leave on Thursday, you can have a three-day, three-night vacation in Miami, flying from Newark, for $320 a person. Add $90 to that, and you'll get yourself a rental car, as well. If you're ready to drop everything and get on a flight to Paris Wednesday afternoon, you can spend five days there, including hotel, for only $1,500 a person.

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We travel to Paris several times each year for the fashion shows. We usually stay in hotels (very pricey and not as comfortable as we would like). Our last trip we rented an apartment with Rentals in Paris (www.rentals-paris.com) and it was excellent. A two bedroom two bathroom apartment next to the Place des Vosges in the Marais which is our favorite spot. We were close to the shows and our meetings, and the apartment made this our best trip to Paris yet. We will definitely rent again, and certainly stick to the same company. Glenn Cooper was great to deal with and he and his team handled things very well for our group. I was a little nervous about renting an apartment in Paris but recommend the experience highly.

Brian R.