If you book your vacation the right way you can literally save $1000’s.

These are not tricks or sketchy ways of saving money by staying in some dump or risking your life. These are tips to take the same awesome vacation, at the same luxury resort as everybody else, but for much, much less money.

I’ve used these tips myself and I have saved $1000’s on flights and resort packages.

 

Tip #1 – Time Your Flight Right

 

Prices on flights can change drastically depending on the time of year and day of the week you are flying.

When I book round trip flights to the Dominican Republic from California I have seen prices range from over $1050 to $550 per person depending on timing. I save more or less $550 each time I fly just by timing my flights correctly.

For a family of 4 that would be $2200 in savings just by planning your flight dates the smart way.

 

When NOT to Fly:

• School vacations. Winter, summer and spring break
• Christmas and Thanksgiving in particular.

Everybody is flying during this time of year which causes airline prices to skyrocket.

 

When to Fly:

• February to May (not including spring break)
• September to November (not including Thanksgiving)

Ticket sales are down this time of year which causes airline prices to hit rock bottom.

 

What Days of the Week Should I Book Flights?

Believe it or not the day of the week you fly can change ticket prices by 100’s of dollars.

 

Worst Days to Fly:

• Friday
• Sunday
• Monday

Avoid like the plague Friday, Sunday and Monday. These are the days everyone wants to fly.

The result: Prices go through the roof.

 

Best Days to Fly:

• Wednesday
• Saturday

Wednesday and Saturday are awesome. All my cheapest flights have been on Wednesday and Saturday.

I have seen ticket prices $200 or $300 lower on Wednesday and Saturday than the rest of the week.

 

Tip #2 – Book Resorts for the Off Season

 

The time of the year also makes a big difference on the types of prices you will find on resort packages. You will be hard pressed to find a deal during the high season.

The low season is the best time to find those unbelievable deals. I have found resort packages for as cheap as 80% off during the low season. I have paid $30 dollars a night for a resort packages that usually cost $150. For a week that is the difference between $210 and $1050.

That is a $840 cheaper per person. For a family of 4 that is a $3360 savings!

Granted deals like that can be hard to find, but 40% to 60% off deals can be found around every corner during the low season.

 

Worst Times to Go to a Resort:

• November to February
• June to August
• Holidays (Especially Spring Break)

Fortunately, like you probably already figured out more or less the same times of year when flights are expensive, resorts are expensive as well. You can kill two birds with one stone by avoiding these expensive travel dates.

 

Best Times to Go to a Resort:

• September & October
• March to May

September, October, March, April and May are generally the low times for resorts and there are great deals on resorts all over the place for these months.

Let’s review the tips that will help you to save money on your next vacation.

 

To Save 1000’s on Your Next Dominican Vacation:

1. Book flights for Wednesdays or Saturdays and avoid holidays
2. Book Resorts for dates during September, October, March, April and May

I have personally used these tips many times and I have saved $1000’s on flights and resorts just by booking the right dates.

Play it smart, use these tips and you can save 1000’s on your next vacation.

(10/14/13) Since we moved here several years ago we started finding some of the best locations and best deals for resorts in the Dominican Republic. Unfortunately, we don’t get the opportunity to take advantage of all of them! This does though seem to be one of the more frequent requests of readers of this blog for me to start listing deals that I find. This works out well both to see what deals are currently running (that I know about) as well as patterns of when the resorts offer the best deals. So as I get notice of the resort vacation deals, I’m going to try to start listing them. In particular for one of our favorite all-inclusive resorts in Puerto Plata, the lifestyle resorts.

One of the reasons we like this resort so much, in addition to the great price, is that during the better priced deals there are usually quite a few of our friends there. We also meet people from all over the world including Bethal in New York and other branches.

The latest deal just came out today as a “One Day Only deal” of $29 per night per person. This deal is for both the Lifestyles Tropical and the Lifestyles Colfresi Resorts. Usually you need (more…)

If your looking to visit the Dominican Republic during this next year now is a good time to book at some of the all-inclusive resorts in Puerto Plato. There are two resorts offering deals right now both of the resort are going for $24 per night per person. For an all inclusive this is an excellent price. All-inclusive means that all food, drinks (including alcohol), tips, and the room is included at one price. This is one of the easiest ways to visit the Dominican Republic and helps to make sure that you can stay with in a budget without sacrificing what you want in a vacation.

Cofresi Palm Beach & Spa Resort

I haven’t stayed at the Confresi yet. This is a newly opened resort that has 180 ocean side rooms. There are different rooms available some with kitchenettes, a hot tub in the room, and other extra features. All rooms include a King or double beds, air conditioning, mini bars (stocking is included with the all-inclusive price), hair dryers, TV’s and YES, HOT Water. Pretty funny that that has to be listed, but you will find many of the smaller hotels don’t have hot water although that is pretty rare fore the larger resorts.

The normal price for this resort is $99 per person per night. (more…)

Well, this was probably the deal of a lifetime. The Lifestyle Resort in Puerto Plato was running a promotional deal for stays between October to December of this year to their very plush All Inclusive Hotel. For $10 USD per person per night you would get their VIP package which included the room, all meals including al a cart meal at 5 different restaurants, 24 hour a day food ad one of the different locations in the resort and of course all drinks are included. At the VIP bar that means all of the imported alcohol also. All tips were even included, although if someone gave very good service it was nice if you can tip a little extra.

There was one catch though; you had to be from the United States, Europe, or Canada. The thing is they only wanted people from other countries to use the deal so they could promote their Resort as well as promote their time shares. While getting the tour of the resort (as well as the timeshare sales pitch) was optional, you had to refuse it several times during your stay. Not a big problem, the people asking were always nice, never a hard push.

While this deal closed, I have received several notices from cheapcaribbean.com that they are continuing to offer other great deal on their All Inclusive VIP package. They have extended the deal several times a t a little higher price of $20 USD per person per night. The “taxes” also went up so it turns into a total of $28 USD per person per night. Still this is an awesome deal. If you stay at a regular hotel and pay for your own food you will likely pay about $5-$7 for breakfast and lunch and $12 – $20 for comparable dinners. This deal includes all food, drinks, tips, and the room for the same price, making this bay far one of the cheapest ways to visit the Dominican Republic.
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