How to save money on summer vacation

Let's say someone hands you $25-$30. How would you rather spend it?

1. Checking your bag on the plane.

2. Parking your car in a hotel garage.

3. Paying a penalty to cancel a room reservation.

4. Buying dinner or another round of beers for your friends?

Nickels and dimes eventually add up to dollars not all that well spent when it comes to the extra fees involved with travel these days.

Here are some strategies for keeping more of that vacation money in your pocket:

Lodging

• Book a midweek stay to cut your room rate by half or more. Rates at the Luxor Hotel and Casino in Las Vegas, for example, drop from $139 on weekends in July to $70 Monday-Thursday.

• Take advantage of special offers. Summer deals at Whistler Blackcomb in British Columbia, for instance, include offers for 50 percent off a third night or a free third night at some resorts, including the five-star Four Seasons. See www.whistlerblackcomb.com.

• Check online booking sites for hotel discounts, but don't make a reservation before first calling the hotel and checking its Web site to see if there's a better rate with fewer restrictions on changes or cancellations.

Example: Expedia quoted a prepaid rate of $162 including taxes and booking fees plus a $25 fee for changes or cancellations on a July Saturday night stay at the Parc Fifty Five Hotel at Union Square in downtown San Francisco.

The hotel's Web site had the room for $158.50. A call and a request for a AAA discount yielded a rate of $142.50, with no prepayment requirements or charge for changes or cancellations before 4 p.m. the day before.

• Always get a quote on the bottom-line price including taxes and parking, which together can add another $40-$50 to the cost of a room.

• Uncertain times call for flexibility. Avoid making nonrefundable prepayments in case you change your mind or a better deal comes along. I booked a $107 room at the Huntingdon Hotel & Suites in Victoria recently, and then a few weeks later noticed an $89 special on its Web site. A phone call got me the lower rate.

• If you are certain of your plans and don't mind making a nonrefundable prepayment, bid for a hotel on Priceline.com and snag a room for half the usual rate. See www.biddingfortravel.com for tips from other travelers.

Bidding on Priceline isn't as risky as it sounds. Although you don't find out the name of the hotel until your bid has been accepted and your credit card charged, you choose the location and the star rating. I recently bid $92 for a four-star hotel in downtown Denver, and got the Hyatt Regency for $107 including taxes. The hotel Web site quoted $224 for a similar room.

Transportation

• Rent a car at an off-airport location: Yes, you'll pay the cab fare to and from, but depending on how far it is to the nearest off-airport rental-car location, you could easily make up the difference with a better rate.

Example: Budget Rent A Car's Web site shows its lowest daily rate for a mid-July rental on a Hyundai Accent at $47.77 — $30.59 plus $17.18 in taxes — at the Sky Harbor International Airport. The rate at its Freeway District office 12 miles away is $21.84 per day plus just $5.84 in taxes for a total of $27.68, a savings of about $20 per day.

• Always ask for a AAA (www.aaa.com) or AARP (www.aarp.org) discount if you're a member of either organization. You'll save an extra 10 percent or more.

• With gas at $4 and hotels charging $25 a night and more for parking, consider using public transportation either for getting to your destination or for getting around once you arrive.

Travel on Amtrak Cascades Monday-Thursday round-trip to Portland from Seattle, Bellingham, Tacoma or any other town where the train stops, and get a 19 percent discount on the adult fare through Aug. 29. Go to www.amtrakcascades.com and type in promotion code H773. Make reservations well in advance; seats are filling up fast. Amtrak Cascades also travels once a day between Seattle and Vancouver, B.C.

Check local bus and light-rail schedules on the Web before you leave. Many cities sell day passes. In Vancouver, B.C., for instance, you can buy a $9 day pass for unlimited travel on Trans Link (www.translink.bc.ca), the bus, SkyTrain and SeaBus transit system. Buses go to Stanley Park, Granville Island, Grouse Mountain and Capilano Suspension Bridge in North Vancouver.

Airlines

• Book online to avoid fees for making reservations on the phone with an airline representative.

• Pack light. All the airlines, with the exception of Southwest, have started charging some domestic economy-class passengers $25 each way to check a second bag. American, United and US Airways have started charging $15 to check even one bag. Carry-ons are still free. Each passenger is allowed one (no bigger than 9" high, 14" wide and 22" long — 45 linear inches) plus one personal item, such as a purse, briefcase or laptop.

• Shop for fares on sites such as www.kayak.com, which scan airline and third-party booking sites for the best fares, but beware that these sites don't show fares offered by some discount airlines, notably Southwest.

The advice from most experts right now is to not buy too far in advance.

"The fare structure now is skewed against anyone planning ahead," says Joe Brancatelli, publisher of Joesentme.com, a newsletter for business travelers.

"Fares six months or a year out are insane just now because they reflect all of the price increases and fuel surcharges that the airlines have imposed lately. There will be better fares later in the year."

• Check with travel agents who do a big volume of business in certain destinations, especially Asia and Latin America. They often negotiate contracts with the airlines that allow them to discount tickets below what you could find on your own.

Destinations

• High airfares combined with a weak U.S. dollar have boosted the cost of travel to Western Europe, but Americans will still find bargains in many parts of Central and Eastern Europe, Asia, Africa and Latin America where the cost of living is less and the dollar still buys more.

• Go offseason. Just about everything else associated with travel costs more in summer. If you can postpone a trip until after mid-September, you'll likely find some deals as hotels and resorts compete for fewer tourists.

Carol Pucci: 206-464-3701 or cpucci@seattletimes.com