>
Flights are incredibly expensive right now, with many airlines offering their highest airfares in years.
Rising jet fuel prices, staff shortages due to pandemic disruptions and a lack of new planes create a perfect storm of problems for passengers.
But there are hidden ways to use technology that can save you thousands on a family vacation – from simple hacks like clearing your browser history to more advanced techniques like using a VPN.
The day you book your flight is also important, with Expedia experts claiming that booking on a Sunday can save up to 15 percent on your overall cost.
Scroll down for our full results:
Can a VPN save you money on vacation?
Seasoned travelers have argued for years that using a VPN to give the impression that you’re in a different country can help you find better deals by showing local rather than tourist prices.
This is because VPN software routes your internet requests through servers in other countries to make it seem like you’re abroad, and airlines, car rental companies, and hotels often vary their prices based on where people buy.
Clearing your browser also gives site trackers less information to work with.
To test the deals on offer, DailyMail.com used two laptops at the same time to compare prices in different countries with holiday shopping from the US.
We were looking for late summer/early fall vacations for a family of four.
On one laptop we booked vacations from the US, on a weekday and without clearing the cache. On the other hand, we have implemented all the hacks mentioned above.
Dreams Riviera Resort and Spa, Cancun – two weeks
Regular price $6,940 – price with VPN and tech hacks $6,025.43
Savings: $914.57
Booking via VPN is considerably cheaper (Photo: Rob Waugh)
Booking from the US costs more (Photo: Rob Waugh)
Page Hotels, London – two weeks
Regular price $11,602 – price with VPN and tech hacks $9,796
Savings: $1,805
Compared side by side, the US price comes out much higher (Photo: Rob Waugh)
The British price is lower (Photo: Rob Waugh)
Three nights in Disneyland Paris, three nights in Disney Hotel New York, including a visit to the park
Regular price $3,604 – price with VPN and tech hacks $3,318.50
Savings: $286.26
Booking ‘locally’ via VPN helps save money (Photo: Rob Waugh)
Booking from the US is more expensive (Photo: Rob Waugh)
Ausonia Hungaria Hotel, Venice, Italy – one week
Regular price $6,023 – price with VPN and tech hacks $5,143
Savings: $880
The price, if you access via VPN, is very different (Photo: Rob Waugh)
Access from the US is significantly more expensive (Photo: Rob Waugh)
Car Hire — Nissan Juke, Edinburgh Airport, UK – ten days
Regular price $891.89 – price with VPN and tech hacks $692.46
Savings: $199.43
It’s significantly cheaper to book locally (Photo: Rob Waugh)
And cheaper to book ‘locally’ with a VPN (Photo: Rob Waugh)
So can you save money?
DailyMail.com found that you can certainly save hundreds of dollars on car rentals and hotels – but you’ll have to shop around, and a VPN isn’t a panacea.
Keep in mind that deals vary from minute to minute, computer to computer, so replicating the savings found can be tricky or even impossible.
Searching with a VPN can take a while to find a decent deal (and it’s worth checking if any extras are added to the bill before you buy, just in case your ‘deal’ turns out to be less than good). it seems).
It’s also worth noting that you can sometimes save by booking through the local website (i.e. the .fr domain for a French site instead of .com).
It’s worth paying for VPN software, as the “free” VPNs on offer are often dubious and sometimes downright criminal, with cases where free VPNs have sold user data or even installed malware on devices.
It would help if you shop around too – what works on one date may not work on another.
It’s quite common to find small savings like five percent – you have to work a little harder to find bigger savings.
Make sure you clear your browser’s history before you start shopping, and if you have an account with Hotels.com, for example, don’t log in: the best prices are offered to a ‘clean slate’.
The biggest savings tend to be found in countries with a relatively large gap in purchasing power – so Mexico is a good place to look, while Canada (for example) isn’t.
It is also worth checking the dates of the holiday season in other countries.
If you book ‘out of season’ from the US you may still be charged higher rates, while if you use a VPN and a local booking turns out to be out of season you may find lower prices.
Marijus Briedis, Chief Technology Officer at NordVPN, told DailyMail.com: “When we plan vacations through booking platforms, we get the impression that technology is behind us and that any hotel, flight or car rental deal offered is as cheap as it comes. could be.
“The truth is that while these sites’ online tracking and algorithms can help us find holiday deals faster than ever before, they can also sometimes raise and lower prices based on the purchasing power of different countries.”
He added: “For Americans, this means there is a risk that every click they take will be traded compared to the prices quoted to travelers from other countries.
“The way to avoid these differences is to shop smartly and unobtrusively on booking sites.
Clearing your browser history gives tracker bots less information to work with, and using a VPN to make it look like you’re not in the US helps you see if the price you’re listing is the same all over the world. “