Hey, how's it going everyone? Happy Thanksgiving! It's Ernest from Trip
Astute. In this video, we're sharing our top five Black Friday and Cyber Monday
travel related deals for 2018.
(light chiming music)
We hope you all had a great Thanksgiving. As
always, we're thankful for a lot of things, including our community. We
appreciate all the support and love, and are so grateful for the opportunity to
share our videos and tips with you. Today, we're releasing this video a little bit
earlier than our usual time. Since its Black Friday, we wanted to highlight some
of our top travel related deals earlier rather than later in case some of you
are planning to go shopping. While there are a ton of great deals out there, we
wanted to share some of our favorite products and services. This isn't meant
to be an exhaustive list by any means, but I wanted to share some products and
services that we personally use and that we can recommend without any hesitation.
So, let's jump straight in. Number 1: G Adventures and Intrepid. G Aventures
and Intrepid are two group travel companies that I personally recommend
for those looking for a small group travel experience. I personally have used
G Adventures on two trips -- one to Panama and the other to Southeast Asia, and both
experiences were absolutely amazing. They not only handled all the logistics,
which is awesome when you need to do border crossings with visas, but they
also provided a local tour guide who really understood the area and culture,
and really helped to maximize our experience. Both companies promote
responsible and sustainable travel - which is important to me. I also like
that while they are structured tours, they do give you enough flexibility and
free time to explore on your own and often let you choose which activities
you want to do. I've made some great friends on these trips from all over the
world, so I highly recommend them especially if you're a single traveler
looking to meet new people while traveling. Also, if you're debating
between traveling alone or in a group, then check out our solo versus group travel
video. I share my thoughts on both experiences in the video. G Adventures is
offering up to 35 percent off more than 500 of their tours until Monday and
Intrepid is offering 20% off their small group tours as well. I've not personally
used Intrepid, but I know a lot of people who recommend them as
well. I think the biggest difference between the two companies
is a demographic of travelers. My impression is that since Intrepid is an
Australian based tour operator, you tend to have more Australians on the tour.
While my experience on G Adventures is that we had a fairly strong mix of North
American and European travelers. With both G Adventures and Intrepid running
aggressive Black Friday sales, now might be a great time to book a small group
tour. Number 2: Fluenz. If you're looking to learn a new
language in 2019, I highly recommend the language programs at Fluenz. I've
personally used their Italian and Spanish program and both were top-notch.
I've been meaning to do a review of Fluenz, but in the meantime, if you have
any interest in learning a foreign language I recommend checking out their
language programs. They offer Spanish, both from Spain and Latin America, French,
Italian, German, Portuguese, and Mandarin. Their approach to language learning is a
little bit different than some of the other popular language programs, but I
thought their program was a great balance between teaching me useful
phrases that I could use immediately on trips while also teach me building
blocks to master the language. I had a chance to test out the Italian that I learned
this past summer and I was actually surprised at how much I was able to
retain and use during my trip. While taking a class or getting private
instruction is still the best way to learn a language, I honestly think that
combining Fluenz with a free language app like Duolingo can give you a lot of
language skills in a very short amount of time. Also, if you're looking for a
more involved learning experience, Fluenz has a new immersion program which
allows you to get a full language experience for a week. I've been
considering it especially since I want to improve my Spanish. Number 3: Expedia.
While all the major travel booking sites are offering discounts and deals, it
seems like Expedia might have one of the most aggressive sales this year. They've
announced that they have coupon codes that offer an extra 75 percent off selected
hotels and 50% off flights. I recommend visiting their Black Friday and Cyber
Monday page to see the latest deals. Number 4: Hotels.com. Like Expedia,
Hotels.com is going to be giving out coupon codes between November 23rd and
26th. They've announced that the mystery coupon codes will provide
between 7 to 99 percent discounts on hotels. I'm curious to see what they
actually offer, but it's definitely worth checking out especially if you're
planning an upcoming trip and need to book a hotel. Number 5: REI.
Just like last year, REI announced that they're going to be closing their stores on
Black Friday and encouraging people to enjoy the outdoors with their Opt
Outside hashtag. I think it's pretty cool that they're encouraging people to get
outside and enjoy the day rather than sitting behind a computer or waiting in
line at stores.
REI is also offering 30% off their classes and events that are booked
between November 24th and December 2nd. All you have to do is use discount code
OUTSIDE30. For those of you into outdoor and adventure activities, these are awesome
classes. For example, in Los Angeles, REI is offering beginner and advanced
courses in kayaking, rock climbing, mountain biking, and wilderness survival.
Fiona and I have taken a few of their outdoor courses and they've always been
valuable. And now for a bonus tip: Travel Deal Tuesday. While Black Friday and
Cyber Monday tend to get the most attention, it's worth mentioning that the
Tuesday after Thanksgiving tends to be the best day to pick up travel deals,
especially airline tickets. For those of you looking to book a flight, I recommend
searching for fares on Travel Deal Tuesday.
Even better, you may want to use an app like Hopper which can help you track
flight deals. All you have to do is enter your departure location, destination, and
your dates of travel, and the app will actively monitor ticket prices and
advise you when to buy based on historical trends. It's a great way to
automate the process and notify you as soon as it finds a great price on
tickets. And those are our top deals for the holidays. But before we end, I want to
run through some quick reminders for those of you who are points and miles
nerds. Number 1: Check online shopping portals. Most airline, hotels, and
credit cards offer some kind of portal where you can potentially earn extra points.
It's definitely worth checking them out to see if you're able to get additional
cash back or points, especially if you're shopping online. Two sites that I use and
recommend our EV Reward and Cashback Monitor. To use these sites, all you have
to do is enter where you plan to shop and the site then shows you which
program gives you the best bonus. Number 2: Check AMEX and Chase offers. If you're
an American Express cardmember, check your AMEX offers for any potential
discounts. Chase just rolled out their version of offers - so you can see them
in their mobile app. We're planning to do a video on it in the near future, so stay
tuned. Number 3: Pick the best credit card for your purchase. Check out our
recent rotating bonus categories video for the latest quarterly bonuses,
especially for department stores, Amazon, wholesale clubs, and Chase Pay. Also, if
you're buying from a company that is located outside of the US, make sure you
use a card with no foreign transaction fees to avoid any additional charges. Are
you looking for any specific travel deals on Black Friday, Cyber Monday,
or Travel Deal Tuesday? Let us know in the comments section. Also, let me know if you
have any favorite deals that you're chasing. Check out the video description
for links to all the deals mentioned in this video.
Again, we want to thank everyone for supporting this channel. We feel very
grateful for our awesome community and hope you have a wonderful holiday
weekend. Until next time, travel safe and travel smart.