This applies at least in Vietnam/Thailand, but don't reserve rooms beforehand. If a place has a website, it probably means that it's expensive ($50+ instead of

This applies at least in Vietnam/Thailand, but don't reserve rooms beforehand. If a place has a website, it probably means that it's expensive ($50+ instead of $10-$20), but doesn't necessarily mean it would be any better. Rather try to travel off-season, walk along a beach and ask to see the rooms of acceptable looking places. Check that the water heater and toilet etc. work. If you need wifi, you can open your laptop before even going and see if it picks up any networks. If you fly in asia, don't trust Kayak/Orbitz solely to find flights. There are some local airlines that are much cheaper that might not be listed there, for example check out http://www.airasia.com/ http://www.airasia.com/ for some really nice prices (Bangkok -> Vietnam costs ~30 euro). I don't have a solution for long haul flights, except do a lot of searches on different travel sites on different dates. Sometimes changing the dates by just a few days can take 30% off the price. Airlines are already competing so fiercely with each other that I would guess their tourist class seats are sold at very slim profits, so I don't know how they could go much cheaper. Two kind of obvious things: If you can find a reason to go to your destination on business, you can deduct it as an expense. Depending on your tax rate this could be a huge help. Hotels are always sold by room and not per person, so sharing a room with a friend halves your cost.