Looking for some great travel deals? Eyeing up a last-minute bargain? Then these are the tried-and-tested sites for you.
On New Year’s Eve 2015, I did something completely out of character: I was spontaneous. On a whim, I booked return flights to Peru in November 2016 – and I got them for an amazing price. We paid €290 for return flights from Amsterdam to Lima.
Since then, I’ve found myself (and everyone around me) obsessively checking out similar sites in search of similar great deals. Here are the sites you need to bookmark if you’re looking for a great travel deals.
Post last updated: December 2018
Looking for new destinations for 2019? Check out my top destinations for next year.
Travel deal site: Holiday pirates
Known as Urlaubspiraten in Germany, Holiday Pirates is a Berlin-based company specialising in finding the best deals for flights, package holidays, hotels and even train tickets. Their team of bargain hunters (or Schnäppchenjäger – one of my favourite German words) diligently scour sites to uncover the best bargains – both for domestic, European or long-haul holidays.
They are particularly skilled at finding ‘error flights’ – routes that erroneously find their way online for ridiculously low prices. They also have a lot of luxury hotels or packages for huge reductions, particularly in classic holiday destinations like Tenerfie and the Canary Islands.
Apart from my very-low flights to Peru, I also got a great deal on return flights to Cuba with Holiday Pirates, paying around €330 return from Cologne-Varadero.
Online travel deals: Holiday guru
Very similar to Holiday Pirates, Holiday Guru is another site cataloging the best bargains the internet has to offer – including hotels, flights and package deals. You can even find voucher codes and promo deals from the likes of the Sun holidays. Holiday Guru also has a great flight finder function powered by Skyscanner, which lets you search for the latest budget flights.
They are well worth following on Facebook as many of the cheap plane tickets they discover get snapped up quickly.
Great site for flight deals: Secret flying
Possibly the most addictive of these three websites, Secret Flying is very new to me but it’s become of my favourite sites in a very short time. The principle is basic: choose the continent you are based in and find long-haul flights at budget prices.
The real benefit of Secret Flying is that you are given flights from the continent as a whole, meaning you can bag some bargain tickets to Japan from, say – Copenhagen, and then find a budget route to the Danish capital. Recently they seem to have some particularly good deals with long-haul carriers based in Eastern Europe like LOT or Ukraine International Airlines.
Need more advice on budget deals? Check out my 7 top tips on finding cheap flights.
Of course, all of these sites are dangerous in a way (and a real threat to office productivity) but if you are flexible enough in when you want to go away and where to, these sites are the ideal way to secure a great value break.
Just be warned: on a bleak and dreary January day, that offer to Jamaica can look awfully tempting…
Perfect, John, you posted this right on time. I have an awful feeling I really really really need to have a weekend getaway soon! 🙂 Never heard of any of these sites, I’ll have a look how helpful they are for a Finn!
Thanks Saana – hope you were able to find what you were looking for!
Well, I nearly bought my tickets to Jamaica (shockingly cheap!) but the dates didn’t match! 🙁 Well, waiting for next great bargain. Got addicted to Secret Flying as well, thanks a lot John! 😀
Hahaha, don’t say I didn’t warn you!
I’ve just spent half an hour on Secret Flying looking at deals. Seems like I now have an extra reason to come to Dusseldorf (hello 287 euro return flights to Miami!).
That site is so addictive – I almost got flights to Jamaica last week just because there were from Cologne. Any bargains from Bucharest I’ll let you know 😀
There rarely are any real bargains from Bucharest 🙁 It’s cheaper to fly Bucharest – Milan – Thailand and return than to go straight from Bucharest to Thailand which is kinda ridiculous!
Thank you so much for this, great job presenting it!
Hi, Thank you so much for your post. I’ve gone on secret flying and just booked a trip to Madagascar at a quarter of the price, it’s a dream destination. Thank you so much for your blog as I would never have found it without your blog!
Thanks for your comment Sophie, really pleased I could help! Enjoy your trip!
Great post! For those of you who likes SecretFlying but need more European deal, check this one out http://onecheaptrip.com. Went from LA to Helsinki (Finland) and back for just 260 euro.