When organising a holiday, more often than not what can go wrong will go wrong. There is a wealth of horror stories telling of bankrupt tour operators and roach infested hotels. Car hire is not immune as the subject of these sorts of tales, however with this expert checklist you can make sure you have all the bases covered before you leave your house.

1. If you are a frequent flier with a specific airline then you may well be eligible for fantastic discounts on car hire from your service provider. Check with your airline to see if you are eligible and find out what car hire companies they affiliate with.

2. Save extra money and book online. The resources that are used to provide an online booking service are far less than over the phone, hence the savings are passed on to you. A car hire company should have an E-commerce website and if they don’t then you might want to rethink your selection. If you are a technophobe then get your 12 year old child to do it for you.

3. Check the contract carefully. There is a minefield of potential contractual nightmares regarding insurance, liability clauses, excess limits, who can drive and so on. Large car hire companies will have a relatively standard contract and infrastructure to provide support for any questions you might have. Double check and ask questions because it is easier to do it before you travel.

4. Get a confirmation number. It might seem rather obvious, but your car hire provider should give you a confirmation number to confirm your reservation. This will allow them to access your details instantly and it is also worth providing your car hire company with the details of your flight. This will protect you if your flight runs into delays, as some car hire companies might rehire the car in the event of you not turning up within a certain time.

5. Is bigger better? Some car hire companies might offer you a free upgrade on the spec of your hire car. This might seem like a blessing however double check that there are no additional contractual obligations with the upgrade. Obviously the fuel bill will be higher and for those of us concerned with the environment, the fuel consumption therefore emissions will be higher.

6. On the subject of fuel, fill it up yourself. You have to return the hire car with a full tank of gas and it is seriously worth doing that at a gas station before you return the car. The fuel surcharge by companies can severely sting your wallet, so be organised and not in a mad rush. Leave yourself enough time to fill the car up.

7. Check the vehicle before you accept the hire car. Easier said than done with screaming children but it is seriously worth it. Challenge any marks or inconsistencies with the report because if you miss them, the car hire company will not and you will pay for the pleasure of repairing their car.

8. Do not drink and drive. There are so many more important reasons why, however in this context you will be void of insurance and liable for everything that happens in an accident. The same is true if you are under the influence of drugs, so just don’t do it.

9. Check the time when the vehicle has to be returned. Another charge, similar to the fuel charge, that is a great source of revenue for car hire companies. There are no excuses for late return and you will be charged through the nose. If you are definitely going to run over then inform them in advance and they might be able to accommodate an extension at a pre-arranged rate.

10. Be organised. All these pointers will only work if you are organised about your car hire. People end up paying extortionate rates when they incur all these surcharges and they are in abundance; if you plan your car hire properly and use this list and you will not pay over the odds.

About The Author:

Tobias Bowman is a senior consultant working with a global car hire company and a veteran of nightmare holidays. Visit: http://www.budget.co.uk/

Read more articles written by: Tobias Bowman

Now that gasoline prices have dropped back down to a more comfortable price, people are beginning to consider RV Travel once again. When gasoline was above $4 per gallon, people were avoiding RV travel like the plague, unless the RV owner was more well-to-do than his neighbors. The high gas prices were so daunting that many people put their RV’s up for sale, anticipating that gas prices would continue to be high for longer than they were.

Interestingly, with what I am getting ready to show you, the cost of gasoline could have been a hurdle that you would not needed to have considered, if you wanted to take your RV on vacation. Rather than sitting at home last summer, you could have used this information to offset the high cost of gasoline.

Consider the High Cost of RV Campgrounds

For the average RV owner, finding a RV campground at your vacation destination can be quite expensive. In some cases, “one week” or “one month” at a campground could easily cost $500! No wonder so many people kept their RV’s at home during the summer of 2008.

But, what if I told you that in many cases, you will only need to drive an extra couple miles once you reach your destination, in order to get your campground for free or almost free!

We are not talking about places where you would be afraid to take your family, but family-friendly campgrounds suited to RV camping that you will never find in a travel brochure.

Consider this. If a campground charges nothing to almost nothing for a parking space, how could that campground possibly afford the high cost of advertising in the travel brochure? Ah… and herein lies the secrets to saving big money on your next RV vacation.

Most often, in order to find these alternative, unadvertised campgrounds, one needs to be willing to drive a few more miles just looking for them, be willing to stop and ask questions, and sometimes, just talk to the locals. Or you can turn to someone who has done this kind of leg work for you already.

Finding Budget Travel Opportunities In The RV Community

If you shop your local bookstores, you will not be able to find very many, if any, guidebooks that are designed to show people how to save a lot of money during a RV vacation. Especially with an RV vacation, most writers assume that RVer’s have lots of money and will not be interested in a budget guidebook for RV travel. This misconception convinces many writers and publishers that there is no profit in writing budget guides for the RV traveler.

Thank goodness that there are people who like to travel in their RV’s, who have realized that frugal traveling, even in a RV, can lead to more travel opportunities, as a result of getting more mileage for one’s travel budget.

Luckily, in many prime North American destinations, including the most of the more scenic states (Arizona, California, Colorado, New Mexico, Texas and Utah) there are still plenty of free and low-cost, scenic, legal and safe camping areas available for the vacationing public.

The author’s of The Ultimate Budget RV Travel Guide have spent more than nine years traveling North America’s back roads searching for the free and low-cost campgrounds that help to keep them traveling in their RV nearly year around.

To simplify the guide, the author’s have broken their RV travel guide down by state or region, since they have found literally hundreds and thousands of free and low-cost RV campgrounds around the United States.

Both RV Campgrounds and Tent Camping Covered

But don’t let the term “RV campgrounds” fool you. Many of these campgrounds also accept campers who bring their own tents and travel trailers. What it boils down to is that if you like camping on your vacation, then you need to own The Ultimate Budget RV Travel Guide that has been compiled for the areas that you like to visit on vacation.

Each of these RV travel guides include: pictures of campsites, directions to the campsite, information about road conditions to the camp ground, information about the availability of utilities. The authors have also gathered and documented all kinds of useful information and tips to help you save money on groceries, dining, entertainment, entry fees, Internet, laundry and dumping your tanks. They even document where you can find the free RV dumping stations. The guides not only provide maps to the campgrounds, but also maps to nearby attractions and tourist spots.

Get The Budget RV Travel Guidebook Here

To learn more about The Ultimate Budget RV Travel Guides, click here.

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Thinking about an RV rental vacation? Click here for a nice article about RV rental specials.

What happens when a travel agent is fired by the airline company that he had given most of his or her life? In most cases, the fired travel agent will simply go get another job somewhere else. But in this case, the fired travel agent decided to take revenge on his former employers, by exposing the inner-working of an industry!

This travel agent has written an ebook to share with us the secrets to help us to learn exactly how to get airline tickets at deep discounted prices.

When you have this information in your arsenal of knowledge, you will never again have to pay full price on airline tickets again.

Go here to learn more.