3 ways to make travel less costly and safer

As enjoyable as vacations are, travelling can be an expensive business. These tips will help you learn how to keep costs lower where you can.

You shopped around for your vacation hotel — maybe even used a bidding website. But when you get to the registration counter, you find out that you will be charged an extra $10 to $15 per day as a "resort fee," supposedly to cover such amenities as the swimming pool and fitness club. This is nothing but a ruse to make a hotel's rates appear lower at the time you are scouting for a room, say industry insiders.

• The hotel knows that by the time you arrive, fatigued from travel and dragging your luggage and kids along, there's no way you're going to refuse your hotel room because of an add-on fee. So at the time of booking, scan the fine print of your agreement and ask the hotel about any fees that are not included in the quote.
• If you're surprised by such fees at the registration counter, call your credit card company after checking in and ask it to get the fee waived.

If you have decided to vacation in a highly touted resort area, here's a rule of thumb from travel insiders: Schedule your vacation for less popular times of the year. For instance, in central Florida — theme park centre of the universe — skip the conventional summer season, as well as the holidays and spring break.

• Mark your calendar for sometime between the end of August and the middle of December, or from January to the middle of February.
• You will find the traffic, crowds and line waits markedly reduced — and you'll save a bundle with the off-season rates as well.

You might not want to sound like a penny-pinching weenie every time you place an order during your travels, but never assume that prices will be within some range that you have fixed in your mind. At a resort-town restaurant your repeat business might not be important to the management.

• One tourist reports that a waiter offered the "helpful" suggestion that his group buy margaritas by the pitcher.
• Later they were flabbergasted to be billed $35 per pitcher — and they had consumed two
• . Even if the waiter suggests water, make it clear that you're looking for a glass of tap water (free) as opposed to a bottle of water.

By following these tips, you can help keep your vacation costs a bit lower.