Just like hotel stay, air or car travel is another major cost factor in your travel plans. It’s a fact we all face, and there is no alternative than booking an air / train / bus ticket or renting a car for your travel plans depending upon the distance.
While I was in New York, we had planned to drive to Niagara over the long weekend and if possible visit Toronto as well. Being neck deep busy in work, we could not make our plans ahead of time, and had to rush last minute to arrange the travel, rent the car and all. Looking at the expenses on traveling then, I can very well suggest you what to avoid to save money on your travel plans.
As one of the main reasons of increase in expense was the last minute booking of rented car, I realized how important it is to rent the car in advance. The travel plans if made, you should not delay to book the car for rent.
Decide wisely on the size of the rental car, often the car size determines the rent. If you don’t need a larger car, better rent a smaller one. Need not to book SUV, unless you are going together with family and friends with lot of luggage.
Call the car rental companies and ask for deals, sometimes these companies offer same car rent price for more days. Like my friend in Toronto wanted to come down to NYC driving along with his friends for 4-5 days, so car rental Toronto had cost him the same as three days even if he had booked it for five days. He got very good deal, just need to check with your local dealers.
Compare the prices online. Even by spending few minutes looking on internet can save you few nice bucks. I would suggest bookmark 4-5 known car rental companies and check their deals and current prices when you plan to travel.