Booking Travel Experiences: Do More For Less

When I’m planning any trip I tend to do so in three distinct stages: book the flight, book accommodations, book some activities. That’s the trifecta of travel planning for me. How am I getting there? Where am I sleeping? What am I doing?

Find Activities and Tours

Sometimes I already know that there’s a particular activity or tour I want to do in a city. But often, I’m not really sure what there is to do so I turn to a couple aggregator sites to get an idea. Similar to hotel booking sites, they collect tours and activities offered by multiple companies and puts them into one searchable site. The two main ones I use are Viator and GetYourGuide. I prefer to check both since the options available can be different. Both allow you to book directly through them and have reviews of all offerings.

Save Money

When you’re travelling to a popular North American destination like New York, Chicago, or Toronto, that has a lot of things to do, you can often save money by bundling them together. CityPASS have various bundles for 12 cities in the USA and Canada. For instance, in New York one bundle gives you the option to choose any three activities from a set list. The best thing about this ticket is that you don’t need to choose in advance. With any CityPASS you can skip right on ahead of any ticket lines as well, which makes them worth it, in my opinion. Who’s got time to be waiting in lines?

While CityPASS is only in North America, the concept exists elsewhere so it’s worth searching “[city name] pass” when you’re planning your travel. For example, there is a London Pass and also a Paris Pass.