When you’re passionate about something you spend a lot of time researching it. I love traveling but I don’t always have the funds. I’ve spent years trying to break down what sites offer the best deals. These deals are based on flexibility, layovers, time constraints, and cost. Here are my top 10 sites to track down deals:

1. Google Flights Google Flights allows you to track your flight over a period of time. It also informs you on whether it’s a good time to buy a ticket and gives you the best trade-off between price and convenience. This is based on factors such as duration, number of stops, and airport changes during layovers.  Google Flights DOES NOT tell you that it tracks your search records periodically and blocks off the cheapest flight deal over time. Always look up your flight on Google Flights once you’ve searched other sites and you’re ready to lock-in.

2. Direct Airline Sites Booking directly with an airline site could be cheaper than booking through third-party travel engines. The sites you book through charge you a fee for their service whereas the airline just wants to get you on board. How do you know which airline to search for? Look up your destination on Kayak, Skyscanner, or Flighthub like you normally would. Get the name of the airline they are suggesting, and go straight to that site to compare. You can save hundreds of dollars this way.

3. JustFly Years ago, my friends and I paid $600 for our flights to Santorini through JustFly. JustFly is a site you have to check on a regular basis and sign up for to get email alerts. They’ll send the flight glitches or flight mistake fares straight to your inbox and you must book instantly. Make sure you’re able to travel on the suggested travel dates or the discount will be annulled.

4. Kayak Back in 2015, I booked my first world tour through Kayak. Kayak is good for multi-city destinations and awesome layovers. If you’re traveling across the Atlantic and want to take advantage of a long layover, Kayak is the way to go. Did you know that layovers generally mean cheaper fare?  Use this to maximize your time and cross a country off your bucket list. When you think Kayak, think selectivity. This means options when it comes to duration, price, number of stops, and carrier type.

5. Cheapoair Cheapoair offers booking options for flights, hotels, and car rentals for both domestic and international travel. Make sure you’re flexible, or you won’t lock in on the cheapest fares or accommodation. Their mobile app is user-friendly and offers additional discounts. You can also set up a travel alert, should a price drop. Date flexibility is major when booking with CheapOair. Be mindful that their processing fee on all passenger tickets is steep, so pay close attention.

6. Skyscanner Skyscanner is hands down my most used application in the travel sphere. I spend a lot of time on Skyscanner. Let’s kick it off with the user experience. Skyscanner is user-friendly and easy to navigate. It shows you which days are the cheapest to travel on a month-to-month basis. It also lets you know which countries are the cheapest to visit from a financial perspective—cheapest to priciest flight. Give it a download and get started on the deals.

7. Agoda I did research on Agoda to make sure I was sharing the best insights with you. Agoda is the best place to book hotels at the lowest cost. Why is it cheaper to book with Agoda than to book directly with a hotel? Agoda is a wholesale accommodation company that has the clout and buying power to both negotiate and buy hotel rooms in bulk and on a regular basis. This is why they sell hotel rooms at a lower cost. Feel free to try it out.

8. Momondo Momondo is the legend no one talks about. It aggregates the searches for the best airfares across the web. Without adding fees, Momondo pulls in data for your selected route to show you all available flight options. It searches over 1000 airlines, online booking sites, travel agencies, search engines, and other online travel discount sites. This is more than double, in some cases triple, the number of sources used by typical booking sites.

9. Hopper The Hopper logo is a bunny, and what does a bunny do? It hops around. Hopper hops around looking to find the best deals for its customers. On the site, you can set up a flight tracker and Hopper will alert you every time the price drops. It’s a great tool to help you shop around, but I have yet to book a flight with them.

10. Follow Twitter accounts like @scottsflights, @airfarewatchdog, and @theflightdeal. They tweet out flight deals & glitches on the regular. You can sign up for email newsletters to assure you never miss another deal.

Five years and 19 countries later, I still don’t have all the secrets. One thing is for certain, however…I know how to find my way to a good deal. I hope you find these sites useful. Please don’t hesitate to contact me should you have any questions. I take pleasure in helping people find travel deals.

Happy searching games! May the cheap flights forever be in your favor!
Xx, Kris