>> TRAVEL Booking a trip? Here’s how to save

We’re a bit lucky here in Canada.

Down south, the headlines are all about booking now to avoid higher summer prices. But we still have something of an airfare war going on, as Air Canada, Westjet and Porter duke it out.

Still, you might want to think about booking your summer trip fairly soon, as hotels and rental cars are expected to cost more as we get closer to the peak season.

If you’re in Toronto, you might want to consider Buffalo/niagara. Flights can be ridiculously cheap from Buffalo/niagara compared to Toronto, as taxes on airlines are vastly lower. And you can often get great deals with Southwest or Spirit or Frontier. Some budget airlines are crazy about extra fees, so be careful and do your research in advance. Vanessa Lu in the Star’s business section did a great piece on this in last Saturday’s paper.

Where to go? That’s a matter of taste. Hotwire.com recently named Orlando as the place in the U.S. where you’ll get the most for your holiday/vacation spending. I’ve been to Orlando a few times and it seems you can always find a hotel for less than $100 a night, often for $70 or $80, and almost always with a pool and a shuttle to take you to the theme parks.

Here’s the order of Hotwire’s (U.S. only) picks: Orlando, Atlanta, Dallas Fort-worth, Houston, Phoenix, Tampa, Denver, Charlotte, Albuquerque and Miami.

I’ve passed this list along but, quite frankly, it’s utter nonsense. I was given a longer version of the study, and I found New York way down at 30, below Cleveland (29) and Cincinnati (21) and a lot of other cities you probably aren’t dying to spend your money in. Why? Because the study was based on affordability, not value.

You won’t find an $80-a-night room in New York with a pool or a free ride to Disney. But it’s one of the world’s great cities, and it can be quite affordable if you do your homework.

It’s easy to get to, and not expensive, from Toronto. You can find clean hotels in the city for less than $200 a night, and there are increasingly great (and cheaper) options in up-and-coming parts of Brooklyn and Queens (try Long Island City, a short subway hop from Manhattan).

I’ve had fabulous Thai food in mid-town Manhattan, near 2nd or 3rd Avenue in the mid-50s blocks, for less than $20 for dinner. Ditto for Italian at the “neighbourhood” joints. Some of the museums offer free days or discounts and, last time I checked, it was free to walk through Central Park and stroll about Rockefeller Center, Soho or the wonderful High Line Park on the lower west side.

Almost any big city can be cheap if you wander away from the traditional tourist areas.

A lot of folks look at the cost of a flight to Asia and throw up their hands. But you can get a five-star hotel in town for half of what it would cost in New York, and you can dine well for less than you’d pay for a bottle of beer at a swish hotel in Montreal.

Paris can be quite reasonable if you go a little away from the major tourist spots or don’t mind a small room at a Best Western Hotel, almost all of which are clean and include breakfast.

Check exchange rates for good overseas values. Krakow, Poland is getting rave reviews these days and Poland isn’t on the Euro, so it’s relatively cheap. The Icelandic kroner has plummeted in value against the dollar. The Australian dollar was at 1.04 against ours the other day. But the New Zealand buck was at 81 cents; making it a much cheaper destination versus Australia, and slightly closer to home. Opinions/feedback/general gripes? Send me a note at travel@thestar.ca.