BEST BARGAINS

Travelzoo.co.uk

Every week, Travelzoo trawls through more than 1,000 travel websites, whittles down what’s on offer to the 20 best deals, then sends an e-mail alert to its subscribers. They’re as good as they sound, too — a colleague recently bagged a swish hotel in Sicily for half-price, with a room upgrade and 25% off food and drink thrown in. Another good one-stop shop is Travelsupermarket.com, while both Vouchercodes.co.uk and Codes.co.uk list discount vouchers for everything from flights to guidebooks.

HOTEL DEALS

Hotelchatter.com

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A blog with the lowdown on all things hotel-related — whether that’s celeb sightings, interviews with “hot hoteliers” or thorough video reviews. The Hotel Deals section flags up offers such as the ­recent £1 room sale at the Hoxton Hotel, 20% off Marriotts and half-price suites at the Setai, Miami. Search by hotel name or city, or see the lot at hotelchatter.com/tag/hotel%20deals. The only draw-back? It’s heavily America-focused. Sister site Jaunted.com does the same thing for flights, car hire and general travel deals, while Vegaschatter.com does exactly what you’d expect.

BLIND HOTEL ROOMS

Hotwire.com

Hotwire takes chain hotels (three- star and up) and sells rooms at a discount of up to 60%. The catch? You’re not told the name until you book — just the star rating, the area of the city and amenities — so narrow it down by matching the amenties and star rating of the hotel you’re offered with the cheat lists on Betterbidding.com, which details hotels’ amenities. I recently booked the W in Atlanta for $95 (£59), when going through the hotel would have cost $229. And a friend who paid $54 for a four-star in Las ­Vegas arrived at Planet Hollywood to find she’d been upgraded to a $1,000 suite. The site is biggest in America, but has hotels worldwide; it also does flights, car hire, cruises and packages.

EAT FOR CHEAP

Toptable.com

About 30,000 restaurants around the world are on the books, of which plenty — 1,510 at the last count — have special deals (mostly free drinks and up to 50% off). After you’ve made seven bookings, you qualify for a free lunch (really). Squaremeal.co.uk has half-price deals in the UK.

SPORTY SAVINGS

Skiingholidays.com

Sorry, lazy people — your excuse that sports holidays are too pricey for your impoverished selves just ran out. The newly launched Skiingholidays.com lets you build a European snow break and compare it with package deals from seven of the main operators. Meanwhile, Yourgolftravel.com has spec­ial offers on 1,500 resorts worldwide, as well as a weekly special offer, a “bargain bunker” section and regular one-off deals — such as this summer’s two rounds and an overnight stay for £1 if three others pay £79 each.

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