I love to travel. Most people love to travel, so I’m not alone in my love for getting away from home to see new sites, taste new foods and experience culture different from my own. I am, though, extremely frugal when I make my travel agreements. I just can’t see going into debt to find myself a little recreation.

Of course, I am lucky in that I already live in one of the most popular travel destinations in the world. Here is Florida there is a list as long as my arm of things to go and see, all within a day’s drive. Plus, the beaches are only minutes from my house. You can’t knock that. But, the grass is always green on the other side, or so say the proverbial “They”.

When I think of getting away and taking a dream vacation, I think about visiting a large European city where I can experience ancient cultural icons, museums, new languages, and exotic foods. Or, I think about spending some time high in the mountains, where you can find snow in the middle of July – Estes Park, Colorado or the Rocky Mountain foothills of Alberta. I think of experiences different from my own tropical home.

Budget minded people already know that buying in bulk can save you money. That’s why so many people belong to shopper club stores like Costco and Sam’s Club. Back in the 70s in the DC suburbs, my family belonged to a club store called Memco. Based on that format, there is actually a travel site called cFares. You can join for free and get discounted fares, or you can join for a low annual fee and get even deeper discounts and access to a system that lets you name your own price. If you plan ahead for travel, like I do, then you can really benefit from cFare’s system, which offers cheap tickets that are often below market price and subsequently combined with rebates to make the cost even lower.

One of the cool features of cFares is that as a free Gold Member, you can see both the Gold price on your ticket and the Platinum price. You see right away the benefits of full membership and if you choose to go with the Platinum price, you can upgrade immediately. The travel industry is highly completive, especially now that most travel business is conducted over the internet. There is no reason to pay top retail when you can easily have access to the kinds of discounts a site like they offers their members.