Don't miss out: The bonus offer on the Capital One Venture Rewards Credit Card has recently been increased to $250 Captal One Travel credit and 75,000 miles after $4,000 in purchases within the first 3 months of card membership! This is equivalent to about $1000 worth of Travel value and beats the previous offer that was worth $750 of travel value.
[Click this link to learn more about this offer via our sister publication Escape Houston].

Here are some tips that should save you some cash on your next vacation.

• Visit Cardratings.com for the latest Travel Credit Card offers. Some airline credit cards offer perks such as free checked bags and priority boarding.

• Use Tripadvisor to create a Hotel "short list". First, plug in your dates and destination. Then select "Sort by Traveler Ranked". Finally, select the "Traveler Ranking" filter to show "only 4* and up". Use this resulting "short list" of hotels to find the cheapest one with a high ranking.

• Hotel rates for Weekend dates are usually higher than the rates for Sunday through Thursday. Tripadvisor has a color-coded date calendar, red when the average hotel price for that day is more expensive, green for less expensive. You can use this to get an overview of what dates in the month are at a discount.