Groupon Getaway

beetee123 · December 2015

I was wondering if anyone has ever used a Groupon Getaway. We are looking at one for Amsterdam, and it really looks like the cheapest route to go for our trip. Our local airport to Amsterdam is outrageously expensive, and the Groupon price is really reasonable for flight plus hotel. Has anyone had any issues with groupon getaways? TIA!

jessica490 · December 2015

I've never bought a Getaway from them, but just make sure you read the fine print! And if you have any questions, call the place and ask for better clarification.

hoffse · December 2015

Where are you flying out of, and which airline are you looking at?

I've never used a Groupon getaway because I've never found one that has exactly the itinerary we want, and I can usually match or beat the price for a more flexible itinerary. But I think generally they are fine. Just read the fine print.

I think I see the Groupon you are looking at. One thing to consider is whether you want an itinerary that requires a flight in the middle of it. Amsterdam and Prague are not close to each other, and with only 6 nights I would personally try to stick with trains. They will take you city-center to city-center, and you don't have to be at the station 2-3 hours early. Overall it's just a much more pleasant experience than navigating airports.

beetee123 · December 2015

That's definitely something to consider. We live in Philly, but to fly out of NY isn't that big of deal for the savings.

hoffse · December 2015

Yeah it looks like the direct flight from both Philly and NYC cost the same. Connecting flights are really cheap from NYC.

H and I way super prefer direct flights and will pay a pretty substantial premium for them. But if you don't mind taking a connection, that's probably the easiest way to save some money.

Amsterdam is a really expensive city - it's actually more expensive than Paris. If you plan to stay in that city for more than 3 or 4 nights you might want to look at VRBO or AirBnB to rent an apartment.

It's also really well-connected to other European gateway cities. It's within a few hours train ride of Brussels, Paris, London, and Frankfurt. You might want to play with that a little and see if you can bring the price down by flying into one city and out the other. It usually does not cost much more to do that, and sometimes it's actually cheaper.

Xstatic3333 · December 2015

I've used Groupon Getaways before, and they work fine. That said, I concur that this is a somewhat random combination of cities (though both great ones!).

If you can fly out of NYC, be to check the prices on Aer Lingus and Icelandair. We booked on Aer Lingus and is was several hundred dollars cheaper than anything that came up on standard airlines. Just a quick stop in Dublin, during which H is determined to find a Guinness at 6:30 AM ;-) We booked for $750 pp out of Boston, an Aer Lingus hub.

If you'd be willing to fly out of DC, you could also look into WOW Air. These fares are super duper cheap, but they don't go to Amsterdam daily and there are lots of extra fees for baggage and perks, a la Spirit. I've heard only positive experiences so far, though!

We spent a lot of time considering what neighborhood we wanted to stay in, so giving up control over that would make me nervous. If you get the hotel they're listing, however, that's a decent location. We booked an Air BnB in the Jordaan for around $91 a night after taxes and such. We plan to save a lot, and stay healthier, by cooking breakfast and lunch. We'll explore the Netherlands and the other cities in the region by train, as we'd prefer not to add a second flight to a weeklong trip.

Let us know what you decide, or if you would like to chat Amsterdam travel planning! At this point a few of us have trips there in the works it seems.

Erikan73 · December 2015

We've booked hotels through them. First check out the hotel/resort that is included in the deal through an independent site like Travelocity to get reviews of the place. Then go online to check their availability to make sure the dates that are available work for when you want to go. On some deals you can check the dates available before you purchase, but on other deals you can't. Being able to check the dates is big because sometimes the dates that you may want, will be still more expensive then the advertised price.

short+sassy · December 2015

I did a Groupon getaway when I went to NYC in May. It included airfare for two with hotel...but I could pick and choose the airline/flights as well as the hotel. Of course, it was different price points for the different options but, overall it was a much better deal going through Groupon than doing it any other way.

I saved about $400 doing it that way, although the savings was all on the hotel as being part of the bundle. The airfare was the same as what I could find on other travel sites. Plus I went to Groupon through MyPoints and earned almost enough points just from that transaction to get a $50 Home Depot gift card.

Like anything else, you need to triple check the fine print and double check its the right deal for you all for the price. But I wouldn't hesitate to use Groupon Getaways again, assuming they have the best deal for what I want.

@Xstatic3333, thanks for posting! I'm starting to tentatively plan for my trip to Europe next year and have discovered that both Icelandair and WOW seem to have awesome flight deals. In fact, so cheap, I've wondered what the catch is! Yeah, I've seen one bummer is I'd need to fly out of Boston or D.C. for WOW, but figured it might be fun to tack on a few extra days and see one of those cities anyway. I've never been to either.

Xstatic3333 · December 2015

Let us know if you go that route, @short+sassy! I was seriously tempted, but since we need to go in March, and they don't go to Amsterdam every day, I was afraid of missing out on our trip if a blizzard hit Boston. Aer Lingus flies out of Logan at least twice a day, so it would be easier to reschedule if anything goes wrong.

I think we'll try WOW for Iceland itself before too long. With their low prices, it's almost a trip that could be cash flowed instead of saved for, and could fall outside of our normal trip planning rotation. Plus, we wouldn't need much luggage for a three day trip. I hate this term, but it would make a good "babymoon."

hoffse · December 2015

Xstatic3333 said:

Let us know if you go that route, @short+sassy! I was seriously tempted, but since we need to go in March, and they don't go to Amsterdam every day, I was afraid of missing out on our trip if a blizzard hit Boston. Aer Lingus flies out of Logan at least twice a day, so it would be easier to reschedule if anything goes wrong.

I think we'll try WOW for Iceland itself before too long. With their low prices, it's almost a trip that could be cash flowed instead of saved for, and could fall outside of our normal trip planning rotation. Plus, we wouldn't need much luggage for a three day trip. I hate this term, but it would make a good "babymoon."

Lol I started dropping this term to H recently, and he was like, "What is this nonsense you speak of?" He changed his tune once he heard what it is!

Iceland would be a fab babymoon. +1 to that idea. It's also close enough to the US that you probably wouldn't have the time zone/jetlag issues you might experience going to the continent.

H and I are seriously talking about doing a 3.5 day trip to Istanbul over Thanksgiving next year. We could probably swing it, and there's a new direct flight from ATL opening up next year with dirt cheap fares to promote the route. But it's so far away that we wouldn't know what time zone we were in by the time we got back!

short+sassy · December 2015

I just saw in my e-mail that Groupon has a 10% off coupon code for travel. The offer code is CHPFLT10. Though it is in conjunction with Cheap Flights, so it might just be for those deals. Unfortunately, there is zero info in my e-mail about the details of the coupon.

JoanE2012 · December 2015

hoffse said:

Xstatic3333 said:

Let us know if you go that route, @short+sassy! I was seriously tempted, but since we need to go in March, and they don't go to Amsterdam every day, I was afraid of missing out on our trip if a blizzard hit Boston. Aer Lingus flies out of Logan at least twice a day, so it would be easier to reschedule if anything goes wrong.

I think we'll try WOW for Iceland itself before too long. With their low prices, it's almost a trip that could be cash flowed instead of saved for, and could fall outside of our normal trip planning rotation. Plus, we wouldn't need much luggage for a three day trip. I hate this term, but it would make a good "babymoon."

Lol I started dropping this term to H recently, and he was like, "What is this nonsense you speak of?" He changed his tune once he heard what it is!

Iceland would be a fab babymoon. +1 to that idea. It's also close enough to the US that you probably wouldn't have the time zone/jetlag issues you might experience going to the continent.

H and I are seriously talking about doing a 3.5 day trip to Istanbul over Thanksgiving next year. We could probably swing it, and there's a new direct flight from ATL opening up next year with dirt cheap fares to promote the route. But it's so far away that we wouldn't know what time zone we were in by the time we got back!

My worst jet lag ever was on a trip from NYC to Iceland. I think there were a couple factors. First, our flight out was around 8pm....getting in around 1am NYC time. Did not sleep - by the time I was ready, they were getting the cabin ready to land. It was only about 6am when we landed - so we had a long day to stay awake. And the other big factor was lack of daylight - sunrise was around 10:30am and sunset around 3:30pm. It was hard to get moving in the morning when it was pitch black. And for some crazy reason, I still had a hard time sleeping that first night, so the 2nd day there wasn't that great either.

We did a long weekend to Paris earlier this fall and even though it was a longer flight, we had no jet lag.

ETA - @hoffse - I looked up Istanbul from NYC just for kicks - $470 roundtrip with one stop or $679 nonstop. WOW! Unfortunately we don't feel terribly safe traveling there (we'd want to see more than Istanbul too) and since there are so many other places we want to visit that we are more comfortable with, that's on hold for now.

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