Best Sites for Travel Out of Minneapolis

I have an obsession with finding great travel deals.  Unfortunately, Minneapolis is not a major market for airlines, and it can be hard to find "rock bottom" deals out of the Twin Cities.  The major travel booking sites such as Priceline, Kayak, and Orbitz are good for finding deals, but they don't catch everything.  If you live in Twin Cities metro area, or are traveling to Minnesota, take a look at these sites to find a great travel deal.  To visit each site, simply click on the heading! 

Sun Country Airlines "Wing It" Tuesdays

Sun Country is a Minnesota based airline with flights to warm-weather destinations and tourist meccas like New York City.  They are my favorite airline because all flights out of Minneapolis are direct to the final destination and depart from MSP Terminal 2 (which is much less chaotic compared to Terminal 1).  Every Tuesday they post "wing it" fares, which are last minute flight deals.  The "Wing It" fares are only available on Tuesday and sell out quickly.

Visit Duluth "Hot Deals"

The north shore of Lake Superior is the favorite getaway for many Minnesotans. However, lodging can be expensive, especially for properties located directly on the shore of Lake Superior.  The website visitduluth.com has a "hot deals" page that is constantly updated with lodging deals for the entire north shore area.  There are often deals posted for resorts that do not work with the major booking sites.

Southwest Airlines

Southwest Airline flights can only be searched from their webpage (and not sites such as Orbitz).  It takes a little bit of time to search for flights but you can often find a great deal.  While looking for a spring break flight to New Orleans, I found that Southwest's tickets were over $100 cheaper than any other airline.  Unfortunately, most destinations out of Minneapolis require at least one connection.  They also have a downloadable "Ding" app that sends alerts of travel deals to your smartphone.

Rovia

Rovia is operates much like other travel booking sites, with a few significant advantages.  If you sign up as a preferred member (which is free), you get access to some members only deals.  I have booked both flights and vacation packages through Rovia that were hundred's of dollars cheaper than rates published on competitor sites.