By Christine Abraham

Spring is just a flower blossom away and, after this harsh Winter, you deserve a nice vacation.  It’s the perfect way to rekindle your romance, reconnect with friends, or create family memories. If finances are holding you back, there are more ways than one to save money. Besides using the usual Priceline.com, Orbitz, and Hotwire discount sites, take a gander at the following tips and tricks to make your vacation exciting and afordable.

Gilt Groupe , Ideeli, and Rue La La not only offer amazing deals on designer clothes such as Burberry, Chanel, BCBG, and Calvin Klein, they also offer fantastic vacation packages.  Vacations range from just hotel deals to full-on pampering.

LuxuryLink is your porthole to fabulous, upscale vacation packages all over the world. You can either bid on a vacation package or buy one immediately if everything fits your needs. One tip if you decided to bid instead of buying immediatly-- call the hotel before to see what the current occupancy is for the time you want to be there.  You’re preferred date is not guaranteed if you are bidding.

LivingSocial has jumped into the vacation arena with its new website LivingSocial ESCAPES .  Just sign up to receive a weekly email outlining the newest exiting getaways for you and the person of your choice.

If you’re thinking of a family vacation or a vacation with friends, try HomeAway and Vactionhomes for your housing needs. These sites list privately owned houses, cabins, condos, and even mansions that you can rent for your vacation. This will give you more room, more privacy, and more importantly, a kitchen so you’ll have the choice of staying in for a meal.

Managing Miles of Miles.

Is it hard for you to keep track of all your frequent flier miles? Did you miss a free night in a hotel because you didn’t know you had one? GoMiles.com will help you manage all of your many miles, hotel points, and car rentals. If that’s not enough, it even gives you tips on how to maximize your credits.  With this easy management system, you should be taking off to a far off land in no time!

City Deals. 

If you know your destination city, check out their Conventions and Visitors Bureau. Cities love to promote themselves by offering their own vacations packages and discounts.  Be sure to request additional informational via mail and there’s bound to be a coupon book of area attractions, dining, and shopping.

Browse those deal-of-the-day websites (e.g., Groupon, LivingSocial), checking out the bargains around your vacation spot.  DealRadar is a handy website that groups all the city’s discount deals into one page so you won’t have to look up each individual deal-of-the-day site or flood your inbox.  If you don’t have time to wait for the right deal to be offered, try the deal-of-the-day resale sites  Lifesta or CoupRecoup. It’s a chance to buy savings from people that are unable to use them.

Be savvy and make sure you read reviews and plan ahead. Among the many review website (e.g., TripAdvisor, AAA, Yelp, etc.) a new site, Oyster,  has popped-up that does all the detective work for you. This site let’s you know about good deals and uncovers the real truth about some hotels that look great in a brochure but are less than luxurious in person.

With all these simple-to-use websites, you can start packing and be on your way to a vacation for way less than you thought!