Travel Newsletters by Email -- great source of ideas (and daydreams)

In one on my earlier entries, I mentioned how I found a 2-cent round-trip airfare to Las Vegas when I saw a note on one of the travel newsletters to which I subscribe. I can't recall exactly when or how I first found the newsletters but they've been a blessing. I've gotten some great deals on trips I was taking anyway, found a couple of amazing bargains, and (if you love travel the way I do) gave me a chance to daydream about some great new destination I hadn't thought of.

The first one to which I subscribed was called Travelzoo -- every week they send an email with the best 20 travel deals they find. It's all text so it's pretty quick to scan. When you click on a link in the email it takes you to that travel deal so you can get the details and book it if the deal works for you.

Not long after I found Travelzoo I stumbled onto a second one called Shermans Travel. They function similarly, although they send out a Top 25 instead of 20 and their email includes some photos. Sometimes they will have several of the same offers but there are always some that one has and the other doesn't. So I think it's worth subscribing to both.

I like both of them because they are just providing me info, they don't seem to be pushing to make a sale. So it becomes fun just to look, browse, occasionally click on one just to see some more details and get ideas for future travel.

After I subscribed, I didn't notice any rise in commercial emails into my in-box so it doesn't look like this opens you up to lots of spam emails. But I know you can never be sure. So here's what I did and would suggest for people who want to keep some email sanity: for my commercial dealings, I got a second email address. There are many sources now for free email service (I use hotmail, my wife uses yahoo, and there's always google too). I set up a second box there, so the main address I give out to friends and family is one address, and there's a second address where emails from businesses etc come in. It can take a bit of time to look at two email accounts, but this way when I want to check on my more individual and direct email from people I know I use my main account and this system keeps it more free of commercial spam. And on the business/general email account I figure I'll get more spam but rely on the spam filters to at least keep it somewhat manageable.

So my advice: if you like to or need to travel, subscribing to Travelzoo and Shermans Travel is a no-brainer!