As I’ve mentioned before, Jess and I love to plan. We delight in finding an affordable B&B smack in the middle of busy season, booking a unique tour, and creating our schedule of to-dos and to-sees. Since planning is (at least) half the fun, we’ve typically shied away from booking packaged travel deals in the past. But package deals can translate into great savings – even for the most planning-addicted of us.

Why? Let me count the ways:

1.  You’ll save yourself some money

Jess and I are super-duper great (if I do say so myself) at finding amazing deals, but sometimes the best deals money-wise are ones that combine airfare, tours, and accommodations for you. This was how we ended up booking a spur of the moment trip to Iceland, which was at the top of both of our dream destinations lists.

A package deal was responsible for this moment

2.  You’ll save yourself some time

All that planning? It takes time. While we love poring over every detail, not everyone has the luxury of spending days on end researching the best places to stay, picking the right wineries, and finding the absolute best value on a car rental with GPS. And honestly, having a ready-to-go package can be a huge time saver.

Less time spent planning, more time spent having fun

3.  You’ll save yourself some hassle

Now we love us some planning, but even we have to admit that sometimes it is just easier to evaluate a deal and hand over our credit cards. We are currently planning a 3-week trip to Thailand and Cambodia, and for convenience and safety’s sake, we are probably going to go with a package deal.

We may be going as part of a package deal, but we’ll be able to say we made it to Thailand!

There are lots of great aggregator sites that deliver the latest and greatest vacation deals right to your email/web browser.  Here are a few of our favorites:

• TravelZoo
• Budget Travel Real Deals
• SmarterTravel
• Groupon Getaways