If you like to travel you may have noticed some changes over the past several years. It used to be that if you wanted to book a trip you could find a travel agent on every corner. You could go in to the travel agent’s comfortable office, paid for with your commissions, and have them look into each and every detail of your trip. The travel agent would do the research, make the phone calls, and put the tickets in a nice little folder. Then the internet revolution came and the capability to do it yourself and save money was upon us – supposedly. Now, the latest evolution for the travel industry is here…Travel Clubs.

Travel clubs aren’t necessarily anything new. Early versions of travel clubs were groups of friends that saved a little bit of money by sharing expenses on a vacation trip. These early clubs were fine but they suffered from a few problems. First, they often booked travel through a travel agent, paying full commission. Second, if everyone in the club didn’t agree to the club’s travel plans, the other members might not have the ability to achieve the savings they might otherwise get. Finally, if you didn’t know enough people to form a travel club, or you didn’t like an existing club’s travel choices, you were out of luck. That was then.

Now, travel clubs have combined the power of the internet with the bulk buying power of warehouse stores to bring flexibility and huge savings to members across the country and around the world. By using the internet the newer travel clubs can recruit membership from all over. Large internet-based travel clubs can have many thousand members and that’s a really good thing for travelers. Why? Well, as more members join it means more choices of travel and more buying power. Yes, buying power. The new breed of internet-based travel club uses the buying power of thousands of members in the same way big-box warehouse stores do except they don’t bulk buy toilet paper, they bulk buy vacation travel. For instance, a travel club’s members want to go on a cruise so the travel club goes to the cruise line and negotiates a great price by buying 200-300 cabins on the ship. Or, maybe the members want to go to an all-inclusive 5-star resort in Cancun so the club buys up half the resort’s rooms to get a fantastic price. Simple.

Travel clubs are a great deal but before you join one keep a few things in mind. First, all clubs will charge a membership fee. That’s ok as it is one of the ways the club gets enough money to make the deals, but it shouldn’t be a huge fee and it should be one-time only not an annual fee. Avoid clubs that charge thousands of dollars to join, they’re seldom worth it. Second, pretty much all clubs will charge a monthly membership fee. Again, that’s ok since the money is used to fund the club’s operations and make the great deals happen but, make sure there’s a way your monthly fees can be waived. Lastly, make sure there isn’t any type of long-term contract or cancellation fee. For that matter the best clubs don’t have a contract at all nor a cancellation fee so look for them.

Travel clubs are the future of vacation travel and they help the traveler save loads of money on the travel they’re going to do anyway. Join a travel club today and see the world without spending a fortune.