Travel Hacking for Canadians Book Review

Steve Zussino, the author of Travel Hacking for Canadians, kindly gave me a copy of the book so I could review it. Along with his book, Steve also launched a website to help Canadian travelers save money on the road, called Canadian Travel Hacking. Steve also happens to be the founder of Grocery Alerts Canada, which is a website that posts the latest deals and coupons.

The book is broken down into easy to understand categories like air travel, accommodation, land transportation, and cruises. There are a lot of helpful pictures and graphs to help illustrate how various programs work, such as the Aeroplan program. A ton of information is provided about the Canadian Frequent Flyer Programs and which credit cards should be used to achieve the most points.

I like how at the end of each chapter there is a “Tools” section with references and websites that are relevant and might be useful to the reader. 🙂

My favorite section in the book is about price matching for hotels. For example, Steve explains how to use an aggregator site like kayak.com to check if the current Expedia hotel booking you have is the lowest price. Of course the book also suggests alternative accommodations like AirBnB and hostels.

Some of the money saving strategies in the book like using Priceline and Hotwire may not be helpful to everyone, such as myself since I don’t really use those companies to travel. But I’m sure those tips will be useful to others who are already using those services.

The book goes into which credit cards allow one to accumulate miles the quickest, and provide the most value. It also suggests ways to reduce or even completely waive the annual fee on credit cards. Steve also mentions the spending traps that so many travelers get lured into like casinos, spas, and alcoholic beverages on cruise ships. By avoiding these traps travelers can still enjoy the fundamental experience of a cruise, without spending money on overpriced luxuries. For those who like to rent vehicles there’s a section about avoiding unnecessary upsells at the rental counter.

There’s something in this book for every traveler. I learned a few things from it that I wasn’t previously aware of, which I’m sure will be of use in my future travels. The digital version is $10, and the paperback version is $20.  If this book can save people hundreds of dollars on their next vacation then that sounds like a pretty good value.