Working in the travel industry, I often have friends asking me how to find the best airfares, where to go to search for hotel deals and generally how they can save the most money when booking their next vacation. While I certainly cannot guarantee anyone a good deal on cheap vacation, I have learned a few tricks on insuring you got the best price possible on your flight, hotel and more for when and where you wanted to go. Below are a few of my tips for finding the best travel deals:

1. Know which destinations are the cheapest at what times of year

If you’ve been dying to make it to a particular destination, but don’t have a whole lot of money to spend (we are in the recession after all), the best way to make your dollar stretch is to travel during off-peak and shoulder season times. In general, fall is generally a cheaper time to travel just about anywhere. However, certain destinations have different off-peak and shoulder season times.

Mexico and the Caribbean tend to be cheaper in the summer and even cheaper in the fall. Hurricane season starts at the end of August, and with the threat of a storm potentially canceling the trip, hotels and airlines drop prices in order to attract more visitors. There are some especially insane deals in the autumn months on all-inclusive and vacation package deals, as well as free nights at hotels, big resort credits and cheap flights.

There are also a few destinations that have been especially hard hit by the economic recession. Las Vegas is one of them, which means there are some truly fantastic deals to be had in Sin City lately. Vegas saw a huge boom at the height of the inflated housing and hotel boom, which means in the fallout many hotels have been left with a whole lot of empty rooms.

So, what does this mean for you? Some really great deals on cheap Vegas hotel rooms. There are also lots of great deals to be had flights to Vegas-especially from certain originating cities. I recently wrote about how the 5-start Wynn is offering rooms for just $139/night with a $75 resort credit. And the Wynn isn’t the only 5-star property in Vegas where you can find some really astounding deals.

Jen Leo from the Los Angeles Times wrote about all about her tips for finding cheap rooms at 5-star hotels in Vegas. Her tips included signing up for e-mail newsletters, using Bing’s travel section and using the site Dealbase to search for 5-star hotels under a certain dollar amount.

Of course, it should go without saying that traveling during the holiday season, over long weekends and during peak travel times for certain destinations.

2. Sign up for e-mail newsletters

You are probably scoffing at this suggestion and thinking that you are already overwhelmed and bogged down by the amount of email messages already crowding your inbox, but this is really a great way to be on precipice of finding the best travel deals. Getting email alerts will not only notify you of fare sales and cut-rate hotel rooms, but you won’t have to go out searching to find some of the best deals.

Also, hotels and airlines often offer the best deals and rates to their e-mail subscriber list, meaning you may be able to get a deal non-subscribers cannot. If you want to avoid getting bogged down with too many of these emails, subscribe only to ones for certain destinations, certain airlines or certain hotels to insure you see deals that you want to.

I am also personally a big fan of the twice monthly BootsnAll Newsletter, which details new travel featured stories and tells y’all baout the best deals on travel from around the industry.

3. Travel during off peak times

If you’re lucky enough to have a flexible travel schedule, traveling during off-peak times is probably the best way to cut way down on your travel expenses. Holidays, summer, and around Christmas/New Years tends to be expensive whether you are wanting to head to Hawaii or ski in Aspen.

Fall and late winter/early spring tend to be the best times to travel. Not only can you get some great deals on airfare, but you can also find free-nights and cut-rates at many hotels. Avoiding long holiday weekends is also a good way to save the most on travel.

Of course, sometimes life and work necessitate that you travel during peak-travel times. When this happens, you can save a few bucks on your airfare by flying mid-week (Tuesday or Wednesday) or on Saturdays. Picking off-peak flight times (early in the morning and late at night) can also be a good way to save money on your airfare.

4. Get a mileage credit card

I have found that I almost always find the cheapest airfares on Frontier Airlines when I’m traveling between my current home in Portland, Oregon and where I grew up in Boulder, Colorado. Since I often found myself traveling with the Denver-based airline, I decided it was probably worthwhile to get a mileage credit card. This way, not only would I be earning miles for free flights when buying my groceries, I’d also earn double the miles when purchasing my air tickets with the credit card.

For high rollers or folk who travel frequently for business, the Visa Black Card could also be a good way to earn cash back and rewards for your spending. Aimed at high profile clients, this card is certainly not for everyone, but does come with some major bonuses.

5. Set alerts and do your research before buying

The internet is so full of good resources to help you find the best deals on travel, sometimes it can be a little overwhelming knowing where to look when searching for the best fares. There are a few sites that are more helpful than others.

If you are looking for round-ups on some of the best and latest travel deals, Cheap Ticket Links highlights a new deal every day of the work week (Monday through Friday) and will point you in the right direction for what places have the best offers right now.

Deal Base and Bing Travel are also good resources for finding deals on airfares and hotels. Kayak also allows you to set alerts that will ping you when a fare on a certain flight goes up or down. I always recommend checking out at least 3 different airfare sites before committing to purchasing your ticket.