For any last minute vacations, it pays to know when the most expensive travel periods are.

The high demand for travel during certain periods drives the prices up for most essentials like airline tickets, cruises, hotel rooms and rental cars.

Fortunately, there are a few free tools, tricks and sites that you can use to make your last minute travel cheaper, faster, easier and more fun!

The other alternative is to buy last minute vacation packages. They are generally good but only if you cannot locate a cheap airfare.

And an understanding of how the airlines operate will help you get that cheap last minute airline tickets.

As for hotel reservations, it's true that most often you do get a better rate by simply picking the phone either from a phone booth nearby to book rather walking to the reservation counter.

Another way you can save on your car rental is to consider the parking charges instead, again this can be easily verify via the phone by simply asking the hotel staff for local advice.

Airlines, hotels, cruise ships and rental car companies lose money for every seat, hotel room, cabin or rental car they don't fill. Typically, they would rely on travel agents, or consolidators to help them clear their inventories.

By buying such items in bulk and repackaging them together into last minute vacation deals, it's unlikely you can buy these items separately on your own at a cheaper price.