Blog - Just Get Out Of Town

Hi, I’m Joel McDonald & this is my wife Michelle.

Our friends call us “Jochelle.”

We discovered “The JGOOT Way” of travel in 2015 when I stumbled across mysteriously low fares to Aruba (during peak season). We snatched them up and three months later, we flew there and stayed 6 nights at a luxury resort with its own private island for $1104. (Not each… Total.)

We’ve taken dozens of trips since using the same strategy – all for five to twenty cents on the dollar.

Want to be able to do the same? Click here to try my premium trip-alert service out for a dollar.

Don’t want to subscribe to my paid service? Read the various blog posts below & I’ll teach you how to find them for yourself.

Happy travels!

Joel

JGOOT Subscriber story: “Flights so cheap we got to bring the grandparents!”

February 20, 2019/0 Comments/in JGOOT Tips, TL;DR, Videos /by Joel

Nikki Sandschaper and her husband are both school teachers – which might seem great for vacations, but considering the only time teachers can travel is during peak seasons, that can get pricey quick. In this interview we talked about one of their JGOOT-inspired trips where they not only went over the busiest week of the […]

“It’s five minutes of dreaming and fun” – Robert Horvick

February 14, 2019/0 Comments/in Inspiration, Stories/Tips, Testimonials, TL;DR /by Joel

Below is a recording of a conversation I had with JGOOT premium subscriber Robert Horvick after he left these kind words on our Facebook page. Robert & his wife live in Raleigh, NC. Since joining my trip-alert service, they’ve only travelled domestically, but they’ve taken 3 trips and saved $600 to $800 so far. They […]

As long as teachers are going on strike without pay, so will I

February 12, 2019/1 Comment/in Community, In The News, Misc Ramblings /by Joel

[Note: Already subscribed to my premium trip-alerts?] Donate at least $100 to this fund (or another Go Fund Me that benefits individual Denver Schools), send me a receipt, and I’ll send you the 7-night vacation voucher referenced below.] Denver Public School teachers have made National news with their current strike seeking fair wages. (USA Today article here.) […]

Like the Gideons give Bibles to Hotels

February 8, 2019/0 Comments/in In The News, JGOOT Tips, Stories/Tips /by Joel

Sean and Janelle of Toward Awakening Travel were kind enough to invite me to talk about the concept of remnant travel at their monthly meetup in Denver. Here is a recording of that interview, and here is a copy of the quick-start guide I gave to attendees. (I give it away like the Gideons give […]

About Croatia (Video)

January 30, 2019/0 Comments/in Area Reviews, Other trips, TL;DR /by Joel

JGOOT premium subscriber Andrea Warner was kind enough to share pictures, stories, and some other cool travel tips from her recent JGOOT-inspired trip to Croatia. Have further questions? Add your comments below, or participate in the conversation going on here. PS – Andrea is a single Mother of five, and makes a point of “Just […]

Kids fly free on Frontier!

January 29, 2019/0 Comments/in Travel Tips /by Joel

I love it when this awesome community of JGOOT travelers helps each other out… The Points Guy posted this news, and one of my savviest JGOOT subscribers – Brooke Merkle – shared the details with me so I could get the word out. Thanks Brooke! I won’t steal TPG’s thunder, so you can read his […]

Exploiting the airline industry’s “Achilles Heel”

January 27, 2019/0 Comments/in JGOOT Tips, Stories/Tips, Travel Tips /by Joel

Whether dealing with discount airlines, or one of the big three – all airlines use extremely expensive software and algorithms to extract every dollar possible out of every seat on every one of their planes. But much like Achilles’ heel, even the millions of dollars airlines put into predicting how much customers will pay for […]

First world problems

January 17, 2019/1 Comment/in Stories/Tips /by Joel

For the past several days, my wife has been laying out clothes and texting/coordinating with her girlfriends finalizing what they’re going to wear on their annual girl’s trip. (Last year it was Miami. This year… Mexico.) Last night, she spent 2 hours trying to figure out what to take out of her bags without sacrificing […]

Book VIP – Scam or legitimate company?

January 14, 2019/in Travel Tips /by Joel

[Disclaimer: The JGOOT Way of travel does not condone timeshare ownership OR strategies that Book VIP uses to get vacation discounts. This is simply a review of an alternative method to getting great deals on vacations.] BookVIP.com is a discount vacation reseller that is able to offer significantly discounted vacations at all-inclusive resorts. The catch? […]

Seriously???

January 14, 2019/1 Comment/in Travel Tips /by Joel

I’m in a few Facebook travel groups, and one of them in particular is an especially active one. The average post gets over 20 replies, but one in particular got over 100 replies in the first hour, and is up to over 350 comments. The post was “How do you guys travel so much?” and […]

From one of the greats

January 8, 2019/in Cherry Picker Method, Travel Tips /by Joel

Wayne Gretzky is among the greatest hockey players in history. When asked what he attributes to his success he quoted a simple lesson his Dad gave him: “Skate to where the puck is going, not to where it has been.” Want to spend so little, your friends don’t even believe you when you tell them […]

Ummmmm… Hell no.

January 2, 2019/in Stories/Tips, Travel Hacks, Travel Tips /by Joel

[TL;DR? Watch a video at the bottom of this post instead.] I bargained with my sophomore son and told him if he took a free ACT practice test on Friday, he could take a friend snowboarding today. I was going to go boarding today too, but it was NEGATIVE TEN DEGREES outside, and was only […]