Guide to Cheap International Travel with your Oru

The world is full of beautiful and exciting international destinations that will take your breath away at every turn. We all know that feeling as your plane descends over dream destinations like Tahiti in the South Pacific.

The region has that crystal clear water that all your friends and their mothers have been longing to swim in. The only thing better than wadding in that unreal water is cruising along on your Oru Beach LT kayak and taking some of the best Instagram photos of the century.

Now that you know you want to be kayaking in Tahiti in the near future, you’ll need some tips and tricks on transporting your kayak and booking international flights on the cheap.

Innovating for air travel

Over the years, it has been tough to travel with a big and bulky kayak on international or domestic flights. Traditional kayak brands have not innovated to build a product designed for adventurous travelers looking to travel by plane to kayak-worthy destinations.

Oru Kayak came to the rescue - The Foldable Beach LT weighs in at just 26 pounds, takes just three minutes to set up, simply folds out of a small box, and is 1000% easier to carry around the airport. Thanks to its compact and light design, you can get this to the airport easily and on a plane – for less.

Airline Baggage Fees

Airlines often charge hundreds of dollars for oversize and overweight baggage. In addition, simply getting to the airport and carrying your kayak around is more than enough to deter most people. Getting the Oru Pack is a must if you’re looking to travel internationally with your kayak so you don’t get hit with major oversize baggage fees since it keeps the boat nice and tight on your back.

The Oru Pack helps your boat pass as regular luggage which can be absolutely free if you have the right credit cards. If you don’t have those credit cards that get you free checked baggage, it will cost you on average $25 for the first bag, $35 for the second and between $50 -$100 for the third checked bag. Note that without the Oru Pack you could be hit with Oversized Bags fees that range from $200 to $400 depending on the airlines. You can see a detailed list for all international and domestic airline bag fees here.

Finding the absolute cheapest flight

Understanding baggage fees as you travel with your kayak is half the battle. Finding cheap international airfare is where you can save the most money. Here are a few tips and tricks to find the absolute cheapest flight:

We recommend visiting at least 3 websites when you’re looking international airfare. These are our favorites and bring back the cheapest fares most of the time. They also allow you to put into play the tips listed below. Try to go through these sites in numerical order.

1. Google Flights

• Always start with Google Flights. It’s the best search engine in the business for a few reasons. Mainly, it allows you to nicely browse the calendar view.

• Pull up their handy calendar tool to find the best travel dates for your route, by locating the dates with the lowest fares. Make sure you browse the calendar view up to 9 months ahead so you know the cheapest time frame to travel and then narrow down on the dates you want.

• Keep a tab on the price you found.

2. Momondo

• Head over to Momondo, re-enter your itinerary that you found in Google Flights and hit search. You can also double check them on Priceline to confirm you have the cheapest deal.

• Momondo almost always brings back the absolute cheapest fares, even cheaper than in Google Flights 95% of the time.

• Keep a tab on the price you found.

3. Skiplagged

• Lastly, head to Skiplagged and enter in those dates to be sure you have the absolute cheapest fare.

• Once you’ve gone through these steps and you’ve found a fare within the price ranges we outlined above, go ahead and book!

• Skiplagged is so good they actually got sued by United Airlines a few years ago for saving people too much money on airfare by finding a loophole in the booking system. However, they won the lawsuit and are up and running.

Be flexible with airports - Check out ALL airports close to where you live, as well as to your destination if you want to end up finding the cheapest flight. Remember, budget airlines in Europe and Asia like Ryanair or Air Asia are extremely cheap. You can fly roundtrip from most cities for less than $100 roundtrip within those regions.

Be flexible with travel dates- The easiest way to find a great deal is to be quite flexible with your travel dates. This can be tough if you have limited time off from work. However, try to plan far in advance. Sometimes you can save $300-$500 if you leave on a Thursday as opposed to a Friday for example. Rather than picking your dates first, try and see when it’s cheapest to travel and work backwards.

Know when you see a great deal - Before you get into booking, it’s imperative you know what a good deal actually looks like so when you see a cheap fare you know to book it before it’s gone.Here are our benchmarks for great prices from the United States to all over the world:

• Africa: $500s-$700s round trip

• Australia: $600s-$800s round trip

• Caribbean: $100s-$300s round trip

• Europe: $300s-$500s round trip

• East and Southeast Asia: $300s-$500s round trip

• Hawaii: $200s-$400s round trip

• South America: $400s-$600s round trip

If you end up finding cheap flights in these ranges, you should book fast and pack your kayak.

Bringing it all together

Bringing your Oru Kayak along on your international adventure is well worth it. By putting into play these tips and tricks on finding cheap flights and understanding how baggage fees work for major international airlines, you can minimize stress and added cost to your trip.

Before you know it, you’ll be paddling along that Tahiti coast you’ve been dreaming about.