I’ve recently discovered the “Explore” feature of Google Flights. If you haven’t checked it out yet, it is a great way to find some amazing deals on cheap tickets to destinations all over the world.

If you know where to travel and when, you can save yourself hundreds if not thousands of dollars on flights.

There are tons of great destinations waiting to be explored just an hour or two flight from home.

Why not try out a new food scene, take in some amazing art at a new museum or listen to a great concert from your favorite band in a nearby city?

How about visiting family or that friend you haven’t seen for a few years? Nothing beats eating your mom’s homemade cookies or laughing so hard you cry while you catch up with your best friend from college!

Cheap Ticket Finder Tip #1

Here’s how to find cheap tickets to fly round trip all over the United States for under $100.

When using Google Flights, first go to the top of the page and click the second tab that says “Explore”.

Enter whether you will be traveling Round Trip or One Way. Then enter how many travelers you have and what class of flight you’d like to take.

Cheap Tickets Finder Tip #2

Next the trick is to enter the city you are leaving from (Denver in my case), but leave the “Where to” box blank . You can also click the ‘Where to” box and select the “Anywhere” option.

Then when Google asks for the dates go to the second tab for “Flexible Dates”. Search by weekend trips, weeklong trips or two week long trips over the next 6 months. Six months is the maximum amount of time you will be able to search.

You can also search by month if you are working around school schedules, busy times at work, special occasions or you just have a favorite time to travel.

My favorite months to travel are “shoulder season” in May and October. The weather is still nice and usually a little cooler, which I prefer. The prices are also usually cheaper for flights and hotels as well.

Once everything is entered click “Done”.

Cheap Tickets Finder Tip #3

Filter by number of Stops, Travel mode (willing to drive to nearby destination or not), Interests, Price, Airline, Duration and Bags included.

I like that you can search by interests. Choose Popular, Outdoors, Beaches, History or Skiing.

The more flexible you can be the more great deals you’ll find! That’s how I discovered how I could find cheap tickets to fly round trip all over the United States for under $100.

Below are some of the deals I found on the day I was writing this post. Search by the List or zoom in on the Map and explore where you could go.

These cheap tickets are not just last minute flights either. Take a few weeks or months to plan an exciting weekend away or plan a longer more relaxing vacation.

Why not zoom out and explore the Caribbean, Europe or Australia? While not under a $100 you can easily find flights a little farther away all over the U.S. under $200 and some great deals on flights for world travel too.

My Cheap Ticket Score!

I scored a round trip flight from Denver to Salt Lake City to visit a good friend I haven’t seen for years for less than $68!

I also found flights from Denver to Miami or Ft. Lauderdale for $56 or Denver to Las Vegas for $48 that week. I couldn’t take a round trip Uber from the suburbs to downtown for that price!

I found my cheap ticket deal on Frontier Airlines and they have roundtrip flights all over the country for less than $100. That is an insanely good deal!

What’s the catch??

What’s the catch you ask? Well, it’s all the extra fees they add on for seat selection, agent assistance, priority boarding, one time changes and the biggest fees of all? Baggage.

If you are going to book any of these extras I suggest you do it when buying your ticket. If you wait until after you’ve booked your ticket the prices go up and depending on the day, way up.

Frontier airlines not only charges you to check a bag, but also to carry one on. Even with extras, Frontier Airlines flights can still be a good value.

I couldn’t resist the challenge of actually flying on a plane to another state for less than an Uber.

I accepted the challenge and put my expert packing skills to the test. I did have to show that my bag fit in the sizer, but other than that everything went smoothly.

Now if you’ve read some of my other blog posts like Three essential travel bags you can’t leave home without! you already know that I do not check bags. I like the security and freedom of knowing all my things will make it with me and back to my destination.

I thought it was ridiculous to charge for a carry on bag. After all who on earth travels on a plane with no luggage? Until I had an aha moment! The personal item. How am I going to fly with only one personal item you ask?

I have the perfect bag and I stocked it with my four other travel essentials. To read more about how to pack light so you can take advantage of these insanely cheap flights check out this post.

Take my traveling light challenge and score your own cheap tickets, so you can squeeze more travel into your budget!