Amazon Prime Day 2017: Are you Ready, Travelers?

Caroline Morse Teel is the Managing Editor for SmarterTravel Media. Follow her on Instagram @TravelWithCaroline.

Caroline joined Boston-based SmarterTravel in 2011 after living in Ireland, London, and Manhattan. She's traveled to all seven continents, jumped out of planes, and bungeed off bridges in the pursuit of a good story. She loves exploring off-the-beaten path destinations, anything outdoorsy, and all things adventure.

Her stories have also appeared online at USA Today, Business Insider, Huffington Post, Yahoo, Boston.com, TripAdvisor, Buzzfeed, Jetsetter, Oyster, Airfarewatchdog, and others.

The Handy Item I Always Pack: "Earplugs. A good pair has saved my sleep and sanity many times!"

Ultimate Bucket List Experience: Hiking Mount Kilimanjaro.

Travel Motto: "Don't be boring."

Aisle, Window, or Middle Seat: "Aisle (when the first class private suite isn't available)."

E-mail her at cteel@smartertravel.com.

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Amazon Prime Day 2017

We’ve told you before why Amazon Prime is great for travelers (free books, magazines, offline downloads, two-day or two-hour shipping, exclusive deals, photo storage, music, video, and even a JetBlue affiliation). If that didn’t convince you, you’re going to want to sign up for a free 30-day Prime membership now, so that you can be ready for Amazon Prime Day 2017, which is basically like Black Friday in July.

The highly-anticipated Amazon Prime Day 2017 starts at 9 p.m. ET on July 10th and continues through July 11th, and features big discounts on a wide variety of products. You can expect great deals on not only Amazon-branded items (like the Echo, Firestick, Kindle, etc.), but also huge sales on travel-specific items, like suitcases or backpacks. However, you do have to be an Amazon Prime member (free trial members count!) in order to snag sale prices.

Many Amazon Prime Day deals can sell out quickly, so here’s how to prepare:

Add items that you’re thinking about buying (like that expensive suitcase or pair of great travel shoes) to your list (check out our lists here for some inspiration), and Amazon will notify you if the price drops during the sale.
Get an Alexa-enabled device, like an Echo or Echo Dot, and you’ll get access to exclusive voice shopping deals on Amazon Prime Day.
Start watching deals on July 9th, as deals will be promoted up to 24-hours before they go live.
Join the waitlist if you miss a deal, and be notified if it becomes available again.
Check out Amazon’s Prime Day Insider Guide here.

Not sold on the price of a Prime Membership? Low-income households and students are eligible for discounted memberships (and students can sign-up for a free six-month trial here).

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