Thanks to the recession, vacations that were once taken for granted are no longer the norm; however, there are still ways to escape on an affordable getaway. Traveling on a budget is de rigueur and great vacations ideas are out there – you just need to know where to look.

The late 1990s brought us the birth of Google, the Euro, and the convenience of online travel booking. Since then, discount travel sites such as Expedia and Priceline, and aggregate sites that allow easy comparison shopping, like Kayak, have become the standard place to search for travel destinations, as well book airline tickets, hotels and car rentals.

But finding the best deals can quickly become complicated. Each airline promotes its own vacation packages, and e-blasts can fill your inbox with last-minute bargains and frequent flyer offers.

Large metro newspapers have jumped on board, with extended travel sections (the New York Times is particularly good), and every country with a tourism board has an official web site that officially welcomes you there. Fáilte Ireland, for example, has an especially user-friendly site.

And yet, it doesn’t stop. You can download travel podcasts on iTunes, follow other travelers on Twitter, and have updates sent right to your phone.

With all of these options, planning a vacation on a budget should be a breeze, but instead, there’s enough information out there to make your head spin. Taking a vacation should relieve stress, and planning one should not be the cause of more.

Thankfully, there are travel websites that are easy to navigate, and gently guide you to where you really want to be – on vacation.

When Condé Nast Traveler magazine relaunched its travel website, concierge.com, last year, one of the additions was an easy-touse Budget web page with several features to help plan your next vacation. A click-through link to Best Travel Deals of the Week pulls up destinations broadly sorted by continent and lifestyle, such as Luxury For Less, featuring African safaris to Canadian heli-skiing, and Attainable Exotic, with vacation ideas from Vietnam to Tunisia. It’s a friendly respite from the chaos of other sites, and designed that way on purpose.

“The idea is to give people universal advice on where and how to save money, rather than focus on deals that have specific dates or other limitations,” says concierge.com editor-in-chief, Peter J. Frank. “For instance, Tahiti in March, which is low season but still has great weather, or August in St. Barths, when hotel rooms go for about half of what they cost in winter… The advice and recommendations we give helps to make sure travelers are spending their money wisely.”

Another website, lonelyplanet.com, is the virtual counterpart of the book series. It includes an accessible search-by-country feature, a virtual trip planner, and lists of fun facts, where we learned that there are more 7-Elevens in Thailand (3,800) than polar bears in Norway (3,000). It’s the perfect site for the adventurous, tech-savvy traveler.

The aptly named budgettravel.com is the web arm of Budget Travel magazine, and it’s an explosion of destinations and vacation deals. You can find basic tips by country, as well as a useful family section. There’s even a clickable map where you can find out which U.S. zoos have newborn baby animals.

If you’re still overwhelmed at this point, then you probably need the assistance of an actual human being. Even though the world wide web accounts for most vacation planning, your friendly neighborhood travel agent is still around to help.

Seaside Travel has been in Belmont Shore for nearly thirty years. Manager Randy Brown has seen business go from mainly selling airline tickets to planning vacations for people who want to stay on a budget but cannot stay online.

“It helps to talk to someone who has been to where they are going and can simplify the process,” Brown says encouragingly. “We get a lot of people telling us they’ve been looking all over the internet and there’s just too much stuff out there. They come to see us when they’re having trouble doing it for themselves.”

Concierge.com also offers wise words for people needing to vacation on a budget. “Travelers who are looking to get the most bang for their buck should look beyond just the ‘deals’ websites,” Frank says.

“There are terrific deals out there right now, but if you buy a cheap vacation package only to discover that it’s on a narrow little beach, or the hotel is a dump, then you’ve wasted your money. You should always check a site like concierge.com to see what insiders have to say, and to read recommendations and tips based on real experience. It’s not just the bottom line that matters.”

There are as many travel resources as there are places to look. If you’re really on a budget, you can browse travel guidebooks at the library for free, or follow your interests on the Travel Channel or PBS. It is, after all, a getaway from your everyday life. Browsing online or reading a book can take you away to a number of places in just one evening, and it may just be the dream vacation you can afford. One where your destination remains right at home.