We all know the economy is tanking and so for many of us belts must be tightened. The prudent thing to do is to reduce all discretionary spending, which probably means the family travel budget should be curtailed. Curtailed, yes – but not necessarily eliminated. Those of us for which travel is a necessity/priority just have to be a bit more thrifty about it.

The flip side to all the economic doom and gloom is that there are some amazing travel deals being offered at the moment. Hotels, airlines, cruise ships and attractions around the world are clamoring for your business, promoting freebies, extras, credits and discounts that are hard to resist. That is, if you can find them.

It’s not always easy to tap into the best deals out there – especially for busy parents who don’t have a lot time on their hands for labyrinthine internet research. So why not put the web to work for you? Here’s a site that will spoon feed travel bargains right to your inbox.

Travel Zoo
If you’re flexible, open minded, spontaneous and prepared to yank the kids out of school to jump on an affordable travel opportunity, sign up for Travel Zoo’s Top 20. Each week you’ll be sent a free list of great values on flights, hotels, cruises, car rentals, vacation packages, shows and events around the world (you can hone it to the Americas, Asia Pacific or Europe editions).

If you know where you’d like to go, you can easily search to or from a specific destination on the homepage. If you want to just focus in on specials in your area, sign up for their geo-targeted News Flash alerts or click the Deals Near You box that plots relevant offerings on a map. Not all are necessarily family-oriented, but you never know when you’ll find something that’ll catch your fancy and fit your budget.

Travel Zoo combs hundreds travel sites to select the best discounts, saving you the leg work (or should that be finger work) of clicking and digging around yourselves. Furthermore, real live human “test bookers” verify prices, availability and ease of booking, so you can be confident the listings aren’t going to be misleading or stale. You may have to act fast, however – some of the last minute deals are snapped up quickly.

Here’s a sampling of some of this week’s Top 20:

• Half Off Disney on Broadway Shows
• New York to London on Virgin Atlantic for $198
• 12 Night Mediterranean Cruise for $529, including a $300 credit

Pretty tempting, huh!?