The website BiddingForGood hosts online auctions for nonprofit organizations. Among the items auctioned off by schools, civic organizations and other nonprofits around the country are hotel rooms and restaurant certificates.

Don’s most recent winning bid was for two nights at the Hotel Andaluz in Albuquerque (its lovely lobby is pictured here) for $75 a night. That was about half the lowest rack rate.

Want to try this site to save money and do good at the same time? A few tips:

Search wisely. If you’re planning a trip to a particular destination, you can search, for example, on “hotel Miami.” But if you’re open about where you might go, try browsing the site’s travel section.

Plan well ahead. You have to leave enough time for the auction to close and your winning gift coupons to be mailed, probably by volunteers who are not in a rush.

Prepare to lose. Local supporters of the auction sponsor may bid the item above its value, something you may not want to do unless it’s for a cause you particularly support.

Read the fine print. Many offers have restrictions of one kind or another. Make sure the deal is one you can use.

The company pulled out of Hartford altogether in 2009, abandoning it as a stop on the New York to Boston route. It returned in December 2010 with routes to New York and Amherst, Mass.

Now Boston is back, too. With the resumption of that route Megabus is giving away 1,000 free tickets. A new route between Hartford and New Haven will also start next month with four round trips daily.

The regular fares on Megabus start at $1 each way when bought well in advance, with fees bringing the total to about $2.50 round trip. It’s an incredible deal, but you have to plan ahead. Fares increase as the departure date approaches.

My sister has been a regular Megabus customer with trips between Washington and Hartford. The husband and I recently did a round trip to New York for a total of $4.50 and we just bought another at that price for Boston. The buses, by the way, are equipped with Wi-Fi.

In advance of an upcoming trip to New Mexico, I started to look not only at the Hartford area deals but also those for Albuquerque, which includes some offers for Santa Fe. (Groupon says a separate site for Santa Fe is in the works.)

I found not only restaurant bargains but deeply discounted tickets for the Road Runner Express, the light rail system between the two cities.

Groupon has also announced a Groupon Getaways travel site in partnership with Expedia, but that doesn’t seem to be up and running quite yet.

Fares must be purchased by midnight on Thursday, June 23, for travel between Aug. 23, 2011 and  Nov. 16, 2011. The fares are offered every day except Friday and Sunday. Columbus Day and the Labor Day weekend are blacked out. 

From Bradley International, the $40 fare is available to Baltimore, Buffalo, Newark, Norfolk, Pittsburgh and Washington Dulles. The round-trip fare, with taxes and fees, will total about $120, with slight variations depending on the number of stops.

The $80 fare is good for Birmingham, Charleston, Chicago, Cleveland, Columbus, Detroit, Greenville / Spartanburg, Indianapolis, Jackson, Kansas City, Little Rock, Louisville, Milwaukee, Nashville, Omaha, Raleigh/ Durham, St. Louis and several Florida destinations. The total round-trip fare will be about $195.

The $120 fare applies to multiple destinations in the Southwest, including Texas and Las Vegas, as well as New Orleans, but does not extend to the West Coast. The round-trip fare will come out to about $280.

These are competitive fares in the current market. And remember — you can check two bags on Southwest at no charge.

The deal, a £250 voucher toward a Club Med vacation at select resorts for £20, was available only through direct sales on the Groupon site. Club Med seemed unmoved by the travel agents’ complaints that they were cut out of the deal and described it to Travel Weekly as a test.

Groupon also recently announced a partnership with Expedia in the United States and Canada called Groupon Getaways. I just signed up for email alerts, but so far I can’t tell what is being or will be offered.

This could get interesting.

The fares are valid for travel Oct. 12 to Dec. 15, 2010 with Thanksgiving week blacked out. For many routes, availability is limited to certain days of the week, usually Tuesday and Wednesday. Although JetBlue will start flying Nov. 17 from Bradley International, no sale fares are offered for Bradley.

There are some decent fares from Boston and New York, however. For example, the $79 one-way fare between Boston and Fort Lauderdale comes out to $179 round trip when taxes and fees are added.

That’s $72.50 per person, per day, well below my bargain threshold of  $100. People living in the Northeast can skip the airfare, which makes the deal even sweeter.

This fare is available on the Norwegian Gem on Nov. 13, 20 and 27 and the Norwegian Jewel on Nov. 7, 14 and 21. The ships leave New York, spend a day at sea and then stop at Port Canaveral, Fla.; Great Stirrup Cay, Bahamas; and Nassau, Bahamas, before spending two days at sea on the return to New York.

Ocean view cabins are available at $715 per person and balcony cabins from $755 per person.

It’s a pretty good deal, but there are several restrictions. The offer is valid Sundays through Thursdays from Nov. 1, 2010 to Feb. 17, 2011, with the exceptions of Dec. 26 to 31 and Jan. 16.  Dormitory accommodations, which are the least expensive option, are excluded.

The package includes yoga sessions, enrichment classes and activities, accommodations, meals and full use of the facilities, including an awesomely huge whirlpool hot tub. The food is healthy and delicious.

My daughter and I took advantage of this offer last year. In between gentle yoga classes, meals and hot tub dips, I went snowshoeing and hiking. It all adds up to a terrific stress reliever, and I highly recommend it.

The offer is valid only for phone registrations, 800-741-7353.

The discount brings the one-way fare between Hartford and Washington down from $74 to $56, for example.

The sale is valid only for one-way coach fares bought at least 14 days in advance. Fares are non-refundable and can’t be combined with other discounts, although up two two children between the ages of 2 and 15 may accompany each adult at half the full adult fare. The offer is not available on Nov. 24, Nov. 28 or Dec. 26, 2010 or on Jan. 2, 2011.

All the details are available on the Amtrak Web site.

It looks like a pretty good deal to me, even though my last three Amtrak trips were late. I like train travel enough to deal with it.