AddThis
What's She Sayin'?
What You're Sayin'?
She's Feelin' Da Luv
Blog Archive
Thursday, July 10, 2008
Thrifty Thursday: Vacation On A Budget
We are planning our summer trip and it's been a challenge. Nothing is cheap anymore and when you multiply that 4x, one basically needs a small fortune to be able to go anywhere for an extended period of time. A trip from the living room to the kitchen begins to look like the best deal around. HA! Poor joke, I know.
Despite the soaring costs of gas, food, travel and everything else there are a few tricks you can use to get some deals. Here are what I find works for us.
Finding a Destination:
Sign up with a place like Travelocity. If you're at a loss for where the cheapest places to go are, a deal-hunters like Travelocity can be a good place to start. AAA also gives lots of discounts on attractions and accommodations, so travel in the directions of the savings.
Accommodations:
Many of these deals on Travelocity include airfare, hotel accommodations and car rental. Packaged set-ups are particularly ideal if you are going to popular places. You'll get greater savings in packages than if you were to try to organize each separately. Furthermore, once you land at your destination it's already been laid out for you how to get from the airport to the car rental to your hotel.
If you are vacationing with a large crowd for an extended period of time renting a condominium or home might be to your advantage. When my relatives from Europe visit they always rent homes and if you have others chipping in this can provide super savings. I've seen a monthly rental on a 4 bedroom home for $800-$1000. Each room had 2 full size beds. The added plus is that you have a kitchen (savings on foods!) and some homes even have pools.
When to Go:
Airline:If you plan your trip in the off times you can cut costs. I've worked in the hospitality industry a number of years. In the off season the service industry will do ANYTHING for business. If you are flexible to fly on Tuesday, Wednesday or Thursday and return on one of those days you will benefit. These are the slowest travel days of the week. Flying in the early morning or late night also bring down the prices.
Hotels: Call the hotels to find out when are their peaks and lulls. Don't be afraid to bargain for prices in their off season. They want their rooms filled so they may give you what you ask for. Take advantage of their slow business to get upgrades in room accommodations. A lot of hotels let children stay for free or only charge half the cost of adults.
Car Rentals: Weekends tend to be slow in rentals. Seems strange doesn't it but it's true. When I used to work at Enterprise Rent A Car as a branch manager we had a program where customers would receive 50% of the daily rate up to a full size car on weekends. I don't know if they still offer that program, but I'm sure they offer some sort of discount on weekend rentals. Again, don't be afraid to bargain and ask for upgrades.
**Comparison shop too! Tell the hotel or rental car company that their competitor is offering a better deal. Often they will meet or beat their competitor.**
Eating on a Budget:
Again, AAA provides discounts on restaurants. Of course, if you go to Restaurant.com you can get savings on gift certificates to eat at restaurants all around the country. We try to pack lunches when we can.
Saving on attractions:
Once again use AAA to your advantage. Buy your tickets months in advance. Prices are subject to change in these industries so if you buy them months before, you'll get the savings (This holds true for hotels & car rental as well). If you frequent a particular attraction (ie. Disney) join their "clubs" or programs. If you are fortunate to live in the state where the attraction is, often there are savings for residents. Take advantage of these savings and when they promote them.
If you are looking for good websites that help with saving on family travels check out these sites:
familytravelnetwork.com
family.com
familytravelforum.com
If you have any tips and tricks on what you do to save on traveling please share.
Looking for gifts, apparels and novelties with a green theme? Check us out at
Sha~Dou!
Despite the soaring costs of gas, food, travel and everything else there are a few tricks you can use to get some deals. Here are what I find works for us.
Finding a Destination:
Sign up with a place like Travelocity. If you're at a loss for where the cheapest places to go are, a deal-hunters like Travelocity can be a good place to start. AAA also gives lots of discounts on attractions and accommodations, so travel in the directions of the savings.
Accommodations:
Many of these deals on Travelocity include airfare, hotel accommodations and car rental. Packaged set-ups are particularly ideal if you are going to popular places. You'll get greater savings in packages than if you were to try to organize each separately. Furthermore, once you land at your destination it's already been laid out for you how to get from the airport to the car rental to your hotel.
If you are vacationing with a large crowd for an extended period of time renting a condominium or home might be to your advantage. When my relatives from Europe visit they always rent homes and if you have others chipping in this can provide super savings. I've seen a monthly rental on a 4 bedroom home for $800-$1000. Each room had 2 full size beds. The added plus is that you have a kitchen (savings on foods!) and some homes even have pools.
When to Go:
Airline:If you plan your trip in the off times you can cut costs. I've worked in the hospitality industry a number of years. In the off season the service industry will do ANYTHING for business. If you are flexible to fly on Tuesday, Wednesday or Thursday and return on one of those days you will benefit. These are the slowest travel days of the week. Flying in the early morning or late night also bring down the prices.
Hotels: Call the hotels to find out when are their peaks and lulls. Don't be afraid to bargain for prices in their off season. They want their rooms filled so they may give you what you ask for. Take advantage of their slow business to get upgrades in room accommodations. A lot of hotels let children stay for free or only charge half the cost of adults.
Car Rentals: Weekends tend to be slow in rentals. Seems strange doesn't it but it's true. When I used to work at Enterprise Rent A Car as a branch manager we had a program where customers would receive 50% of the daily rate up to a full size car on weekends. I don't know if they still offer that program, but I'm sure they offer some sort of discount on weekend rentals. Again, don't be afraid to bargain and ask for upgrades.
**Comparison shop too! Tell the hotel or rental car company that their competitor is offering a better deal. Often they will meet or beat their competitor.**
Eating on a Budget:
Again, AAA provides discounts on restaurants. Of course, if you go to Restaurant.com you can get savings on gift certificates to eat at restaurants all around the country. We try to pack lunches when we can.
Saving on attractions:
Once again use AAA to your advantage. Buy your tickets months in advance. Prices are subject to change in these industries so if you buy them months before, you'll get the savings (This holds true for hotels & car rental as well). If you frequent a particular attraction (ie. Disney) join their "clubs" or programs. If you are fortunate to live in the state where the attraction is, often there are savings for residents. Take advantage of these savings and when they promote them.
If you are looking for good websites that help with saving on family travels check out these sites:
familytravelnetwork.com
family.com
familytravelforum.com
If you have any tips and tricks on what you do to save on traveling please share.
Looking for gifts, apparels and novelties with a green theme? Check us out at
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
7 comments:
This is really a great help! We want to go to Puerto Rico one of these summers. My husband's family has a home for relatives when they come to visit so, that is not a problem. But the plane tickets are the problem! We have a family of six! So thanks for the tips, much appreciated!
Getting a vacation rental home can sometimes be so much cheaper than a hotel. We've gone in with extended family on a cabin and shared the cooking duties,which saves money and is lots of fun.
A lot of my friends are renting condos and homes for their vacations this summer and say they're not only saving money but having a MUCH more relaxing trip. We want to go to the beach (somewhere lol) next summer and I definitely want to look into that for us.
This was a great post! Very helpful!
Interesting that you should mention enterprise. I just looked at their rates recently for an after summer trip and was pleasantly surprised.
It is painful how expensive it is to travel these days so great tips! I haven't heard of any of those Web sites so I'll make sure to check them out!
Wonderful information!! I recently got a gift certificate in from Restaurant.com... It's just amazing!!
The newest kind of vacation is the STAYCATION. We'll be doing that this year and camping in our state a few hours north.
Triple A is the best! Do you use yours for store purchases at home too? I do!