You are joining Pocket Your Dollars reader, Brandy, as she shares her best tips for vacationing without breaking the bank. Read Part 1 of this series here.
Be flexible on travel dates. Once by going Sunday through Tuesday, instead of Thursday through Saturday, we saved over $200 on our hotel. Traveling off-season cuts prices drastically, but a family can’t always be that flexible.
When choosing a hotel, look for reviews at tripadvisor.com. It allows past guests of the hotel to enter in impartial reviews of their stay and then ranks the hotels for that area. Our family has found this really helpful. I don’t want to stay at a place that’s cheap, but has a pest problem.
Our family also looks at the amenities of the hotels. Does the hotel offer a kitchenette? Free breakfast? It’s worth an extra $10/ night if you can save $30/ day. If the room has at least a microwave and fridge, you can make your own breakfast, store some drinks from home, make microwave meals.
Use the amenities of the hotel. One of the hotels we stayed at offered a scavenger hunt for the kids & gave them a free prize if they completed it. That was 2 hours of free entertainment!
Bring your own snacks. Whether you bring snacks from home or stock up when you arrive by stopping at the nearest grocery store, use your own. The hotel vending machines charge $1 for a candy bar and $1.50 for microwave popcorn. Buy the candy bars at 3/$1 when on sale at Walgreens and you can get a 3-4 pak of popcorn for $1. Pick up a small bottle of milk at a convienence store and buy a box of cereal, make instant oatmeal, or bagels and cream cheese for breakfast.
Bringing your own snacks also cuts down on the snack bill when traveling or sightseeing. It cuts down on the “Mom, can we stop. I’m hungry.” during a long car ride. Plus, you have more control over the nutrition value. I let my kids choose 2-3 snack items from a box before we head out for the day. They control what they choose to eat, but I control what goes in the box.
Stay tuned for more specifics this week on how their family’s trip to Disney World.
Your turn: Brandy would love to hear what your family does to save money on travel. I’m always in the mood to hear more helpful hints.
This site, “Vacation Rentals by Owner,” offers vacation rental homes world wide. The homes are rented by owner, and therefore are quite inexpensive for what a renter gets. My brother-in-law negotiated a deal with the owners on a cabin up north (Minnesota) that provided a six night, seven day stay for $500 because there was an odd week before the fourth of July. Our two families were able to stay in a wonderful cabin that slept 8 people for $250 per family!
Please change the above post to include http://www.vrbo.com, not as my website, but the website about which I am writing. I can’t figure out how to do it. Thanks Carrie!
Our family has gone to Wisconsin Dells the past couple of years and we’ve gotten a great deal. We went off-peak and went Wed.-Fri. We split a 3 bedroom condo with full kitchen, dining, living room and four season porch with a hot tub with two other families. We paid $180 for our whole stay. This included all of our admission to their large three indoor waterparks and dry indoor playland. We brought all of our own food and hardly spent any money other than the $180. We stayed at the Wilderness Resort. http://www.wildernessresort.com/
When cruising with your family, all your food is prepaid for. Bring foldable lunch bags and ziplocks. order food from room service ahead of time or get food from buffet and make a bag lunch. After all you already paid for it use it. Great for when you leave the ship!