We are getting ready for our annual family vacation. We’ve been taking one family vacation a year for the last 5 years. It’s a fun tradition for which we save up all year. Here are some ways we keep costs down and fun up.
Drive
Rock it old school family vacation style and load up the station wagon, or minivan, as the case may be. Sure, gas isn’t cheap but it’s way cheaper than buying a family’s worth of plane tickets.
Not only is it cheaper it’s also more fun to drive and see the sights together as a family. I find flying extremely stressful with kids. When we can, we try to save ourselves the hassle and vacation within a day’s drive of home.
Splurge on your space
It’s not everyday that you get to splurge and save money. But it can actually be cheaper to rent a condo than a hotel room if you make use of the full kitchen.
A bargain priced hotel room will cost you at least $50 and that’s if your family can fit into one traditional hotel room. Change that to a minimum of $100 if you have more than 4 people in your family. If you upgrade your accommodations to a small condo you will have more than just some extra space. You might have more money too!
We recently rented a two bedroom condo in a desirable location for $165 per night. We will save at least $80 per day by eating breakfast and dinner in our condo. That brings our actual hotel costs to $85 per night. I think if I really bargain hunted I might be able to get a hotel in this area for $65 per night. But I’d also have to add in a shuttle to our specific vacation spot, wifi, and parking. Those costs would bring the true cost of the hotel up to $95 per night. And don’t forget. We are going to be much more comfortable in our condo. We can spread out. The kids don’t have to share a bed. We can watch TV while sitting in actual chairs. The list goes on and on.
The drawback here is that I have to cook. But I bring super quick and easy meals with us to make things, well, quick and easy. You can maximize the savings by having lunch at the condo too, but I like to eat out some. We are on vacation after all!
Hit the off season
You can maximize your fun and travel dollars by traveling in the off season. The same condo we rented above costs $225 per night during peak season. The sweet spot is the first week of off season. The prices and crowds will be lower but most of the attractions will still be open. I hate crowds. I’d rather miss a few shops and restaurants than to pay extra to stand in line.
What are your money saving vacation tips?
Hello and welcome to Enemy of Debt! I 
yea the off season is a biggie..
just by going a couple months early or late can halve your holiday bill..
My best advice is to do your research. I’ve learned so many tips and tricks about places we’ve visited by checking them out online. Biggest example was learning how to get the dining plan for free at Disney, but I’ve always saved a little just by checking around. (FYI Disney sometimes offers the dining plan for free in the off season.) Not just their sites, but travel sites about the area and for bigger places, fan forums.
The second thing is to make a plan. Many restaurants publish their menues and many tourist places publish their maps. By figuring out ahead of time a general plan, you won’t waste a minute of your vacation trying to plan it on the fly.
We found a great way to save (and also explore!) on our vacation to Hawaii last year was to venture away from hotels and tourist traps at meal times and find hidden gems in the local communities. The best meal we had there was a plate of BBQ at a little place by the side of the road and the fresh bagel breakfast in a local community was far superior to the overpriced/mediocre breakfast buffet. We literally saved hundreds of dollars over our last vacation just by substituting half our meals this way. The experiences we found that we couldn’t have even planned for were priceless.
Reading this just reminded me how bad I need a vacation!
Another great tip to possibly save money is to keep in touch with friends/family who live in the area you want to visit. You might be able to switch/trade homes and not have to pay anything at all for lodging (there are also services that let you do this with strangers- if you’re a risk taker).
One of my mentors has done this every year for the past 20 years with his brother who lives in Hawaii. Of course, I’ve tried to get him to let me talk to his brother…but he never seems to remember his brother’s email or phone number when I ask. Hmmm…
Haha! We need a vacation too and Hawaii would rock! I couldn’t help but smile when I read your comment because my wife and I have something up our sleeve and Hawaii is in the cross-hairs!
Use those miles/points you’ve been accumulating!
By using our credit card for everything possible, we earn enough Aeroplan (Air Canada) points for the four of us to fly to Europe every second year. Airmiles points can be redeemed for hotel and restaurant gift cards. This summer we took two trips closer to home. We did 9 days to New Orleans with a 5 day cruise in the middle: Free flights on points and $229ea for the cruise. Then we all flew to San Fransisco for a week (free flights again) and stayed 5 nights (free on Holiday Inn points my husband earned for work travel) in a room that would have cost us $269/night. Our hotel included a generous breakfast so our expenses were only lunches, dinners, and admission fees. By searching online in advance I was able to get coupons for discounts at many of the sites we wanted to see, we often hit a grocery store and picniced at lunch, and the car rental to drive down the coast to Monterey was done at a discount because my husband uses that company for all his work travel. Use whatever discounts or points you have access to! Anything we actually had to pay on both of these trips for was of course put on the credit card which earned us flight miles for our trip to France this summer.
Other suggestions: take refillable water bottles (you save a ton if you never have to pay for drinks in a hot climate); take zip lock bags (great for picnicking or repackaging snacks bought in bulk). Check out Restaurants.com for gifts cards at a discount. If you know where you’ll be for at least some of your meals this can really cut down the food costs. Get a hotel room with a fridge or even better a microwave when possible – if your hotel doesn’t include breakfast you can get yogurt, juice, milk and those individual mini cereal boxes; pick up buns, deli meat and cheese to make sandwiches before you head out sightseeing. When you do eat in a restaurant you’ll have somewhere to keep that doggy bag (so your teenaged son can eat it as a bedtime snack…)
I guess that’s one way to save money but the reality of it is that most airline miles etc never get redeemed. My wife and I do not own any credit cards and we are probably more likely to get struck by lightning than to have credit cards in the future. Not mad at people who choose to use them but we just don’t see the point. We earn rewards on our Perkstreet Debit cards and that is good enough for us.
Searching for online coupons and discounts is a great way to save on vacations. Thanks for sharing such great tips!
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One way my family saved money on our vacations was by traveling to areas where we had family or friends already living and staying with them rather than having to pay for hotels. This may not be possible for everyone, but it’s a great option to look into.