Would you like some awesome tips on how to travel cheap? I promise, by the end of this post you will be a pro at saving money on travel – BIG time. Below you will find all tips, tricks and hacks you need to keep your wallet happy.
TIP # 1 How to travel cheap – How to Pay
“What’s in your wallet?” – I bet you heard this punch line a million times on TV and radio. And there is a good reason for that. Your travel on a budget starts not when you decide how much to pay but HOW to pay. Choosing the right credit card is key to saving a lot of money on travel. There are 2 legitimate strategies for choosing the right credit card for your major expenses that in the end will help you to travel cheap:
Strategy # 1: Open a new card for each specific travel need. How to do that? Choose the best signing bonus points offers available at the time by an airline or hotel branded credit card (ex. 50,000 bonus miles after spending X in Y amount of months). Open that card, spend the required $$ amount in the required time, get the bonus points and use those points to buy the airline ticket or a hotel stay (essentially fully or partially free of charge), then close the card after 1 year and wait for a new great card offer for your next travel.
PROs: bonus points are essentially free money, what’s not to like? This is a great way to travel on a budget.
CONs: 1. Such credit cards typically have annual fees, $100 on average. So to really save money, the bonus you are getting form the card should be more than the annual fee in dollar value. That’s precisely is the reason why you will need to close the card after 1 year so that you do not incur the 2nd year fee (there are no more bonus points for the 2nd year)
2. You need to keep on top of things all the time: if you have several cards open at the same time you need to remember when to close each one of them.
Strategy # 2: open a hotel or airline credit card and use it all the time to collect loyalty points that later convert into free travel options. Choose a card that does not have a yearly fee and put all your regular expenses on it. You will be getting points for every dollar you spend plus for every mile you fly with that airline and night you stay at that hotel.
PROs: 1.no annual fee, no hassle of opening and closing cards all the time
2. Loyalty points not only translate into free nights or free flights but also other free perks once your loyalty level grows. For example, with Hilton Hotels you start as a “Blue” member – not many perks at that level. The more you spend on your card, the quicker you move to the new level of membership: Silver, Gold, Diamond. “Gold” level membership gives you free breakfast for 2, free snacks and water upon arrival in addition to better rooms. On top of that, the higher the level of membership the more “extra” points you get for every stay (extra 10%, 15%, 20%) To maintain a certain level of membership you need to spend a certain amount of money per year (but all your everyday purchases on that credit card count towards that limit, not just hotel purchases, so typically it is easily attainable)
CONs: you do not get big free signing bonus with these loyalty cards.
So how do WE travel cheap? We chose the second strategy. I vote for long term relationships rather than short term flings.
TIP # 2 How to travel cheap – When to Buy
WHEN TO PURCHASE your travel package is as important as HOW to pay for it if you really want to save money on travel. If you were single with no strings attached the best strategy would be to open Expedia website and book whatever vacation is on huge sale at that moment in time. But if you are reading this blog, chances are you have a family with kids and all your travel plans are tied to school breaks. You cannot just hop on a plane and fly now.
In such case the best strategy to travel cheap is to book as far in advance as possible, up to a year even. Basic economy (aka cheapest) tickets for air travel sell out first. These days the closer you get to the travel date the more expensive the tickets become.
Hotels also reward you for booking early. Hilton Hotels, for example, offer 15% discount bonus for early booking.
Do you have a dream vacation in mind you have been fantasizing about for years? To make it become a reality, stop wasting time on just fantasies and start taking action now. Start monitoring prices for that destination throughout the year. When are the tickets most expensive? When do they go on sale? The pricing in tourism industry is cyclical and you will pretty much start recognizing the same pattern, year after year. Thus, you will be able to save money on travel.
Here is an example. The first time we went on a cruise to Alaska in 2009. Since then I always wanted to go back. I have been receiving promotional mail from that cruise company on a regular basis (once you are on their radar they will never leave you alone) and I noticed that Alaska cruises typically go on sale end of February – beginning of March for mid-May – mid-September travel window of that year. If you don’t mind what cabin you are going to get, as long as all your family fits in it, that’s the time to buy and travel really cheap. If you want a very specific cabin, yes, you do have to book it a year in advance – but this post is not about the best cruise cabins but about saving money on travel – BIG time.
TIP # 3 How to travel cheap – When to Travel
WHEN TO TRAVEL is equally important as when to book that travel. It is common knowledge that you should avoid flying back on a Sunday (unless you have an official holiday Monday after it, then that Monday will be the most expensive day to travel). And never travel on a Sunday after Thanksgiving – it the worst day ever, period. Being flexible just by 1 day may save you hundreds of dollars.
If you are going to an extremely popular destination for festivals and conventions be mindful of those and check events calendar for that location before you book. Your travel plans should not coincide with major crowd gatherings unless you want to pay double the regular price for hotel rooms.
For example, Palm Springs is a NO-GO during Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival (middle of April); Napa Valley is a disaster during the BottleRock Festival (Memorial Day weekend) and Las Vegas has the highest convention numbers and thus the highest room occupancy in March and April. Even your Disneyland vacation can be affected by conventions – there is a huge Hilton Convention Center in Anaheim, literally next door to Disneyland Resort. When big players are in town hotel prices in Anaheim go up exponentially.
You can simply call a visitor’s bureau for in the city where you are travelling and ask them when big conventions are in town and that easy phone call will save you significant money on travel expenses.
TIP # 4 How to travel cheap – How to Travel
Now let’s talk about HOW TO TRAVEL. Can you pack in such a way so that you don’t have to pay for baggage fees on your flight? Can you make do with just a hand luggage? Do all members of your family absolutely have to sit next to each other on a plane? These days I often see teenage siblings sitting away from their parents, who saved money on not pre-selecting their seats in advance.
Do you really have to fly or may be you can take an extended road trip? Make the process of getting there as exciting as the destination. Plan frequent stops, see attractions along the way and save several hundred dollars on airline tickets in the process. My blog has dozens of road trip itineraries laid out for you and I strongly believe that good old family road trip is the best way to travel cheap.
If you have a smaller vehicle, consider modifying it with a rooftop cargo carrier to allow you extra packing space and a little more comfort inside the vehicle. Doing so will help you save money by not having to rent or buy gear along the way
TIP # 5 How to travel cheap – Discounts of Attractions
Tickets to LOCAL ATTRACTIONS constitute a fair portion of your travel budget (especially if , like us, you require 4 tickets for everything) so you need a plan how to save on those.
If you you have AAA Insurance, you can get discounts on certain attractions but note that the discounted tickets for those attractions might need to be bought at your local AAA agent before you travel. If you don’t have AAA Insurance you may want to consider getting one because some hotels provide discounts for AAA members too. I believe it is 10% discount at Best Western and 10% at Hilton Hotels too, for instance.
Make use of discounted tickets bundles available through such services as Discover and GO Pass or CityPass – you can get discounts up to 40-45% on regular ticket prices! But don’t think that these discount bundles are just for tourists. You may use them locally, if they are available in your home town. For instance, if you live in San Francisco you can by a 3-attractions pass for just $62 per adult/$54 per child, which is valid for 9 days. You can plan it out so that it lasts from Saturday to the next Sunday and thus you will have 4 weekend days to hit the chosen 3 attractions at 32% discount!
Consider getting a membership at your local a zoo, aquarium or a science museum that is a member of either AZA (Association of Zoos and Aquariums) or ASTC (Association of Science and Technology Centers). Members get reciprocal discounts at other association members’ locations. For instance, if you have family membership at Oakland zoo you get 100% off admission at Santa Barbara Zoo (aka a FREE tickets for entire family).
If you are located in San Francisco Bay Area I have excellent news for you: CuriOdissey is a member of BOTH AZA and ASTC so if you get their membership you can get discounts at participating zoos, aquariums AND science museums!
If you have a 4th grader in the family this is the best time to visit all U.S. National Parks FREE OF CHARGE. Just get an Every Kid in a Park pass before you travel.
Finally, consider visiting some FREE attractions off the beaten path instead of overcrowded overpriced ones. I am currently tirelessly working on lists of great free attractions in major U.S. cities – stay tuned!
TIP # 6 How to travel cheap – Does Costco Save You Money?
A question that I very often hear is: does Costco save you money on travel? I purposefully researched many websites and many travel expert opinions and the answer is: NOT ALWAYS. So basically we cannot universally say that if you book your travel package through Costco you will always save money. For some packages you may, for some you may not. For instance, Costco usually tend to offer best priced theme park packages (Universal Studios, Disney World, etc.) but not for rental cars as its choices are very limited.
So in that respect it is no different than, say, Expedia where sometimes you can get a great deal and sometimes – not so much. It is definitely and option to add to your list of things to check before booking a trip but I would not rely entirely on it.
TIP # 7 How to travel cheap – Avoid Fees
Avoid unnecessary fees. Does your credit card already provide insurance coverage if you book you rental car with it?
Do you plan book a cheaper hotel room but in a place that charges a resort fee vs a little more expensive room with no resort fee? Did you check if kids are staying free at the chosen resort or you’ll have to pay extra for the room?
If you are travelling abroad choose the credit card with the lowest foreign transactions fees. Also if you are travelling abroad, it is worthwhile to take a trip when U.S. dollar is strong vs. the local currency. Once we traveled to Canada when U.S. dollar was weak against Canadian dollar – we had to pay $45 for a medium size pizza!! Lesson learnt the hard way…
TIP # 8 How to travel cheap – Food and Drinks
Save money on food and drinks. We always choose hotels that have a mini-kitchen with a fridge and a microwave. That way we can buy some items in the grocery store and keep the in the fridge and also bring leftover food from restaurants, store it and re-heat it the next day for a quick lunch.
We also try to choose hotels with free breakfasts. Once we have earned “Gold” membership status with Hilton we get free breakfast at any of their hotels, not just the ones where breakfast is free for everybody.
TIP # 9 How to travel cheap – More Tips
Have you ever considered travelling by a motor home or an RV in order to save money on airplane tickets and hotels? Check out this article about motorhome rentals in California.
Not all these strategies will work all the time but most of them will. The most important thing for saving money on travel is being organized. Plan in advance, do thorough research and keep track of your expenses. And if it is hard to do on your own you always have Family Road Trip Guru where all itineraries are already pre-selected and pre-approved by me for being budget and family friendly.
Check out these additional ideas on affordable travel from a fellow travel blogger.
If you found this information on how to travel cheap useful, please, share it with other as it may help them with planning their budget travel too. Do you have your own tips on how to save money on travel? Please, share them in the comments below!
If you found these tips on how to travel cheap useful, please, share it with others as there is a high chance they might find them helpful too.Don’t forget to follow me on Instagram where I post many more cool photos and videos about our trips than I could include in a blog post and organize some nice giveaways!
