Travel Planning
We get asked all the time "How did you find this place?" or "How do you plan trips?" I wanted to add a page on how we go about finding places and things to do. Vacation or family time doesn't have to be Hawaii, Disney or any place that is going to break the bank. I have nothing against the top tourist destinations. We love Disney and tropical places but that doesn't mean we want to go into debt to have a good time. You don't always need to go away for 7, 10 or 14 days. A long weekend is sometimes just as fun. We personally like to take more frequent smaller trips. We budget, plan and really try to keep costs down whenever we can. We are not rich, we are average people who rather go on trips than buy the latest gadgets. Remember the main point of all this is spending time connecting with your family, your children and spouse.
Peak vs. Non Peak Travel
What ever your reason for getting away with your family, you need a starting point. You need to figure out when you want to go. Is it peak season for that area? Peak travel times are when prices are most expensive. During peak travel everything costs more money. Food, souvenirs, hotel and airfare are all more expensive. Typically, popular destinations in the US are busiest in the summer. Summer time in most places is considered peak travel and you can expect to pay more money. This is not true for all places though. Example is ski resorts and snow tubing, they will be busiest in the winter. Of course, there isn't snow in the summer. If you want to go to Disney, the summer time is the busiest time to go. You will pay more money. Disney is also the master of peak and off peak travel, they have a calendar years of peak and non peak travel on their website. The same principle applies to most popular vacation spots. It is best to do some research on the area you want to go to what is peak travel for that area.
The key to saving money on trips is being flexible. Yes, with children you don't want them to miss too many days during school, I get that. Life like anything needs balance. Is there any benefit for your kid getting perfect attendance? Would it really make or break the year if your kid misses 2 days from school? How important is it to build memories or experience the world, instead of just reading about these places? This mindset coupled with saving money can make a 2 days non peak travel possible. The difference in hotel prices , airfare and activities can be a drastic difference in most places. Maybe instead of going away for winter break, you wait a few weeks and take a long weekend off instead. You will save money and most likely your boss won't mind giving you off during that off peak time. Your boss is happy, your kids are happy ( Yea, no school), you save money and there is no crowds. Multiple win-wins, you are a hero. Key to saving money Be Flexible.
Planning Your Trip
Planning means exactly that. Being prepared and making a plan to have a successful trip. Above we learned about being flexible to save money. Now we have to do our research on where you want to go. Is it peak travel time? How long do you want to go? What is your budget? Do you want to Travel on the cheap or Go all out? I always recommend, travel on the cheap. That is what I prefer and I really like to get the most bang for my buck.
I encourage you all to look around your state. How far is your neighbor state? We live in Jersey there are many states around us with plenty to do. For quick getaways we look into destinations within 3 to 5 hours drive from our home. Driving 3-5 hours is no big deal and can be a pretty decent 4 day weekend. In 3.5 hours we can be in DC. In 2 hours we can be at Legoland NY. In 3 hours we can be in Hersey, PA. Exploring your state and neighbor states you can discover all kinds of fun things to do. You can plan a day trip. Weekend trip or a 4 day weekend. You can control your expenses pretty well and keep cost down traveling to nearby destinations. You don't have to go to a tropical place to make memories. The more you get out there, the more memories you make. Your kids won't remember how much money you spent to go to this zoo 2 hours away, they will remember how much fun they had. They will remember the awesome trips you went on.
I don't mind driving so, we often take road trips. When planning for a trip, I like to turn to Google and Google Maps. I open up Maps and I zoom into what ever state I feel like going. "Hey what's this town? What do they have there? " Zoom in look around. What that look it up in Google, "Hey it's a museum, Oh look the world's largest collection of Hot Wheels, cool." Destination found. This is my target destination. I want to plan a trip around this location. I want to know are there other things to do in this town? Am I going to a neighbor town? I start mapping my drive to that area. How many hours is the drive? What rest stops/ break points are on the way? What roads will I drive on? What is on the way? "Oh look there's a national park, on the way." Jot that down, in my notebook as a possible stop. I zoom in the map and out of the map. I see funny name of a location, I look it up on Google to see what it is. If it sounds interesting , I jot it down in my handy dandy notebook as a possible stop. I have my destination picked and a few possible locations to visit. This is exactly how we plan road trips, getting a list of possible locations and activities and plan around that.
For road trips, after I have selected my location, I start shopping around for hotel rooms. I use multiple travel sites to compare room rates and dates of stay. Remember, being flexible with your days or weeks can save you big money. I will check room rates on multiple site and use different dates. I jot the best prices down , then I will call the hotel and ask them for their rates. Sounds counter productive, but hear me out, Hotels sell blocks of stays at a discounted price. Sometimes, their own rates non peak are cheaper than the websites. Once I see what the best room rates are for the days I selected, I will book the room. Here's a tip make sure there is free cancelation or at least understand the terms of canceling. Each website and hotel has different rules for canceling. You want to know how to cancel , in the event you find a better price later. You want to take advantage of that price difference. You can't always do this, some sites want payment up front, those are a hassle to get refunded. If you book through the hotel itself and just reserve your room and don't pay for it upfront, then you can take advantage of this swing rates. I recommend shopping around at least a month before you go. The week leading up to your trip check out those sites again. If you find a dramatic difference in price then book it, and then cancel your reserved room. Print out your confirmation proof. Another thing to pay attention to in regards to booking rooms on websites, read the small print. You may have to pay "fees" once to check in. Some places charge booking fee, taxes and even parking. You want to know that before you go.
If I am flying, I take note of the room rates and then I shop around for airfare. Same rules applies, be flexible with your dates. A day or two from your projected date can save you big money. I keep a list of dates and rates per airline. Also if you live close to multiple airports, I would check each airport and different dates. You will be surprised at the prices differences. Keep in mind though if you choose a further airport you want to factor in parking cost, gas and tolls. I would not fly out of a farther airport to save $50 bucks total. If it were $50 x 4 , then it makes sense you will probably save money. While we are on the subject of airlines and cheap tickets, book a few months out. At least 2 to 3 months out. Do not book right away. Depending on the days you look up prices can fluctuate. Days of the week and times you search make a difference. Wednesdays prices are cheaper than Friday prices. I don't know why but they are. I would suggest 2 to 3 month before booking you check rates everyday for a week. Early mornings are better than evenings. If you look one day and the next day it is dramatically cheaper, then book it. I would not look for tickets further than 3 to 6 months. Airlines change flights all the time. At times airlines booking flights more than 6 months out, you will be paying full freight. Also when looking at the cheapest flights look at the price of trip to and from. Sometimes the return flight is a lot more expensive. Sometimes adjusting that dates will save you a few bucks. When flying you need to factor in parking at the airport it is not cheap. There are other options to parking at the airport. If it is a busy airport there is usually off site parking and you get shuttled to the airport. That does have its advantages, but I will generally pay the extra money to park at the airport, less hassle. You have your airline rates, your days are picked to fly. Now look at the hotel rates for the days you want. Follow the steps above. IF the rates are ok and your good with it, book your airline tickets. Then book your hotel. The reasoning behind this is so you don't get stuck with a room and no way to get there. Airline rates normally do not go down the closer you get. You will want to buy your checked baggage as early as possible to avoid higher rates at the airline. Also if you are traveling with your family you will want to select your seat, they charge you extra for this. Most airlines have bundle plans, that is the cheapest option you can select. It includes your checked bags, carry-on's, seat selection and sometimes a bonus feature. Trust me, the bundle is cheaper than buy it separate or trying to piece it together. If you are flying solo, just pay for a checked bag and sit where ever they put you. You will save a few bucks that way.
Plan Your Days
Hotel and airfare done, that's it right? Not so fast, there is more to planning a trip than booking tickets. Above I jotted down on my handy dandy notebook , a few places that I would consider visiting. The museum was the reason I chose to go there. This is the RECON part of trip planning. Check out their website, you want to know what is the best day to go during your trip. Times they are open and closing . What is the cost of the tickets. Is it cheaper to buy it online or at the door? Are their coupons? You want bring up the place in Maps, and see what else is in walking distance. Is there food there or nearby? What kind of souvenirs are in the shop? Are they expensive? I like to know before I go there, because I'm not paying $20 for a stuffed animal that's 4 inches tall. I have a hack for that exact thing below. You want to know all you can about the place you picked. Sure, it spoils your fun a bit. You want to make sure that it will be fun for your family. Also that it will be worth the price of admission. Bigger doesn't always mean better. We have been to lots of smaller places that the kids have spent hours in. Before buying any tickets, check for online coupons. Groupon is a good place to see if tickets are cheaper. Sometimes they sell group tickets for 4, cheaper than at the door. They used to sell these mommy coupon books at schools, they were an awesome resource for trips and deals. If there is no difference or savings buying online , wait until you get there. Keep in mind you have to budget for those tickets. When you get to your destination, check in the hotel lobby. Often times they have racks of cards from local attractions, with coupons on them. You can also ask the desk at the hotel, sometimes they have discount tickets for different attractions.
Map out places you might want to eat, check out menu online and prices. To get an idea of how much food will run you, so you can plan accordingly. Does your room have a mini kitchen? Fridge? Plan on going to store day one, to pick up snacks , water bottles, and juice boxes at the very least. Remember you can get a case of water for $5 or pay $3 bucks a bottle at the attraction. Also if you have a microwave, you can take left overs back to the room and eat them later. Or foods you can heat up in the room if you need to save some money. When planning meals and budgeting. I usually plan on a big breakfast. Hotels that include breakfast this is a big savings for you. Depending on where we are, I will pack snacks to munch on during the day. We plan for a early dinner. Kids will be really tired after dinner it is best not to have to many night activities planned. Remember plan breaks so kids can rest, or you will not have a good time walking around with cranky pants.
This seems like a lot of planning , but I know many families that go blindly on a trip to realize they didn't budget enough. When I make a list of things I want to see, I am pretty good at estimating how much time I will be in a place. I try to budget my time to see as much as I can with as little stress as possible. I want to enjoy my trip and not rush. Planning meals and breaks into your trip is key to having a good trip. This is where your planning will pay off. If you already know that the site has $20 grill cheese, then you might want to walk to the restaurant down the road. Budget your time to do that. It's always ok to leave a place and go back later. Most places will allow you to come in and out during the same day. You will also want to check the sites policies on bringing your own drinks or snacks. Some places don't allow outside food or drinks. Guess how much water costs there? Either you will buy water there or take breaks and walk to the store down the street, where it is a dollar. Sometimes you get lucky and there will be a street vendor selling ice cold water for a buck. Pay attention to those street vendors and road side food. Street tacos sometimes are way better and cheaper than museum food.
If your destination is a popular tourist attraction look into tours. Tours are the best way to see the sights and get acclimated to the area. My favorite types of tours are hop on and hop off tours. These tours are usually on a bus or trolley. They pick you up at a start point and drive a route that you can get on and off. Great way to see lots of things in one day. You won't be able to do everything on a hop on/off tour, but you can pick out a few places that you will want to come back to later. You want to make the most of the hop on/off part. Don't get hung up in one area. You can come back to that area after the tour or another day. Hop on/off tours often give you a history on each location, what you can expect to find and how popular certain areas are. They also tell you the stop number, very important to find your way back to the correct stop. What I like to do is get off at each stop, check out the sights and get back on. It is possible to walk to the next pick up location, keep that map handy. If you get to the end of the tour and have a hour or so left. You can always ride the trolley all the way around to listen to all the snippets of history and rest your legs. There are many other types of tours also. Some places have Segway tours, bike tours, e scooter tours, etc. All these kind of tours offer different things. Yes, you can find coupons for that. Check Groupon.
Souvenirs
Souvenirs. You or your family will most likely want to buy a memento to remember your trip forever. That fine, it's nice to have small mementos. That not what happens normally. Every gift shop is chuck full of junk. Seriously, yes the stuffed animals are cute. They are junk though. They take up space, played with for a day or two and then collects dust for the next few years. Yes, that huge Epcot globe, its just a dust magnet. The whole point of this blog is to make memories on the cheap. Buying over priced collectables is not cheap. Knowing what those shops carry ahead of time will save you money. Yes, I let my kids pick out one thing from time to time. More times than not I have a plan. If we are going somewhere that has many gift shops, I teach my kids to wait. Look through the shops, if you see an item you like, make a mental note. Actually we tell our kids "take a picture with your eyes!" I have them blink and make camera snap noise. To make a note I like this toy. Then we go through the day and at the end of the day, if they see something they really want like a toy, we will go back and buy just that. If all I see is junk my kids won't play with, like stuffed animal. I use this trick " Hey, this is really expensive, how about we go to Walmart and you can pick out a souvenir there?" Then when we get to Walmart, I give them $10 limit. Yes, its a cheap trick but it's saved me multiple times from buying over priced stuffed animals. Plus they will most likely play with that $10 toy over and over again.
Parents also like to remember their trips. I recommend going with inexpensive and small items that can be stored away in a box, a memories box or a display. If you buy hats and shirts everywhere you go, your going to have a lot of shirts you never wear and hats collecting dust. That's not very memorable. My family looks out for 3 things when we travel. Everywhere we go we look for these three things kind of like a scavenger hunt. We get really excited when we find these items : Item #1 Postcard, are really hard to find. No one buys these things anymore. Nothing says memory better than a postcard. We have collected so many postcards we decided to have a display in our home, every time we go somewhere new we put up a new postcard and take down an old one. The result is a show piece and talking point when friends and family come over. They love to look at our board see the new places we have been. There's a picture posted here of our postcard wall. Item #2 Penny press machines. These machines can be found at most tourist locations. Put 2 quarters in and a shiny penny and BAM, you have a cool little souvenir. We stores these in a fancy little bag in our travel box. The kids will look through them and have awesome memories of the places we have been. The kids really freak out when they see these penny press machines. Item #3 Christmas ornament. If you celebrate Christmas what a great wat to decorate your tree. Putting up a small memory in each ornament on a tree. Talk about a Christmas spirit, there is a wonderful way to bring cheer to the season. We have collected enough ornaments to decorate an entire tree. We look for 1 ornament, sometimes it isn't really a ornament. If we find like a cool metal key chain , we use that as an ornament. Little plastic things we find that are unique , I will screw an tiny eye bolt into it and instant ornament. My wife really enjoys pulling out the ornaments and decorating the tree and we reminisce about all the wonderful trips and the special memories we have with our kids. Souvenirs don't have to cost a lot. We probably spend $10 bucks each trip on all three items. Planning ahead saves you money.
Know the Area
This might sound a little much, but bare with me. You want to minimize any issues on your trip. Be prepared is my motto. Google, crime rates and safety for the destination your are going to visit. You want to do a little digging. You want to know if its safe to walk around at night. In my experience, most popular travel places have ghettos around the outskirts. If there isn't a ghetto, there will be people looking to take advantage of you. Google search will tell you if that is an issue for your destination. You might not want to walk through rough neighborhood if your not used to it. I'm not saying your getting robbed or mugged but you might not fit in. Not fitting in can make you a target. The last thing you want is a misunderstanding that goes sideways. If you find yourself in one of these neighborhood keep driving, or keep walking. Don't hang on a corner waiting for Uber, if Uber is far away. Keep calm , keep walking. A little trick to keep in mind, is most popular areas are lit up at night, really bright. If your walking away from the lights , its probably best you turn around. Thats where looking into the place your going will benefit you. I'm not saying don't go, I'm saying be smart. Know where you are going, don't be so naïve.
Don't make your self a target. Lots of popular places , have not so nice people looking to take advantage of you. Don't pull out your wallet in the streets. Keep your wallet in your front pocket. Don't put your phone down or leave it laying around. Women keep your purse across your body, not hanging on one shoulder. That's why the loop is so long. Men invest in a Loctote bag ,which is mentioned in packing page, this is one of the best bags. Its slash proof and you can lock it. It has RFID pockets. You can also buy RFID card holders that fit in wallets and block tap features on your card. So, no one can steal your card information walking past you. Do not walk around with all your jewelry like your Mr. T . Never wear something you don't want to lose. I'm not saying your getting robbed. I'm saying things happen and losing diamond earrings down the tub drain happens. Necklaces braking and losing the stone happens. Misplacing your wedding band happens. You really don't want this happening on a vacation. Learn to leave somethings in the hotel. Don't carry all your cash with you or all your credit cards. I use my Loctote bag to secure it in the hotel. I place a credit card and cash in there. Incase I lose my wallet. I have a back up waiting for me. Limit your risk. It's not about walking around afraid. Its about being smart and prepared. Keep a few dollars in the other pocket, so when you are walking the streets and decide to buy something you don't have to pull out your wallet. Reach in your other pocket and pull out some money. Do not use credit cards in road side vendors or sketchy places. You don't want to risk getting your card skimmed. If you stop at an ATM, look around make sure no one is watching. Pull on the piece that the card goes into to make sure it isn't a skimmer. A skimmer is a device that captures your card number when sliding through it. They can often mimic the actually device. Sometimes gas pumps and ATMs are fitted with these by scammers. Pull on the card slot , does it light up? If it seems loose , don't use it. Use your gut, if it doesn't feel right don't do it. If you use a ride share app, make sure you check the driver credentials before getting into that car. Check the plate, check the picture of the driver before you jump in the back. When walking around pay attention to street names, where you turn and what is around you. You will need to know landmarks in the event of an emergency. Be smart and aware of your surroundings. Trips are all about fun but you want to make sure your safe also. Research your trip ahead of time.
