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13 (Easily Overlooked) Tips for Traveling on a Budget

Getting away on the cheap, it turns out, is worthy of a series all its own. So I think I’m going to make that happen. Until then, here are 13 tips for traveling on a budget. There are three tips each in four categories: lodging, transportation, activities, and food. Plus one cherry on top at the end.

Because this blog’s readership is largely American, and because staying close to home tends to be less expensive, these are all tips for stateside travel. Let’s get to it, shall we?

Lodging

1) Search a space share site like airbnb. Sites like this put you in contact with people renting out personal space, everything from a couch-crash to entire homes. If you’ll be staying a week or more, be sure to check out the weekly rate as it is often discounted.

2) If you’re extremely flexible and looking for adventure, try couch surfing. It’s not for families or the faint of heart, but it is free. And locals are the best guides, after all.

3) If you’ve got a car, and especially if you’re looking to relax, consider staying somewhere outside of town. Prices tend to be cheaper in these areas. Not just on lodging, but often on food and activities as well.

Transportation

4) For rental cars, try a clearing house site like carrentals.com. If possible, pick up your car somewhere besides the airport as rates offsite are much less than at the airport. Depending on how many days you’ll have the car, it might be worth taking a taxi from the airport to pick it up. Price check around to see.

5) If you’re feeling adventurous, take a bus. It might take you a while to get there, and it’s an experience to be sure, but you can also save 50% or more off the price of an airline ticket. On Greyhound, book 21 days in advance for the best rate. Tip: Chose express options when possible to bypass the stop-in-every-prairie-town itinerary. You’ll reach your destination faster and happier.

6) The easiest way to cut your transportation expenses is to select a destination that’s closer to home. Taking your own vehicle saves you from spending additional cash on rental cars or public transit, and all travelers are covered in the price of gas.  To make it feel further from everyday life, try creating your own adventures. You could hunt for local statues and take ridiculous photos at each one. Or sit in a different cafe each day and sketch or write about the people around you. A friend of mine loves to bakery-hop in towns she visits. A little creativity can go a long way to make staying closer to home not feel like settling.

Food

7) Choose a location where you have easy access to a grocery store, fridge, and microwave. This will let you easily do less expensive meals and snacks from your room, which can save you big-time, especially with a larger family. It’s also just fun to pull your favorite drinks from your own fridge on vacation.

8) Take light-weight protein & carb snacks with you when you’ll be out for the day. The carbs will give you a boost of energy, while the protein will leave you feeling satisfied for longer. This will keep you from hitting that critical hunger point where you’re willing to drop serious change just to have something to eat. (Don’t forget to take along a water bottle.)

9) Learn to use Yelp. Yelp lets you search nearby for all sorts of criteria. Looking for something within a mile that’s reasonably priced but not McDonald’s? Yelp’s lively community likely has recommendations for you. You can also use it to find special things like afternoon tea or happy hour specials. Just plug what you’re looking for in the search box and off you go. (Yelp also has listings for lodging and activities/destinations.)

Activities

10) If you don’t have an itinerary of must-sees, just wander out and start exploring. Duck into galleries, stroll the market, buy a day pass for the metro and see where it takes you. Do this with your camera out to see things you might not otherwise notice.

11) Find out if your destination has cheap or free activities. Some cities have museums and zoos that are remarkably inexpensive. Others have free or reduced admission one day a month. If you’re flexible, plan your travel days around the freebies. (Hint: Search Yelp for “free day”)

12) See if your destination offers a discount card like City Pass. Admission to several attractions are bundled together at a discounted rate. (If you live near a city that offers such a pass, this could also be a great option for a staycation.)

The Cherry on Top

13) See if your destination has an Entertainment Book. Entertainment Book’s cost $30 each and are full of buy one get one free coupons for everything from meals to museums, and have other discount coupons for national retailers. You can buy one online (where you can also see samples of what is offered in the book), or you can pick one up locally at a CVS, Barnes & Noble, Kroger, or Albertsons (see their site for a full listing of retailers).

What about you? How do you keep costs down while traveling? What sites or resources are your favorites?

Over the next few days I’ll be posting some travel articles and resources at Project Grown-Up on Twitter and Facebook. Check them out, and follow/like for easy updates!

 

This week we’re talking about travel planning. Here are links to the whole series:

  1. Introduction
  2. 5 Things to Consider When Planning Your Next Vacation
  3. How to Select Travel Companions and How To Enjoy the Ones You’ve Got
  4. How to Guesstimate Travel Expenses (and find the money to travel)
  5. 13 (Easily Overlooked) Tips for Traveling on a Budget

How to Guesstimate Travel Expenses (and find the money to travel)

This week we’re talking about things you can do now to better prepare for traveling this summer (or any time, really). Today we’re talking about the planning aspects of travel budgeting. (We’ll save the detailed nitty gritty for another day.)

General Bits About Traveling and Money

It’s helpful to remember that like any expenditure, travel is full of choices and trade-offs. It also generally exists within a continuum with luxury/expensive on one end and down-n-dirty/less-expensive on the other.

Of course you can find great deals. No one needs to pay more than they have to for any given item. But a great deal on a camping plot and a great deal on a five-star hotel will still have a wide divide between them. On top of that, your food expenses for camping will correlate with your neighborhood grocery store, while your food expenses at the hotel will be dramatically higher. Consider where you want and/or need to be on the spectrum. In a general sense, you have to choose between more ease and comfort on your trip or more money left at the end. It’s incredibly rare to have both.

Where Do You Find the Money to Travel?

There are people out there who will tell you that everyone can find money to travel if they really want to. I should wager with them and then introduce them to some of my friends. While I do think that many people who think they can’t afford to travel actually could, I also got married when I was still in college and know what it’s like to be existing out of the bare minimum in every category of your budget.

So where can the non-six-figured among us find the money to travel without going into debt? Well, pretty much the same way we find money for anything. Look for ways to cut spending (or increase income), and start regularly setting money aside. One way to do this would be to use a bank like ING Direct that allows you to have unlimited sub-accounts. You can then regularly transfer money to that sub-account so that it’s ready for you when you’re ready to travel.

But seriously, don’t get in the habit of funding your travel through credit. Opt instead to vacation on the cheap now while you put money away for bigger travels later. You’ll enjoy your time in Italy much more if every panna cotta isn’t plunging you further in the red.

How To Plan a Travel Budget

In the planning stages, the ability to find exact costs is a bit limited. You might have found a great hotel option, but will it be available when it comes time to put it in stone? You never know. So my suggestion is to gather what information you can, add up your numbers, and give yourself some breathing room. Here are some steps you can follow to do just that.

1) Get a pen and paper. You can do this on the computer if you must, but room to scribble elsewhere while you look at the computer screen will probably be helpful.

2) Think back to your aims for this trip. List out all the items that are non-negotiable for this trip to feel successful to you.

3) Add to your page the following categories: lodging, transportation, food, and activities. Leave some space between each item for your notes.

4) Get an idea of what you can expect to spend in each category. Use the avenues you would normally use to find estimates for lodging, flights, car rental, etc, and write down the prospective expenditure. Also consider each category’s related expenses, like gas for the rental car, visas for international travel, gratuities for service, and extra money for inflated food prices at tourist activities.

A few extra tips for guesstimating:

  • Use an average of the prices you find for suitable options. Using the bottom-dollar number will set you spinning if you’re not able to get that same price later on.
  • Keep in mind that many locations have prices that fluctuate throughout the year. If you’ll be traveling in the high season, be sure your quotes are for the high season.
  • In all categories, be honest with yourself. If you know that when it comes down to it you won’t actually forgo wine with dinner when you’re in France, then don’t budget like you’re going to. If you know you won’t leave Disney World without buying your souvenirs for the kids, then factor that in.

5) Add it all up. Then tack on an additional 15% for fluctuating prices and unexpected expenses.

This method isn’t foolproof, of course. (If you find a foolproof method somewhere, msg me, k?) But it should give you an idea of how much you might end up spending, which is usually what you’re looking for in the planning stages. If you find that this destination will leave you pawning grandma’s glitz to pay for it, don’t hesitate to go back to the drawing board.

Planning ahead can ensure you find great holidays that won’t break the bank. Let me know how it goes!

What about you… How do you find the money to travel? How do you usually go about sketching a travel budget? Is there anything I’ve overlooked?

Over the next few days I’ll be posting some travel articles and resources at Project Grown-Up on Twitter and Facebook. Check them out, and follow/like for easy updates!

 

This week we’re talking about travel planning. Here are links to the whole series:

  1. Introduction
  2. 5 Things to Consider When Planning Your Next Vacation
  3. How to Select Travel Companions and How To Enjoy the Ones You’ve Got
  4. How to Guesstimate Travel Expenses (and find the money to travel)
  5. 13 (Easily Overlooked) Tips for Traveling on a Budget

How To Select Travel Companions and How To Enjoy the Ones You’ve Got

Have you ever traveled with someone, only to have the trip be a complete bust? Not exactly the thing you want to have happen when you’re parting with your well-earned cash to give the experience a go, is it? Here are some things you can consider and do to help make the next trip as good as possible.

Choosing Someone to Travel With

First, choose someone you enjoy. While it seems like this should go without saying, in practice it’s easy to get caught up in travel plans with someone that, if you stop to think about it, you don’t really have a lot of fun with. Or perhaps the person requires a lot of effort, even though they’re fun. But if that friend drains your emotional reserves, you might want to choose someone else. Same goes for friends who you might have to bail out of jail for picking a bar-fight. Or for someone who’ll likely freak out at the sight of a gutter-rat or go mental when your cabana has a few geckos and no hot water.

Secondly, assess what you want from your trip so you know a good match when you find it. At first just jot down whatever comes to mind regarding what you’re looking for in your vacation. Most often, the first things to come to mind are also some of the things that matter most to you. Once you’ve done that, consider the other four elements we talked about yesterday (the four besides who to travel with, that is). Together this will give you a pretty good framework for discussing your trip with a potential co-goer.

Also, consider your priorities. What is most important to you? One way to think about this is to complete the following sentence: “If I go home and I didn’t _______, I would be disappointed.”

Last, consider where you are open to going. Is your list short? Own it! Or are you just looking for some exploring or R&R and don’t really care where the path takes you?

Traveling With Others

Sometimes you have the luxury of choosing an ideal traveling partner. More often, though, you kind of end up traveling with who you’re traveling with, whether that’s your family or just the person who had extra time and money on their hands.

In preparation for this article, I talked to a few friends who had recently traveled with others and asked what they would say about the experience. I heard some good stories (and some bad ones), but every success and failure boiled down to one thing: communication.

You’ve already thought about your aims, your availability (time), and your budget. So share these with your travel partner. And don’t forget to listen to the other person’s hopes and limitations as well as expressing your own.

In addition to those three things, talk about how much time you’d like to spend together and how much time you’d like to spend alone. I like to spend a good bit of time alone inside my head each day. It’s helpful if my traveling companions are sensitive to this. I’ve found that communicating it up front helps me get the time alone I need, and helps my friends not misinterpret my time away from them.

Also Worth a Mention

Being a good travel partner probably deserves a dedicated post. As many of us have had stinky co-journers, we certainly don’t want to be one of them. So be the travel partner you want to have. Particularly, make it your aim that your companion would get to do what is important to them. Hopefully they’ll do the same for you.

Traveling with others can be an incredibly rewarding experience. You’re not alone. You’re not as vulnerable. You’re building into a relationship. But above all of that, you have someone to process your experiences with, and have the benefit of seeing things through someone else’s eyes. Which can make your travel all the more rewarding.

What About You?

Have you had any wonderful or awful experiences traveling with other people? What did you learn? What advice would you give?

This week we’re talking about travel planning. Here are links to the whole series:

  1. Introduction
  2. 5 Things to Consider When Planning Your Next Vacation
  3. How to Select Travel Companions and How To Enjoy the Ones You’ve Got
  4. Travel Budgeting
  5. Getting Away on the Cheap

Interested in more from Project Grown-Up? Check us out on Twitter or “Like” us on facebook to see what we’re up to.

5 Things to Consider When Planning Your Next Vacation

As I mentioned yesterday, this week we’re looking at things that can be considered now to help make your summer travels the best they can be. 

Have you ever taken a trip and come home feeling like you needed a vacation from your vacation?

Maybe you spent the week running all over the place to “get the most of your trip”. Or perhaps you spent a disproportionate amount of time doing things you really didn’t care about doing because someone made you feel obligated. Or perhaps you just didn’t seek out the experiences that would have helped balance it all out.

Whatever the reason, many of us have come home from vacation feeling less euphoric than we imagined. Here are five things to consider as you plan your next holiday to make sure it hits the spot.

1) Are you looking for an adventure or a holiday?

Several years ago the dude and I realized that while we love seeing the world and experiencing cultural things, sometimes what we need most is a break. Whenever we visit a new place, especially if it’s one we’ve been pining to see for a long time, we can’t keep ourselves from packing in as much as possible. I mean, if you’re already in Paris, how can you not see St. Chappelle’s, the Pere Lachaise, and the Musee D’orsay, regardless of how exhausted you are?

So we started asking this question in the initial stages of travel planning: “Are we looking to travel or are we wanting a holiday?” We think of traveling as adventuring and learning and  and getting sick off street food and living out of what we can carry on our backs. A holiday, on the the other hand, means taking it easy, packing whatever our muses require, filling our Kindles with fresh non-trees, and stashing a lot of extra food in our room.

Certainly we relax some when traveling and explore some when on holiday, but the two have different aims and distinct feels. Actively deciding up front what you want from your time away goes a long way to helping you get it.

2) What are your goals?

Okay, so you’ve considered whether you’re looking for rock-n-roll or the recliner, but what else?

Are you going to stay with a friend? Then perhaps spending quality time with them is your primary goal. You’re adventuring, but is there anything you specifically want to see or experience in this location? What do you not want to miss? Its food? Its history? The arts? You’re relaxing, but does that mean enjoying the spa, going hiking, kicking back on the beach, or reading books by the fire? What do you most want and/or need right now?

Hone in on what you really hope to get from your vacation, and keep it in mind throughout your planning process.

3) Who will else be there?

Last fall when your mother-in-law invited the extended family on both sides to join them in Colorado (“all bills paid!”) it sounded great. But then you realized it was going to eat up all your remaining vacation days and leave you dreaming of the beach. You’re on your way to big vacation disappoint, my friend.

This is a sensitive topic to be sure, but face it head-on as you plan. If you need to refresh, spend your break with people who refresh you. If you want time by yourself, encourage fewer people or start strategizing how to get time alone. If you want to spend your days chasing endangered animals, just be sure your companion wasn’t primarily wanting to lounge by the pool.

Later this week we’ll talk about choosing good travelmates. For now, just remember to not leave this decision to someone else. You’re an adult; you have a say.

4) What do you want to spend?

You’ve been setting money aside for traveling, right? Riiiiight? Well, if not, you might consider the staycation in lieu of plunging into debt. But if so, carefully consider how much of your savings you want to spend on this particular outing. Are you hoping to take a big trip some time in the future? If so, don’t spend your whole roll on this one.

The dude and I want to see the northern lights when they peak in a few years. This means that the interim travel budget is a little tighter than it would otherwise be. But when the time comes to watch aurora paint the sky, I’m going to be soooo thankful I set some money aside for the privilege.

Don’t want to spend much this time around? Later this week we’ll discuss options for heading out on the cheap.

5) How long should you go for?

Finding the optimal length of a trip is more obscure than it seems at first glance. When I’m desperate for a break, it takes me a good two to three days to decompress before I’m really relaxing. Ending such a trip in four days would be like walking out on a 60 minute massage 50 minutes early.

On the other hand, if you’re doing some serious traveling, each day might be a significant expenditure, and three or four days might be all you can afford. But then you have to consider if it’s worth going all that way and then spending only a few days. If not, consider taking a smaller-budget vacation now and take that big trip when you really have the dollars to feel like you’re getting your money’s worth.

Here are some things to consider regarding the length of your trip:

  • How many vacation days do you have left? Do you want to save some for later?
  • How many days do you need to accomplish your goals for the trip?
  • How much money do you have to spend?
  • How many days will it take for you to feel like you’re getting “enough” out of the money you’re spending?

Overall…

Aim for finding the intersecting point between your goals, your budget, and your available time. If one is out of whack, keep tweaking your plan until you’re happy with it. There’s nothing worse than shelling out a lot of money and then being disappointed.

What about you? What leaves your frustrated or disappointed after a trip? What things do you to make sure you get the most from your vacation?

(Oh, and if you’d like to follow along, click one of the subscribe options in the header for updates.)

 

This week we’re talking about travel planning. Here are links to the whole series:

  1. Introduction
  2. 5 Things to Consider When Planning Your Next Vacation
  3. How to Select Travel Companions and How To Enjoy the Ones You’ve Got
  4. How to Guesstimate Travel Expenses (and find the money to travel)
  5. 13 (Easily Overlooked) Tips for Traveling on a Budget

Up This Week: Summer Travel Planning

Will you travel this summer? Have you started planning?

Sure it’s too early to load up the iDevices with kid movies and start packing the car, but there are still a few things you can do now to help ensure a great vacation when the time comes. In fact, there are a few things whose window of opportunity slowly closes the closer it gets to go time. Doing these things now could save you a little money, and will most likely save you a lot of grief.

For the next four days I’m posting things to help you get ready for summer trips (or any trip for that matter). We’ll start tomorrow with five things to consider as you plan, then unpack a few of those, and round it up on Friday with options for vacationing on the cheap.

But I’d love to know, what perplexes you most about traveling and vacations? Have you stalled out in planning an upcoming trip or have something you feel like you know you need to do but don’t know where to start? Let me know via the comment form or by commenting below. I’ll answer what I can now (even if just in the comments section), and I’ll also be taking notes for another series I intend to do closer to summer.

So… Whatd’you have for me?

(Oh, and if you’d like to follow along, click one of the subscribe options in the header for updates!)

 

This week we’re talking about travel planning. Here are links to the whole series:

  1. Introduction
  2. 5 Things to Consider When Planning Your Next Vacation
  3. How to Select Travel Companions and How To Enjoy the Ones You’ve Got
  4. How to Guesstimate Travel Expenses (and find the money to travel)
  5. 13 (Easily Overlooked) Tips for Traveling on a Budget

Four Reminders for the Fourth Month

How is it possibly already April? Twenty-twelve has exhausted its first quarter and I still feel like it’s February. As this flight-of-time encroaches as I age, I often need reminders for things that I might want to do, but tend to forget about as time barrels forward.

So here are a few reminders. Pick one that jumps out at you and make it happen this week.

1) Review Your Annual Aims

(time estimate: an hour or so)

If you made goals or resolutions for 2012, dust them off for a review. Personally and at work, physically and spiritually, are you purposing toward your aims as you’d hoped?

If you didn’t begin 2012 with setting a course for the year, consider setting aside an hour or two to reflect on things.

(For the past two years I’ve used this worksheet from SimpleMom.net. But this technique from Livestrong looks good, too.)

2) Care for Your Mattresses

(time estimate: 20 minutes)

According to mattress.com, it’s a good practice to rotate your mattress every 3 months. Most newer mattresses don’t need to be flipped, but if you have an older model, turn her over if you haven’t done so in a while. While you’ve got the sheets off, run a vacuum over the surfaces to remove any extra invisibles hanging around.

3) Clean Out Your Pantry

(time estimate: 15 minutes – 1 hour)

You can do a quick purge and just scan your pantry for things that have been in there a while and are either a) expired or b) unlikely to get used before they expire. In this quick purge, anything you can’t remember purchasing is a candidate for getting checked and/or chunked.

Alternatively, you can do a serious pantry cleanse. If you don’t already have a system for this, try this. Pull out an entire shelf at a time (onto the counter or another waist-high place) and then replace only what should be kept for future consumption. Pitch the rest. Repeat as time allows.

4) Preview Your Summer

(time estimate: 15-30 min)

Now is a great time to preview your summer. Maybe you’re hoping to take a vacation and you need to begin making arrangements. Perhaps you have home-improvement projects that could use a little forethought. It only takes a few minutes to prevent big things from sneaking up on you.

If you don’t already have a system in place, try this. Grab a piece of paper and spend about five minutes writing down anything that comes to mind about the upcoming months. Consider your home, your family, your well-being, your work… whatever floats across the gray. Once you’ve done that, pull out your calendar, scan the next five months or so and jot down anything that gets triggered as you scan. (Oh yeah, anniversary in August… what might we do?) Lastly, go through the list you’ve created and notes about anything that can be aided by acting on in the near future. Be sure to put those notes somewhere you’ll see them again.

These twenty minutes could save you a lot of money, a lot of grief, or both.

What About You?

What things do you regularly try to take care of in the spring? Have you done them yet?

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