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Frugal Family Vacations
Everybody loves a nice, relaxing, vacation. The family vacation gives us a chance to focus on family and spend some quality time together. Unfortunately, sometimes the family vacation can be costly. Especially, if you have a large family.
Including a vacation in your plans can be a challenge on a tight budget. For those of you who want to get in that family quality time, yet don’t have the finances for an extravagant vacation, here are some frugal family vacation tips. Since the goal here is to get the most fun for your money, let’s talk about some frugal and low cost vacation ideas and tips that could be right for your family.
1. Camping: A great low cost option for families that enjoy the outdoors. Don’t worry, you don’t have to sleep in a tent. There are lots of state parks that rent cabins for a very reasonable fee. As an added bonus, when you are registered at a state park, you gain free entrance into all state parks.
2. Beach It: If you want to beach it, be sure to check out all your options for lodging. Sometimes a large family can do better by renting a condo or home for the week rather than staying at a hotel. Remember, you can save a tremendous amount of money if you can prepare your own meals while on vacation. A good portion of a families vacation budget can be literally “eaten up”! Even a little kitchenette in a suite can save you big bucks. If you’re campers, you can almost always find a campground near popular beach areas and get maximum savings on lodging.
3. Low Cost Lodging: Don’t forget your best resources, friends and family. Ask around to see if anyone has visited an area you plan to go. You may get lucky and have a “friend that has a friend” who maybe has a vacation spot they wouldn’t mind renting to you for a lesser fee. Sometimes people won’t rent out their vacation spots for various reasons, but don’t mind doing so if the tenant is a trusted acquaintance of a friend or family member.
4. Visit Friends and Family: Plan to visit friends and family that live far away, or even those that live close, and you rarely find the time to visit. In today’s fast paced society it’s not unusual for family and friends to lose touch. You’ll save money and get to catch up on what’s happening with friends and/or family that you haven’t visited recently. This will be fun for everyone and reinforce family togetherness.
Whatever you decide to do, if you’re traveling a great distance be sure to check all your travel options. With today’s soaring gas prices it’s not unlikely that you may be able to get there faster, and cheaper, in the air. Hey, maybe there’s a conspiracy here?
If all this just doesn’t fall into your category of “fun”, and you just have to have that exotic resort vacation, then at least be sensible about it. There are many great deals on vacation packages and off season rentals. And, oodles of travel agencies just waiting to tell you about them.
This is one area where do-it-yourself isn’t always the most practical advice. Travel agencies are privy to a lot of travel information, especially seasonal discounts, that you and I don’t have knowledge of. Do Your Research at least for goodness sake. You won’t be kicking yourself later when you come across that great deal you missed out on!
Check out your local travel agencies, as well as some of the many online agencies. Don’t forget, if you’re an AAA member you’re eligible for travel discounts. Before finalizing any plans, be sure to know your rights. What happens if you have to cancel? What is the deadline to cancel? Will you loose your deposit or is it refundable? Know your options.
Remember, the most important thing about family vacations is to spend quality time together. Have fun, and have a safe and happy frugal family vacation!
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Determine a Gas Budget When Planning a Road Trip
There was a time when road trips were among the best vacation options for those on a budget. But with rising gas prices, they have become much more expensive. Even so, many vacationers still enjoy hitting the road and seeing the sights along the way.
When planning a road trip, it’s crucial to estimate gas costs as accurately as possible. If you just guess, you could find yourself halfway to your destination and out of money! Here’s how to determine approximately how much you will have to spend on gas.
1. For at least a couple of weeks, keep track of your gas mileage. The easiest way to do this is to fill up and reset your trip odometer. The next time you get gas, fill up again and write down how much gas it took to fill up and how many miles you drove.
2. Divide the miles driven by the amount of gas used. For example, if you drove 200 miles and it took 10 gallons to fill up, you would divide 200 by 10 to get 20 miles per gallon.
3. Remember to fill up each time you get gas and figure your gas mileage. Once you’ve done this a few times, add up the results and divide the total by the number of times you filled up to get your average gas mileage.
4. Figure out how many miles you will be driving during your vacation. This is easy to do with online tools such as Google Maps. Just put in your starting point, add your destinations in order, and you’ll see a map with the best route and the total mileage.
5. Divide the total number of miles you will travel by the miles per gallon figure you came up with. Multiply that number by the price of gas per gallon, and you’ll have a good idea of how much you can expect to spend on gas.
Keep in mind that gas prices fluctuate. By the time you take your road trip, gas prices could have gone up or down. They will also vary from city to city. So it’s smart to budget a little bit extra, just to be sure.
Saving Money on Gas
There are some things you can do to keep your fuel costs as low as possible. Here are a few:
* Seek out the cheapest gas prices along the way. Check prices in the towns and cities you’ll be passing through on a site such as GasBuddy.com, and try to fill up at the least expensive stations.
* Use cruise control when practical. This will keep you at a constant speed, which can seriously improve your gas mileage.
* Avoid speeding. Not only can this get you an expensive ticket, it’s also bad for gas mileage. The optimal speed for fuel efficiency is 55 mph, and when you go faster than that you’re using more gas than you should.
* Avoid abrupt stops and starts as much as possible. Try to coast to red lights so that they will have time to turn green before you reach them. When you have to stop, accelerate slowly and steadily when the light turns green.
* Get a tune-up before you leave. Things like replacing air and fuel filters and making sure your tires are inflated properly can help boost your gas mileage.
Creating a gas budget for your road trip can help avoid unpleasant surprises along the way. And if you drive with fuel efficiency in mind, you might even use less gas than you had planned.
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Coupon Hunting for a Cheaper Vacation
Going on vacation can be fun, relaxing and rejuvenating. But one thing it usually isn’t is cheap. Just paying for a place to stay and admission to attractions can add up to hundreds of dollars. And by the time you factor in travel, dining and shopping, your vacation could cost a small fortune.
The good news is that if you know where to look, you can find coupons and discounts that will significantly reduce your costs. It’s entirely possible to go on a trip and not pay full price for anything. Here are some places to look for vacation deals.
* Visit Free-Attractions.com. This website lists lots of things you can do for free all over the United States. There are zoos, museums, parks, festivals and more, and they’re all organized by city and state.
* If you’re interested in visiting a specific place, visit the area’s official tourism website. Many such sites offer coupons for local attractions. Some make printable coupons available online, while others will send you a coupon book for free or for the cost of shipping and handling. If you pay for coupons, however, it’s important to be certain that you will use enough of them to make up for the cost.
* Get your hands on a newspaper or guidebook from the area you plan to visit. These are great sources of coupons.
* Check the official websites of attractions you plan to visit. They may offer coupons or have details of promotions that are going on. Some offer reduced admission or two-for-one deals on certain dates.
* Consider a season pass. Amusement parks often sell them for the price of two to three days’ admission. If you’re planning to visit for a week and go to the park each day, a season pass might be the cheapest way to go. And if there’s an attraction in your area that you might visit several times in a year, a season pass is definitely the way to go.
* Look for package deals. These are often available from travel agencies, and include airfare, accommodations, admission to attractions, and often dining and shopping gift certificates. It’s important to add everything up to make sure you’re getting a good deal, but such packages can save you big bucks.
* Are you a member of an organization such as AAA or AARP? They offer discounts to their members for lots of things, including vacation expenses. Even some credit card and insurance companies offer special discounts to their customers.
There are numerous ways to save money on a vacation. If you plan well in advance, you may be able to knock hundreds of dollars off of your expenses. That’s money that you can use to pay off debt, put into savings, or put away to go toward next year’s vacation.
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Free State Travel Guides for Every State
Free North Carolina Travel Guide
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Free Pennsylvania Travel Guide
Free West Virginia Travel Guide
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Are you ready to start planning your family’s summer vacation? In the past, this was an exciting time. However, the economy now has many Americans in a financial bind. If you are one of those Americans, planning your family vacation may no longer be as fun. In fact, it is something you may dread. Luckily, it doesn’t have to be. Although you are on a budget, there are many ways that you can plan a cheap, yet fun family vacation this summer. How?
1 – Stay Close to Home
When many of us think of summer vacations, plane rides and faraway destinations often come to mind. People like to getaway. A family from New York is likely to opt for Hawaii or Florida as their summer vacation destination. A family from Florida may opt for the Caribbean or New York City. These vacations are nice. After all, you get away and get to experience something new. Nevertheless, if you are on a budget this year, you should think closer to home. Plan a new activity each day and have a series of daylong vacations. For example, visit a state park with a natural pool and hiking trails on day one, travel to a nearby museum for day two, visit a semi-local amusement park on day three, and so forth.
2 – Let Your Children Help Choose Activities
Staying close to home is one of the best ways to save money on a summer vacation. If you plan a series of daylong vacations for the week, start close to home. Your family can sleep in their own beds each night. As you get farther away from home, book a hotel. Unfortunately, with this arrangement many parents feel like they are shortchanging their children, especially if they were used to the above mentioned faraway vacation destinations. Remember, you are operating with limited financial resources. Planning activities you can afford is more important. However, you can reduce boredom by letting your children help plan. For example, your teenage daughter can plan day two of your vacation, your ten-year-old son can help plan day three, and so forth.
3 – Give Camping a Try
If you don’t want to stay close to home, you are likely to book your airline reservations and a hotel room. Price compare to find the best deals. However, you should never pay more than $100 a night for a hotel room. This just gets too costly, especially if you are on a budget. A good and cheaper alternative is to camp. All across the country, you will find campground parks and state parks with camping accommodations. Camping rates vary greatly, but most charge no more than $25 a night!
4 – Wisely Choose Your Travel Dates
If you don’t want to stay close to home, wisely choose your travel dates. Since you are planning a summer vacation, you will find increased rates, but look at the little things. It is cheaper to vacation at the beginning or end of the summer. The middle is the most expensive. You will find higher hotel rates and fewer available rooms when there is a popular concert, sporting event, or convention in town.
5 – Don’t Wait for Last Minute Travel Deals
When it comes to finding travel deals and discounts, many mistakenly believe you should wait until the last minute. Yes, many hotels, airlines, and car rental companies offer last minute travel deals and discounts, but they are usually less common during the summer. The summer is a peak travel seasons and they rarely have problems filling planes and hotel rooms. For most, it is too risky to wait. If you are one of those individuals, plan your trip in advance, but always be on the lookout for moneysaving deals and discounts. Luckily, hotels, airlines, and car rental companies offer them all year round, not just at the last minute.
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The majority of us live a very fast paced lifestyle that involves more things to get done than we really have time for. As a result, it is ourselves that we don’t fully take care of. Planning a vacation is a great way to reward yourself for your hard work as well as have some time to relax. Many people think they can’t afford a vacation, but with some time spent looking into various aspects of things it is very possible to take the vacation you want without paying a fortune for it.
First, you need to decide where you want to travel so that you can collect all the information about getting there and the various attractions. If you need transportation to get there look at the various options. Many people think getting a package vacation that includes airfare, hotel, and a rental car is the best way to go. In many cases it can be but that isn’t always the case. It depends on the various specials that are available.
For example my husband and I wanted to take our children to Disneyland. Yet the cost was several thousand dollars for the roundtrip flight, hotel, passes to the parks, and rental car. We thought about going somewhere else but decided to see what our options were first. We discovered that it was almost $300 per person to fly to California and back.
Yet we found roundtrip tickets to Las Vegas Nevada for $99 per person. We rented our car from that airport instead and drove the remaining 4 ½ hours to California. With a family of five, we saved $1,000 less the cost of gas to get back and forth. This definitely allowed us to be able to take the vacation we wanted on the budget we had available.
If you can schedule your vacation on the off season for your location you will save a great deal of money. Common vacation spots like Hawaii, Cancun and the Bahamas are always more expensive in the summer time. Yet they are absolutely gorgeous even in the winter months. Traveling on weekdays instead of over the weekend will also save you money. In most cases your hotel room will increase by at least $40 per night if you stay in it on a Friday or Saturday night.
Cruises have become a popular type of vacation because there is so much to do on a cruise ship. It also allows you to start enjoying the trip as soon as you arrive on the ship so you have more time to actual relax and try out the various activities. The majority of cruise vacations are all inclusive. This means that all of your meals, lodging, and activities on the ship are covered.
You can save money by choosing a port to leave from that is inexpensive for you to get to. You will likely have to drive or to fly to the port location. Find out which amenities are offered on a given cruise vacation. If you find you won’t use many of them, then look for a cruise that offers more of them you will use. This way you are only paying for what you will be accessing during the vacation.
Another good way to save a substantial amount of money on a cruise vacation is to down grade your lodging area. Most people don’t spend very much time in their room while on a cruise so it is silly to pay for the most luxurious rooms. You can get a smaller but comfortable room for about 1/3 of the price on most cruise ships.
When it comes to saving money on vacations, if your travel dates are flexible you will save plenty of money. This is one of the best bargains if your schedule allows for it. Most airlines, cruise lines, and hotels would rather offer the space at a discounted price than to have it remain empty. The internet is the best place to find these bargain last minute deals.
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