Are you looking for easy ways to save money while traveling on your next vacation?
Would you like to learn our favorite tricks that can make traveling more affordable?
Below I have complied a list of our family’s top money saving secrets that we use when traveling. These simple tricks have saved our family an incredible amount of money over the years and I hope they can do the same for you!
How to Save Money While Traveling
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Money Saving Secrets in this Post
How to Save Money When Planning Your Next Vacation
1. Prioritize How You Want to Spend Your Vacation Money
One of simplest ways to save money while traveling with your family is to really focus your vacation spending on what’s truly important to you and your family. And then limit your spending on everything else. This way you don’t end up accidentally spending hundreds or even thousands of dollars on things or places that just aren’t meaningful to you. And better yet, this is a great way to start your path to saving money even before you start planning your next trip.
In this money saving step, just close your eyes and picture your ideal vacation. You might even want to ask other members in your family to do the same. (Their answers may surprise you.) What are you doing? Where are you at? Then think about some of your past vacations or activities with your family and answer these questions. What makes your family smile or their eye’s light up with excitement? What are your favorite vacation memories and what were you doing? Or, what dream destinations or activities are on your list to accomplish? This is where you should prioritize your vacation spending.
Remember, this is your hard-earned money that you are spending. This is your precious vacation time that you are taking. Don’t feel obligated to go somewhere or do something just because it seems like everyone else is doing that on their vacation. Prioritize your time and money to focus on what makes you and your family happy.
Spend money on what is important to you or your family.
Limit your spending on things that aren’t important to your family.
By taking a moment to really think about what brings your family happiness on a vacation and then focusing your spending there, you will not only save a ton of money but this will also significantly increase your family’s overall vacation experience.
2. Choose Your Vacation Destination(s) Wisely
One great way to save money on a family vacation is to choose your vacation destination(s) wisely. In this money saving step, you’ll first you’ll need to make a list of the top destinations you would like to go to with your family. Next, look to see which ones would be the best considering your children’s ages. Be sure to look at any age requirements for activities you want to do at those destinations too, like horseback riding or white water rafting.
Once you have narrowed down the destination choices that you think you and your family will love, then take a look at the approximate cost associated with them. Do you have to fly or can you drive there? How expensive will lodging be? How expensive are the activities you want to do? Is there any significant difference in cost between your top destination choices?
Look at the approximate cost of different vacation destinations you like?
Are any of the destinations cheaper, yet your family would love them just as much?
The world is full of spectacular places to visit and amazing sights to see. So my thought is, why spend more than you need to. Look for vacation destinations that not only fulfill your travel dreams but also see if there are any alternatives that give a similar experience but are more affordable. It’s a win-win.
For example, flying half-way around the world to see impressive sights is more expensive than seeing the impressive sites closer to your home. And some of the sights close to your home may have other people traveling half-way around the world to see them! Also, some locations are really expensive once you arrive (food, lodging & activities). While other destinations cost practically nothing once you get there. Knowing your potential costs before you even start planning your next vacation is critical.
3. Choose Your Vacation Length Wisely
This seems like an obvious one, but actually it’s not. So yes, the longer you travel, the more expensive that trip will be. There’s more hotels, more food expense, etc. Yet, if your job allows you to, it’s actually cheaper to take one longer trip than several shorter ones. This is because the cost of airfare and the cost of your vacation time getting to and from where you want to go are some of the most expensive parts of a trip. Plane tickets are expensive (especially for a family of 5 like ours) and on top of this it usually costs a person 2 vacation days just in travel time, one to get to your destination and one to get home.
Save Money & See More by Traveling Longer and Flying Less.
This is why our family always tries to fly (or drive) to our chosen destination and then we try to see everything we want that’s anywhere near. This has been a great money saver for our family while allowing us to see so much with limited vacation days.
For us, our goal was to show our children as much of the United States as we could. So each year we choose to use all of our available vacation time and make either a circular road trip route or fly in at point A and out of point B. This maximizes what we get to see. It also limits the cost of countless extra plane flights that would be needed if we took several shorter trips to see the same sights. Longer vacations also limit wasting vacation days just traveling to and from specific destinations. For us, this has been a great way to save money.
How to Save Money on Accommodations While Traveling
4. Join Hotel Rewards Programs – It’s Free!
Join all of the hotel rewards programs for places you are staying. The memberships are free and they can come with a lot of money saving benefits. Each program is different but in general hotel rewards programs offer things like free nights, upgrades or welcome snacks as you check in!
5. Choose Your Hotel Location Wisely
Sometimes your hotel’s location is important and sometimes it is not. When the location of your hotel doesn’t matter or your family just needs a place to sleep at night then opting for a more basic room at a clean (yet well rated) establishment can save you a lot of money. Also, look for hotels on the outskirts of town, near an airport or not right by a major tourist attraction (and not by the beach) to save even more money.
5. Time Your Vacation When Possible for the Best Hotel Rates
Travel in the off season if possible.
Hotel rates during the off season are much cheaper than during the peak season. But I realize that timing a vacation can be hard to do, especially if you have kids in school. But our family has found that if we travel in the first couple of weeks of June (as soon as school gets out) we can many times still get the cheaper shoulder season rates because their summer season rates haven’t started yet.
As an added benefit, many tourist sites will be less crowded during this early portion of the summer. This technique has saved us a lot of money! So once you know where you want to visit, check out when their peak season rates start and try to go right before or after if possible. Why pay more for the same hotel if you can help it.
Plan your route
Hotels in cities and near major attractions are typically cheaper during the weekdays and the most expensive on Friday and Saturday nights. By taking this into consideration when planning your vacation itinerary you can save a lot of money.
When I sit down to plan out our travel route I always look at what day of the week we will be where. I usually try to have us visit major cities and top attractions during the week and use the weekends to visit more remote sites and stay near lesser known attractions. If you go opposite of the pattern that crowds tend to go then you will not only find cheaper accommodations but also less crowds and in my opinion a more enjoyable experience. This does take some planning but it can save you a ton of money.
6. Join AAA for Lots of Savings
Before I began traveling I joined AAA just for their auto benefits in case I got stranded somewhere. Little did I know how much this membership would save me on hotels while traveling around the United States! Just go to almost any hotel’s website and look under their rates tab. The AAA rate is almost always significantly discounted from the normal rate and sometimes it’s even lower than the hotel rewards membership rate or the prepay rate! The AAA membership alone has saved our family a ton of money!
The cost to join is $59 per year but if you are traveling you’ll make this money back in less than 2 or 3 hotel night stays. Plus if you go to any AAA building you can pickup free maps and free Tourbooks for basically anywhere you could want to go! This has been so useful in planning trips! And it’s great to always have a paper map when traveling, just in case. Oh, and there’s also great attraction discounts, car benefits and so much more. So definitely make sure you check this money saving benefit out!
7. Savings For Larger Families
Many hotel chains offer suites that are set up to sleep 5 or 6 people comfortably. Staying in one hotel room is definitely cheaper than two when traveling with your family. You can find these hotels easily by doing these simple things.
1) Look for the word Suites in the hotel name.
2) Use a site like Booking.com, TripAdvisor.com or even use Google Maps (search hotel) and put in the number in your travel party when searching for hotels.
3) Do an internet search for “hotels that sleep 5 or more” for the place you want to visit. You’ll be amazed at how many blogs or forums are out there that give suggestions on places to stay for larger traveling families.
8. Our Family of 5’s Secret Strategy
As another option, when you can’t find a hotel with a pull out sleeper sofa or a roll-a-way, I’ve found that most U.S. hotels don’t seem to mind if you have 3 children staying in a 2 queen room that’s meant for 4 people. You just have to use the bedding provided. When our kids were really little, we easily stuck all 3 in a queen bed when we traveled.
As they got a little bigger, we then rotated the direction they slept (90 degrees). We would pull the sheet off, and remake the bed with our kids laying three across the long ways on the bed. Kids don’t need the length that adults do so they can easily lay across the bed instead of the normal direction. This gives your kids a little more elbow room to sleep.
A Sleeping Pad
And then when this got cramped (but they’re still all under 12), we actually started bringing our own sleeping pad so one child could have his own space on the floor. This has worked great for us! On road trips we love using this awesome self inflating 3″ foam sleeping pad that easily rolls up. It’s super comfortable and doesn’t crinkle at all when you roll!
And when we fly we like this more compact sleeping pad. This great pad is meant for backpackers so you know it folds up compactly and we’ve found it really comfortable too. Honestly my boys have even asked many times to sleep on the sleeping pads instead of the pull-out sofas that are in some of the hotel suites because they say that the sleeping pad is really comfortable! We also bring with us, one compact sleeping bag to use on top of the pad.
This has been an incredible money saver for us!
Please note: If a hotel looks like they are strict on their 4 person to a room limit, then don’t push it (some places, especially cities have strict fire codes rules.) If I am unsure then I always call the hotel and confirm that it’s ok. In the U.S. this has not been a problem for our family. A few hotels will say no, but there’s usually another hotel near that will be fine with it. Please also know that many places in Europe are much more strict with this rule than in the United States. So it’s always good to check to be sure.
How to Save Money on Food While Traveling
9. Save Money By Choosing Hotels with Free Breakfast.
10. Pack Plenty of Snacks
Always make sure you have a few snacks with you when you travel. There’s nothing like getting grumpy because you or your kids are hungry and either food is nowhere to be found, the lines are insanely long or it’s really expensive. We always make sure we carry things like pretzels, nuts, granola bars, or a bag of our kid’s favorite cereal (to eat dry) or something sweet (that won’t melt). This has allowed our family to save a lot of money by not buying those little snacks that surprisingly add up.
Read More: 15 Great Snacks for Families (That Kid’s Love!)
11. Bring Refillable Water Bottles
This is a great way to save money while traveling! For our family, each child has their own water bottle. (We love and all use this 16oz Nalgene water bottle and it comes in 26 colors!) This way we can all easily get something to drink throughout the day, whether we’re driving, hiking, flying or just sight-seeing for the day. You can easily fill up your water bottle while you grab your free breakfast in the hotel. You can fill it up at gas stations at their fountain drink section (check first but usually it’s free). And many tourist sights now have water bottle refill stations as well.
12. Have Picnic Lunches
Picnic lunches can be a really fun experience on vacation and they can save a lot of money for your family! Just pick up a few items at the grocery store and you’re all set! To keep our grocery items cool we love using this IceMule Classic Backpack Styled Cooler. This great cooler bag rolls up when not in use and works like a back pack when you need it so it’s easy to carry to wherever you want to picnic. With our IceMule bag we can easily pick up food at a grocery or sandwich shop when it’s convenient and then keep it cool until we are ready to eat.
Other picnic gear we love:
Bearz Outdoor Compact Picnic Blanket – It’s so compact that you can bring it anywhere. And it definitely let’s you have a more comfortable picnic. (Plus it’s great at keeping your pants dry if the ground is wet, or saving that occasional sandwich that falls.)
Tapirus Utensil Set (A Fork, Knife & Spoon all in one!) Set of 5 Eating Utensils + Bottle opener, all in a compact carrying case. – This is so convenient to carry anywhere! Never worry again about sitting down to a meal and not having a utensil to eat with!
13. Utilize the Local Grocery Store to Save Money While Traveling
Breakfast
Most grocery stores have a bakery where you can pick up bagels or even fresh pastries for a quick breakfast before heading out for the day. Some of our favorite memories involve having picnic breakfasts while watching the sunrise or munching on some fresh pastries on an early morning hike.
Lunch/ Dinner
Many grocery stores make sandwiches to go in their deli department or offer a variety of prepackaged salads and snacks for your convenience. Surprisingly our family also loves just splitting a loaf of fresh bread, with some fresh fruit (like grapes, clementines, apples (or veggies like a bag of carrots)). And then munching on something like salami slices (or slice it ourselves), cheese slices, and maybe some type of cracker, chip or cookie.
Just make sure you have a roll of paper towels with you too (this can serve as a napkin and a plate) and some kind of knife if you need to cut up stuff. Also make sure you have some sort of trash bag (you can reuse the grocery bag if you have one.)
Dining this way not only can save you a ton of money compared to eating out at a restaurant but it also allows you to enjoy your meal in some pretty cool places. (Places with Amazing Views!) This option is also extremely useful when traveling in more remote areas. Just pick up food before you head out. That way you can enjoy where you are at longer and not have to leave just because everyone is getting hungry.
Save While Still Being Able to Enjoy an Evening Beverage
One great way to save money while traveling is to avoid ordering alcoholic drinks. These drinks can quickly add up and cost you more money than you were intending to spend. But if you don’t want to completely give this up, we have a couple of alternatives that have worked for us.
We utilize the local grocery store (or liquor store) to pick up any evening beverages instead of ordering them at a restaurant. Not only is this much cheaper, but many times you can find wine from local vineyards or beer from local breweries there at a fraction of the cost. It’s also nice to be able to have something to enjoy once you’ve put your kids to bed. And if you like wine, check out the Platypus Wine Preserver so that you’ll no longer have to worry about what to do with opened wine bottles. It’s wonderful!
14. Check out Street Food Trucks or Local Diners
Food trucks and local diners are great ways to find fantastic inexpensive meals. To find them you can ask your hotel for recommendations, search on the internet to find which ones people like the best or just follow the crowds.
15. Use the Internet to find Budget-Friendly, Highly Ranked Restaurants
When our family travels I almost always do a quick search for highly ranked and budget friendly places to eat before we randomly walk into a restaurant. We’ve been caught off guard too many times while traveling and unfortunately ended up with a couple of extremely pricy (yet mediocre) meals.
This research is even something you can do before you actually leave on your trip (assuming that you know where you’ll be around the meal time hours.) I know this sounds a little crazy but I actually find doing this makes vacations less stressful for me. This way, instead of our family getting “hangry” around meal times and stressing about where to go, I can just look at my notes and quickly guide our family to a great, inexpensive place to eat without even having to think. And it never means that we have to go to that restaurant, just that it’s a quick option that we’d probably enjoy.
A couple of sites I like to use are Trip Advisor, Google Maps or Yelp to find these places but there are many other sites you could use as well. By doing this we have saved a ton of money on our food bills, found some incredible places to eat and I hope you can too!
16. Look for Fun, Free Things to Do
Go on a hike, drive a scenic road or picnic in a picturesque spot. Look online for lists of free things to do where you are at. And don’t forget to check if there are any nearby factory tours or museums that are free.
17. Visit National Parks
We love the United States National Parks! They hold some of the most spectacular sights in the entire country and yet visiting them is extremely affordable! Make sure you get the America the Beautiful Pass before you go. With this pass you can get your entire family into over 2,000 national parks, national forests, national monuments, etc across the country for an entire year for only $80! And if you have a current 4th grader (or 5th grader for 2020-21) you can get into any of these parks for free!
Click below to learn more about this amazing deal!
Discover the (Free) 4th Grade National Park Pass! +7 More ways to Save
18. City Pass
If you are visiting a city on your vacation, make sure you check out to see if they have a “City Pass”. This is an excellent way to save a ton while visiting the best sights a city has to offer. Most major cities have them and this is a fantastic deal!
Save up to 50% on combined prices for admission to must-see attractions! Shop Now at CityPASS.com!
19. Check for Discounts
Don’t forget to check out if there are any discounts for the sights you want to visit. Many tourist attractions will have a AAA discount, a Groupon discount, possibly a family discount or even an advance/online booking discount. Don’t miss these easy ways to save!
How to Save Money on Transportation While Traveling
20. Walk When You Can in Cities
When visiting a city, using taxis or trying to park your own car can get really expensive. Using public transportation or simply walking (if it’s not to far) will not only save you money but it will also let you experience more of the city and its culture.
21. Try Renting a Car over an SUV
I know this may not be a popular suggestion for many people but it has worked great for our family of 5! First of all, yes a family of 5 can actually travel comfortably in a car. It’s cozy but we love all of the benefits a car gives while traveling. And crazy enough, we have found that placing our three children altogether across one row actually decreases their behavior problems. I don’t know why, but it does.
Another benefit of renting a car is that a car has a closed trunk and all of your suitcases can be stored and secured out of sight from possible theft. But finally, a huge reason to look at renting a car is that cars are so much cheaper to rent than SUVs or minivans. Choosing to rent a car (over an SUV or minivan) has really saved us a lot of money over the years!
Insider Tip
Cars that tend to work best for our family of five is the mid-sized sedan category with cars like the Impala.
Side note: Before renting a car make sure any car seats you will be needing will fit comfortably across the back. (If you know the car brand you will be renting you can even stop by a local car dealership and stick your car seats in the back of their car before your trip to make sure they fit. Yes, we have actually done this.) And if your child is old enough for a backless booster check out this compact and foldable booster by Mifold or this great inflatable backless booster by Bumblebum which are extremely convenient to travel with.
22. Save on Baggage Fees When Flying
When flying you can save a lot on checked baggage fees by packing one or two of your bags in a bag that follows carry-on sized regulations. (Just don’t go over the bag number limitations.) Take these bags with you through security and once you get to your gate, ask to gate check them. They will do this for free! This can definitely help cut down on some of the costs of baggage fees for families when flying.
Miscellaneous Ways to Save Money While Traveling
23. Use Your Hotel’s Washer and Dryer to do Laundry
Many hotels, especially chains, have a laundry room for their guests to do laundry. Typically the washer and dryer require you to insert coins to operate them, around $1-$2 to use the washer and the same for the dryer. The laundry room itself or the front desk will have detergent you can purchase or you can bring your own. (I love and bring with me these single load Tide Packets on all of our vacations.)
Travel Tip #1
Don’t pour detergent into a plastic container to take with you on a road trip. The detergent will eat through the container and you’ll end up with a huge mess in your car! We, unfortunately found this out the hard way on our first trip.)
If you need change to run the machines, the front desk should be able to help as well. (Or you can bring a roll of quarters with you from home.) By doing your own laundry on longer vacations, you can not only pack less (and save a bunch on extra baggage fees) but also you can avoid even thinking about any expensive hotel laundry service fees.
For our family, I try to schedule one afternoon or morning once every 7-9 days to do laundry. I look for a hotel with 2 washers and 2 dryers. (You can easily find if a hotel has a laundry by looking under their hotel amenities, or you can search “laundry” in the comments section about a hotel, or you can call and ask.) Two washers and dryers not only let you do laundry faster, if they are both open, but it also helps if other people are trying to do laundry at the same time. Doing your own laundry on longer vacations while traveling is a great way to save you a lot of money.
Travel Tip #2
If your clothes are still a little damp after the dryer then just hang them up for the night with this convenient travel clothes line.
Travel Tip #3
Dri-fit/ athletic styled shirts and quick dry/ hiking styled pants dry very quickly and are great for doing laundry on the road. They also pack more compactly in your suitcase, therefore taking up less room! This means you’ll need less suitcases and therefore have less baggage fees as well!
24. Gift Shops
When traveling it’s so easy to spend money on souvenirs everywhere you turn. Attractions notoriously lead you through their gift shop as you exit. Or they make you wait in it before you can enter. And then there’s the souvenir stands that tend to line the streets near popular tourist sites all in hopes that you will buy something. This temptation can be hard enough for adults to resist but it’s almost impossible for children.
This is why, for our family, we came up with a few rules to prevent falling into the souvenir trap. First, for our family, a souvenir must have something to do with what they are seeing. For example, if it’s a stuffed animal it must be of an animal native to that area and preferably one that we saw on our trip. If it is food, it must be something special to that area. For example, when we were in Arizona we all tried prickly pear candy and at Mount Rushmore we all tried ice cream from Thomas Jefferson’s Recipe (which was wonderful!)
There are many different ways to manage souvenir spending. Just find what works best for your family. Some families give their children a set dollar amount for them to spend as they wish (but when it’s gone it’s gone). Some families tell their children to use money that they have from their allowance. And some families give children a limit of, for example, one item per day or two items per week. There are so many different methods that you can try, but just make sure you think about it before you set off on your trip. Otherwise when you pass through that first souvenir shop your wallet may be in for a rude awakening.
25. Take Lots of Pictures!
My absolute favorite thing to do while traveling that also saves a lot of money is to take pictures! Pictures are great at helping you recall all of your great adventures. And your pictures can be amazing souvenirs. They are your memories. And they can bring back all of your feelings of joy and calmness that you felt while on vacation. These personal memories are better than anything you can buy in a gift shop and they are free! With pictures, your vacation memories will never be forgotten. And you can treasure them forever!
“Take nothing but pictures. Leave nothing but footprints.”
Have a Great Trip with Your Traveling Feet!
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