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Our topic today is going to be on “Budget Vacationing”! I am excited to get others peoples advice and tips on the best ways to save money while planning a vacation as well as how to save money WHILE on vacation!
Here are my tips:
I haven’t been on a ton of vacations but I did plan my Hawaii trip and Disneyland trip and the number one piece of advice I have is to put the package together yourself instead of at a travel agency! I tried with both of these trips to use a place that plans trips for you and both times I came out a lot less expensive in the end…..actually MUCH cheaper!
UPDATE: Another AWESOME idea is to get gift certificates from Restaurant.com for the area you are traveling to. I usually post 80% off codes so when I do, you may want to stock up!
For the Hawaii trip, I used Cheaptickets.com.
*I search for Flight, hotel, and rental car packages all in one. Between the different companies (Expedia, Bookit, Orbitz, etc) Cheaptickets was by far the best in price at the time BUT I do recommend checking all of them because sometimes others are cheaper!
*ALSO, I bet you may not have known this, but you can go through ShopAtHome to get up to 4.2% cash back and more or less for other companies! That can be a lot for a trip!
*When you are in Hawaii (or wherever you may be going) make sure and get a small fridge in the room. Then, stop by the grocery store there and pick up cold cuts, bread, drinks, snacks, etc! MUCH cheaper than eating out every time you get hungry. Hey, you can even bring your coupons and use them!! 😉 That would be a true “coupon pro”.
For the Disneyland trip….I planned this all myself.
*I actually got my tickets on Ebay. You can also check Craigslist.org and search “Disneyland tickets” under your city or under Anaheim (where Disneyland is). You pick up the tickets from a place nearby.
*As for the Hotel, we stayed at Park Vue Inn (pictured below). I really liked this hotel because although it is not super fancy, it was clean, they have a nice continental breakfast, it is a great price for hotels in that area and guess what….it is literally DIRECTLY ACROSS the street from the entrance to Disneyland! There is also a Denny’s next door (obviously all within walking distance).
*Last little piece of advice is to get the “light swords” (that the kids just LOVE to have at night) right in front the hotel (or in front of the entrance to Disneyland). They are SO much cheaper and you can get 3 times the lights for the price.
So….I hope that helps some and trust me, as a girl who LOVES to save money, I researched the heck out of these trips to get the best deals and those were my experiences.
Now, it’s your turn…what are YOUR tips for saving money planning a vacation?!
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