13 Secrets for Stretching Your Travel Dollar

MSNBC lists 13 "secrets" for stretching your travel dollar. They're meant as tips for international travelers, but many also work for any sort of trip you might take. A couple of them stood out to me:

Grocery shop. Go to the local supermarket and stock up on food, picnic and sandwich materials, and try to limit your restaurant visits to one a day. Get a room with a refrigerator or better yet, see how much more a kitchenette option would be.

We did this on our trip to Disney and saved a bundle. We rented a condo (lots more room at the same or less than a hotel room -- certainly less than a hotel room on the Disney property), stopped by a grocery store, stocked up, and ate most of our meals at the condo. We got to eat what we wanted, it was healthier, and it was tons cheaper. Yeah, we had to cook it, but how hard is it to make pasta anyway?

Book early. The earlier you book, the bigger the savings. Look for a price match as many airlines will match other airline flight prices. Sometimes you can get a cheaper ticket on a code-share airline that flies on the same flight. So while your ticket may say ABC it could be on XYZ, only cheaper.

I'd suggest a twist on this -- book when no one else is going. Go during the off-peak season and you'll save a fortune. We did this with Disney and plan to do the same when we go to Chicago this fall. For details on this line of thinking plus some more travel-related savings tips, see Strategies for Saving Money on Travel.

Comments

[bill]

We do the grocery thing for breakfast on all our trips. Since we are out most of the day, it doesn't make sense to not eat out but on our way back to the room each night, we would stop by a convenience store to buy a yogurt, bagels cream cheese, and fruit and put them in the ice bucket til morning.

[Mike B.]

We're with Bill, we almost always eat a big breakfast in the hotel that we've grabbed from a local grocer and then skip lunch and just eat out for dinner. It's usually kind of cool to go to the local grocery anyway just to see how they differ from home, especially if it's a foreign trip.

[NCN]

Since we live in a very rural area, with only one grocery store (seriously!) - going to the grocery store when we go on vacation is actually one of my favorite things ABOUT the vacation. And, as a money-nerd, I get to price check the cost of items against the cost of the same items at our home store. Man, I need to get a life... :)

[Candice Krogh]

Being able to travel during off peak time is the downside of teaching. I have no choice but to travel during peak times. I always book early and then continue to price check. For my trip to Chicago this summer, the hotel dropped a little over $300 for the week. I paid $25 to cancel my original reservation, but it was well worth it. I netted around $300 back.

[F2o]

I did the offseason thing for my honeymoon this past September. Quite a few people are scared of taking a Gulf of Mexico cruise durning the peak of hurricane season. However, the way we saw it, the boat can always sail somewhere else if the weather gets too rough.

[Michael Blackburn]

FMF,
Drop me a line when you come to Chicago!

[FMF]

Michael --

Will do. Looking at September or October at this point.

[Mike Hunt]

Don't drink anything other than free water at restaurants if you don't mind. Purchase alcohol from stores and enjoy in your room before going out to eat (if you don't have to drive like in Europe). Use Priceline.com to get discounts at hotels. Stay with friends if possible. Try to camp one day and stay in a nice hotel the next. Alternate very nice accomodations with modest ones that way you will enjoy the difference and appreciate it more. My wife and I have taken some very frugal vacations (she loves to travel) that way.

Only exception I'm thinking about is the Maldives, a trip coming up. Hotels are about $1000 per night (all food included I think) and it's supposed to be just fantastic. So we are budgeting accordingly :-)

-Mike

[Foobarista]

Actually, in China at least, booze isn't hugely expensive - and is the safest thing to drink in many places. If you're eating in a hole-in-the-wall restaurant in China, bottled beer or Coke is safer to drink than tea, which may or may not be boiled well. Bottled water won't be free and isn't any cheaper than beer, while Coke is more expensive than either.

But those holes-in-the-wall often have far better and cheaper food than tourist-catering restaurants where everything is clean and workers speak English, so don't pass them up...

[Julia]

Good tips. I travel a lot for work and then some for personal vacation. I am not much of a clothes shopper, but I find it's fun to do more of my clothes shopping at regular stores at my destination. That way, when I pick up a particular sweater, I think of that place. It's not some tacky trinket, but something useful for my life and it is definitely a souvenir that reminds me of my trip.... even if I bought it at Sears.

Also it is even more fun to grocery shop in other destinations. It can be hysterical to see differences in flavors whether in chips or juices.