10 Ways to Travel on a Budget

Love this reminder that budget travel doesn’t have to mean missing out. A few smart choices, being flexible with dates, staying a little outside the tourist centre, and prioritising the experiences you genuinely care about, can make a trip feel both affordable and memorable.

We focus our savings around food. We find a Whole Foods (or equivalent with hot and salad bar, many options, etc) and eat there a few times. No cooking, variety, and good food at reasonable prices. I also pack food on planes. We often eat two meals – a big breakfast and dinner, with a snack out or some street food. I have two teenage boys, and this works for us! We also like last minute tickets to sporting events on seat geek. This almost always works because of large capacity of stadiums and number of games (as compared with concerts). We wait until the day of and see what we can get. We absolutely love going to sporting events when we travel outside the US – it’s such a great way to have a local experience. We do buy those tickets in advance :)

For my family of 3 (with a 4 year old), I like renting houses and fully using the kitchen. I really enjoy shopping in new places and taking advantage of fresh seafood, local bakeries, etc. It is so cost-effective, too. So much of the cost of vacations is dining out! Although I loved restaurants during travels in my 20’s and 30’s, my little dude doesn’t have stamina or patience for a full-on restaurant experience anyway, so instead, we do cocktails and apps at places and then scoot home for a leisurely evening at our lodgings with a meal from local provisions—and, bonus, there is always something on the menu our kid will eat! It’s shaped the kinds of places we choose to stay—kitchens must be good, ideally there is a porch situation for al fresco dining, etc. I find this way of travel different but as with so much of this stage of life, it is something I never would have tried earlier and discovered that I enjoy.

We do a lot of National Park trips where we fly to the area and do a road trip to see multiple sites. Our first stop is always to a store to get food and toiletries for everyone since typically the airport is in a city. We always purchase a hard cooler to use in the car for water, lunches and snacks and refill it with ice. Over time, I’ve made a spreadsheet of the things we buy to make it easier to trip prep. And it saves me wandering and overbuying. At the end of our trip, if we are in an AirBnB we leave the cooler there for others. We’ve also given it to another family who is traveling. We do a lot of hiking, so this has helped us save a lot on meals out, especially as our kids got older and ate a LOT!!

I’ve found that shifting our mindset re the goal of travel/vacation since my son was born has really helped curtail costs. In our 20s we wanted to See! the! World! and we made that happen by taking cheap flights with inconvenient timing or stop overs, traveling shoulder seasons, camping or staying hostels. All of that is possible with a kid but it’s also WAY less fun (for us). So now we’re in See! Our! People! mode. We mostly fly or drive to visit friends, usually where they live. If we do a beach or vacation rental we eat in and soak up the together time – frozen pizza is super delicious when it’s split with old friends you don’t see enough of.

If you’re doing a “staycation” or not leaving your home State, check out what public libraries have to offer! Having a library card can often mean free or discounted museum tickets, events, activities, and more! For example, I just found out that the Oakland, CA Public Library offers free entry into many local museums for residents if they have a library card!

Off topic kind of, but I’m looking forward to taking our 21 month old on her first beach trip later this summer. We will be sharing a rental house with my parents. I’m just wondering, like…how?….to pack everything?? I’m remembering when we took our first trip with her, our car was FULL even without beach chairs, umbrellas, etc. Any tips for packing? Any beach chairs/tents/umbrellas you all would recommend buying? I was debating renting them when we get there but it’s pricey to rent and we might use them again, so it’s probably worth it to buy and just try to tetris everything into the car. This is probably such a new mom question but I feel overwhelmed. This community is always coming through with great tips so thought I’d ask!

I started traveling with my kids when my son was 6 weeks old (month long trip) and I took them with me for years when my job involved weeks/months away from home. This is probably not the most universal advice but I don’t feel vacation vibes if I am cooking, cleaning, or doing all of the laundry and my husband hates camping. (his family camped as a child and he has never enjoyed it on any level, I camp alone with the kids! :) )Hour for hour vacation time is costly and spending even an hour of that doing a mundane task or something I don’t really want to be doing is incredibly expensive in the overall budget. We also are huge food fans and love restaurants so we eat out frequently and find splurge restaurants or food experiences, this doesn’t always mean costly but it does usually involve money or a bit of research or effort, always worth it! We also research where the “fancy grocery stores” are to buy food gifts and fun things to try. To me food is part of the fun and there is literally zero experience gained in my family eating a meal we could eat at home which deducts from the entire travel experience. I also don’t enjoy cleaning or laundry and often taking your clothes and dropping them off at a local full service is laundry is incredibly reasonable, supports local business and has a huge time/hassle savings. (Plus laundries are usually well located!) I also prebook as many things as possible, cut down on line time when possible, make reservations in advance including special museum exhibits, transportation, restaurants etc. and have highly detailed itineraries that include emergency coffee/ice cream/bathroom options for all locations, so that when in doubt we have as many decisions made pre trip as possible so when there we can explore, this doesn’t mean we have to follow the plan if we find something else or if we want to switch but it does limit the number of times on a trip where we have to come up with a restaurant on the fly while everyone is hungry and we always have a safety net of planning to fall back on. I put more things on the itinerary than we will have time for so that if something is a bust or we want to adjust we can easily make a move. This was my biggest tip when I was traveling with kids as a single parent, basically a second parent is most useful in moments of stress and so having everything hyper planned made it really easy to juggle jet lag, travel issues etc because so many things were already set up that even if something went awry it was easier to figure out. Planning is literally the biggest travel hack of all time and doesn’t take away from spontaneous detours or wandering. It sounds restrictive but if you look at it as a safety net you don’t have to follow when you don’t want to planning becomes freedom. To this end my biggest tip is use Wanderlog or similar app for easy organization. I have a similar philosophy for many things related to travel which also means that my biggest travel rule is that if the trip doesn’t feel worth it I simply don’t go, the most expensive trip of all is one that you take but didn’t get any positive benefit out of, travel is personal, it needs to be valuable to the people going!

This doesn’t “save money” per se, but we have a large family “trip jar” for the 4 of us to save up for the next big trip. Any loose change, money from things sold online, the odd small windfall goes in the jar. When the kids get birthday/Christmas money from relatives, they usually put some (if not all) of it in the trip jar. It adds up quickly! A couple of times a year we open it up and put the cash in it’s own bank account and it’s then earmarked for travel. We saved about $6000 this way over the past couple of years.

Can someone explain to me like I’m 5 how earning travel and airline points with credit cards works? Best card recs? How the process works? Are there fees?

We ALWAYS have a hunk of cheese, a fruit, a bar of chocolate, and (typically) a baguette in my purse. Yes…it’s weird… but it’s also ANY MEAL AT ANY TIME (for next to free). Also, we do a “preemptive bribe” approach with the kids — you just slip them a small gummy bear or candy when you are standing around doing nothing or waiting in line as a lil surprise (not when they’re freaking out, but when they’re chill and least expect it) – it works wonders.

Geocaching is a fun and free activity to do anywhere in the world!

We split up a lot on our family trip to Chicago this spring, since museum admissions were quite high, and it worked out great! My husband took our daughter to the Chicago Children’s Museum (no need for two parents there) and I spent a delightful morning reading in a coffee shop. Later I took our daughter to the Museum of Ice Cream while my husband went to the Art Institute. We both had a great time on our solo adventures and 1:1 with our kid!

For those who don’t own their own cars, you still can get an annual non owner car insurance policy (NNO) that covers rental cars!! I used to be stuck with outrageous insurance each time we rented, but now I pay $287 annually for an NNO policy through GEICO.

Love all these tips! My husband and I are taking our 4.5 year old to Washington this summer and doing 3 nights in Seattle with a friend and 5 nights on Whidbey Island. Would love any tips for easy dinners to cook on vacation–or any tips for those places in general!

100% home-swapping (for us with home exchange). Our family has been all over the world this way — once you knock out the cost of accommodation, everything feels (almost) possible! And most of the places we stay are nicer than our house (though we do live in a desirable place in a desirable city which makes it a bit easier.) We have made so many friends this way, and our guests even take care of our cats. Then when we arrive we take public transit everywhere, and limit ourselves to one meal out a day. My pro tip: packed hot dog lunch. Cook hot dogs (a vacation treat) and put them in a thermos. Bring or buy buns and ketchup. Knock yourself out by including some carrots or apples on the side. Voila! Filling, hot, easy, everyone happy.

If travelling to Italy, these are sone of my ideas as a resident here … ;) First, buy all your fast train tickets at least 3 months ahead of time ( they can be 50% cheaper) use Italo or trenitalia websites. Secondly, remember that all national museums and sites are free on the first Sunday of every month . This is a great savings for a big family. ( visit some of smaller museums ideally to avoid lines, as you can’t book an entrance time for the bigger sites) Walk and take advantage of public transport ! This works better in some parts of Italy ( for Example, it’s better to walk in Rome than use transport. Northern Italy has great public transport! Find a local deli or ” rosticceeria and take cooked food home, so delicious and easy! I always bring a little olive oil and salt with me too! Enjoy local free festivals ( so common in Italy, medieval parades and festive stuff happen all the time. They are so fun. . Lots of my clients are taking advantage of the amazing flight prices on Norse air.. I haven’t tried it yet, but it’s so cheap for Italy ( mostly high season only, not in the winter) Also, look for free or paid thermal baths everywhere, these arr so much fun for families. Many to enjoy in Tuscany and Alto?-Adage alpine region… Hope this helps!

Echoing the camping and outdoors tip! Growing up we had very little money (single mom to 4 kids on a social services salary with no support) so we camped every summer. When we were little we went to campgrounds because it was a one and done vacation…we rode bike, played on the playgrounds, ran around with other kids, played games, swam. Some sites even offer activities like movie nights and arts and crafts! As we got older, we looked for sites outside the bigger campgrounds but the vibes were similar. Lots of time outside doing outside stuff. We packed in board games and books and food. We’ve also done this where we pick a city or bigger destination and use camping to explore. For example my mom and I took a big trip to Acadia national park a few years back and stopped in Portland on the way. Stayed in a campground near the city and drove in to explore, pick up take out. When we hit bar harbor, we did the same. Camped and then explored the town. We even did this on a recent trip to Scotland! We rented a campervan to explore the highlands. Had lodging and transportation and a kitchen. We hit up stores for food to make. It was a super cool trip. If we’re doing a city trip, or we did one as older kids, we tend to stay outside the tourist spots and use public transport and do lots of free stuff (libraries, museums, parks, wandering) and plan oursplurged, usually a lunch meal. Also, my biggest advise is to not compare. Lots of us didn’t spend every summer in Europe and we’re okay! I loved our trips as kids because it was time with my family doing stuff we loved. Road trips, camping, staycations…it’s all valid!

My advice is for the paycheck-to-paycheck traveler: Buy tickets and book rooms months in advance to more comfortably spread out the cost. Book trips for the last-first week of the month and pay rent early, and you will have 3 weeks when you return to earn rent again. My biggest mistake has been not planning crucial meals in advance and being stuck with whatever is available, leading to bad, espensive meals. Breakfast and dinner can be especially hard. As a restaurant server, I always advise people to eat at the bar (if a server or bartender ever suggests seating you at the bar, remember that it’s almost always our favorite seat in the restaurant). You get to chat with the bartender and enjoy the vibes, with significantly less pressure to order a full meal. I want to save money by cooking for myself but I can’t get past the harm of short term rentals. Literally every locale is begging tourists not to use them, and it’s usually the main issue that communities have with tourism.

I’ve done a lot of traveling with my four kids, and we always look up the free programming at any state or national parks nearby. We’ve had many incredibly magical moments thanks to free ranger-led programs!

Maybe stay home. There’s a lot of pressure to KEEP UP with other people’s travel plans. There are times to travel and times to stay home. We dont have to do it all, all the time. My travel tip is to travel closer to home, go for a weekend rather than a week, choose 1 place with admission fees rather than doing it all This may be against the grain but I believe there are different seasons of life.

Smuggle that third child in! Many hotels will try to force you to book two rooms for a family of 5, but bring in a pack and play when the kids are little and an air mattress when the kids are teens and you’ll be able to cram everyone in a single room. Rent cars through Costco and call your insurance company to verify that you don’t need to buy the car rental company’s insurance, which can double the price. The coverage is usually only domestic, though. Consider options farther afield. We knew we wanted to spend time near Girona one summer but that it would be too hot for us because it was so far inland. So we widened our VRBO search and I chose a small Spanish town based entirely on the fact that the listing was the only unit I saw in the entire country that had a dryer and a big family means lots of laundry. We rented that 3BD/2BA apartment for 150 Euros a night, cheaper than most hotel rooms! Though we got it at that price because I asked for a discount, which the owner at first refused but then reached out to offer me. Because our schools get out early in California we were also able to enjoy our vacation before Spanish schools got out for the summer, so it was so peaceful and quiet. Lunches of fruit and cured meats and cheeses are easy to pack and most tastes can be accommodated. Download a guessing game like Head’s Up on your phone to keep grouchy children (and parents) busy while waiting for food or in lines. We get a little boisterous when we play but that becomes a conversation starter with waiters and people at nearby tables. Eat ice cream or gelato every day on vacation. If you’re keeping costs low by eating meals at your rental, ice cream out maximizes your value/enjoyment ratio of the foods you do choose to pay for. Plus, you can get kids to walk a little longer if they’re eating ice cream. There is absolutely no reason to pay for business or first class in my opinion. Yes, it’s nice when you get upgraded, but we can all survive a little discomfort for a few hours, and the money is better spent on doing things on vacation once you get to your destination.

Writing this from a houseboat in Voyaguers National Park! While a houseboat is not exactly cheap, there are tons of campsites in the park and I’m dreaming about coming back when kids are bigger to boat around and camp. We love national/state/local parks for camping and experiences and try to camp or find affordable lodging in them since we spend much of the day outside enjoying nature!

I fully understand that it’s not everyone’s style, but growing up, our large family traveled abroad every year & we often stayed in hostels. You can often rent out a 4- or 6-bed dorm room & it was super fun to bunk together. My parents would also throw us all on a local bus to travel from one part of a country to another, even overnight sometimes. Whatever local people did, ate, etc. we did too. We were always ‘off the beaten path’, which I’m sure saved money, but is also more relaxed & authentic. It was the best!

Like many others, we try to stay in lodging with a kitchen, and kick off our arrival with a visit to the grocery store to buy breakfast food, snacks and drinks (including wine/beer so we parents can have a pre-dinner drink without spending $$$). My kids love checking out a new grocery store, especially if it is in another country, but even just a different area of the U.S., because they find different snacks and sweets than they are used to at home.

I have 4 kids and travel IS expensive. We usually do lots of roadtrips/camping, but this summer we took a trip to Europe. I echo a lot of the suggestions above (using points for airfare, eating in as much as possible, look for free museums and events, etc). I have two that I want to add: don’t be afraid of public transportation with kids. We took something like 35 metros and 20 buses during our trip. It allowed us to stay in places outside of the main tourist areas, which was cheaper and also felt more authentic. My kids became metro pros! We did have discussions beforehand about what to do if we get we got separated, etc, but they ended up feeling really empowered by the experience and are now huge fans of public transportation. In lots of places, kids are free or discounted. Navigating public transportation can feel overwhelming but apps like CityMapper make it much more manageable. Just do a little research first to figure out the ticket systems. Lots of cities like Rome have you just tap your phone or credit card without having to buy a separate ticket (for older kids who require a fare, you have to make sure you have enough different cards/phones for each person to have their own to tap). Using public transportation instead of ubers or taxis saved us SO much money. The second one is go to parks! My kids love visiting parks wherever we travel too, even my 13-year-old. Lots of cities and towns have really amazing parks, and the kids get a chance to engage with other kids, get energy out, and have a more authentic experience in a community. Totally free!

Off topic, but tell me more about the large sectional you have going on in your apartment, Joanna!

Does anyone have a vacation spot you would recommend for our family of four (two teen boys) in the United States with plenty to see/do? My sons are active, like visiting cities, zoos, museums and also like outdoor activities (easy hikes, waterfalls, swimming)I would love to get some suggestions!! Thank you in advance. Ps-my money savings tips. Pack snacks Breakfast/coffee in, not out Have a mix of dinner options to save money. If you just went to a restaurant, get a pizza the next night to save some cash Utilize zoo/museum memberships in other states. There are so many great ones

My family loves going to a museum/s when traveling. Lucky for us there are so many great ones that are free! When planning trips we try to do a balancing act of how much everything will cost when said and done. You might find a cheap flight somewhere but all the activities are pricey, but if you can land a reasonable way to get to St. Louis all the museums and even the zoo is free! Not only does it make it cheaper it also means if the day isn’t going well, leave and come back the next day instead!

Book car rentals well in advance through Costco Travel and then watch prices until your trip. Prices often vary quite a bit and you can cancel and rebook any time the price drops.

I save money by not buying stuff before I leave. So often in the past, I’d think we need something new to make a trip work (a bag, certain shoes, toys for the plane, a cute multi-purpose dress). I was spending so much before we left. But then I realized that life at home works with what we have, there are stores where we are going, so let’s wait and see. Also with kids: playgrounds, libraries, bookshops, bodies of water, public transportation, walking with a scavenger hunt, all free or cheap and entertaining.

For camping, we weren’t sure that we’d become avid campers and there’s a lot of upfront investment – tent, sleeping pads, camping stove, etc – and we didn’t want to buy all that and then have it languish in the garage if it turned out camping wasn’t for us at this point in our lives. We ended up renting these big ticket items once at a local sports basement and it was a good call because we ended up the next year doing the park cabins and haven’t been again. I just looked at the rei website and it’s $86/night plus $10 for each additional night to rent a $569 tent (so not at all cheap and yes probably cheaper rents to be found for purchase) but might be worth looking into?

I love the North America Reciprocal Museum (NARM) pass. I but it as part of my membership at our local art museum and then I can get into a ton of museums in the US and Canada with the pass. There are some bigger museums that don’t participate, but it more than pays for itself every year. This is great for our homeschool, too. It allows us to take another family for a field trip as often as we like.

Being outdoorsy is the ultimate budget saver. What do you mean you’re going to Idaho to ski into a hut to stay with 8 people in a yurt for a week? What do you mean you’re backpacking 5 nights. You’re taking 3 weeks off work to raft down the Grand Canyon?

I don’t like to cook much when travelling, but nor do I want to spend money eating out for every single meal – it’s wasteful and exhausting when travelling with a reasonably picky 5yo. So, I have embraced the grocery store ready-meal. I would never ever purchase soup or a lasagna at home when I can easily make one myself, but I LOVE something that can be heated up in the AirBnB and enjoyed without much fuss. I try to go to the fancier/independent grocers so the ready meals are not exactly cheap, but they are much cheaper than eating out every meal! Also the variety packs of mini cereals were a holiday tradition for us as kids and now my kid loves them too. They do a great job of keeping her occupied for an extra 30 mins while we lie around drinking our coffee before getting moving for the day.

Not that it is a budget trip, but weather wise, we just got back from Maui (after budgetting & planning for years) and right now the weather is PHENOMENAL. Light sunshowers almost daily, with rainbows. Breezes all day long, which turn into winds some afternoons. Skies and clouds that change constantly, water which is the perfect temperature, beaches everywhere you look. We booked a VRBO (my preference over air bnb for years now) condo, overlooking the pool, with water views. I cook, a lot, and I love having a ktichen, laundry, 2 bathrooms, etc. We end up getting a whole apartment or small house, for around (or a little less) than just a hotel room, it has always proved worth it! We make breakfast, and lunch or dinner, and make excellent use of delicious leftovers. Maui is expensive, but the grocery stores are just as good, (still more costly) Food trucks are PLENTY and excellent. Unless you want to drive around the island, you could do without a car in a populated area like Kaanapali or Kihei. Kids activities could just be pool, beach repeat. All beaches are public and free, most of them do not charge for parking. If you don’t mind not being right on the water, (we were up the hill) there are many places, simple and reasonable to stay. We were going to the UK, but realized we needed a beach and beautiful water trip instead. Maui has been through a LOT, the people are incredible, the beauty is stunning, and we decided to send our travel dollars to an island that embodies Aloha, for real. Mileage got us 1 free ticket. We didn’t check bags, just well packed rollies and totes. It did not feel overcorwded anywhere, the airport is so easy and pleasant. If you do need a car, do it through a local family owned company, like Kihei Rent a Car. We saved HALF off the rental of a Jeep. Truly, if you can make it, go there. Soon. It will not disappoint!

I pay for absolutely everything on my credit card (just your classic Chase Sapphire) which then helps me rack up points to use for travel. Expedia allows you to “bundle” your flight/hotel/car and you can really save a LOT this way. Often the lodging or car end up being “free” or nearly free vs. if you booked them separately. Book hotels directly whenever possible (unless bundling). Airbnbs can be cheaper if you go with a group, but hotels are often not that much more (depending on where you’re going, of course) and you sometimes get free breakfast plus things like turn-down service, hotel robes, etc. Roadtrips aren’t always cheaper, especially with the price of gas now! They can be a fun experience, but check for cheap flights, and you might be surprised. I’m also lucky to have generous friends and family who live all over the U.S. and the world, so we often plan trips around destinations where we can stay with them at least part of the time.

* for purchasing flights, I tend to buy the saver fare, even for international flights. I’ve pared down what I need to just a carry-on and backpack and don’t have to pay extra for checked luggage. Also, when I’ve bought saver tickets with my family, we’ve always gotten sat together. * second the camping! That’s how we did Kauai (state campgrounds on the beach are just a few dollars per night) and Maui, as well as in New Zealand and Iceland! * I bring snacks with me on trips (nuts, granola bars, oranges) and instant coffee (the good kind from Verve!) which makes it a bit easier to graze in the afternoon while on the go without having to stop to pick up food. * we also tend to travel during shoulder season (May in particular is great weather in many places too), when prices are cheaper * for some dinners, we’ll either pick up groceries at the local supermarket and have a picnicky dinner or takeout to bring to a brewery * we try to take public transit when we can, especially figuring out local bus and trains to get from the airport to the city center * we like to do the legwork of planning the trip logistics rather than paying for a travel planner (for example, we figured out our Alta Via 1 route in the Dolomites and booked directly with all of the huts, which saved us a lot of money) *this helps in that we are really into the outdoors, but most of our travels includes lots of outdoor activities (primarily hiking and trail running), and many beautiful outdoor spots are free or charge a minimal entrance/parking fee, and there’s so much awesome nature around the world to see!

This is one of my great passions in life! We really started traveling when my oldest was 6 and my youngest was 1. Looking back that is sort of insane, but I wouldn’t change it! They are great travelers now, 10 years later. We have always treated travel as a way to see how other people live, so we are happy to stay in one place and just kind of “live.” With that in mind… 1. A million +1’s to homexchange.com! We have done it for one month stints each time, which I initially rationalized as “either we can spend $500 a week per kid to send them to camp/childcare this month or we can spend that money on flights to a new city.” Often we had miles to use for some of our flights, so it was even less expensive than what camp/childcare would have been. (I was able to work remotely, so that made all the difference of course!) 2. Travel to destinations outside of the US during Thanksgiving break when your kids are young and missing school isn’t all that big of a deal. (We can’t do this now that we have teenagers…) We added a week before the official Thanksgiving break and went once to Rome and once to Thailand to see family. It was amazing! The weather was better, there weren’t crowds in Rome, and AirBnBs were so much more reasonable than summer or Christmas dates. 3. Eat a max of one meal out per day— our preference is lunch out and then have breakfast and dinner at home with “regular” food. Kids are in better moods at lunch and it tends to be a lighter/less expensive meal. 4. Museums and churches and walks and parks and grocery stores and everything else about regular life in a different place are free for kids! 5. Only one destination at a time! Maybe a day trip. But staying put saves on related travel costs and lets us feel like we really get to know a place. 6. And, of course, public transportation or walking as much as humanly possible. Car rentals are such a money drain and, honestly, take you away from experiencing the place you are in. I think of walking through a city as an “activity” and have forced my kids to deal with it. hahahaha. Of course they whine (still), but that’s what ice cream breaks are for!

Growing up, my parents each worked part time and stayed home part time. This meant we had one salary for most of my childhood, and social worker/non profit salary, at that! Most often, we’d go on trips to places reachable by car (from Seattle, this often meant Vancouver or Victoria, BC and Hood River, Portland, or Cannon Beach, OR). We’d stay with family or in a rented house, selecting places with a kitchen wherever possible. If it was to a place we were renting, we’d stay 2-3 nights, max, and sometimes longer if it was with family (and then return the hosting duties with them another time!) Being able to make coffee at home and a bowl of cereal or toast for breakfast meant the day already started out more smoothly; we could wake up when we wanted and not have to leave to crankily scavenge town for food. For lunch and dinner, we’d do a mix of eating out (think a pizza place, local Mexican restaurant, Thai; nothing super expensive) and cooking at home (often with a grocery bag or two of pantry staples and produce brought from home, or picked up in town). This kept things from getting too costly right off the bat. As we’d visited most of these places many times before, our itinerary usually consisted of picking an interesting-sounding neighborhood and walking around, exploring the waterfront or beach, window shopping, playing games, hanging out with family, the occasional movie, trying to piece together all the ingredients to bake something, visting a local bookstore, or working on craft projects. While this certainly saves money, I think of our family’s best “strategy” as one that kept the peace! For as long as I can remember, we’d chat about what we wanted to do over breakfast then decide who, if anyone, wanted to join. This meant that everyone had one thing they were looking forward to, you didn’t have to listen to people complaining, and only the people who wanted to go to something paid the admission price (if applicable). It was really flexible, of course, and would be loosely planned around who was interested in going where, if places were geographically close to one another, open/closing times, etc. This sometimes meant splitting up where each parent had one child, or one parent had both children. On a trip to NYC, I was really interested in visiting Ellis Island (and my dad was happy to go) and my brother was excited about the toy store FAO Schwartz (so my mom went with him). We all had a great day and were happy to chat about it over dinner. Later, as we got older (and had cell phones, beginning in high school), we might drive to a neighborhood together and then go our separate ways. Either we’d agree to meet back at the car in a few hours, or agree on a check in time to negotiate whether we wanted more time in the area. Everyone was really happy getting to do their thing and hear about the other adventures over lunch (and, inevitably, two of us would run into each other and decide to walk around together). Now that we’re adults, we still do something similar. My parents might go on a 2-3 day road trip together (they recently went to some of the islands off of Vancouver, BC). Just as likely, though, they might take a short trip to visit a friend or one of their siblings by themselves. As a family, now spread out across two coasts, we do something similar. We’ll be sure to spend time together as a family of four and often end up with pairs of us going on trips together (e.g. my dad and brother are meeting in San Francisco this month; my mom visited me in Scotland; one parent will go visit my brother in Brooklyn, etc.). I totally understand that this doesn’t work for everyone, but love that we’ve found something that feels good for us! And, back to the topic of the post, because we normalize splitting up, we end up saving a bit of money because we’re only doing the things we really feel excited about. :)

So excited to dig into these comments! We are planning a trip for next year, inspired by the Every Kid Outdoors program, which gives 4th graders and their families a free national parks pass for a year! The Redwoods feel like a must, but planning to add in a few other national park/shore stops as well! I’ve been all over the national parks service app this week, and here is the site to the program for 4th graders: https://www.everykidoutdoors.gov/

Thanks for the recommendations! We camp primarily now, because hotels and Airbnbs are so expensive and I have to book something huge for my giant human children. When we have a destination, where can we pitch a tent?

I’m such a homebody that even reading these tips exhausts me LOL. My husband and I don’t travel a lot but when we do, we tend to let loose and spend more to be comfortable and enjoy the time. Not exorbitant, but we indulge in as many coffee shops, bakeries, and meals out as we like. When I’m able (rarely), I’ll do anything possible to get a first class seat because I don’t enjoy flying. To me, flying is part of the experience and if I can land in the destination feeling more comfy and less anxious, then it’s worth it if I can afford it.

We do a week-long beach rental every summer and–in addition to having the same lunch every day (sandwiches on the beach)–we make at least three dinners in advance and freeze them to take with us (usually a lasagna for a night at the house and eggrolls, which are easy to take to the beach at sunset if we want). And no one has to do real cooking once we’re there (just reheating). Making these meals in advance has become a tradition, and part of the fun lead-up to our vacation every year. We’ll still do one or two restaurant meals during the week, but the pre-made dinner nights are our favorites…much more easy and casual.

We’re saving money for a bigger trip by “going on” a staycation next week. There’s a lot to do in town, but we never do it. So I’ve been putting together an itinerary and making sure there’s plenty of downtime for reading and chilling. We often travel to places where friends live, and stay with them a night or two, but not every night. We save money on lodging and food that way, but it’s also fun to be able to stay up late catching up in homes instead of rented or public spaces. Also, take advantage of introductory airline credit card offers!

This is the whole reason we invested into our timeshare about 30yrs ago. Makes traveling w toddlers so much more enjoyable. Bring your own food to prep most meals, pay for housekeeping and slip into coastal locations or national parks in sunny California. We still drive everywhere, take random hikes and even drive into Mexico. Sandwiches are a staple w kids. Always an adventure. At a minimum, there’s always a pool, park or local events. Bakeries or coffee shops are a must.

The best tip I have for affordable travel is to plan ahead for your meals, just as you would your transportation and lodgings. You don’t have to *stick* to the plan, but *having* one is invaluable. Figure out whether you will eat before you get to the airport, or at the airport. Check out the hours of the restaurant at your hotel(s), if you plan to eat there. If you are hoping to get by on sandwiches or baked goods during the early part of the day, do a little searching of the area around your hotel or lodgings and have a bakery or sandwich shop picked out to try. If you are planning to grab groceries, choose a grocery shop ahead of time, and plan it into your itinerary. Even make a grocery list. You can throw all this planning out the window if you find better options once you get to your destination, but doing this planning will protect you from spending tons of money on food because you are starving and cranky and do not have the bandwidth for a major DIY sandwich excursion. Likewise: plan your booze consumption. If you enjoy a drink on vacation, make plans ahead of time about how much, where, and when.

We have a documentary film production company and often stay at Airbnbs or the like. Right off the plane go to the grocery store and pick up drinks, snacks and breakfast. Saves a ton of money and keeps everyone happy knowing they have their favorite snack. For family trips decide on the ONE thing that matters most, it can be as a family or for each person and make sure you do that in the first couple of days, it doesn’t save you money but helps everyone enjoy the trip which means you don’t waste money. Always include that taxis or transportation you need to get around. Sometimes a more expensive hotel is in such a good location that you can walk everywhere and save a ton on taxis and even public transportation. Best travel sandwich in my opinion is a jambon beure/ham and butter, or ham and cheese. Not goopy and better with time. Local groceries stores are the best!

My kids are 4, 10, and 13 and travel has become so expensive that we are just doing road trips right now with lots of camping (KOA’s have great kids amenities). We’ve traveled a ton in the past … to the point my kids find it embarrassing and stop talking about it to their friends because it feels like bragging. I think the internet makes international travel feel like the norm and it’s def not. I don’t think my kids enjoyed their trip to Norway anymore than our camping trips in Michigan. When we’ve done bigger trips, we do them in off season. I find a long weekend on the school calendar and then add days around it. We’ve done Europe in October and skiing in Canada in late March. Not everyone is willing to have kids miss school for trips like this but I think the trade off of the experience makes its worth. The other things I’ve done to make international travel cheaper is relying solely on public transit and staying in hostels (we rent a whole 6 bunk room) and last but def not least multigenerational travel! It makes the childcare load so much lighter and it allows for occasional adult only activities. I also orientate our days around playgrounds. It’s such a great way to meet locals and it pulls you to areas you probably wouldn’t have explored otherwise. And it’s free. Plus I’m pretty sure my favorite travel memories all happened in playgrounds.

My favorite money-saving hack, honestly, is to be a tourist at home! I live within a few hours’ drive of a LOT of cool stuff to do (yay Northern California), and it is much cheaper to do a series of day trips than any actual travel. Last year for my kids’ spring break, we ate our way around the Bay Area. Normally we wouldn’t eat multiple restaurant meals in the same week, but since we were not paying anything for accommodations and had minimal transportation costs (fuel for the car plus some parking fees) it felt fine to splurge on some nice meals.

Years ago, I mentally planned a two-week trip to NYC for my family of four. Before I booked anything, I realized that two members of my family did not care about going to NYC. They didn’t even want to go. So, I planned the trip for the two of us who wanted to go. 50% off to take the same trip. This decision changed the way I travel with (and without) my family. Take family members only to places they want to go. When we travel as a family, we often go to places we can drive to. Also, when we do travel, we eat almost exclusively from grocery stores. We just don’t care about eating at restaurants.

We try really hard to plan trips that require no cars at all. No rental cars, taxis, Ubers. Figuring out a new public transit system is its own kind of tourism and we usually see a lot of a city on a bus or train. I’ve also gotten really into inn to inn hiking vacations. Tour companies will book it all for you but it’s a lot less expensive to self-plan. No spending on museums or little coffees, just walking all day and enjoying the scenery. B&Bs out in the county are so much less expensive than lodging in a big city, too. It’s awesome with my kid! Want to spend 10 minutes looking at a rock? That’s fine. We have all day to walk 8 miles.

Food is one of the most important parts of travel to me, but I try to limit myself to one full meal out a day. Then I like to let hotel breakfasts, coffee shops, and bakeries (which are just as filling but cheaper than buying a meal at a restaurant, and you can take along to parks, etc.) to fill out the rest. I also love to check out local grocery stores. Also, I try to find affordable, hole-in-the-wall, but excellent restaurants to visit.

Love the idea about a home exchange, but what about all your private stuff? I don’t want someone snooping through my closet or drawers. How do people get around this?

We are a small family – we like to travel with good friends and family. It’s fun for only kids to have a friend and you get to save so much in costs – AirBNB, airport parking, car rental, etc all cut in half. We’ve done this when broke to save money and we’ve done it to make splurgier places that we would have never been able to stay at affordable. Also, explore places less traveled- Europe is gorgeous, but so is Central and South America for a fraction of the price!

Travel is fun, but I think too many people have been fooled into thinking that it’s a necessity. When I was kid we rarely went on vacation. I remember one week-long trip my entire childhood. Nowadays families go on multiple trips a year. I just don’t understand how that’s conceivable with children and the high cost of living.

Be ok to do fewer days and embrace smaller digs in the area that you really want to visit. I’d rather be in a certain neighborhood in, say, London or Paris, than having more spacious accommodations outside yet having to travel around (that costs time, energy and money too). Having said that, we’ve been at cheaper Airbnbs in tiny, off beaten villages in Provence and had beautiful interactions with our hosts that felt truly genuine than the more “jaded” hosts in other popular towns. But we did drive a lot more to reach these places (again, time, fuel) I also have found fantastic discounts on tours or activities at the last minute, booking the day before – sure, you might not get the top five rated operators because they’re already full, but the others often come close in their offerings but at half the price. Plus you’d get more certainty about the weather closer to the date than when booking far in advance. And +1 on doing local groceries, eating in and eating at local places without the touristy prices. 100% more fun that way.

One habit that has saved me a LOT of money while traveling: Eat lunch out, but take dinner at your hotel/AirBnb. You can still try all the delicious local food you want to try, but at lunch, it will almost always cost less–often, a lot less. Then you have simpler sandwiches or pasta or whatever back at your lodgings in the evening, when you’re probably dog tired and ready to take it easy anyway. Related: Never pay for breakfast at a hotel. This is how you wind up spending $17 on the same oatmeal you’d make at home, or $21 on scrambled eggs. If you get a buffet breakfast with your lodgings, load up there, which will allow you to take a later and/or lighter lunch.

Other home swap option is a company called Kindred. We’ve used it twice now to stay in Seattle and San Francisco, and everything has been lovely. I look for homes who have children it’s makes traveling with my 4 year old much easier, plus he loves exploring new toys!

State park cabins! They’re so much more affordable than Airbnbs, and are often cute, esp if the CCC built them. We’re headed to Pickett State Park in TN next week, which has a lake for paddling and swimming right out our front door, plus hikes with caves and waterfalls, and a certified dark sky! All for less than $800 for the week. And the rangers are always so kind to our kid. We’ve done a pretty good job of exploring our own state this way, but are starting to venture out to the other southern states too.

Wildly off topic, but please help. A couple of weeks ago (? maybe longer) you posted about non spanxy underwear/shorts to wear under summer dresses — i should have bookmarked. I can’t seem to find them now. What was the brand?

Road trips can be significantly less than a flight and depending on where you are going not necessarily that much longer with long TSA lines etc. I live in the US and I also think that Americans – or perhaps just east coasters? focus a lot on leaving the country – our country is not perfect but it is HUGE and there are so many things to see! Especially so many beautiful National Parks (which yes I know are currently being underfunded – I donate!) Our family of 4 has traveled cross country twice and the landscape changes are alone are astounding. We have also done shorter trips (ie up the coast of Maine) or down to New Orleans and back. We have also been to Canada quite a few times, its gorgeous and friendly and cool in the summer, and close (if you are in the northern part of the country). I would love to go to Mexico too – its a bit farther from us. My husband and I are professors so while we make decent salaries, what we mostly have is time which I acknowledge is a huge gift. We have made these trips work with combinations of hotels, visiting friends and families and airbnbs. We also book early and try to pay early if we can so we can pay for lodging as we are booking about 6 mos prior and then pay for the food and experiences in the moment – its not cheaper, but it helps to not have the expenses all hit at once. On the cross country trips we would often have one city that was just a short stop over and for those sometimes we would last minute Priceline a hotel – its good for the price because you can pick the star level of the hotel, but the location was hit or miss.

Chiming in for visiting local grocery stores and trying to cook at home (airbnb or hotel kitchenette). Saves money on restaurants and big bonus, gives a fun cultural glimpse into the place you are visiting. We wandered the aisles of many a European grocery store as if they were a museum. So many new foods to see and try!

Go to the big destination city, but spend most of your time in a smaller town. We did this in Japan last summer and fell head over heels in love with Matsumoto, a smallish (by Japanese standards, we’re from Maine so everything is big, hah) city in the mountains. We got a whole house for less than what we paid for a Tokyo hotel room and spent all week doing normal people things, like going to an absolutely magical free playground, taking in holiday fireworks in the park, checking out smaller museums and, on one truly special day, our kids befriended a couple of local kiddos and we ended up spending the whole afternoon together. Now they’re pen pals!

I like renting canoes–usually it’s a flat fee no matter how many kids you throw in the bottom, and somehow the water (with drinks and snacks) is calming for all of us. It’s a unique way to see the nature of the place you’re in.

I’m single and love traveling solo – it’s lodging and flights that are my biggest expenses. In fact, they’ve almost doubled since the pandemic! I save on food because I eat only 2 meals a day. I like to eat a large breakfast after the breakfast rush and then eat my main meal around 3 in the afternoon. I do have snacks in my room for an evening treat.

Currently traveling in Europe with my family of 5 so I’m eating up the tips in this post and in comments! One of my newer hacks is using Kindred, a home exchange platform that allows you to stay in a stranger’s home just paying for cleaning on both ends. It makes staying in expensive cities much more affordable, feels like early days Airbnb and it’s been fun for my kids to stay in actual kids’ rooms. (Idk if I’m allowed to share links in comments so please edit this if not, but here’s my invite code that’ll get you 5 nights free: https://livekindred.com?invite_code=ali.pri )

Our favorite thing to do to save a little is to find a farmer’s market and stock up on fruits/veggies/snacks for the entirety of the vacation that are healthy, less expensive and more delicious than a grocery haul, and are a cheaper alternative to heavy breakfasts/snacks out. We let our kiddos decide on their fruits and make a game of making sure we eat everything we buy before it gets too ripe. It’s also a fun family activity and we usually find something interesting that’s local to the area like a special sweet treat or honey or jam or maple syrup!

Tangential but can we get a post on sandwiches?? I can’t bring myself to do lunch meat (the nitrates, sigh), pb&j is not a hit in my family, and i dont know what else to do for simple, filling sandwiches.

Similar to the library recommendation, we like to check out public pools on vacation. We save money on accomodations (prices are higher for ones with pools) and get to swim in interesting spots – most recently a midcentury Olympic-sized pool on the edge of the Rhône in Lyon, France!