Yup we’ve been away on vacation, so I thought I’d pass along some of my money saving ideas for a great vacation. My last posts on vacation savings are still getting comments and questions so I thought it might make a good topic.
We vacation differently than some people since most of our family live near us, so we don’t go away to visit family. Our goal is to visit all 50 states so we never go the same place twice, or at least we try not to repeat places. And that is why this year we ended up in Chicago. Just a place we’ve never been to before, within a reasonable driving distance, with LOTS of museums and things to see and do.
In fact there is so much to do here we’ve made it a two week vacation to make the drive here worthwhile(10hrs). Part of why it’s a good choice for a budget vacation is that we can go to nearly every museum for free with the use of our membership card from the Rochester Museum and Science Center. I always encourage friends to join the science museum and the zoo because they are part of a group of museums that allow members in for free or at a discount just by showing their ID card. Some of the places we are able to get in free include The Field Museum, famous for Sue, the T-rex skeleton, Adler Planetarium, Lincoln Park Zoo, Peggy Notebaert Nature Museum, Museum of Science and Industry, and the Chicago Children’s Museum. And on top of all that your membership is tax deductible.
Of course being in a big city makes parking VERY expensive! So we are staying outside of the city and driving to a L-train station and using public transport to get around. But even that can add up so to help keep those costs down you need to buy multiple day passes which let you ride the train and buses unlimited for up to 7 days at a time.
But our favorite thing to keep costs down that we have discovered over the years is to find an affordable rental house. I think the first time we discovered this is when our kids were just toddlers. Trying to get everyone to settle down and go to sleep in a tiny hotel room, every night, was no vacation! So one year when researching vacations we decided to go to Mystic Seaport, CT and I found a beach cottage for a week rental with 3 bedrooms for $1000 a week during the summer! In all honesty that is the most we’ve ever paid for a rental, usually we find something like where we are at for only $500-600 a week. Stick with me, that does sound expensive, but when you compare it to hotel rates it’s a bargain. And the place we are staying at has 2 BR, 1 Ba, living room, dining room, equipped kitchen, and a whole basement for the kids to play in. I brought all our breakfast food and meals I made ahead and froze, so we only have to pay for lunches out, and all I have to do is reheat our dinners so there’s little work making meals for me. So we end up saving lots of money on food. Plus we all sleep so much better in own rooms, and having space to move around without tripping over one another.
Interested? Here are some places to start your vacation home rental search:
www.vrbo.com
www.vacationrentals.com
www.homeaway.com
Or if you just google vacation home rental and the location you are looking at you can find some great deals. Last fall we went to Disney World and because it was off season we were able to rent a 4 br, 3ba house with a pool and hot tub for only $500 a week! We shared it with our in-laws which also helped bring down costs. Another tip is if you are in a place like a beach area that is driven by summer tourism you can look into realtor companies, lots of them also rent vacation homes for the summer.
