When we discuss travel plans with friends or family, the one question that comes up almost every time is "How do you afford to travel so much?" To be fair, the first two years of traveling we had no mortgage, no car payments, no kids. We were just two young professionals with disposable incomes! We are still kid free but the other two conditions are no longer true and including that cheap factor is more important now than ever! We've always tried to find the best deals, whether it's discounted hotel stays, traveling off-season, or weekday stays as opposed to weekends. However, in recent years, sites like Groupon and Living Social have included amazing deals that can make traveling affordable. With that in mind, here are four top tips we use every time we plan a vacation.
Tip 1: check hotel websites frequently Don't be afraid to use hotel's direct websites. I know media feeds us services like hotels.com and kayak.com but sometimes, just checking out specific hotel sites can score you some great deals. When we found Gansevoort Turks + Caicos we stalked their website for a good month to see what they offer and we happened upon a deal of 30% off our entire stay! Same with Planet Hollywood in Las Vegas, 30% off! Las Vegas was a little tricky though, more on that in Tip 3. Often times, resorts just want to fill their rooms and booking directly through them can save you some serious cash! Tip 2: Cyber Monday isn't just for great stocking stuffers Going back to that deal through Gansevoort Turks + Caicos, we scored that trip by booking our stay on Cyber Monday. Now, we knew that they were amenable to online deals thanks to all of our use of Tip #1 and when Cyber Monday rolled around, we cashed in. Since we had more than 6 months before we wanted to travel, we had time to be patient and wait for the deal, but we also pulled the trigger the second the deal was available. Just like so much in life, timing is everything, so being aware and being ready can snag you great online savings. Tip 3: Travel at off times I think this tip has been through the ringer but it is a tried and true method to saving money on airfare and hotel stay. I know, I know, this is way more difficult depending on where you are in life. Some jobs don't allow you to just take off whenever. And others might have families with children in school or involved in sports. But some of the best deals we've ever scored were because we had no predetermined time frame on when we traveled. Up in Tip 1, I mentioned we scored 30% off our stay at Planet Hollywood in Las Vegas. This happened because PH was offering discounted rooms for Monday-Thursday stays. Again, even though PH was just trying to fill rooms, we still had incredible accommodations. We were on a relatively high floor and had a strip facing room with a view looking right across to the Bellagio. We actually watched the water ballet a few times from our hotel room! Tip 4: Be Flexible We have a world map hanging in our house, yes a literal printout of every country on the globe, and there are pins in this map in countries to which we will one day travel. The funny thing is, to date, we haven't been to any of these must-go locales. We knew we wanted to go on a vacation and looking through Groupon and Living Social, we found some awesome deals for trips to South America and the Dominican Republic, which we took because they were almost too good to be true. These trips ended up being so incredible, that we now can't imagine places like Rio or Reykjavik not being bucket-list destinations. Sometimes, going anywhere rather than somewhere in particular can allow you to go to more places to which you never expected to go. To us, these are the most useful tips and tricks for traveling frequently and affordably. However, we know we aren't the only ones vacationing on a shoe-string budget. If you have any advice of your own, please share in the comments below! Until next time, C + D
2 Comments
Jenna Perpar
1/6/2015 07:12:08 am
I'm really enjoying reading this! Looking forward to hearing more about Reykjavik!
Reply
Danielle Baumgartner
1/6/2015 10:52:25 am
Thanks Jenna! I'm looking forward to that post too! It'll make it on here eventually!
Reply
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorChase & Dani here, providing Categories
All
Archives
April 2024
|