vacation — Beating Broke

Take an Off Season Fall Vacation and Save Big

August 20, 2012 By MelissaB 6 Comments

The summer is rapidly drawing to a close, and you may think that your summer vacation window is closing. However, if you are looking to take a trip on the cheap, now is the perfect time to take a late summer vacation and save some serious money.

For many destinations, the summer is the top vacation season. Families pack up and take road trips to a variety of locations. Once school begins, tourism drops off significantly. In fact, “The Travel Industry Association says that 38 percent of trips are taken during the summer; the number drops sharply to 23 percent in fall” (MSNBC.com).

You can take advantage of this drop off by scoring better rates and benefiting from thinning crowds. Here are some trips you may want to consider:

Take a trip to the beach—in September. This isn’t possible for everyone, but if you don’t yet have children or you home-school, September may be the perfect time to hit the beach. It is still warm, but the crowds have left and you benefit from discounted rates. Great destinations include beaches on the coast of North Carolina or even Key West, where the prime tourist season doesn’t ramp up until November and December.

Visit Mickey—Take a trip to Disneyland. Disneyland can be very expensive, but if you plan a trip in the fall, you will benefit from reduced rates and shorter to no lines for rides. The trade off is that the park closes earlier and that there may not be as many shows being performed. However, I will take that trade off if it means I will save a few hundred dollars on accommodations and will save time not waiting in line!

family vacation camping

Take a trip to the big city—Cities also experience a drop in tourism after the crisp fall weather sets in. While New York City, Chicago and Miami may be prohibitively expensive in the summer months, hotels often discount their rates in the fall, making a trip to the city a bit more affordable. Most of the big city locales, regardless of location around the country, still have relatively comfortable weather. In Chicago and New York City, you don’t generally have to worry about biting cold weather and snow at least until November, leaving you the entire fall to enjoy.

Go big guns and visit Europe—I made the mistake of traveling in Europe in August, and it was packed and expensive. Unbeknownst to me, many Europeans have August off and vacation with their families in addition to all of the travelers who come from outside Europe. Save yourself money and the need to fight the crowds by traveling to Europe in the fall. The only drawback? You may have to deal with some rain (or sometimes a lot of rain), especially if you are traveling to a Mediterranean country. You can defeat this drawback in part by scheduling museum days and other indoor attractions for the rainy days.

While the dog days of summer may be past us, there is still plenty of warmth left. Take advantage of the lovely fall weather to take an off season vacation and save some serious money.

_{img credit: librarygroover, on Flickr.}

Going on Trips with Fido (and other Pets)

July 11, 2011 By Shane 5 Comments

When you take a trip that’s going to last over night or longer, and you have pets, you are faced with a decision to make. You’ve either got to find somewhere for your pet to stay or take your pet with you. If you don’t have a family member or friend that will watch your pet for you while you’re gone, you’re faced with finding a kennel or pet hotel to put your pet into until your return. Anyone who has boarded a pet will know that it isn’t a budget friendly thing to do. The frugal thing to do is to take your pet with you on your trip whenever possible.

Taking trips with your pets can be just as cringe-worthy for those without any experience in doing so. When we went on a week-long trip recently, I was more nervous about taking our dog with us than I was about any other part of the trip. The longest trip we’d ever taken the dog on was a two-hour ride, and the trip we were taking was an 8-9 hour trip followed by another 7-8 hour trip the next day and then doing it all over again at the end of the vacation. There was even a hotel stay on the way and one back. When it was all said and done, there was very little to worry about with the dog. He was a champ! (that’s him below) I thought I might share a few things that I learned about traveling with animals with you.

Hotels. I had this huge preconceived notion that there were very few hotels that would allow a dog in the hotel. I was kinda wrong. While many of the nicer hotels don’t allow pets, many of the more budget friendly (not dives) hotels will usually allow a pet for a small nightly deposit or fee. Some, like Kelly Inns, are extremely pet friendly and allow pets for no charge. If you know what city you are going to end up in for the night, do a little research and find a pet friendly hotel ahead of time. Then make reservations. We did this on our way to our destination. On the way back, we didn’t know where we were going to stop, but I was able to use the browser on my smart phone from the road to find and make reservations at a pet friendly hotel. Once you’re in the hotel, remember that your pet is in a strange place and will likely experience some anxiety if you all leave the room without your pet. If your pet doesn’t handle anxiety well, plan to leave your pet in your car while your away from the room. Many of the pet friendly hotels will have policies against leaving your pet unattended in the room because animals that have anxiety problems tend to take it out by chewing and digging. Both are bad for hotel furniture and carpet.
Riding Room. Your pet is going to need somewhere to sit. Don’t overpack to the point where you have to push and shove so that your dog can sit on top of the pile of luggage. If you wouldn’t be at least slightly comfortable riding there, neither will your pet. Different pets will have different requirements. In our case, we took a big comfy blanket and laid it out in the back of our Suburban for a bed for our dog. He then squeezed himself in between the two child seats on the bench seat and rode with his backside on the seat and his head on the console between the two front seats. Once you’ve taken a few longer trips with your pet, you’ll likely get a feel for where he/she likes to ride and be able to adjust accordingly. Once we figured out our dog wasn’t going to ride in the back on the blanket, we just made sure he had a path from the back to the seat without climbing over all the luggage and left it at that.
Food and water. Most importantly, make sure you bring plenty of food with you. If you’ve got the room, bring a bowl too that you can just leave out in the car or in your hotel room. Everybody’s schedule is likely going to be a bit screwed up, so your pet might not adhere to it’s normal eating schedule. Water is a bit trickier since it’s a bit harder to contain and still make available. What we found to work pretty well is to have a bowl and a large bottle that we could cap to hold the water. Whenever we stopped, we’d pour a bit of water into the bowl for our dog to drink then could pour out the extras from the bowl back into the bottle or onto the ground and not have to worry about spills.
Entertainment. If you’ve ever traveled with kids, you know that entertainment for the trip is of utmost importance. It’s not as important for pets, but it can be very helpful. Bring along a few of your pets toys for him/her to play with at your destination. A favorite chew bone for in the hotel, and a ball to fetch at our final destination for instance.
Potty breaks. Unless your pet is really, really good about telling you when it needs to relieve itself, you’ll want to schedule regular breaks for a quick walk. Our dog is pretty good about this and is used to going 4-8 hours without going outside during the work week, so he was pretty good on our trip. He’s also a big dog, so has a larger capacity than some smaller pets will. If your pet is asking outside frequently at home, he/she will likely still need breaks during your trip that are nearly as frequent. We found that anytime we stopped for gas, taking our dog over to a grassy area did the trick. Most interstate rest areas have an area to take your pets to.

Taking trips with pets can be a stress inducing idea, but if you take the proper precautions, it can also be very rewarding. It can also be easier on the pet that would have to stay at a boarding kennel otherwise. We’re glad we took our dog with us. I know he enjoyed being with us and playing up in the mountains with us. As an added bonus, he turned out to be a bit of entertainment for the kids too. Just like anything else, planning can make or break your trip. So take the time to plan ahead, and take your pet with you on your next trip.

Photo Credit:Thatedeguy on Flickr

Ask for the Special

January 24, 2011 By Shane 4 Comments

I’m not a very outgoing person. I have a hard time going up to people I’ve never met. I have a hard time even talking to people I’ve never met. So, I have a very hard time following the old advice that you have to ask for the real discount. Luckily, not everything has to be done in person, so I can send emails for some things. Which is exactly how I proved that old adage true.

For Christmas, instead of receiving gifts from all of our relatives, we asked them to put in the money that they would normally have spent to a mini-vacation fund for us. We all have set spending limits for our Christmas presents, so it was pretty easy for them to do that. Then, we took a nice little weekend trip the day after Thanksgiving.

We wanted someplace nice that would be within the budget, but would still count as a vacation. In other words, Super 8 just wasn’t going to cut it. We had originally settled on one place, but, being the curious fella that I am, I kept looking for a better deal. And, as luck would have it I found one. In fact, for what it would have cost us for one night at the original place, we stayed for two at the next place. And, if you want my honest opinion, I think the place I found was a lot nicer. How did we get such a deal? I asked for it.

Simple really. I emailed the manager who was listed on the website. He forwarded my email on to the guy in charge of reservations. In my email, I simply told him what days we were planning on staying, and asked if there were any specials that would be active for that weekend. At this point, he could have easily just said no. But, he didn’t. And he earned a customer.

The place was very nice. (Here’s a link and a picture of the living room area if you’re curious: Chase on the Lake, I highly recommend it.) They called the room we stayed in a “condotel”. Basically, it was a two bedroom, two bathroom, suite with a full kitchen and living room. Everything was way above the typical standards that we have for a hotel room. Overall, it was incredible. We spent the whole weekend relaxing (kid-free, thanks to Grandma) and came home refreshed.

We would have gone on the trip in any case. But, because I asked for the special, it became a lot cheaper than we had planned on it being. And, if we plan on doing it again (we will), I think we’ve found our place. Next time you’re making plans for a trip, or just trying to buy something special, make sure you at least ask for a special. You might just surprise yourself and get one!