So we're back from our vacation...to Boston! We had a wonderful time there on (mostly) minimal cash.
Here's a few of the things we used to maximize our vacation dollar:
1. We got our room and flight on Travelocity. I've heard people complain about them, so cravat emperor, but we've always gotten amazing hotels for reasonable prices. We've had decent luck with the Priceline Name Your Own Price feature as well.
2. We did not rent a car. If you're traveling to a large enough city with subways, busses, etc, you ay not need one. By doing this we not only saved the rental fee, we also saved on parking fees. It would have cost $27 a day to park at our hotel! Instead we got an unlimited one week Charlie Card- at $15 each, it sure saved us a lot! For our longer side trips, we bought commuter rail passes.
3. We did not eat breakfast out. Instead, we made oatmeal in our room using our coffee maker. We also sometimes had lunch in- simple things like peanut butter sandwiches and Easy Mac (made using the coffeemaker) plus fruit. We also would eat leftovers from previous meals at restaurants.
4. We googled "Boston free attractions" and found this site. We plan to google "free attractions" for our future vacations as well!
5. We bought a Boston Entertainment book online. We got it cheap because the coupons are near their expiration, but even if we had paid full price it would have saved us money. This had buy one get one free for a lot of museums. There were also a lot of restaurant coupons that helped save money as well!
So why did we do all this? A friend of mine wanted to know why bother- after all, do we really need to be frugal on vacation? Isn't the reason we're frugal in the first place so we could have nice things like vacations?
Yes- it is. And a vacation that is one sacrifice after another is no fun. However, doing these things was not a sacrifice for us. We did these things so we could put our vacation dollar towards other things that we wanted to do! Because we saved money in the little things (eating breakfast in, not renting a car, etc) we were able to take in some of the more expensive attractions that we wanted to do. It's true that doing a few of these things would not cost all that much, but those little expenses add up!
Let's take a look:
An inexpensive breakfast at McDonald's would have cost us about $5 each, or $70 for the week.
The car would have run us about $25 a day (we always get compacts), or $175 for the week. To park it at our hotel would have added an additional $189 to that bill, without the cost of gas or anything else.
We saved around $75 in ticket fees using our Entertainment book.
That's $509, for very small sacrifices.
What did we do with that money instead?
We took a DUCK tour ($60 for us both). My husband visited the Science Museum ($15). I bought 12 pounds of clothes (about $18- replaced my winter coat too!). We ate at a few nice restaurants and ordered what we wanted, not what was inexpensive. (This alone added up quite a bit!) We went to Rhode Island to visit an old friend and see The Breakers. ($18 each to get in- expensive, but worth it!) We may not have been able to do these things if we had not make those other sacrifices.
How do you save money on small things so you have more for the big things on your trips?
4 comments:
Awesome post. So glad you were able to see our fair city - you covered many of the sites I have reviewed before on the UpTake Attractions Blog. I had not heard of that freeattractions site - will have to check that one out. It would be a nice addition to another post I just did on saving money on attractions - one of your tips here is something I mentioned too:
http://lifesnips.com/money-and-finances/142/10-ways-save-money-find-attractions/
I wish I'd found your blog before your trip - I could have steered you toward lots of fun things - but it sounds like you found plenty of great sites! And who would have thought that a coffee pot could provide such a variety of meals!
I love traveling to cities big and organized enough to have public transit. They also tend to have a lot of great stuff within walking distance - Washington DC was great that way, as is Chicago. We stayed in Los Angeles in May, and had to rent a car, but the Marina Del Rey/Venice Beach area was not bad for walking and we lucked out and pricelined a hotel that happened to have free parking.
I live in Massachusetts, and can't think of any other suggestions for your trip: you hit all the high points and missed all the tourist traps!
How do I save money when traveling? Buy airfare 6 weeks in advance (this is the sweet spot, earlier or later are both more expensive) and be flexible on dates. I've had good luck with AAA.com for car rentals. I've had good luck with "name your price" at Priceline for last minute buys (hotel and car rental), but I prefer the peace of mind of advance purchasing. I bring an empty water bottle into the airport, and refill it at drinking fountains through the trip.
A few years back we did a road trip and decided to "drive 'til we drop" the first night. Snagged a hotel guide from the rest area, and that really did have the best rates, much better than booking in advance and having to "push through " when we're tired. Again, the uncertainty bothered me but it worked out well in that case.
Double-checking that we've packed everything also saves money. I have gone on so many trips and forgotten underwear, pajamas, flip-flops, a toothbrush, Listerine.. a million things that are replaceable, and I did buy a replacement at full cost because I considered it essential.
You're going to laugh...I've lived in and around Boston my entire life and have never seen anyplace where you could buy clothes by the pound (admittedly, I don't tend to go north of Boston but I am trying to imagine where you went on the T). Where did you shop?
And you are right, there's so much to do on vacation, and in your own backyard, that doesn't need to totally break the bank!
Thanks.
Andrea
Thanks for the comments! The clothes by the pound place is called the Garment District- I just wrote a post about it and linked their website! Take the red line to Kendall- it's a few blocks from the stop. :)
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