How to Save When Planning a Vacation

My family and I take several "vacations" through out the year. Every one comments how we must be made of money since we travel so much. That is actually not the case. We are your average middle classed family, I just stretch every single penny.  When traveling, you have to prioritize. 

• Will there be things for the kids to do?
• Will what I spend in gas outweigh the good deal on the hotel room?
• How much money is there for food?

Things like that are very important. When people say vacation, usually an extravagant 10 day get away  is what comes to mind. My family does not vacation like that, so we can afford it more often. Every year for my wedding anniversary we go somewhere. Usually Sedona AZ but it has varied year to year. This year for my birthday we are planning a trip to Flagstaff AZ. Last year we took 3 vacations, and this is how I do it!

• Scour the internet for deals, NEVER pay full price on a hotel or activities. My main go-to site is Groupon, if I find nothing there I search Kayak. The room is for watching TV and sleeping, so it doesn't need to fancy. As long as its bug free, we can sleep in it. 
  
• For activities, if you can't find something on big name sites just Google it. You would be surprised the deals that are live on really small sites. For my first wedding anniversary, we did an ATV tour through the national forest. It was FUN but EXPENSIVE. We did not pay full price however. I Googled the name of the company followed by the term 'deals and coupons'. It took me fingering through a few pages but finally I stumbled across a deal that was 50% off, plus they offered two rider ATV's. Let's be real, my days of being one of the guys and riding dirt bikes has passed. I am a mom who works, writes, blogs, cleans, wipes butts, pays bills, goes to the store, makes sure everyone is fed and doesn't wear the same clothes for 3 days. I have completely forgotten how to drive one of those things. So we used our coupon and rented a two seat ATV. My husband drove and I basked in the glory of getting a good freakin' deal!
• Think of an area you'd like to visit and the things around it. For my trip to Flagstaff for example, I wanted to go somewhere with snow. I didn't care where it was exactly. My first destination was Sedona, but there was nothing reasonable. So I checked a few other places and found Flagstaff was a perfect fit for what we were looking for. Walking distance from cafes, skiing, hiking and the university and it was a killer price. 
• Bring most of your own food. This gets people every time. They bring little to no food, so they end up spending more on eating than they do on activities. My family always brings an ice chest of food and drinks and things that can be microwaved, then we eat out one time. Twice if we are staying for a long period of time. 
• Think of gas prices. Every new town you enter, the gas prices are different. How often are you stopping to fill up? How much of your vacation budget is that eating? My family rarely travels more than 200 miles from home base. It's far enough away to be different and exciting, yet close enough that we don't dwindle away our budget in our gas tank (or on airline tickets). Another bonus to this is in case of emergency you aren't thousand of miles, or even an ocean, away from home base. Since I have started having kids, this rule has REALLY come in handy. 
• Forget the electronics. We don't bring laptops, gaming consoles or anything else that isn't needed for our trip and we usually stay away from our cell phones. A vacation is only a vacation, if you take a break from things that stress you out! This has proven wonderful for us, we spend honest to goodness quality time together. We laugh and chit chat and really get to know one another. 
• Bring activities so you aren't going out every night. Yes I realize the point of a vacation is to have fun and take it easy, but in my household you can do that without spending bookoo bucks. We bring board games, card games, pens, paper and crayons so we can just hang out with a good movie on and play some go-fish in between snow ball fights. 
• Take advantage of the free breakfast, juice and coffee. What is the difference between a free bagel and coffee, and a $10 bagel and coffee across the street? Nothing, besides the price. Heck, if you want to get really thrifty, you can go back down right before breakfast is over and if there is anything left snag them. Bagels and dry cereal make great snacks for the little ones later on in the day. 

This sounds like a really tightwad way to vacation, I know, and if you like to bathe in the luxuries of life then these tips may not be for you. But if you are merely looking for a break and quality time with the loved ones, then definitely take these tips into consideration. We absolutely love vacationing this way and it makes it possible to do it more often. 

A few photos from previous vacations, tell me these don't look like fun places to escape!