Summer vacations offer a welcome break from the daily grind, providing a chance to recharge. However, rising travel costs can quickly strain your vacation budget. Thankfully, there are several ways to travel smarter and avoid or minimize the strain on your finances that a well-deserved vacation may bring. Here are some practical tips and tricks to help you enjoy a memorable and budget-friendly summer getaway:
Know Your Budget
While we don’t want to over-plan and lose the spontaneous and stress-free aspects of vacation, we also don’t want to come back stressed that we went over budget. Knowing your budget should be the first step in planning a trip.
- Understand your financial boundaries: Ensure your vacation costs don’t derail your bigger financial goals like retirement or buying a home.
- Do some research: Estimate costs for food, daily transportation, and activities in advance. This helps you budget for bigger expenses like lodging and airfare while staying within your total budget. Alternatively, work backward by determining how much you’ve spent on airfare and lodging and budget the rest accordingly. Finding ways to cut costs on things that are less important to you can add up.
Travel Smarter
Once your vacation budget is set, maximizing its value becomes key. Factors like timing, accommodation choices, and more can result in savings that allows your budget to go further. A few tips & tricks to consider when planning your trip:
- Good timing: When possible, avoid traveling on peak days and seasons like long weekends and spring break. Everything from hotels to Uber rides can be impacted by peak pricing and puts added strain on your budget. Weekdays tend to be less expensive across the board.
- Take advantage of membership discounts: If you’re a member of AAA, AARP, Costco, or any other programs that can get you better deals or discounts, make sure to keep that in mind and browse their websites to see if there are any discounts on car rentals, experiences and more.
- Look for credit card offers: Check for special offers or cash back rewards from your credit card and explore options to transfer points to travel partners for enhanced value. Certain credit cards have temporary promotions to transfer points with added bonus points.
- Explore alternatives: Consider non-traditional lodging options like Airbnb and transportation alternatives such as Turo for potential savings. Location choice, including off-airport car rentals and accommodations further from main attractions can also reduce costs.
Fly Smarter
Flight prices were way up after the pandemic when everyone was fulfilling their pent-up travel plans. Luckily, prices are mostly back to their pre-pandemic costs. However, if you’re visiting popular destinations at peak times, they’ll still likely be pretty high. Here are a few tips and tricks to help manage flight costs:
- Let the price choose your destination: If you’re flexible on location, you can browse different flight options to see where you get the most bang for your buck. This will put you in a better position to take advantage of flight deals or miles bonuses, and still go somewhere that interests you.
- Use your points and/or miles: Using credit card points to book travel through the card’s travel portal usually gives you the most value for your points, so it’s one of the best ways to use them. As mentioned earlier, explore your options to transfer points to travel partners like airlines for more value per point. This can also give you the option to combine your credit card points with any miles you have through a preferred airline.
- Compare options: Nowadays, it’s easier to compare all flight options for a given route with things like Skyscanner and Kayak. Not only is it a good idea to compare all flight options, but this also makes it easier to consider alternative routes and days. Can you save money by starting from a different airport? By leaving a day earlier or later? By not flying your preferred airline? By traveling a different time of year? Understand your options, then make an informed decision about what’s most important to you. You can also use these tools to set price alerts to capitalize on price drops.
- Plan ahead: While you can score some great deals on last minute airfare, it doesn’t always work out that way and isn’t a reliable way to plan a trip (flights sell out, prices don’t go down as much as you thought, and so on). When planning ahead, prices are typically lower. Tools like Google Flights and Hopper can help gauge price trends and determine the best time to book. If you’re booking far in advance, it may be a good idea to get a refundable fare or travel insurance. You can still monitor prices and may even be able to cancel for a refund and rebook at potential future lower prices.
Incorporating these budget-friendly travel hacks can enhance your vacation without breaking the bank. By carefully timing your trips, making smart choices about accommodations and transportation, and leveraging discounts and rewards programs, you can maximize your travel budget and enjoy more of what your destination has to offer. Whether you opt for non-traditional lodging or explore off-peak travel times, these strategies empower you to make the most out of every dollar spent, ensuring memorable and affordable adventures. If you’re unsure where to start or how much to spend on vacation without compromising your bigger financial goals, consider talking to your advisor who can provide personalized advice and strategies to help you manage your finances while enjoying your journeys.
Presented by Elizabeth Schleifer, CFP®
