After kids we don't really travel. Many of the tricks we used don't work as well with little ones in tow. None of these make travel free but they can make traveling to interesting places cheaper than many more common vacations.
Some favorites tricks (we even did these on our honeymoon):
(1) My parent's favorite trick that DH and I follow: Watch for travel advisories. Airfare prices can drop dramatically if the state department says not to go there. (especially if it's last minute travel for a fairly new advisory so the airlines haven't adjusted their flight schedules yet.) This requires knowing if the travel advisory is relevant for you. Don't just run around war zones willy nilly.
(2) Book first and last night's stay before flying (so you know you can make your flight). For all other accommodations, show up and negotiate on site. If you are off season or at a time with an unexpected drop in occupancy you can get a good deal.
(3) Figure out your non-negotiables, and what you are willing to give up. A private bathroom is on my preferred list but not mandatory. Air conditioning is on my "not worth it" list. I will not sleep in a hammock in a common area. A locking door to my sleeping space was always a non-negotiable when traveling abroad alone as a single woman.
(4) take local public transport. And not the fancy option. In fact, do as locals for lots of little things.
(5) Walk instead of take a cab or bus. At a lot of key locations, there can be a steep mark up for a few crucial miles. You can save a lot by using your feet.
(6) Look for obscure deals.
As you can see, that isn't kid friendly travel planning. It requires a lot of flexibility and you have to be ready for set backs.
(Now I'm much less willing to hike a border to a new country, no hostel reservation on the other side, just hope the last cheap bus out of town hasn't left yet and we can sleep on the way to wherever it goes).
As in, I estimate costs and then save for 2-4 years in advance to go on a trip.
Disclaimers: I don’t have kids, I don’t stay in fancy accommodations, I am currently making good money (has not always been the case).
Also… I just don’t think the travel lifestyle absorbed here (and wherever else maybe it’s coming from) is realistic. Growing up We didn’t go on vacations as a kid, we’d drive 24 to the mid west to spend a couple of weeks with my dads family. I thought if I ever went overseas on vacation it’d be a once in a lifetime maybe twice in a lifetime kind of deal like a big anniversary trip.
I moved to NYC and got a job that paid fairly well and I was bowled over by the travel and luxury culture there. Coworkers casually going on weekend trips to Barcelona because they found a good points deal on something, or the weeks long trips to India, etc.
I love to travel, I’ve been amazed to have been as many places as I have, that I’d never expected, and I still don’t remotely compare to a lot of people I know currently, AND ALSO for environmental reasons and personal economic reasons, I don’t aspire to the same level of travel. I get a lot of enjoyment out of lower impact more local travel as well.
I don’t really have any words of wisdom, because we can’t afford glamorous trips or international travel, unless it’s via a cruise or all-inclusive.
But I definitely think the sample on this board is $kewed.
I agree, the $implest answer is money. People will talk about travel being their passion and prioritizing that as a line item in their budget. In reality a lot of people don't have the ability to even have travel in their budget. I tend to avoid these threads because the answer really is money.
big picture - yes. But i think of my parents. After i was out of the house, they started saving and for a number of years, they took 2-4 week trips to Europe for many summers in a row. Their adventures - I’m so jealous. They had some amazing trips (not fancy/.luxury - just great locations).
They were both public school employees. Did not make a ton of money and there is definitely no inherited family money to buffer it. It did, of course, help that it was just the two of them. No kids. But it was all savings and priority.
We are in our 40s so prob in the prime of earning potential. Also have now paid off SL and other stuff to make it affordable. We also have older adolescent kids. So no more daycare and big expenses. We live in a moderate COL area.
We are just moderate travelers. It is a line item and priority. We make other sacrifices. . I am driving a 2012 vehicle and H a 2008 for example . But we will take 3 trips this year.
Also full disclosure this year I will come into some money via a trust from my grandpa. I don’t have access to it yet. But I am earmarking some of the future income to subsidize travel. My kids have limited time left in my house. Must maximized .
I have no lessons lol. Just in the past 5 years has this become easier.
We travel a lot and are very privileged to be able to do so, but it has certainly changed now that we have kids. Right now flights are also ridiculously expensive.
My number one tip is to find a discount somewhere and figure out why I want to go there. We were able to go to both Australia and New Zealand because I found ridiculously cheap airfare. (This is more difficult now)
I am not a credit card churner, but I do a new card ~ once a year when I get a good sign up bonus and use those points for our travel. Contrary to a lot of people I am not loyal to one hotel company, I book well rated hotels where I can get a good deal. Since I will never make the elite status saving money on the hotel is more important than an upgrade.
Post by mccallister84 on Jan 27, 2023 7:31:20 GMT -5
The southwest chase card has been a game changer for us. Since 2020 we’ve earned the companion pass (yes right in time to go nowhere) but we haven’t paid for flights for the 4 of us since early 2019.
We didn’t think we’d be able to earn the companion pass after the initial sign up bonus but each year it’s worked out - sometimes with a bit of a crazy adventure. So last year there was an offer during the spring that if you paid for and took a flight they would give you 50,000 points towards the companion pass. So I found the cheapest flight I could and flew to Albany for less than $150 rountrip one Wednesday in May. I spent about 40 minutes in the airport and got right back on the plane I had flown up on for the 1 hour flight back home. I made it back to my house for lunch. We are flying 4 times this year and now H flies for free with me (no points or money needed beyond fees) so well worth the $150 spent.
One other thought: shit is just really expensive right now. I don’t know if it will ever go back down. Every “normal” trip I price out ends up being 10K. We’re trying to plan something special for my H’s 40th this year and it has gone from France to Hawaii to a cross-country train to a road trip to, “Maybe we’ll have a bbq in the back yard?”
Ok, not that bad, but everything is $$$$$.
Literally how we landed on a cruise. We really wanted a beach trip. First we looked at Kauai and laughed and laughed at the airfaire. Then we looked at the Bahamas. Better but still like $900 per person to fly. We loved on to no flying trips real quick after that.
The honest answer is basically I put it on credit cards and don't always pay it off immediately. Lol. I don't carry huge balances or anything, but sometimes it takes a few months for them to get fully paid off if its a more expensive trip with flights, etc.
Ex, I booked flights to California on a CC that I've had for years that has a ridiculously low APR and we'll pay it off when we get our tax refund.
We do not earn incomes like some on this board (yay public education) so our travels are mainly to the beach or to CA to visit my brother and his family, which we can't really afford to do more than every couple of years.
Post by mrsukyankee on Jan 27, 2023 7:38:45 GMT -5
Our credit card is tied to an airline and we try to use that airline exclusively so we can get free companion tickets. It's also quite inexpensive, relatively, to fly to areas in Europe from London (our return flight to Venice cost around £120). Me trying to get to the States to visit my mom in Albuquerque? God awful expensive, even when flying coach. We don't travel a lot compared to some people on here, but as two people in their 50s with no kids and no mortgage, we have more money than most to be able to travel if we want (we're choosing to travel less this year and redo two bathrooms).
Post by midwestmama on Jan 27, 2023 7:56:15 GMT -5
DH and I both have good salaries, and typically, we use bonus money. DH and I both are eligible for decent bonuses (low 5 figures), and while we divide bonus money among other things, such as home repairs/improvements, giving to charities, and paying down the mortgage, we do prioritize some of the money to use toward 1 family trip.
This summer we're hoping to take a trip to Germany, but making it more affordable by attaching it to a work trip I'll go on. (DH and our kids will meet me in Germany at the end of the week of my work trip.) My flights will be paid for, so that helps save some money.
We also have teens, so are more bound by school and sports schedules, so have to travel during $$$ travel times too.
Growing up, we didn't go on any big fancy or international trips. Any big trip we took was either because my dad had a conference to go to, or one time we went to visit my grandparents in Florida (they were snowbirds and had a seasonal place there), and we always drove. Both my parents worked, but didn't have the jobs/salaries that DH and I do. The last few years have put a lot into perspective, and DH and I would like our kids to have more experiences rather than things, so we're going to take at least 1 family trip a year.
Like a lot of others in this thread, we don't have kids. We also prioritize travel and have always lived well below our means. We have always been self employed which allows us a lot of flexibility in when we travel. Of course, that also means we don't have paid vacation time either.
The biggest factor, though, is that we travel on a budget. We will often choose a location based on low airfare. We've also churned credit cards at times and have used points for several business class flights. We also choose locations where the dollar goes a long way. We've done a lot of Latin America. We stay in inexpensive hotels or airbnbs. I scour the reviews to find us low cost places that are nice. We don't eat fancy except for a couple of nice dinners. We do a lot of walking tours. We take public transportation. We don't rent a car unless it is a location where you really need one.
The one area where I have started to splurge is to buy premium economy tickets on flights over 6 hours.
Post by expectantsteelerfan on Jan 27, 2023 8:27:50 GMT -5
This thread is fascinating to me. Only in the past few years have we moved into a position to be able to afford to travel, but due to school/work schedule, we're lucky if we can fit in one trip a year even though we could afford more. I can't imagine ever considering myself someone 'well-traveled' even though that's the dream.
Post by karinothing on Jan 27, 2023 9:08:15 GMT -5
Mainly we are just privileged but we do 1-2 trips a year with friends to split lodging costs and then we spend a year building points so every other year we get free trips.
Also, and the main thing, we have a very affordable mortgage.
We have some debt but after we knock that out, I’m hoping to travel more. We’re lucky that we have a decent household income.
We’re taking a cruise next year, which still feels fancy to me, in part because of a larger than expected tax return this year, partly because we’re renting out our basement, and partly because of my part-time job.
One of the reasons I wanted to host exchange students is that if I couldn’t afford to travel the world, I could afford to bring the world to us!
One other thought: shit is just really expensive right now. I don’t know if it will ever go back down. Every “normal” trip I price out ends up being 10K. We’re trying to plan something special for my H’s 40th this year and it has gone from France to Hawaii to a cross-country train to a road trip to, “Maybe we’ll have a bbq in the back yard?”
Ok, not that bad, but everything is $$$$$.
It’s insanely expensive! Our youngest is 4 and just now getting to the age I consider “acceptable in public” lol. We are planning our first big trip since 2019. We wanted to do universal again but I can’t get it under $6500 and that’s before food and transport so it’s off the table.
We are locked into the school schedule breaks since my oldest is in middle school and I’m not interested in pulling her. Things we are doing: - opening a new card with great points - picking a destination based solely on price - playing with days of the week that a cheaper (Tuesday to Saturday is looking better than other combos) - flying at awful times lolsob - making a trip our priority over summer camps this year
I want to make an annual trip a priority going forward but I know it’s going to be much more local over exotic locations and I’m fine with that.
Yes! We are on the west coast so going to Hawaii is an easy trip. We would go to Maui once or twice a year. I haven’t gone since covid and looked up the hotel we just stayed in 2020. It is now $1,300 a night for a normal room! (Grand wailea). Faints.
I’ve read that Hawaii hotels have gotten so expensive because supply hasn’t kept pace with demand. People stopped traveling internationally during covid (in part because we had no choice), and started going to Hawaii instead. As a result, airlines started flying bigger planes on those routes and cut fares, further driving up demand. Meanwhile, Hawaii has been facing the same labor shortages as everywhere else.
But, yes, everything is extremely expensive these days. I remember using my $1,300 tax refund in 2007 for a 10-day trip to Spain and Portugal. I don’t think $1,300 would even cover the airfare these days (certainly not during peak season.) The one caveat is that the dollar is kicking ass right now so once you get somewhere abroad it can be comparatively cheap.
We just looked at the GW for Christmas. Stayed there in 2019. It's now $14k for 5 nights. And that is probably for a room overlooking the dumpsters in the parking lot.
Definitely privilege- H and I both had scholarships that covered college, so started with no loans. We skew on the lower end of income compared to the board I’m guessing, but you still have to have room in your budget after you pay for essentials to be able to travel at all. With ours, we prioritize travel instead of car payments, I’m not a shopper for myself, etc. I only work 10-15 hours a week normally, but during my busy time I do more at nights and that extra goes straight to the vacation fund.
For flights, both H and I churn credit cards for points and even with four kids haven’t paid for a flight in quite a while. Chase Sapphire Reserve is good, and one of us always has a Southwest cc and refers the other to get extra points. We haven’t done overseas trips with the kids yet, but do Disney and other various domestic locations every year.
The main answer is that we have an upper middle class income & no debt. I am, however, very cheap. Some thoughts:
-Early planning. I plan multiple trips, often years in advance, & then book the one that I can get the best deal on. People laugh at me but I often book 10+ months out. I find airfare is cheapest then & I can snag the Airbnbs or cabins that are in the best location for price. (We are outdoorsy so a lot of what we do on trips is experiencing nature for free/cheap). I once got non stop, round trip airfare to London for $500!
-use skyscanner or similar, have destination be “everywhere “ & sort on price
-we still cook on vacation. We stay in places w kitchens & do a lot of “prepared” food (like maybe stuffed flounder from fish monger w a salad & bread) so it’s easy but still local. In part, it’s cheaper but in part I’m fairly exhausted at day’s end & just want to be in PJs. We typically only eat out at lunch.
-CC. I don’t have the bandwidth to churn but we do save up points (I have cap one venture) to erase large travel purchases making $$$ less expensive.
And definitely lean into trips that you can drive to especially if you’ll need a car there anyways. During the pandemic, we finally visited a lot of awesome state parks for long weekends & then, when we were comfortable, did longer drives to some National Parks for week long vacations. All fun, enriching experiences that were a fraction of any trip getting on a plane!
We are DINKs in LCOL, so that helps a ton. I never traveled as a kid - “vacation” was camping for a weekend in a nearby state park maybe three times my entire childhood. So it’s important to me to do it now.
We do use a Chase Sapphire card for things that earn extra points - travel, eating out, Lyft, etc. I also travel for work 4-6 times a year, so those expenses go on Chase to be reimbursed and I earn some hotel and airline points that way. To help build up points, I always stay at a Marriott property if possible, and will almost exclusively fly Southwest or United.
We don’t have kids, but I do work in academia and teach 1-2 semesters a year, so I’m tied to a class schedule as well, but not as strictly as I imagine K-12 being. One thing I’ve found is that it’s less expensive to travel to Europe over Thanksgiving. We’ve done that three times now and flights are lower than other times and lower than domestic at that time. With the time off for the holiday, we can usually be gone two weeks and only use 4 or 5 days vacation leave.
We usually stay in Airbnbs so we can have some basics like coffee, breakfast, snack items, etc at the place instead of eating out. We also will almost always use public transportation wherever we are instead of renting a car, cabs, etc.
Isn't that the truth? Honestly, for us kids have been a much bigger barrier than finances.
When I met DH he was spending the summer after first year med school in Guatemala. His plane ticket was paid by a medical study he was participating in and his lodging costs were covered by subletting out his SF basement room (in a code violating house with pigeons living in the "indoor" stairwell). All together it cost him less than staying in town would have. I was spending the summer there on the money I'd saved off of my $6,000/year salary at the time (I was already living in Central America and was able to get a special $60 plane fare as a teacher).
We now could drop that entire $6,000 on a "once in a lifetime" trip if we wanted. (we have been saving). I recently found something to Egypt that fit in that range for our family of four to celebrate DH's 50th. It would have been our first big trip in 15 years and only our second trip ever in that price range. But traveling with kids is a completely different thing, and not just because it's more expensive. The chances and compromises I was willing to take solo are vastly different than now. In the end I couldn't pull the trigger.
My parents pay. They much prefer traveling with us and their only grandkid. I realize my unique situation, but it is what it is today.
We save for it. We booked our universal trip almost a year ahead because it was our first big post Covid trip and I went for a $$$ hotel to get express pass.
We don’t take a lot of trips. One a year besides a couple driving long weekends. We do have a vacation home we don’t rent, so there is the feel of having to use it enough to justify having it.
We haven’t gone international outside of cruising.
Also, I am a LAZY traveler. I am more than happy to park myself on a cruise ship for a week and do some excursions and snorkeling. Or doing an amusement park for 4 days.
My international travel anxiety is pretty high. I need to get over it, but it’s there. I did go to Ireland, London, and Paris with my mom almost 20 years ago, but my mom planned everything.
When I posted this question before, not on this board, I got a lot of answers on how their parents or relatives pay for that trip. Since it has only been mentioned in one post in this thread, I thought I would mention it again. If you see a large group family trip on social media, yeah it is possible that everyone split everything evenly, but also equally possible that they drove and then the matriarch/ patriarch paid for the lodging and/ or possibly airline tickets also.
I don't think we talk enough about generational wealth, and not just that generational wealth but also the kind where people graduate with no student debt because their parents paid for college, etc. Since we are in the Midwest, everyone around here has a lake house. But what they don't say is that the lake house is their parents' house that they go to for free, or that they inherited it. No one has actually bought their own lake house. Its all part of that generational wealth that people claim as their own wealth.
Post by definitelyO on Jan 27, 2023 10:49:16 GMT -5
My first trip outside of North America was Africa. Our friends owned a safari company and lived in Tanzania - so aside from our flights our 10 day trip cost us $1,500 - we did it on the cheap - but still AH-MAZING! tent camped, etc.. no luxury 5 star resorts and no hot air balloons - but I don't regret a thing.
My next international trip was to Thailand with a flight attendant friend - we flew non-rev and used points for Bangkok hotels and then everything else was pretty cheap to be honest.
But now a lot of my international trips are tied to work and I add on time for myself - so the flights are paid by the company - hotel and incidentals by me.
otherwise for family trips - we don't do a lot of international family trips - Curacao for our honeymoon and Costa Rica 5 years ago. We saved and also used my work bonus and I feel that we make good money and our only debt is mortgages. Our family trips are w/in the states - so those are often less expensive and involve travel to or with family.
This thread is fascinating to me. Only in the past few years have we moved into a position to be able to afford to travel, but due to school/work schedule, we're lucky if we can fit in one trip a year even though we could afford more. I can't imagine ever considering myself someone 'well-traveled' even though that's the dream.
This too. Summer is my busy season at work. I can take a week, but that is about it. For Christmas break, most of my co-workers are off, so I cover for them, so that is out too. I suppose I could swing January before they go back to school, but with the holidays on the weekends my co-workers all had 2 floating holidays to take off, and some even have 4 floating holidays. All need to be used between Dec 1 and Jan 31.
So that leaves us Thanksgiving break (which is also a problem for work coverage, everyone fights for the day after Thanksgiving off), Spring break which miraculously is fine for me to take off and one summer vacation.
DS is in middle school and making up work takes a really long time. I really don't want to take him out of school. During the daycare years we could go to Florida randomly in February. That doesn't work anymore with the school schedule.
Also if you want a job that travels well international non profits are where it’s at. I’ve been to soooo many places I never would have seen if not for small random field offices. LOL
Yes! I work for a global professional association and have been to seven countries and probably 12 or so states for our conferences.
Beyond that, the way we travel is: 1. I sometimes travel with my mom so we only pay for me (H loves hiking trips, so we typically do our own thing every other year where he hikes one long weekend or week for almost free, and I go somewhere with my mom one week for just the cost of me—different weeks so we take turns watching the kids). 2. ILs live near Disney World so we can do WDW without the cost of hotel, plus drive to beaches and other theme parks 3. We waited. Very little travel happened with two in daycare. One ended daycare and we finally had more of a travel budget. Daycare ends totally this year so we’re able to take a bigger trip this year.
The people I know who travel extensively often have parents who pay for their trips (they travel with the parents and the parents pay for everything) or they have travel heavy jobs that give them tons and tons of points. Or they make a gazillion dollars.
This board is definitely not a microcosm of my real life. I travel way more than most of my IRL friends, but way less than a lot of GBCNers.
Post by chilerellanos on Jan 27, 2023 11:06:45 GMT -5
I haven’t traveled much lately, because my entire life changed like 5 years ago when I went through a divorce and became a single mom, and then Covid, and a lot of work.
But when I was married, we just saved a lot to take a trip with the kids every 1-2 years.
Now, I just tag along with my bf on his work/jump trips when my schedule allows. So that helps, because even though I pay for my airfare, his job pays for our hotel and rental car.
My kids are older now, so when I take a trip with them now, it would likely look a lot different than when we did WDW or universal a lot.
I do have CC that I utilize, and it helps, but definitely doesn’t pay me to travel.
We usually do long weekends to driveable locations, and stay with credit card points. I have an IHG card for the points, which includes Holiday Inns. They aren't the fanciest, but kids eat free for all meals at most locations, and there is a free breakfast for everyone. I would say we do 1-3 of those a year. (both kids birthdays, plus maybe one other). We are fortunate that a lot of big vacation areas are easy drives for us (NYC, the beach, DC).
We did a big trip last summer that involved flying, renting a car, and multiple air bnbs. Honestly, at some point I just said "fuck it" about the cost and blindly put things on credit cards. We were kind of locked into the trip by the time I realized that it was going to go way over my planned budget, so we just went with it. But we will most likely not do another trip like that, maybe ever? We only have a few more summers before my son leaves for college or potentially the military, and I doubt we will have the funds to do another trip on that level as a family before he graduates.
This summer our vacation is a driveable destination, and we are sharing a house with friends. We may do 1 or 2 things while we are there, but for the most part will hang at the house, swim in the lake, ride bikes. It will be very low cost to make up for overdoing it last year.
After last summer's trip, I have also recognized that only me and my son like big trips anyway. I have work trips to fun places in 2024 and 2025 (Ireland and Japan), and hope to take just my son. With my flight and hotel covered, it will be a deal to do the whole trip for just the cost of DS's flight.
I am considering a long weekend flying trip with DS this summer, but will only do it if it will be mostly free with credit card points and airline miles that I earned from my work trips the past couple years.
Another "trick" that I use is that we book fairly far in advance and pay for things gradually. So for example on our upcoming trip to Turkey at the end of May, we used points for our flights (that were gathered from everyday bills/purchases, we do not have jobs that involve travel or any related perks). I think that resulted in around $300 out of pocket for our round trip airfare, including a flight in-country. We did this in October. In the interim, we picked airBNBs and paid deposits on them, the balance is due shortly before we travel. Last week I booked our hot air balloon ride (which was a HUGE splurge and not our normal type of activity!). Sometime in the next couple of months we'll make a reservation for the Turkish bath we plan to visit, buy tickets to see a show that we're planning on (around $20 pp), etc. So by the time we actually travel, all we will have to pay for is food, transportation (mostly public transit so cheap), and tickets to things we can't book in advance. This helps us spread out the expense so it never feels like a huge chunk of change all at once.
We do not cook on vacation. No effing way, I do all the cooking in general and I enjoy the break. But we do sometimes pick up something ahead of time for breakfast that we can eat before we go out. In the US that's bagels or muffins, in other countries it's often some kind of pastry. Saves us money and time because we like to get to sights early to beat crowds, so we don't want to take the time for a longer restaurant breakfast anyway. Then we usually eat a pretty casual lunch and maybe somewhere nicer for dinner - though nicer doesn't always mean expensive! Depending on where we go internationally, we often find food is cheaper than meals out in the US.