Travel is my addiction. I love hitting the road, whether it’s a day trip to the county or a train trip to Toronto, travel is my favourite thing. The depressing reality is that travel can be expensive, particularly when you start packing up the entire family for a big getaway.
I love to find ways to save on travel so that I can squeeze a few more trips into the year.
Some folks prefer to save up for one whiz bang big family vacation, and we’ve done that. I’ve taken the girls to Universal Orlando twice now, and while it was a fantastic experience I almost think I prefer when we break it up and do a bunch of smaller getaways throughout the year.
So here are a few of my money saving tips for travel time:
If you’re road tripping, pack a cooler. You can make sandwiches to eat for your first stop or two along the way, saving the cost of a roadside meal or two.
If you’re taking the train, don’t forget that they allow you to bring your own food and (non-alcoholic) drinks on board. When travelling on the train in economy I usually bring a coffee with me in my reusable mug and then later pay to get them to refill it for me (better vs the disposable cups because you can hook it in the netting in front of you to set it down).
When travelling with kids snacks are super important. You can save big bucks and also a few meltdowns by jamming your bags full of granola bars and other portable munchies.
If you are flying somewhere you can order snack food and drinks ahead of time and have them delivered to your hotel. When we travelled to Orlando I used Amazon.com to order Gatorade, juice, dried fruit, snack bars and more and had it all delivered to the hotel the day we arrived.
Tell the kids that if they want any souvenirs they have to spend their own money. Let them in on the travel plans ahead of time, giving them time to save up their allowance to spend while on vacation.
Set a daily budget for meals and/or shopping and try and stick within it. If you have an outline in your head of how much you are willing to spend, it’s easier to say no to impulse buys.
Pick more destinations within Canada and save by not having to exchange your money. An additional 30% or more added to every meal and hotel stay really adds up.
What about you folks? What are your best money saving travel tips?
This Tuesday head over to Twitter to take part in the #SummerTravel Twitter Chat with @TangerineBank. Come talk summer travel plans and share your best travel budgeting tips.
Disclosure: This post is sponsored by Tangerine Bank. As always my words and opinions are my own.
I love your tip of having snacks delivered to your hotel. Genius! Time and money saving. When we take long road trips, I bring along a small “gift” for the kids for each day. It gives them something new to play with in the car and keeps them busy.
Oh I love that idea! I often do new colouring books, as my kids are still young enough to be super distracted by that. But now I’m thinking of other small things that might do well for trips, like dinky cars and wee Playmobil dudes. Might help keep the impulse of souvenir shopping in line as well.
Ordering your snacks from Amazon, how amazing I never would of though of doing that. When traveling I always take are own snacks – even when flying I pack cliff bars.
Fabulous ideas, I didn’t know you could order snacks to a hotel like that – that’s marvellous.