One of the questions I get asked a lot is how to save money traveling. I often disappoint in response because to me, the better question is, “How do I get value for the money I am spending on a vacation?”

Trips are costly and not likely to get cheaper any time soon. If you decide to venture outside your front door, you’ll need to get your checkbook out. And while saving as much as you possibly can sounds good in theory, in actuality, this can leave you unsatisfied at best and in a really bad/dangerous situation at worst (Neighborhoods matter!).

To get you started thinking like a value-seeking traveler, I’ve created two posts that will review the big travel expenses for any trip, and how you can think strategically about first, how to reach your travel goal and second, get good value for the money you invest.

Part 1 will cover transportation and lodging, the big budget drains for most trips.

Part 2 will focus on meals, attractions and tickets, and all-inclusive resorts as a travel option.

Vas-y!

Transportation

Transportation costs can be a hefty proportion of your overall budget, especially if you are flying. Understanding when to invest in transportation will vary depending on your trip – how much time do you have? How many people are you paying to transport? What time of year are you going? What’s your destination?

Here I’ll break down the different types of transportation costs and share my tips and suggestions for finding the right balance between pinching pennies and an enjoyable transit experience.

Airline Tickets

Airline ticket purchases always feel a bit like a game to me. There are dozens of sites that try to help us navigate the lottery that airlines are playing to maximize their profits – finding an equilibrium between filling seats and the cost people are willing to pay to sit there.

If you haven’t already investigated the way you can play this game to win, check out this review on CNBC and this one from Under30Experiences.

To really maximize your impact here, there is also lots of advice on “travel hacking” or ways of using the system of airfare pricing to your advantage.

The Nomad Experiment offers a beginner’s guide, if this sounds interesting to you.

My goal here is to look differently at airfare. Of course, you can always seek a better underlying price. But more often than not these days the advertised airfare cost is just the gateway to getting on the plane.

It isn’t actually the type of experience I want to have.

For instance, base fares have rigid restrictions, seat limitations, and generally are a stressful experience when you are actually traveling.

For example:

• Crossing your fingers over an overhead bin space isn’t going to help you if you’re in the basic boarding group. You aren’t going to get a slot.
• I like sitting next to my travel companions on the flight if at all possible.
• Sometimes something serious comes up and I need to adjust my flight.
• I thoroughly enjoy both a personal item larger than a sandwich baggie and a carry-on bag as a part of my packing strategy.

With the basic fares, you lose these opportunities. And, unless I am saving significantly (40% or more), I am literally sacrificing the experience of travel for a few dollars savings.

Unless you MUST get the absolute cheapest fare, take a moment and consider your travel goal. Think through the limitations of any fare level and ask yourself, “Is this the type of experience that will enhance my vacation? Or will it leave me stressed/frazzled/frustrated, etc.?”

Right now, I am going to give you permission to spend a little more so you can fully enjoy your trip – from your doorstep and back again. Transporting yourself from one place to another doesn’t need to make you miserable, and it shouldn’t. That’s Wander Woven Travel for you.

So, bring a bag! Bring two. Sit with your kids or your partner on the plane. Over 6 feet tall? Juggling a baby or toddler? Get the extra leg room.

If these things are important to you, investing in them will give you good value for your trip. You’ll be glad you did it.

Transportation Scheduling

Another critical factor that drives the price of airfare is the time of day you fly and the day of the week you go. Now for me personally, I’m willing to give more here in order to get the amenities I want for a value price.

However, I do not choose flights that involve more than one layover, because that starts to eat too much into my time at destination and rarely saves much money most times.

If your schedule doesn’t allow flexibility or you have strong preferences about schedule, then perhaps you can give more on amenities to fly when you want. In this scenario you can control price by always aligning your decisions and investments with your travel goals and preferences.

I encourage you to remember this:

Getting there is part of the trip. Don’t allows yourself to be miserable en route.

Ground Transportation – Rental cars, rideshares, public transit, oh my!

Once you get yourself on location, there are still more transportation decisions to make. How will you get yourself around now you’re here?

Central to my travel philosophy is to take public transit if at all possible. Generally for us we try to take a blend of public transport and rental cars, depending on our trip plan. For instance in DC (where we drove to) we used public transit for sightseeing in the city, but drove when we hiked Old Rag in Shenandoah National Park.

Public transportation is one the best ways to truly get to know a city and the people who live there. You see the neighborhoods and homes. The schools and shopping areas off the main streets. It’s one of my favorite travel activities when we’re tired to just ride the bus or subway for awhile to see the sights and rest.

Beyond public transit options, I’ll give you a heads up – sometimes we pay a bit more for the convenience of doing whatever we want when we want to. This usually for us means a rental car.

We rarely use rideshares. The costs add up more than you think and you often can’t control or predict the price you’ll pay to get around. Small changes in plan have big impact on your overall transportation costs.

Depending on your location, you can usually rent a car and park it in the city (for an entire day) for the cost of 1 – 2 rideshare rides.

To make savvy value-driven decisions here, I’d encourage you to look closely at your itinerary, must-do activities and sights, and what your general approach is going to be. Then, make an informed decision.

Lodging

Once you get yourself to your vacation spot, you need somewhere to stay.

In the last several years, the most value-laden decision for us has been soundly vacation rentals. While we always research hotels and bed and breakfasts, we have found, increasingly, that we get exactly what we want from our vacation in an AirBnB.

For us this is because:

• We like the flexibility of making some of our own meals, especially a hearty breakfast before we head out for the day.
• We like privacy and quiet that rentals give us.
• I love staying in actual neighborhoods whenever we can. It helps me understand what the area is truly “like”.
• Costs are usually nearly equivalent to hotels, but we can save quite a bit on meals (see Part 2 of this series for more on value-focused meals).
• We can bring the whole family (and even the dog) and everyone has privacy, room to spread out, and room to be together.

Another reason is that it is usually a lot easier to find a rental with free parking (see transportation above) than a hotel.

If you’ve been hesitant to try a vacation rental, I strongly encourage it. I convinced my mom and mom-in-law to stay in a rental when we went on our cruise last year and both were impressed (yay!)!

However, depending on your unique destination and situation, a hotel might be a better option. Again, ask yourself, “Does staying here enhance my vacation? Does it help me achieve my goal?” If so, do that. It’s always best, even if it costs slightly more.

In my recent experience, however, hotels and rentals are pretty similar in terms of costs. So the decision will probably come back to aligning your lodging choice with your travel goals.

Location, location, location

A final thought on lodging is deciding specifically where to stay. We’ve done our selection both ways – where we pick up and move to a new location nearly every single night (like our weeklong tour of Scotland) and where we’ve stayed put the entire week (as in Whitefish, Montana).

For each trip, these choices were deliberate. For one, we wanted to see as much breadth as we could. For the other, while we wanted breadth, the locations we were interested weren’t terribly far to drive. So we felt comfortable with a hub and spoke lodging location for one, but for Scotland, we wanted to cover as much ground as we could.

Be strategic here and align your choice with your ground transportation. It might give you more value to spend more for lodging in the heart of your vacation action. Or, it might be worth it to be out of the city center to save some funds for a special meal or attraction (again, see Part 2 of this series on these).

In Wander Woven Travel style, plan your lodging strategically to help you achieve your ultimate travel goal.

A final note. It is never worth it to save money to stay somewhere dangerous or dirty. You are worth a comfortable and safe experience. Don’t compromise here.

Wrapping-Up

The big expenses in most trips are transportation and lodging. Once you lay these pieces into your travel itinerary, you’re most of the way there. But, there are still a lot of decisions to make to set yourself up for the trip you’re dreaming up.

It will always come back to your travel goal – what is it that you truly want? If you’d like a brainstorming sheet to help you define that ultimate ambition, download my travel planning sheet here and get started today!

In the next article in this series, I’ll cover value-decision-making related to meals, attractions and tickets and that very special type of vacation – the all-inclusive.

Cheers!

Andrea

Ready for more tips on value-focused travel? Check out Part 2 here.