The Cheapskate Family Vacation

The Cheapskate Family Vacation

How did we do?

Our family was planning a special vacation for our child’s 7^th birthday.  So, we thought that this would make a great story for our LeapToCheap.com site. To us cheap actually means “smart savings”.  The smart part should imply that you don’t need to pitch a tent to save on a hotel room

This chart shows how much money we saved on our 4-day 3-night San Diego family vacation (2 adults and 1 child).  Check out how much we saved.

	Average price	Our Price	Our Savings
Flight	$387	$147	$240
Hotel (2 room suite)	$420	$282	$138
Breakfast	$90	0 (free breakfast @ hotel)	$90
Car Rental	$115	$90 (Costco discount)	$25
Legoland	$65 x 2 Adults $55 x 1 Child = $185	1 Full Price Adult $65 1 free child with 1 full price adult ticket ** 1 discount ticket from hotel = $46	$74
Zoo	$31/adult	$26/per person (child free ***)
Claim Jumpers Kids meal	$8 – free kids mea.  Coupon from claimjumpers.com	0	8
Total Savings			$601
Other good stuff…….
Southwest Rapid Reward Credits United Mileage Plus point from using Chase UAL credit card & renting from Alamo Car Rental. Welcome Reward Points for using Hotels.com

** Check with your child’s school as well as your local public library about summer reading programs that may offer discounts to attractions such as Legoland California.

*** San Diego Zoo – Kids (ages 3-11) enjoy FREE admission to the San Diego Zoo ! Through October 31, 2009

Here’s how we plotted our little savings adventure………

When to go?

Considerations

• We don’t like crowds very much. If for no other reason than waiting in long lines eats away at your vacation time with your family.
• We prefer cooler weather.
• Of course we never want to pay more than we need to.

Conclusion:

• Flight, hotel and attraction prices proved to be lower off season. So, since our child had a Thursday and Friday off from school, we opted for late September / early October travel dates.

Airline tickets – Flying high on lower prices

Considerations:

• We started checking out airfare prices about one month ahead of time (and monitored fares daily). We wanted to stay over on a Saturday night which has saved us money in the past. However, this was not the case this time around. So, we switched to a Wednesday evening departure and a Saturday night return. That little day of week switch saved us over 50% off each roundtrip ticket.

Conclusion:

• Airfare savings assumptions don’t always apply.
• Airlines are constantly changing the way that they price tickets. So, start early and try different departure and return days to see if they will can save money.
• Remember, Southwest Airlines ticket prices can ONLY be found on Southwest.com. They’re not included in results on Expedia, Orbitz, Travelocity, etc. Since Southwest sort of started the whole flying cheap thing, its always a good idea to check them first. Also, be sure to factor in the baggage fees when comparing airline ticket prices.

Hotel costs

Considerations:

• We were looking for a hotel with highly rated visitor reviews.
• A smoke free room was a must.
• Accommodations for two adults and one child were needed (at least two full beds).
• We wanted a microwave and refrigerator in the room.
• We wanted a really good free breakfast for the family.
• We wanted a hotel in a safe area and close to either Legoland or the San Diego Zoo.
• We always insist on a really clean room in good repair.
• It would be nice to find a hotel that matched up with our frequent stay programs.

Conclusion:

• Hotels.com is one of the best sources of hotel reviews. We checked there and found a 4.5 of 5 user rated suite hotel near Legoland for less than $100 a night (taxes included). The hotel had the best breakfast buffet that we had ever seen. The hotel was nothing fancy, but it was in excellent repair, super clean, great customer service and a pool. On top of all that, they offered Legoland and San Diego Zoo tickets at the awesome prices. We ended up booking through Hotels.com so that we could snag their welcome rewards points. If you’re curious, the hotel was the Ramada in Carlsbad, CA.

What lessons did we learned on this trip?

• Planning paid off big.
• The food and drink at both Legoland and the San Diego are anything but cheap.
• Packing your own soda, water and snacks in your backpack saved us quite a bit of money.