Traveling is expensive. Traveling with kids… ouch. But once we began traveling more regularly with our 3 kids, we found some easy ways to reduce our vacation costs so we can make our travel budget stretch farther, which means we can actually travel more! Read on to learn 5 ways we save money on our family vacations.
If you haven’t gotten into travel credit cards yet, now is the time!! I’m telling you, travel credit cards have been a complete game changer for my family. My husband and I opened a joint Discover card when we first got married almost 10 years ago, and faithfully used it for years to earn our measly 1% cash back (which we almost always put towards whatever vacation we were taking that year). After we spent our whole travel budget for the year (plus half of the next year) on a single trip to Disney, I knew I had to come up with another way to stretch our budget. That’s when I discovered the hobby that is travel hacking.
Now while this topic is complicated enough to require its own blog post, I have to at least mention it. Basically, we ditched our cash back credit card, and instead opened up several different cards that are known for earning points that can then be transferred to different travel partners (hotels and airlines). This has cost us very little (think a few annual fees, depending on how many cards you hold), and has given us an incredible amount of points that we are redeeming at hotels for free stays on our vacations. When we budget for a trip, we typically spend one-third to one-half of our budget on accommodations for our family of 5, so to cut this cost down to zero has literally doubled how far our budget can go. In the past, most of our travel has been road trips because airfare for a family of 5 to literally anywhere costs a small fortune. But since we got into travel hacking earlier this year, we have been able to plan and book several flights for our family next year using points for $0! I know not everyone is crazy about credit cards, but if you are looking for ways to stretch your budget so your family can travel more, you should at least look into this.
One of our absolute favorite things to do when visiting a new city is to check out their zoos and museums! We love to visit science, history and children’s museums, and usually have at least a couple of these on our itinerary. Most zoos and museums charge admission between $20-$30 per person, which adds up fast when you’re a family of 5.
We have been members of our hometown zoo and science museum since my oldest was a baby, and holding a membership to these saves us a ton of money since we visit both frequently throughout the year. Both of these have reciprocal status, which means that our membership there can get us in at a discounted rate at other zoos or museums around the country. Our zoo membership typically gets us a 50% discount (sometimes more!) at participating zoos and aquariums, and our children’s museum membership gets us a discounted rate, or even free, at lots of other museums! We used it this summer while taking a road trip through Wisconsin, and it saved us over $200 on our admission to the Milwaukee zoo, Milwaukee Public museum, and Madison Children’s museum. Here are the links to check if your memberships will get you discounted admission:
Next to accommodations and airfare, food is our largest expense while on vacation. To help keep the cost down, we try to eat out no more than once a day while traveling. I know, I know. Who wants to cook and do dishes while on vacation. I hear you, me neither. BUT….. eating out is not only a huge expense when you’re feeding a family of 5, it’s also a major time suck! When you think of spending 45-60 minutes at a restaurant for each meal, times 3 meals per day… that’s nearly 3 hours of your day spent sitting at a restaurant! Not to mention the thought of sitting in a restaurant with hot, tired, hungry kids multiple times a day for a week straight…. Woof.
We are all about easy, convenient and inexpensive when it comes to our meals. So if we are staying in a hotel, we always try to find one that offers free breakfast. It is so convenient to have a full breakfast right there, waiting on you, at no extra cost and with no preparation. When we stay in an AirBnB, we do a grocery pickup on our way into town with things we need for breakfast and lunches for the week. We love muffins and fruit for the kids, and my husband will whip up a big batch of breakfast burritos the first morning, and then we have a quick breakfast already made for the rest of the week.
For lunchtime, we bought this amazing backpack that doubles as a diaper bag and cooler. We typically pack sandwiches, chips and some fruit before we leave our hotel or AirBnB in the morning. By not eating out for breakfast and lunch, my family of 5 is saving at least $100+ a day. Now I totally agree that part of the fun of visiting new cities is trying local cuisine, so we definitely keep some room in our budget for this. We like to alternate sit down restaurants with take out as another way to keep our cost down.
One of the best ways we have found to lower our vacation budget is by searching for all the amazing things to do in each city that don’t cost anything. Hiking, parks, and beaches are all free, and are a great way to spend a day and explore the city. The All Trails app has tons of trails and hiking recommendations, and I love to find local Facebook groups or blogs before we visit to learn about unique recommendations on free things to do in the area.
When I create our itinerary before a trip, I try and find a good mix of both paid and free activities that will entertain our kids. We may go to the zoo our first day in town, then spend the next day hiking trails or sitting on the beach. I love mixing up our activities because it keeps the kids engaged by doing something different each day. Trip Advisor is one of my favorite places to find the best free and paid activities in our travel locations!
Before you book your next trip, make sure you are checking the low fare calendar on the hotel/airline website. This is a great way to save money and find good deals on travel. Southwest Airlines has a fantastic low fare calendar that is so easy to use and will show you the exact price for any flight you want over the entire month. Last year, we were able to snag roundtrip flights from Wichita to Orlando for $120 per person just by checking the low fare calendar and booking when prices were at their lowest! This fall when I was looking to book airfare to NYC for my family in December, I was able to see which days would be the cheapest to fly on, and it saved us hundreds of dollars by being flexible on our dates! For lodging, we love Hyatt branded hotels for our family, and we can usually find reduced rates by looking at their pricing calendar and staying during off peak times.
These are just a few of the practical, easy ways that my family has used to save money while traveling with kids. What are some other ways that you have found to save money on your family vacations? Let me know in the comments!