We love to travel and we usually do it every year during our anniversary and certain occasions such as my wife’s birthday, to visit a friend, or a regular reunion.
We always try to travel frugally by trying various ways on how we are going to purchase or book hotels, flights, vacation packages, rental cars, souvenirs, etc.
You see, there is a big difference between being cheap and being frugal. Being cheap would probably find the cheapest place but there is no value. A frugal person will look more for the value and find ways to . We have stayed at some of the expensive hotels but were able to get it at half the price by using some of the techniques below.
As you can see, we have tried a lot of ways in order to save money on our travel expenses and below are what we have tried so far:
1. Traveling during the low season
For sentimental reasons, couples usually travel during the day (or week) of their anniversary. Others wouldn’t hesitate to travel during the high season even if it would cost them an arm and a leg because this is probably the only time to go. However, if you don’t mind celebrating your anniversary during the low season to save money, then why not. As an example, my co-worker has been married for at least fifteen years and their wedding anniversary is in July but they usually travel to celebrate around March and April.
In our case, we were fortunate enough to celebrate our wedding anniversary on the low season saving us a lot in money: Our wedding anniversary is in the month of April. So every time we travel, we are saving as much as 60% of the cost of travel during the high season.
2. Using Travel Agents for Vacation Packages
When going on a vacation, the old school rule of going to travel agents still works especially if you need tour packages. There are still good deals that you can only find with a travel agent compared to using the online discount travel.In the case of the cruise packages, cruise agents usually book blocks of cabins up to 18 months in advance. Because of this, they are able to negotiate much cheaper rates with the cruise lines. In essence, the savings can be as much as 50% depending on the cruise agent that you’ll get. However, you usually do not see the advertising rates since cruise lines do not allow the agents to advertise their low rates. So the best thing to do is to contact an agent or meet with them in person if you can.e of the cruise agents
- 2005 – Hawaii Trip – We had a 5 day 4 nights package that only cost $1,300 ($650 per person). I actually got this from a travel agent friend of mine and she has been on the same trip and really enjoyed it as well. The package already included airfare, transportation to the hotel, hotel accommodations, and 3 tour packages (Pearl Harbor – USS Arizona, Polynesian Cultural Center with free meals, and the tour of the Oahu island). Just a catch though, this is a tour geared for Chinese so during our tours, most of the tour guide speaks Mandarin. According to my travel agent friend, the Chinese tours in Hawaii are so much cheaper than the ones offered by Expedia, Travelocity, Priceline, etc.
- 2008- Mexican Riviera Cruise – 7 days booked through our AAA Auto Club Travel Agency. We were able to booked a room with a balcony that only cost us $750, the actual price was $1,050 at that time. We actually went to one of the AAA offices and met with a travel agent to book the flight. When I compared the rates that we got, I noticed that we save around $300 per person for the same cabin.
3. Using Online Discount Travel Sites for Hotels or Flights Only
When it comes to just booking hotels or flights only, this is where we use most of the online discount travel sites. we usually get a much better deal than going directly to the airlines or hotel. In some cases, the flights and hotels booked with online discount sites were much cheaper than the ones were going to get with a travel agent. However, when it comes to last minute flights, we would usually contact a travel agent since most of the time, they were able to book flights when we think all the flights were fully booked already. Below are some of the trips when we use online discount travel sites
- 2006 Sta Catalina Island, CA – we lived close to the island so there is no need to book airfare. All we did is booked this online. However, we did try to find discounts for the boat ride to get there.
- 2007 Lake Tahoe, CA & NV - we booked the hotel on one of the online discount hotel sites but not the flight. We decided to drive there instead. The drive time was at least 10 hours but because we drove on the scenic area of the state, we were enjoying the drive.
- 2010 Philippine Vacation Trip -When we were in the Philippines, booking direct would have cost us $100 but with the online discount travel site. We talk to one of the my sister-in-law’s friend, who is a travel agent, but somehow they do not cover the hotel.
4. Using Our Cards to Book Some of Travel Expenses
I know that experts say to limit the use of credit cards as much as possible. And if you are going to use them, make sure that you pay off the balance immediately. When you book flight online, chances are that you would be using your credit card. We usually use the card in order to receive rewards, rebates, mileage and sometimes to take advantage of the free travel insurance coverage.
When we rent cars, we use either American Express card, Visa or Mastercard gold card to pay for the rental. The reason for this is we are able to waive the accidental insurance offered by the rental companies. We usually use our American Express card more than the gold card because it offers more coverage but we have to pay $17.95 (per rental and not per day) and this is good for up to 30 days of use, which is still much cheaper than the $10.99 per day offered by the rental companies.
5. Redeeming Rewards Rebate
As stated in reason #4, we use our credit cards to rack up mileage and rewards points. Our rewards had been really high that we were able to use them on two of our trips to get huge discounts on two of our trips
- 2009 – Laughlin, NV trip - We used our rewards and we were able to save as much as 30% on our hotel accommodation in Laughli
- 2010 – La Jolla, CA - 3 day weekend getaway booked at half the cost as well.
We have also opened a frequent mileage rewards with Philippine Airlines in order to get free airfares.
6. Using AAA Club Membership
We are a “Hard Rock Cafe” collectors and every time we go to different places, When we dine in, purchase souvenirs on the known stores, we always ask if they take the AAA discount, some do while some don’t but it does not hurt. You’re going to eat there anyways, you might as well take advantage of the 10-20% discount by having the AAA membership card.
7. Buying Souvenirs at the Flea Market
If we go to places, we always make it a habit to find where the flea market is. We’ve save a ton of money on souvenirs and the funny thing was we were buying the same items on the regular retail stores. We normally saved as much as 50% on the cost of the souvenirs.
Buying souvenirs at the flea market is a great tip! Never thought of that! My motto is to book early!
Yes , shopping at a flea market is probably the best thing you should do, retail stores mark the price up so high it’s like robbing tourists.