Family Vacation

Well, we just got back from a week in Disneyland. It was very exciting and we all enjoyed it thoroughly. I kept thinking the whole time we were there, “how could we do this for less.”  Let me share with you some of my ideas on how I think I can save money on future family vacations, and the few ways I figured out to save while we were on our trip.

The first big problem was the price of airfare. We live in Montana, so flying anywhere is already going to be more expensive and less convenient. For the three of us to fly out of Missoula, Montana to Santa Ana, California, it cost $1500 for the airfare. A “hidden” cost is the new “normal” charge that airlines are putting on checked baggage. Alaska Airlines charges $15 for each checked bag (each way), so we paid $45 to get our bags to our final destination. On the way back we paid another $45 in Santa Ana, and because our flights didn’t line up right, we had to stay over night in Seattle (another $100 for a hotel) and pay $45 again to get our bags from Seattle back to Missoula. So, the way we did it, we had to pay $135 just to have our bags with us. That sounds pretty ridiculous to me, considering the airfare was already $1500. My first suggestion is to try to fly Southwest, which doesn’t charge for checked baggage, or to check the fewest bags possible. In our case, we would be gone for a week, so three bags were pretty much a necessity. To try to reduce the cost of the airfare, we could have flown in and out in the middle of the week, which will usually save you money, but with vacation days to deal with, and the fact that the trip was arranged as a gift (luckily for us), we didn’t have control over that. Another way to save is to purchase the airfare as far in advance as you can–as you get close to your departure date, the price will go up.

Another option we think we will use in the future is to drive to our location. Being that the airfare ($1500), the checked baggage fees ($135), and the one night in the hotel ($100) added up to $1735, we could have saved $1200 just on the travel (fuel for our car would have cost around $500 to drive both ways).  So with one night of hotel stay both ways we still would have saved $1000 on just the travel. We also have thought of camping on the way there and back to make our family vacation more of an adventure, which would save us even more as most campsites are around $20-$30 a night. Another thing to avoid when driving as opposed to flying is airport security–no worries about bringing souvenirs back and having to possibly ship them home, as well as expensive airport food and drinks. Also, when you get to your destination, you won’t have to pay for a rental car or taxi fare. Oh, I almost forgot, we also paid $48 to park for a week at our home airport–which, even if we took a cab or shuttle, we would have paid that much.

A great thing about places like Disneyland is that they will give you free nights and other benefits if you book a multi-day vacation with them. So, you could book a 5-day hotel stay at one of their hotels, and they would include park passes and special dinners for cheap rates. If you stay in one of their hotels, you don’t have to worry about parking, as you can walk or take one of their modes of transportation to the park. One problem with places like Disneyland is that they usually are self contained, so any of their amenities or food items are heavily marked up. One thing that I did while we were there was to walk to the closest convenient store to stock up on water, soda, beer, and snacks, as these items are marked up drastically within the Resort property. Granted, I did have to walk 4 miles round trip, but a 12 pack of beer was $10.99 instead of $7 for one beer, and water was 99 cents for a liter, instead of $3.50 for a 20 ounce bottle. Me walking 4 miles in 85 degree weather saved us about $120. Of course, if we had driven, we could have picked this stuff up on the way. Which leads me to my next big saver–you can bring a cooler if you drive, then stock it up with lunch and snack stuff at their local grocery store= lots of savings.

When you are in Disneyland, of course you will want to have some of the “park” food, and indulge a bit, as well as get some T-shirts, hats, etc. But you can save a lot in other areas. You might be thinking,”Driving will take more time”, but if you are on a limited budget, doing these things can allow you to go on a great family vacation and actually enjoy it. You won’t be worrying about the bills you will get from the credit card companies once you arrive home. Luckily this trip was a gift (and very appreciated). We are already thinking of our next trip to Disneyland (on our own dollar), which won’t be for a few years, but it seems possible if we follow these ideas.

Thank you for reading, and please comment with any other travel saving ideas so we can all benefit from a little R&R!!