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Can't Afford a Family Vacation?
Think Again!
By Catherine K. Enders Carlton
"Are we there yet?" It's the classic question kids bombard their parents with on family road trips. And one advantage of those vacations, moms say, is the money saved driving instead of flying. But how do families plan a fun trip with an eye on the bottom line?
"To cut costs, you have to identify the most expensive items on the vacation agenda: airfare, restaurants, hotel accommodations," says Annette Winn, mother of two from Coronado, Calif. "Once you have identified the most expensive items, you need to determine how your family can be flexible to offset those costs."
For Winn, this often means driving to vacation spots such as Palm Springs, Calif., which is a couple hours' drive from home. When only pricey hotel rooms are available, they opt to stay in a condominium, which gives them more space and options, and will help cut other costs, Winn says.
"The condo has two bedrooms, a kitchen, living room, patio," says Winn, who has a 2-year-old son and a 5-year-old daughter. "The hotel is confined to one room, which makes a family of four feel cramped after a day or two."
The condo also allows flexibility in spending money on meals. "We prefer to make our own breakfast and lunch and then spend money on a nice dinner out or barbecue at the condominium," she says. "For kids, meals in hotels or restaurants are expensive, not as nutritional as home-cooked food, the kids have to be well behaved and little people are finicky eaters and waste a lot of what is on their plates in a restaurant."
Valerie Garcia, of Albuquerque, N.M., says her research for inexpensive vacations allows her to take five trips a year, while her sister takes one cruise per year. Her research includes weekly e-mails from Southwest Airlines and other travel Web sites.