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Can't Afford a Family Vacation?
Think Again!
By Catherine K. Enders Carlton
Garcia travels to Las Vegas four or five times a year. By signing up for player's cards at casinos she receives other discounts in the mail for hotels and meals. She has found Vegas vacation packages that include airfare and lodging that costs less than simply buying the airfare. "I'm always checking specials," says Garcia, an elementary school teacher. For Christmas last year she bought vacation packages for her husband and her sons instead of presents.
Another time, thanks to a discount flyer she got at work, Garcia and her husband took their youngest son and niece to Disneyland on a four-day pass that was "buy one adult, get one kid pass free." She saved nearly $200 on the passes for the children. Then, she found a similar deal at Sea World where they went on the same trip. "The kids were free!" she says.
Marla Guttman, of San Dimas, Calif., found easy getaways by taking her two girls camping with a group of other moms and kids. "We could go spur of the moment," says Guttman, a dental hygienist. "We didn't have to rent a car, we didn't have to get a hotel. It certainly was a cheap vacation. We all pitched tents. One mom had a motor home, and one mom had a tent trailer."
While on these mom and kids' trips, they participated in activities such as hiking, fishing, biking, ranger talks and campfires, she says. "It was like their very own summer camp," says Guttman. And it had the benefit of special treats for the kids, too, such as those little individual cereal boxes, as opposed to the large boxes at home, she says. "There was always special food that you only got when you went camping, like soda," Guttman says.