Is There A Vacation In Store For You This Summer
Part of how we’ve paid down a lot of our debt over the past few years is foregoing the expected, or altering it to fit our financial plans. One of those things are vacations. We’ve chosen as a family to either not take a vacation, or to alter it so that it costs us a minimum (like combining a vacation with my spouse’s business trip). Springtime here is the height of the vacation planning season, and as I look at our summer options for a little get-away-from-it-all, I wonder – is the average person taking a vacation this year?
Vacations might be one of the first things to sacrifice in the wake of a bad economy and uncertain economic times, but a little recharge time is important for anyone, and it doesn’t have to break the bank. If you’d like to have a little getaway but don’t think it is in the budget this year, consider a few alternatives that may not have occurred to you when the idea of a vacation first appeared.
Vacation at home
An oft overlooked alternative to going on a pricey trip is to stay home and vacation there. The problem with this is without planning, it can feel like it isn’t a vacation at all. Make sure you put the same amount of planning into a home vacation as you do an away one, and you can have a lot of fun and relaxation right in your own backyard – literally.
Consider a day trip or an overnight versus a week
If a trip is what you’re after, consider a small or short trip versus the traditional week. A closer location to your home to save on travel costs, and less time away to save on lodging. A short trip can recharge the batteries as long as it is well planned and isn’t too jam-packed.
Trade with (or visit) a friend
You may be able to save on lodging costs almost completely by planning a vacation trade with a friend. Do you live in an interesting place? Or at least, an interesting place to those that don;t live there? Maybe you have a friend who lives somewhere else interesting and you can vacation with them or trade homes for a vacation for both of you.
Camping beats a hotel – at least, in my opinion
Camping in a state park is a whole lot less expensive than a hotel. If you have a tent and a sleeping bag – a camping vacation can’t be beat! At least… to me and my son. My spouse isn’t really all that into the camping thing, but he does love cheap. 
Combine business and pleasure
We’ve been able, due to my spouse’s work trips, to combine a business trip or two of his with a vacation for our family. This might not be possible for you, but it is an idea to consider if you or your partner take trips for business. All that the powers that be can say if you ask is no, after all. And they might say yes!
This year, we’re determined to build in some fun family time but at a level that won’t interrupt or affect our financial plans. This summer we’re looking at planning a small weekend trip to a state park for tent camping, which since we already own all the required equipment, will cost us a minimum. And this fall, my spouse has another business trip we may be able to tag along on as a family to minimize our expenses. What is your plan?
May 11th, 2009 at 2:11 pm
My husband and I plan to take a cruise in September. We have been planning for it since June of last year and it is already paid off. We don’t take vacations unless we have plenty of time to save for them and pay them off in advance.
May 11th, 2009 at 2:16 pm
I’m going to Santo Domingo for a wedding
May 11th, 2009 at 2:17 pm
We *might* visit DD#2 at college for a day or so. Otherwise, nothing planned. We haven’t had real vacations since the kids were little enough to enjoy going together to Disneyland/World; ‘course we’re only 10 minutes from one of the top tourist attractions of the world
May 11th, 2009 at 2:24 pm
I’m heading to the beach this year and c-a-n-n-o-t wait! It’s really for our wedding / honeymoon, but I still classify it as a vacation. I would be lying if I said the money-side of it wasn’t on my mind – the money-side of every thing is ALWAYS on my mind! I’m going to do my best to forget about the expense while I’m there though. I want to enjoy myself and I love the ocean. No regrets. This is why I work, this is why I save, this is why I avoid debt. Life should have some extravagance every now and then – even for us frugal budget loving nerds…
May 11th, 2009 at 2:32 pm
This is a little out of the norm for us but we may be taking 3 trips this year. We are going to the beach over Memorial Day BUT staying at a family member’s condo, thus minimizing the expense. I have a business trip planned for later this summer (FREE) which DH will be tagging along to. (Also at the beach, albeit a different one) For us, the FL panhandle is within driving distance so getting there is relatively inexpensive. I also have a “significant” birthday coming up this year and we have tossed around a couple of vacation ideas and have done some saving; I think we are settling in on an Alaskan Cruise for the end of the summer. The only thing “frugal” about this is that DH has earned enough Rapid Rewards credits to get 1 free RT ticket to the port city, thus we only have to buy 1 plane ticket and then, of course, the cruise. I am doing some serious shopping around for good value/what we want on the actual voyage!
May 11th, 2009 at 3:10 pm
I’m going on some uber-camping vacations this year.
Camping doesn’t have to be all about sitting in a tent outside. I’ve used campsites as launching pads to see all kinds of historic sites, natural wonders and notable small towns.
Where I live is too dull and there’s too many stress inducing people/jobs/etc near me to even consider a staycation. And what’s the point of all those frugality tips if I’m not going to use some of the money I saved to do something fun with my life?
May 11th, 2009 at 3:54 pm
We really don’t do vacations per se. We go to our rural home for weekends and visit friends in Seattle a couple of times per year.
May 12th, 2009 at 4:57 am
We are going to the beach in a few days for a week. My wife’s parents have a timeshare there that they let us use every year. All we pay for is the gas to drive there and then our food to eat while we are there.
I am all about paying down the debt as rapidly as possible, but at the same time I don’t want to miss out on a life experience with my children at minimal cost compare to other vacations.
May 12th, 2009 at 8:31 am
Back when we were trying to get out of debt, we pretty much skipped vacations altogether…it’s nice to be on the other side now!
For the past couple of years, we have taken a week long beach vacation with all of my family – we rent a beach house & everyone chips in to split the expense. We split up grocery shopping & do breakfasts & most lunches in and then go out for dinner most nights. Not only does this plan help us decrease expenses, but it also provides a helping hand with our kids so that we are able to truly our vacation & not feel like we’re working the entire time bc we’re caring for small children. It’s worked great for us.
May 12th, 2009 at 12:20 pm
Over spring break my hubby and I got in a nice trip that lasted just under a week. Cost us about $1,000 or so total, including the gas to get to and from the place, the hotel stay, food and other little entertainment things. We went as part of a large group, so we got a great room in a great hotel at a very nice rate!
Besides that, I’ve got two other weekends lined up with similar groups. All the hotel stays are discounted, and once I pay to sign up as part of the event, much of the entertainment is paid for. The next weekend, in June, should only cost about $400 to $500 total, and I’m expecting fairly similar costs for the one I’ve got planned in September. (Probably slightly higher since it’s further away AND at a race track.)
I enjoy planning my trips to coincide with group activities… It provides entertainment without having to worry about all of the details myself.
It just so happens that the groups for me are all car-related, so it’s great to go and meet a bunch of new friends, chat about our cars and relax!
May 12th, 2009 at 1:22 pm
We have NO trips planned so far. We love to travel, so this is unusual for us. Two reasons for this deviation from our norm: 1) our toddler gets carsick, thereby limiting our travel radius; and 2) I can’t bear the thought of taking anything out of our hard-earned savings account. :-/ Not right now, anyway.
I’m sure we’ll do a couple of quick, inexpensive weekend trips.
May 12th, 2009 at 4:01 pm
I made plans to take a short, but fairly expensive trip with a relative and then today had to take my car in for service which is turning out to be very expensive. Now, I wish I had not purchased airline tickets or made motel reservations…life always gets you!
May 12th, 2009 at 9:18 pm
On Saturday I’m leaving for Europe; I’ll be in Italy for a week and Greece for a week. Now is a better time than ever to travel abroad! I went to Europe for 2 weeks last summer as well, and I paid three times as much for my plane ticket and the exchange rates were awful. This summer, my plane ticket was very affordable, the exchange rates are much better, and I have a feeling that things will be less crowded, too. I’m excited that I’ll get to go on a great trip and spend so much less than last time. Now is the time to do it if you can! Plus, things are so depressing, traveling internationally is such a nice break from everything!
May 13th, 2009 at 1:11 am
Working for a travelguide publisher, I tend to get excited about visiting whatever city/state/country guide I’m currently working on (Charleston & Savannah, at the moment). Unfortunately when it comes to actually traveling, I tend to combine vacations with family obligations. My family is so spread out that I tend to use most of my vacation time for visiting. And it’s usually a road trip. No one lives close enough to an airport to make flying an attractive option when I’ll still need to drive 4 hours from the airport to get to their home.
But really, there are some excellent deals to be had out there if you’re flexible. 4-night, 5-day Los Cabos cruises for $350 (incl. airfare), $700 round-trip airfare from SFO to Barcelona (my boss is there now, lucky devil), another co-worker is headed to Amsterdam/Munich, and yet another to Budapest. *Sigh* I’ll be headed to Sandpoint, Idaho, on the panhandle.
May 13th, 2009 at 8:05 pm
The Mrs & I WERE planning a trip to NYC this summer, but after spending a $1000 on vehicle repairs today I think our trip has gone up in smoke
May 14th, 2009 at 5:31 am
We planned a vacation this year until we moved feverishly towards purchasing a house. We used the money we saved for the vacation towards the down payment and things we will need after moving int (i.e. lawn mower, refrigerator). I think the biggest lesson we learned is that you have to be flexible with your money sometimes…Even though we had been saving for a vacation, the house is a lot more appealing. Besides, isn’t the point of owning a home to have a place to relax and enjoy yourself?
May 18th, 2009 at 8:23 am
We did not take a vacation last year because we were planning a big trip for this coming summer. We are meeting my whole family at the beach for a week. I have been saving my change for it for a few years and last year I started saving all my blog revenue for it as well. I am very close to my $3000 goal to cover our expenses. It will be so nice to go on a vacation that I worked so hard to save for and pay cash ahead of time.
May 18th, 2009 at 11:04 am
My DH and I are both taking a week off work in June for our “hometown vacation.” We live in a big city and are looking forward to spending some time exploring it. One night we are attending a baseball game; another time we are going to the art museum, the zoo, etc. We are planning to splurge and drive 40 miles to do an afternoon-long guided canoe float trip ($30 a person plus gas and food). We are both looking forward to spending some together.
May 25th, 2009 at 9:52 pm
We’re going to Niagara Falls and Toronto this summer, but we’ve cut back on the length of the trip and omitted a stop in Montreal. Friends from church have offered us the use of their second home in the Finger Lakes region, so we’ll spend a couple free nights there instead of in a hotel. Flexibility in planning can pay off!
We’re also joining friends at a FANTASTIC Pennsylvania amusement park, Knoebel’s. It’s about 3 hours from where we live so we stay at the campground or in a hotel for two nights. This year it’s the hotel and I checked last week on the check in time. I also checked for the current room rate, even though we booked our rooms in March. The price went DOWN $34 a night, so we made new reservations and cenceled the old ones. If you’ve booked a hotel room, you might want to check the current rate to see if it’s less.
May 26th, 2009 at 4:46 am
We have a series of day trips and long multi-day weekends planned (Beach, water parks, Vermont, etc.).
May 30th, 2009 at 6:44 pm
we should go somewhere, what the fun to stay at home, i know, it take money and time- but the life is too short