Three Tips to Save you Time and Money on Family Vacations
This is really a Love/Stress relationship for me. On one hand, I LOVE taking vacations and holidays with my family and cherish the memories we have. On the other hand, I STRESS about the trade-offs of cost versus quality, the myriad of options to choose from, etc. However, after having done this for the past three years, I’ve come up with three tips which have made life a bit easier for me, and now I’m sharing them with you with the hope that they’ll help you too!
Accumulate and Use Points
Choose a good credit card and load up your points: Whether it’s Aeroplan, Air Miles, SPG, Travel Elite MBNA or something else, focus your credit card purchases on one card, rack up the points then use them on your vacation to treat yourself! I can’t count how many hotel rooms and park tickets we’ve gotten using points!
Sign up for free points where you shop/stay regularly (Aeroplan, Fairmont, Via): Just recently, we took advantage of the Via Preference program and the Fairmont President’s Club because we recently used their services. Let the point building begin!
If you have a bunch of points from different places, check to see if your favourite programs have trade-in options or go to Points.com and start consolidating.
Research and Planning Ahead Saves Money
Rates To Go: A great site for last minute planners (which usually means most busy parents). Take a look here in addition to the regular Expedia, Priceline, Hotels.com and iTravel2000.com sites.
Discounts from Work: Check to see if your company or building has any discount ticket services. My office building is a part of Eservus which has come in handy a couple of times. Many large organizations also have discount code agreements with vacation spots (i.e. Rogers with Canada’s Wonderland and CIBC with Great Wolf Lodge).
Codes from RedFlagDeals.com: I’m a big RFD’er so I always check there to see if there are any online hotel or attraction booking codes I can use to save money.
CAA/AAA discounts: I remember going to the Toronto Zoo and overhearing the family in front of me get a discount using their CAA card. Huh?!? There were no signs anywhere! So that taught me to always ask if there’s a better price with CAA/AAA, you never know.
Trip Advisor: Alongside their review information on all hotels and attractions (sometimes too much info I think), they have a neat list called the Best Family Vacations of 2010. You can customize the search for any part of the World, really neat.
Visit A New Place Every Year
While the kids have their favourite vacation spots, variety is the spice of life and this holds true for vacationing. Yes, we’ll probably visit Great Wolf Lodge again but we’ve just come back from a Myrtle Beach/Washington DC trip as well! More on that trip in our next post.
Bonus Tip – Make The Car Ride Enjoyable
Before every car trip, we visit our local library and have the kids choose one or two new DVD’s to borrow to watch on the long drive out; another thing for them to look forward to.
Have the kids help pack the travel snack bags; it’s a small job but one they’ll enjoy doing and become excited to take out and eat.
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I hope these tips can help you plan a wonderful summer vacation for your family! Bon voyage!
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