May 16, 2025 • 45 mins
🎙️ Episode 178: How to Travel More for Less with Karen Dawkins Guest: Karen Dawkins, Family Travels on a Budget Series: Smart Family Travel If you’ve ever said, “We’d love to travel more, but it’s just not in the budget,” this episode is for you. Rob sits down with family budget travel expert Karen Dawkins, the creator of Family Travels on a Budget, to share smart, stress-free strategies for getting the most out of your vacation dollar — without sacrificing joy or quality. Karen's no-nonsense, realistic approach has been featured in USA Today, HuffPost, and more. 🎧 In This Episode:
- Why budget travel isn’t about spending the least — it’s about getting the most value
- The #1 mistake families make when trying to save money on vacation
- How to avoid hidden costs like parking, resort fees, and baggage fees
- When and how to book flights and accommodations for maximum savings
- Favorite destinations that are big on fun and low on cost (spoiler: Chattanooga!)
- Travel rewards, loyalty programs, and hacks to stretch your dollars further
- Creative ways to save on food without skipping great meals
- The best places to find free and low-cost activities
- All-inclusive resorts vs. cultural immersion: how to choose what’s right for your goals
- Why Karen swears by Brits Donuts in Carolina Beach 🍩
- Family Travels on a Budget
- Instagram hashtags like #FreeThingsToDoIn{CityName}
- National Park Passes
- City attraction passes (like GoCity or CityPASS)
- Home2 Suites (cat-friendly & family-friendly)
- Costco Travel
- VRBO (transparent pricing & family space)
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:05):
Trying to plan a fun, memorable family vacation without draining
your bank account. You're not alone. Today we're diving into
smart strategies that help families get the most value out
of every travel dollar without sacrificing the joy of traveling.
Episode one seventy eight starts right now.
Speaker 2 (00:24):
Welcome to The Family Vacationer with Robin Tracy, your go
to podcast for families on the moon.
Speaker 1 (00:32):
Hey, everybody, welcome back to the Family Vacationer. I'm Rob
and if you're here, you're probably like me, trying to
create amazing travel memories with your family without wiping out
your savings. Well, today's episode is for any family that's
ever thought we'd love to travel more, but we just
can't afford it. That's a mindset that we're flipping today
(00:55):
thanks to my guest Karen Dawkins. Karen is the creator
of Family Travels on a Budget. She's a go to
voice in the world of affordable family travel, and her practical,
no nonsense approach has helped thousands of families see more
of the world for less. She's been featured in USA Today,
huff Posts, and so many other great outlets. Karen, Welcome
(01:16):
to the show.
Speaker 3 (01:18):
I'm really happy to be here.
Speaker 1 (01:20):
We're happy to have you. So, you know, many families
feel like they have to choose between a great vacation
and an affordable one. How do you define smart budget travel?
You know, getting the most out of your vacation dollar.
I know that you have a very specific definition of
how you like to look at this.
Speaker 3 (01:39):
So I write about family travel on a budget, But
it's not about the bottom line. It's about making sure
that every dollar you spend is actually helping you accomplish
your goal. So if you do a really tight budget
vacation because you're only looking at the dollars and you
(02:00):
get home exhausted because you cooked all your meals, you
stayed in super low budget hotels, you did everything on
a shoe string, and you're exhausted, that's not smart budget travel.
So to me, smart budget travel is knowing how much
money you have to spend and then making choices within
(02:24):
that budget to get the most bang for your buck.
Speaker 1 (02:27):
What mindset shifts can help families focus on value rather
than just cutting the costs.
Speaker 3 (02:33):
I think starting with a goal of what you want
to get out of the vacation is a better place
than starting with where you're going to go, or how
long you're going to be gone or whatever. Knowing what
you want to accomplish makes it a lot easier to
(02:55):
plan and stick within that value you. If I could
give you an example, my son just took his first
adult vacation that he planned on his own.
Speaker 1 (03:11):
Nice.
Speaker 3 (03:12):
He just got back yesterday. He texted me today and said,
I had the best time. They went to New Orleans.
Had the best time in New Orleans because I understood
how to pick my hotel, how to budget for the
things that I wanted to do, and we even had
money to splurge on a really nice dinner that we
(03:35):
didn't think we'd be able to do nice. So for him,
he lives in Alabama, so he picked someplace that didn't
cost a lot of money to get to, and New
Orleans is a little bit outside of their peak season
right now, so prices came down a little bit, and
(03:56):
he used a couple other strategies that I didn't realize
he was learning from his mama.
Speaker 1 (04:02):
That's awesome. He listened that. Hey, that's a miracle in
and of itself. Right the kids listen, that should.
Speaker 3 (04:07):
Be a great endorsement for what I write.
Speaker 1 (04:09):
Right, You're right. Yes, if you get your kids to
listen to you, you're doing something right for sure.
Speaker 3 (04:14):
Well I didn't even have to ask him to listen,
but anyway, go ahead.
Speaker 1 (04:18):
Wow, wow, I'm just I'm in awe. So let's talk
cautionary tales. What are some of the biggest mistakes that
families make when they're trying to plan a budget friendly vacation.
Speaker 3 (04:30):
I think there's two big mistakes families make. One, they
put the budget ahead of the experience and end up
having a rotten time, like I said, at the outset,
because they're too worried. They've they've put themselves in a
situation where they're constantly counting dollars, right, and that just
(04:53):
makes it really hard to enjoy yourself. The other extreme
of that is they when planning a budget friendly vacation,
people don't always consider the hidden costs or you know,
one of the big ones there is parking at a hotel.
You know, some hotels charge you know, if you go
(05:15):
to New York, you could be charging one hundred bucks
a night just to have your car sit in a garage. Yeah,
and that adds up, and along with that is just
not keeping track of the budget, like, this is our budget,
and then as the week goes on, our vacation, however
long it is goes on, you've ignored it, ignored it,
(05:37):
ignored it. Suddenly you're way over budget. You know, you're
going home to a credit card bill you can't pay off,
and then you end up really stressed.
Speaker 1 (05:46):
Yeah, my wife actually did envelope. She got everything in
cash and then she allocated it per day and then
you know, we if it was a Tuesday, we opened
the Tuesday envelope and the money that we had for
Tuesday was all the money that we were going to spend.
We kind of knew what we were getting into.
Speaker 3 (06:02):
And that's a great way to do it too, especially
if the budget is really tight. That's a great way
to do it and stick within your budget and still
allow yourself some flexibility throughout the day.
Speaker 1 (06:17):
Yeah. Well, let's talk about flights, So that can be
one of the most that can be one of the
more expensive parts of the vacation. When's the best time
to book flights and accommodations for families looking to maximize savings.
Speaker 3 (06:30):
So when I started blogging about travel back in twenty twelve,
the best time to book a flight was on Tuesday. Okay,
everybody knew it. For whatever reason, flights were cheaper on Tuesday.
It's all gone since COVID. Really since twenty twenty one.
(06:54):
I don't know if I would say twenty twenty. In
the last few years, air travel has gotten so tricky
that there really isn't a great way to save on
flights unless you have a points credit card that's tied
to the airline, where you can use points and cash
(07:16):
to buy down your ticket. More what people can do
is be flexible with the airport that they fly into
or out of, or the time of day that they fly.
Sometimes you can save money if you're if you're really
good at getting up early and you can take that
(07:37):
six o'clock red eye, you're going to save a few dollars.
We travel. We live close to both the Charlotte Airport
and the Raleigh Airport and not too bad not too
far to Atlanta, so I will compare all it's a
bit of more of a drive, but I will compare
(07:58):
the rates for all three airports and decide where we're
going to fly from, and it I have. Like my
husband and I took a trip in February. We saved
about six hundred dollars total for a vacation flying out
of Charlotte versus Raleigh. Oh wow, for the particular flight
(08:19):
that we were looking for.
Speaker 1 (08:20):
Right, right, So we did an entire we did a
whole show on the flight tracking app going. Yeah, and
you know there's Google does flight tracking as well, so
you can kind of if you're flexible about when you
can go, you can monitor the flights as well, and
that can potentially save you some money as well.
Speaker 3 (08:42):
That's very true if you're flexible with kids. It's harder
to be flexible because you're working around the school year. Yeah,
and you want to make sure with kids that you're
not doing my opinion, I don't want to travel with
kids on the cheap flights that have three or four legs,
or that have super tight layovers less than forty five
(09:05):
minutes that mean we're literally going to run from one
flight to the next, or that have like the eight
hour layover. With kids, what are you can you lose
the day of vacation, right, and they're not going to
be happy wandering around in airport all day now. So
that's back to that value versus budget question. You know,
(09:25):
consider the timing to make sure that you're not going
to lose your mind or drive the kids totally crazy.
Speaker 1 (09:32):
Yeah, an extra two hundred dollars is well worth your sanity.
Speaker 3 (09:36):
Yes.
Speaker 1 (09:39):
Well, are there any particular destinations or types of vacations
that offer more bang for the buck?
Speaker 3 (09:45):
Yes, I think so. I like to do big city
adjacent or hot destination adjacent vacations.
Speaker 1 (09:58):
Okay, so as an ex.
Speaker 3 (10:02):
A lot of people like to go to Washington, d C.
For vacation, or to New York City for vacation, any
of the real big cities. When I go to Washington,
because we're only a few hours away, that's a good
weekend get away for us. But I stay in Arlington
(10:23):
because Arlington hotels in general are more geared toward meetings,
so weekends are cheaper and they and most of them
have free parking at the hotel for the car, so
you get there, park the car, use the DC Metro
to go anywhere you want in the DC area and
(10:44):
save a whole ton of money. And New York. If
I'm going to New York, I want to be in
the city that's me personally. But I don't book the
big name hotels that everybody's looking at I'll go to
(11:06):
a hiatt place or a home to suites, a more
budget friendly hotel. And we were just in New York
for Thanksgiving week, which is one of the most expensive,
and the hotel rack rate was one sixty nine a night.
So if you're willing, we weren't looking. When I go
(11:28):
to New York, I'm going to eat New York City food,
so I didn't need a free breakfast. We flew to
the city. I didn't need a place to keep my car.
So you can find a decent hotel just by shopping
around a little bit. Get a few blocks away from
(11:48):
the main drag. You know, you don't have to be
on Central Park. You don't have to be in Times
Square to actually I think it's better to be outside
of Times Square personal opinion when I'm in New York,
but just going to Harlem or going to the East Side,
closer to that direction that people don't think about. You're
(12:10):
only a couple of blocks away from anything you want
to get to in the subway, I'll take you there.
Speaker 1 (12:16):
M Yeah. Tom Square is the only part of New
York that I've stayed in, and I definitely would be
would advocate staying other places and Home two suites. You
mentioned Home two sweets. We absolutely love Home two suites.
You know you're not sacrificing a lot. When you're talking
about the hotels that you mentioned, they're you know, perfectly
(12:38):
nice hotels. So but for one hundred, would you say
one hundred and seventy nine in New York City? I think, oh,
that's yeah, that's amazing.
Speaker 3 (12:46):
I knew I was going to New York though, and
I booked way early, right, So that would be a
related tip. If you're going to a popular destination and
you know you want to be there, book early while
the rates are lower, because the rates go up as
the supply goes down.
Speaker 1 (13:06):
Yeah, it never failed. I would have clients that would
want to wait till the last minute, thinking they were
going to get a last minute deal, and in places
like New York. I mean, I'm not saying it can't happen,
but the likelihood is not as high as you would
like it to be. You're you're really you're really gambling
the later that you wait to book.
Speaker 3 (13:25):
So and again with with families, I'm sorry I cut
you off. When you're traveling with the kids, you want
to make sure you're in the kind of hotel that
you're going to want to be in with the kids.
Speaker 1 (13:36):
Exactly, exactly. Well, you mentioned hidden costs. Now, one of
my the bane of my existence when I was a
travel agent was resort fees. But talk about some of
the hidden costs that families overlook when they plan a vacation.
Speaker 3 (13:52):
Uh, the big ones are hotel related, the resort fees,
the parking fee. Some times hotels say that they offer breakfast.
People miss whether or not that's a free breakfast or
a lot of hotels will offer two free breakfast, but
(14:12):
you've got six people in your family. Are the kids
free or are you going to be paying for the kids?
Is there a limit on the number of free breakfasts
that are offered. Other fees are that people overlook are
airport luggage fees. So if you're with an airline that
(14:33):
you don't have a credit card where you can carry
a bag for or check a bag for free. If
your bag is too big, you're going to be paying
to check that bag, right and they're not. You can't
sweet talk them, you're going to be paying to check
the bag. With rental cars, when you get to the
rental car desk, are you going to be paying for
(14:56):
the insurance. Are you going to pay a head for
the g ask I personally, because I'm very risk averse,
I usually get the insurance because it's not a whole lot,
but I never prepay the gas. There's always a gas
station close to the airport that's going to be cheaper
than the gas, but I know I'm going to get
(15:18):
back in time to drop off the car with full tank.
So those are the hidden costs. I think that I
would worry about people who go on cruises. Are you
prepaying you for your drinks package? Because cruises are so
(15:41):
easy to overspend because all you have to do is
like that wrisk band or that card, and you never
see the dollars till you get to the very end
unless you check. So if you're going to give the
kids buying power, making sure they know what they're limb
it is and that you're checking it to make sure
(16:03):
that they're sticking to it, right, I'm laughing. I was
on a cruise with our daughter several years ago, and
she was old enough to be off on her own,
and like, we met up at the time that we
had agreed to and I was like, what did you do?
And she's like, Mom, I had so much fun. We
(16:24):
played in the arcade all day and I'm like, uh,
you don't have charging privileges. She's like, no, there was
a boy there and all he had to do was
swipe his arm and we could play whatever we wanted.
And I'm like, oh, no, I don't even want to
be the fly on the wall for that one.
Speaker 2 (16:42):
No.
Speaker 1 (16:42):
No, that's when you get the scroll bill at the end.
It just keeps on going. Yeah, yeah, yeah, Mom and
dad can make that mistake too, because one of the
cruises that we did, we got to the end and
my jaw hit the floor when the bill came because
I'm like, wait a minute, wait a minute, keep going,
it go, it it going. So yeah, Mom and Dad
(17:03):
can can just as easily make those same mistakes for sure.
Speaker 3 (17:07):
Yeah. I avoid the customer service area the last night
of the cruise because the people who are angry, yes
or upset it just breaks my heart and I'm like,
I don't want to be there to see that. So yeah,
if you're cruising, pay attention to how much you're spending
because the bill doesn't go away.
Speaker 1 (17:27):
Right and you know it's what you were talking about earlier.
It goes against the whole reason you're taking the vacation
to begin with, Right, You're doing it to make memories,
You're doing it to relax, and that's certainly is not relaxing.
Just like you said the last night of the cruise,
take it. Take a detour by the customer service desk
and you'll you'll see everyone that's not relaxing all in
(17:49):
one place.
Speaker 3 (17:52):
Yeah. And like my husband and I, we cruise fairly often.
I love being an empty ness. I love my kids,
but I love being an empty nester and getting to
jump on a ship and escape for a few days.
And nine times out of ten we don't purchase the
drink package because we would never drink as much as
(18:14):
it costs. And you know, the one time we did
purchase it recently, we didn't want to worry about the
bill and it was like this is a longer. We
had a lot more c days, and it was like,
we're just going to treat this like we can do
whatever we want.
Speaker 1 (18:32):
You go.
Speaker 3 (18:33):
So, really, just an anybody trying to avoid excessive costs
is weighing the pros and cons of anything that's added
to the fees.
Speaker 1 (18:44):
Right, since we're talking about crauisying. Do you have a
favorite cruise line just out of curiosity?
Speaker 3 (18:51):
Oh gosh, no, it depends on what I'm looking for,
I guess. Oh no, I've been on all of them.
I love Disney, even though it's very expensive. When the
kids were young and I love Disney, but I don't
think I would go on an adult's only Disney cruise
(19:14):
because that wouldn't be the best value for me. Sure,
when my kids were younger, I absolutely loved the how
pampered they were. But I'll do Carnival, Royal Celebrity just
one of my first Virgin Voyages cruise that was awesome.
Speaker 1 (19:34):
And that that one's weird. Virgins set up a little differently.
Did you enjoy the contrast between how they run things versus,
you know, Carnival or Royal Caribbean.
Speaker 3 (19:46):
Yes, I will say the first cruise, I was about
half well, it's only been one so far. I was
probably halfway through the week before I really appreciated what
Virgin was trying to accomplish. But there's something about my
(20:09):
husband might not be happy I'm telling this story out
there to the whole world, but he happens to love.
He loves saltwater taffy. Okay, And they have a candy
bar on Virgin Ships that he found way before I did.
He came and sat down next to me. We were
(20:30):
doing something I don't even remember, trivia or something, and
he had a bag of candy like you would get
at the ten cent store when you're a kid, full
of saltwater taffy. And he had the biggest grin on
his face and like he was just a happy, happy,
happy guy.
Speaker 1 (20:49):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (20:50):
So I do like it, actually, you know, for the
right vacation and the mood that I'm going for, it
was great to not have kids around for a few days.
Speaker 1 (21:00):
Sure, I mean you can always.
Speaker 3 (21:03):
Travel.
Speaker 1 (21:04):
Writer, No, listen, listen, you got you gotta have you
gotta have a breather every now and then. Right, You
mentioned food, all right, so that's a good segue here.
What are some what are some creative ways that families
can save money on food while they're traveling without sacrificing quality.
You mentioned when you're in New York. You know you
like to eat New York food. Well, New York food
(21:25):
isn't exactly cheap, So you know, what are some ways
that families can save money when they're trying to get
food on the on the road.
Speaker 3 (21:36):
Well, specific to New York, we tend to do New
York cheap food most of the time, the pizza because
I'm sorry, New York has great pizza.
Speaker 2 (21:49):
And.
Speaker 3 (21:51):
You know our street hot dog and we have survived
all of them, but a lot of the less expensive.
There's a lot of inex options in New York. And
then we splurge on like the Fancy Night or whatever
you want to call it, and do a pre fee menu.
(22:12):
So it's one hundred and fifty dollars for a four
course meal for two. Yes, that's expensive, but that's not
horrible for a fancy er dinner in New York. So
we do a lot of that in other vacations because
we don't what we used to do when our kids
(22:34):
were growing up, we'd hit the big meal mid day,
like at lunchtime, one o'clock ish, so that the kids
kind of got a breather from running around. We even
did this at Disney. Our sit down meals were always lunchtime,
a little bit cheaper usually than the dinner menu for
(22:55):
the exact same food, and the kids get a chance
to just relax a little bit and catch their breath
and not have to process all the new things that
are hitting them. And then after lunch you can go
out and do stuff as a family and they're rejuvenated.
We also try to stay at hotels with kitchens or
(23:23):
vacation rentals with a kitchen that I could prepare food
before we went, like cook and freeze chili or beef
stew or any of our We used to always go
away from New Year's so a lot of those winter foods,
but even in the summertime, pre cook our food, freeze it,
(23:48):
just pack a cooler and take it and have four
or five planned meals that we'd enjoy in our living space,
where the kids could have some downtime where they did
watch a movie, or our youngest would get a chance
to hang out in the bubble back and just have
a half an hour to herself without all the stuff.
(24:11):
She's ten years younger than her brother, so giving her
that downtime would let her recharge. And we're also saving
money eating food. I know everybody's gonna like that's awesome.
Speaker 1 (24:24):
That's exactly what we do at Disney. By the way,
we always do our sit down meal at lunch, because
I mean, it's not. It's not a huge savings, but
it is a savings when you're eating the sit down
meal at lunch and then you know, do something quick
service in the evening. So I love that all right. Now,
this next question I almost regret putting it in, only
(24:45):
because there are entire podcasts on this topic. So this
may be, you know, too broad of a question, and
if it is, you can please tell me. But what
are some ways that families can take advantage of the
loyal programs, the travel rewards, credit card perks to help
reduce the costs.
Speaker 3 (25:07):
I actually chuckled when I read the question. I have
this thing I do every year. I've been doing it
for twenty five years where I set a new skill
to learn for the year. Okay, so one year it
was gardening, and I planted twenty trees. I learned everything
(25:30):
I could about how to grow a tree, and all
twenty trees are still alive. And we're doing a lot
of natural gardening without chemicals and stuff, and my neighbors
think my yard looks great. So I'm doing okay. In
the early years of the blog, learning how to be
a better photographer, learning how to write better, those kind
(25:52):
of things. Every year I had a new skill. This
year's skill happens to be credit card points to use
the travel reward points to reduce the cost of travel.
And you're right, there are experts on this, and I
never will claim to be an expert. But what I
(26:14):
would say is, if you have a favorite airline, get
their credit card if you've got the discipline to pay
off the card every month, because the minute you don't
pay the card off, you've lost every advantage of the points.
But if you have a favorite airline, get their credit
card and use it to build up the points so
(26:37):
that you can buy airline tickets either with a mix
of cash and points or points only travel. If your
employer offers something like especially cost Go membership, take advantage
of that Costco membership. Costco Travel has some good packages
(26:58):
that people can save a lot. We've used it. I'm
looking at how to use it better, but we used
it on a vacation three or four years ago and
it was almost six hundred dollars less than if I
had bought it with anybody else.
Speaker 1 (27:14):
Wow.
Speaker 3 (27:15):
So Costco has good volume. And then the same if
your hotel loyal if you if there's a hotel brand
that you are loyal to. For us, it's Home to
Suites because we have cats who travel, okay, and Home
two Sweets is the one hotel brand that is cat
(27:38):
friendly and my cats, my cats love their hotel vacations,
so and I don't worry about them being at home
all alone because they're very social. So we use Home
two Suites and it's part of the Hilton brand of hotels.
So after ten nights we get at a free night
(28:01):
and then the points build up through the year and
all of that. So brand loyalty, if it works for you,
is a great way to do it right right.
Speaker 1 (28:12):
What about strategies for finding free or low cast family
friendly activities.
Speaker 3 (28:20):
This is my favorite one.
Speaker 1 (28:22):
Okay, this is.
Speaker 3 (28:24):
This is this is my sweet spot. This is where
I live. The way that I find free or low
cost activities at a destination is actually by going to Instagram,
okay and putting in the search free things in whatever
city I'm going.
Speaker 1 (28:43):
To, Oh nice, okay, and you.
Speaker 3 (28:47):
Will get a plethora. It will be overwhelming how many
free things you will find to do in a particular destination.
So that's one. I also use the Visitor Bureau website.
It's called the CBB or the to find what they
(29:09):
have that's free. They'll have a list of free things
to do in their city or county, so I'll look
at that as well. I sometimes not very often because
I'm not happy with Google right now. Google is not
always as accurate as it used to be. But I'll
google free things to do in whatever place, and then
(29:31):
I'll scroll down past all the sponsored stuff to find
articles that have free things, and I'll look to make
sure that the date is recent, because if it's not
from twenty four, twenty twenty four, twenty twenty five, it's
probably not accurate. So that's how I find free things.
(29:53):
The other thing that I always look for, well, I
don't want to say always. If I'm going to be
someplace a long long enough that i'll back up. My
son just went to New Orleans. He got the New
Orleans City Pass or go pass, whichever one they have. Yeah,
different cities have different ones to prepay for all the
(30:17):
museums that they wanted in attractions they wanted to go to.
He saved about thirty percent over paying rack rate. So
if it's a major vacation city destination, or if it's
a popular destination on its own, but not a major city.
You can often get a pass that consolidates or that
(30:40):
offers a discount on the main attractions. If you want
to go to all those. It's a great way to
save money. Yeah, did that make sense?
Speaker 1 (30:50):
Absolutely? Yeah. Did your son do the National D Day
Museum in New Orleans? By chance?
Speaker 3 (30:55):
He did, and he sent me a picture and he
said it was the most most amazing museum he's been
to in years.
Speaker 1 (31:03):
It is amazing. It. I actually when I went, I
lucked out and got behind a family where I guess
it was you know, the grandfather who was actually participated
in D Day, and so he was telling stories as
we're Wow it was I mean, I was in tears.
It was amazing. It was absolutely amazing. But the museum
(31:26):
itself is amazing as well. Even if you don't get that,
you know, that kind of experience. What about national parks, museums,
other attractions. How can families make the most of those
kind of experiences, you know, the places that offer discounts
or free days, those kinds of things.
Speaker 3 (31:45):
So national parks do offer free days, but they're very
limited and they tend to be very crowded because everybody
knows about them now. But you can buy a National
park annual pass, or you can buy a pass that's
a week long. So if you're going someplace where you
will be visiting a lot of National parks, you know
(32:07):
I talked about Washington, d C. There are several small
National parks near DC. You can save a lot of
money by buying that temper that park pass for either
the year or the week, and it's much less than
paying for each day. Museums and zoos, I'll add the
(32:29):
museum zoos and aquariums. A lot of them offer reciprocal
admission or discounted admission across the country. We live in
the Carolinas. We were going to Ohio for vacation and
wanted to go to the Columbus Zoo. So we bought
(32:50):
an annual pass at our local zoo for the year
because we knew we would go there at least a
couple times, and it included free admission in Columbus. So
we got and we ended up throwing in a couple
more zoos. We went to Birmingham, we went to the
North Carolina Zoos, so we hit four or five zoos
(33:11):
over the course of the year for the price of
one family membership.
Speaker 1 (33:15):
That's awesome. You know you mentioned cruises, and a lot
of people like cruises because of the all inclusive nature.
So I wanted to talk about all inclusives with you.
What's your stance, how do you feel about let's say,
CanCon places like that that offer the all inclusive experience.
I did air quotes. Nobody can see that, but.
Speaker 3 (33:38):
If you could see me, my arms are waving all
over the place. I talked with my hands because I
used to work with deaf kids, not because I'm Italian,
because I'm not, but my arms are always moving. Okay,
this is personal opinion only. Sure, all inclusive are great
(34:03):
if you're looking for a beach vacation where you don't
have to worry about anything, okay, and someplace like King
Kun or Jamaica where you're not you might take a
day to or to go someplace else or something like that,
(34:23):
but you're really there for the beach. It's a great value.
But if you want to go someplace and experience the place,
and all inclusive is going to isolate you from the culture.
Speaker 1 (34:40):
Yeah, I see what you're saying, and.
Speaker 3 (34:43):
So it depends again, this gets back to your value
for budget kind of question. If the vacation you're going
for is total relax relaxation where you don't have to
think about anything and all inclusive is great. But if
your goal is culture and learning about the place that
(35:04):
you're going to, and all inclusive is really a waste
of your dollars because so much happens beyond the all
inclusive and a good example of this is Bermuda. I
don't know if you've ever been to Bermuda.
Speaker 1 (35:21):
I have not.
Speaker 3 (35:23):
It is absolutely, one hundred percent my number one favorite
place in the world. Wow, Okay, and I don't say
that lightly because until I went to Bermuda, I could
never peg any one place down as my favorite. The
people of Bermuda are simply beautiful. The food, the culture,
the beaches. Even if you go in the wintertime, the
(35:45):
water's too cold, but it's still gorgeous. It is just
a nice place. There is one resort. There are lots
of resorts in Bermuda that offer a meal package to
go along with your stay, but there are so many
incredible restaurants in Bermuda that you probably end up paying
(36:09):
for meals you're not going to be actually eating. And
it's a very safe overall compared to most places, a
lot of places, it's very safe place to travel. If
you end up leaving the resort to go do something
in the city and you eat in the city, you're
double paying for the meal. You pay that the all
inclusive and then you pay downtown and then what do
(36:32):
you do? And that like when my husband and I cruise,
because we like to keep our budget. We want to
vacation a lot, so we try to keep our vacation
dollars tight. We eat a giant breakfast before we leave
that ship, and that way, when we're off doing whatever
we're doing on the island, we can enjoy the meal
(36:52):
that we're out there. But we also if we don't
eat a big meal while we're out, that's okay too.
But anyway, that's just us.
Speaker 1 (37:00):
Hey, there's nothing wrong with that at all, and a
perfect segue into my next question. Okay, with so many families,
including the one you're talking to here, having limited vacation budgets,
we just paid for a wedding, so our vacation budget
is yeah, it's pretty much not existent. But anyway, with
so many families having limited vacation budgets, what's your number
(37:23):
one piece of advice to make the most of the vacation.
Speaker 3 (37:26):
Stay closer to home. If you can look within six
hours of where you live and find a place that
you would enjoy vacationing, go there okay, because you don't
have to fly and flying is expensive. You don't have
to rent a car because that's expensive. If you're within
(37:50):
six hours of home, you're not giving Because there's more
to vacation than the dollar cost. There's the time cost.
So if you're not using two full days of your
vacation time to get wherever it is you want to go,
you've got more time to enjoy your vacation destination. So,
(38:12):
like we just went to My husband just changed jobs
and was able to take a big chunk of time
off between jobs. So we traveled a lot this year,
more than normal, and one of our trips was to Chattanooga.
I've never been to Chattanooga.
Speaker 1 (38:28):
It's a great say, it is.
Speaker 3 (38:30):
An amazing city and it is probably, like I said,
Bermuda is my all time favorite in the world. I
would put Chattanooga as one of my top budget travel
destinations that families will be happy they did because there's
just so much to do and most of it is
(38:51):
low cost or free.
Speaker 1 (38:52):
Yeah, that's two hours from us. So maybe with our
very limited vacation budget this year, maybe that's where we
do go with Chattan. Well, what about your favorite resources
websites apps for families looking to plan an affordable yet
memorable trip.
Speaker 3 (39:09):
Well, Instagram is still my favorite for finding low cost
things to do. I know it's a crazy recommendation perhaps,
but it works every single time. And then there are
even for restaurants. If you do like hashtag foody, whatever
city or the name of the city foody, you will
(39:32):
find so many recommendations and as soon as you ask,
like where's the best place to find a burger under
fifteen dollars, You're going to get an answer. So Instagram,
believe it or not, is one. I use the viator
or I don't know how everybody else pronounces it app
if I'm looking to book a tour, and then the
(39:56):
other one if I'm looking if you want, like if
I'm looking for a place to stay where I want
more space than a hotel, I use vrbo verbo. I
like it better than the other one because the pricing
is a lot more transparent and it's also a little
bit smaller, so I find that when I like, I
(40:20):
never end up in a place that isn't what I
expected it to be.
Speaker 1 (40:25):
Last question, what is one travel hack that has completely
changed the way that you vacation on a budget.
Speaker 3 (40:32):
I've thought about this. I appreciate the heads up, I think.
Can I give two? Absolutely, if you go someplace that
has public transportation, not a bus system, I mean subways, right,
(40:53):
real transit, don't be afraid to use it. New York, Washington, Paris, Bermuda.
I'm trying to think where else. Atlanta public transportation is
wonderful because you're not paying parking fees and it makes
life really easy. So that would be one, And I
(41:17):
think the second one would be plan with the goal
in mind, goal budget, destination rather than destination, budget rather
than destination first, put your goal first, then make sure
(41:39):
it fits your budget, and then decide where you're going
to go. So for you you're on a tight budget
this year, you know, Chattanooga is probably not too exciting
if it's only two hours away. You've been there before,
but there might be someplace else within three or four
hours that or you haven't really explored. Had a new
(42:00):
I don't know, but considering what your goal is out
of vacation. Do you want to relax on a beach?
Do you want to see all the site My son
wanted to see all the sites. New Orleans was four
hours away. It was a slam dunk for him.
Speaker 1 (42:18):
That's awesome. There's plenty of good food in New Orleans.
I mean you can go to ors just for food.
Speaker 3 (42:23):
I mean the original Cafe Dumont and sent me a
picture of his beignets.
Speaker 1 (42:28):
You know, I'll be honest. I thought the first time
I went to New Orleans, I thought, how good? I mean,
it's a donut? How good could a beignet be? And
I don't know if it's just not only how good
it is, but where you're eating it. It is absolutely stellar.
It is worth all the hype that people put on
the beignets. If you're in New Orleans, you gotta try beignet.
(42:51):
That's just that's my two cents.
Speaker 3 (42:53):
Okay, can we can we talk one last donut? Though?
Speaker 1 (42:56):
Yes? Oh we can always talk donuts.
Speaker 3 (43:00):
Have you ever been to Carolina Beach in North Carolina
near Wilmington.
Speaker 1 (43:05):
It has been a long time.
Speaker 3 (43:07):
Okay, I am going to I am going to steak
my reputation here. The donuts at Britz b R I
T t apostrophe s are the best donut in America.
Speaker 1 (43:25):
Wow, Okay, all right, I have.
Speaker 3 (43:28):
Never been able to go and eat just one.
Speaker 1 (43:32):
Now, See. I feel that way about the donut Hole
in Destin, Florida. That's if I were to judge my
favorite donut of any They have a donut called a
vanilla Angel.
Speaker 3 (43:44):
Okay.
Speaker 1 (43:45):
I don't want to know how many calories are in
that thing because it is it is pure sugar. But man,
that oh goodness, so good, so good. But Brits Carolina Beech.
Speaker 3 (43:57):
Carolina Beach in North Carolina.
Speaker 1 (44:00):
Well, you're laying down the gauntlet. I've got to travel
there now and try that donut and I will give
everyone my feedback on how it ranks against the donut Hole.
Speaker 3 (44:10):
And that's a You know, if you stay in Wilmington,
you can go to Carolina Beach for the day and
save a whole lot of money. Okay, And Wilmington's fun
little town all on its own.
Speaker 1 (44:20):
Awesome, all right, Well, you're throwing some stuff all the
way out. I love it. Thank you so much, Karen,
Thanks so much for being on the show. This has
been a fun conversation and so much good information. Thanks
for taking the time to come on the show with me.
Speaker 3 (44:36):
It was my pleasure. I hope you have a great day.
Speaker 1 (44:39):
You too for everyone listening. You can learn more from
Karen at family Travels on a Budget dot com. One
of the cool things about her website is you can
not only search by destination, you can also search by
age groups. Super helpful. We'll have all of her links
in the show notes. If you found this episode helpful,
make sure to hit thisubscribe button, leave a quick review
(45:02):
and share the episode with someone that you know who's
planning their next vacation on a budget, And as always,
remember keep your hearts and your passports open. Safe travels everyone.
Speaker 2 (45:14):
Thank you for listening to the Family Vacation.
Speaker 3 (45:17):
Make sure I like it.
Speaker 2 (45:18):
Subscribe to hear more from Robin Tracyyery Tracy
Trying to plan a fun, memorable family vacation without draining
your bank account. You're not alone. Today we're diving into
smart strategies that help families get the most value out
of every travel dollar without sacrificing the joy of traveling.
Episode one seventy eight starts right now.
Speaker 2 (00:24):
Welcome to The Family Vacationer with Robin Tracy, your go
to podcast for families on the moon.
Speaker 1 (00:32):
Hey, everybody, welcome back to the Family Vacationer. I'm Rob
and if you're here, you're probably like me, trying to
create amazing travel memories with your family without wiping out
your savings. Well, today's episode is for any family that's
ever thought we'd love to travel more, but we just
can't afford it. That's a mindset that we're flipping today
(00:55):
thanks to my guest Karen Dawkins. Karen is the creator
of Family Travels on a Budget. She's a go to
voice in the world of affordable family travel, and her practical,
no nonsense approach has helped thousands of families see more
of the world for less. She's been featured in USA Today,
huff Posts, and so many other great outlets. Karen, Welcome
(01:16):
to the show.
Speaker 3 (01:18):
I'm really happy to be here.
Speaker 1 (01:20):
We're happy to have you. So, you know, many families
feel like they have to choose between a great vacation
and an affordable one. How do you define smart budget travel?
You know, getting the most out of your vacation dollar.
I know that you have a very specific definition of
how you like to look at this.
Speaker 3 (01:39):
So I write about family travel on a budget, But
it's not about the bottom line. It's about making sure
that every dollar you spend is actually helping you accomplish
your goal. So if you do a really tight budget
vacation because you're only looking at the dollars and you
(02:00):
get home exhausted because you cooked all your meals, you
stayed in super low budget hotels, you did everything on
a shoe string, and you're exhausted, that's not smart budget travel.
So to me, smart budget travel is knowing how much
money you have to spend and then making choices within
(02:24):
that budget to get the most bang for your buck.
Speaker 1 (02:27):
What mindset shifts can help families focus on value rather
than just cutting the costs.
Speaker 3 (02:33):
I think starting with a goal of what you want
to get out of the vacation is a better place
than starting with where you're going to go, or how
long you're going to be gone or whatever. Knowing what
you want to accomplish makes it a lot easier to
(02:55):
plan and stick within that value you. If I could
give you an example, my son just took his first
adult vacation that he planned on his own.
Speaker 1 (03:11):
Nice.
Speaker 3 (03:12):
He just got back yesterday. He texted me today and said,
I had the best time. They went to New Orleans.
Had the best time in New Orleans because I understood
how to pick my hotel, how to budget for the
things that I wanted to do, and we even had
money to splurge on a really nice dinner that we
(03:35):
didn't think we'd be able to do nice. So for him,
he lives in Alabama, so he picked someplace that didn't
cost a lot of money to get to, and New
Orleans is a little bit outside of their peak season
right now, so prices came down a little bit, and
(03:56):
he used a couple other strategies that I didn't realize
he was learning from his mama.
Speaker 1 (04:02):
That's awesome. He listened that. Hey, that's a miracle in
and of itself. Right the kids listen, that should.
Speaker 3 (04:07):
Be a great endorsement for what I write.
Speaker 1 (04:09):
Right, You're right. Yes, if you get your kids to
listen to you, you're doing something right for sure.
Speaker 3 (04:14):
Well I didn't even have to ask him to listen,
but anyway, go ahead.
Speaker 1 (04:18):
Wow, wow, I'm just I'm in awe. So let's talk
cautionary tales. What are some of the biggest mistakes that
families make when they're trying to plan a budget friendly vacation.
Speaker 3 (04:30):
I think there's two big mistakes families make. One, they
put the budget ahead of the experience and end up
having a rotten time, like I said, at the outset,
because they're too worried. They've they've put themselves in a
situation where they're constantly counting dollars, right, and that just
(04:53):
makes it really hard to enjoy yourself. The other extreme
of that is they when planning a budget friendly vacation,
people don't always consider the hidden costs or you know,
one of the big ones there is parking at a hotel.
You know, some hotels charge you know, if you go
(05:15):
to New York, you could be charging one hundred bucks
a night just to have your car sit in a garage. Yeah,
and that adds up, and along with that is just
not keeping track of the budget, like, this is our budget,
and then as the week goes on, our vacation, however
long it is goes on, you've ignored it, ignored it,
(05:37):
ignored it. Suddenly you're way over budget. You know, you're
going home to a credit card bill you can't pay off,
and then you end up really stressed.
Speaker 1 (05:46):
Yeah, my wife actually did envelope. She got everything in
cash and then she allocated it per day and then
you know, we if it was a Tuesday, we opened
the Tuesday envelope and the money that we had for
Tuesday was all the money that we were going to spend.
We kind of knew what we were getting into.
Speaker 3 (06:02):
And that's a great way to do it too, especially
if the budget is really tight. That's a great way
to do it and stick within your budget and still
allow yourself some flexibility throughout the day.
Speaker 1 (06:17):
Yeah. Well, let's talk about flights, So that can be
one of the most that can be one of the
more expensive parts of the vacation. When's the best time
to book flights and accommodations for families looking to maximize savings.
Speaker 3 (06:30):
So when I started blogging about travel back in twenty twelve,
the best time to book a flight was on Tuesday. Okay,
everybody knew it. For whatever reason, flights were cheaper on Tuesday.
It's all gone since COVID. Really since twenty twenty one.
(06:54):
I don't know if I would say twenty twenty. In
the last few years, air travel has gotten so tricky
that there really isn't a great way to save on
flights unless you have a points credit card that's tied
to the airline, where you can use points and cash
(07:16):
to buy down your ticket. More what people can do
is be flexible with the airport that they fly into
or out of, or the time of day that they fly.
Sometimes you can save money if you're if you're really
good at getting up early and you can take that
(07:37):
six o'clock red eye, you're going to save a few dollars.
We travel. We live close to both the Charlotte Airport
and the Raleigh Airport and not too bad not too
far to Atlanta, so I will compare all it's a
bit of more of a drive, but I will compare
(07:58):
the rates for all three airports and decide where we're
going to fly from, and it I have. Like my
husband and I took a trip in February. We saved
about six hundred dollars total for a vacation flying out
of Charlotte versus Raleigh. Oh wow, for the particular flight
(08:19):
that we were looking for.
Speaker 1 (08:20):
Right, right, So we did an entire we did a
whole show on the flight tracking app going. Yeah, and
you know there's Google does flight tracking as well, so
you can kind of if you're flexible about when you
can go, you can monitor the flights as well, and
that can potentially save you some money as well.
Speaker 3 (08:42):
That's very true if you're flexible with kids. It's harder
to be flexible because you're working around the school year. Yeah,
and you want to make sure with kids that you're
not doing my opinion, I don't want to travel with
kids on the cheap flights that have three or four legs,
or that have super tight layovers less than forty five
(09:05):
minutes that mean we're literally going to run from one
flight to the next, or that have like the eight
hour layover. With kids, what are you can you lose
the day of vacation, right, and they're not going to
be happy wandering around in airport all day now. So
that's back to that value versus budget question. You know,
(09:25):
consider the timing to make sure that you're not going
to lose your mind or drive the kids totally crazy.
Speaker 1 (09:32):
Yeah, an extra two hundred dollars is well worth your sanity.
Speaker 3 (09:36):
Yes.
Speaker 1 (09:39):
Well, are there any particular destinations or types of vacations
that offer more bang for the buck?
Speaker 3 (09:45):
Yes, I think so. I like to do big city
adjacent or hot destination adjacent vacations.
Speaker 1 (09:58):
Okay, so as an ex.
Speaker 3 (10:02):
A lot of people like to go to Washington, d C.
For vacation, or to New York City for vacation, any
of the real big cities. When I go to Washington,
because we're only a few hours away, that's a good
weekend get away for us. But I stay in Arlington
(10:23):
because Arlington hotels in general are more geared toward meetings,
so weekends are cheaper and they and most of them
have free parking at the hotel for the car, so
you get there, park the car, use the DC Metro
to go anywhere you want in the DC area and
(10:44):
save a whole ton of money. And New York. If
I'm going to New York, I want to be in
the city that's me personally. But I don't book the
big name hotels that everybody's looking at I'll go to
(11:06):
a hiatt place or a home to suites, a more
budget friendly hotel. And we were just in New York
for Thanksgiving week, which is one of the most expensive,
and the hotel rack rate was one sixty nine a night.
So if you're willing, we weren't looking. When I go
(11:28):
to New York, I'm going to eat New York City food,
so I didn't need a free breakfast. We flew to
the city. I didn't need a place to keep my car.
So you can find a decent hotel just by shopping
around a little bit. Get a few blocks away from
(11:48):
the main drag. You know, you don't have to be
on Central Park. You don't have to be in Times
Square to actually I think it's better to be outside
of Times Square personal opinion when I'm in New York,
but just going to Harlem or going to the East Side,
closer to that direction that people don't think about. You're
(12:10):
only a couple of blocks away from anything you want
to get to in the subway, I'll take you there.
Speaker 1 (12:16):
M Yeah. Tom Square is the only part of New
York that I've stayed in, and I definitely would be
would advocate staying other places and Home two suites. You
mentioned Home two sweets. We absolutely love Home two suites.
You know you're not sacrificing a lot. When you're talking
about the hotels that you mentioned, they're you know, perfectly
(12:38):
nice hotels. So but for one hundred, would you say
one hundred and seventy nine in New York City? I think, oh,
that's yeah, that's amazing.
Speaker 3 (12:46):
I knew I was going to New York though, and
I booked way early, right, So that would be a
related tip. If you're going to a popular destination and
you know you want to be there, book early while
the rates are lower, because the rates go up as
the supply goes down.
Speaker 1 (13:06):
Yeah, it never failed. I would have clients that would
want to wait till the last minute, thinking they were
going to get a last minute deal, and in places
like New York. I mean, I'm not saying it can't happen,
but the likelihood is not as high as you would
like it to be. You're you're really you're really gambling
the later that you wait to book.
Speaker 3 (13:25):
So and again with with families, I'm sorry I cut
you off. When you're traveling with the kids, you want
to make sure you're in the kind of hotel that
you're going to want to be in with the kids.
Speaker 1 (13:36):
Exactly, exactly. Well, you mentioned hidden costs. Now, one of
my the bane of my existence when I was a
travel agent was resort fees. But talk about some of
the hidden costs that families overlook when they plan a vacation.
Speaker 3 (13:52):
Uh, the big ones are hotel related, the resort fees,
the parking fee. Some times hotels say that they offer breakfast.
People miss whether or not that's a free breakfast or
a lot of hotels will offer two free breakfast, but
(14:12):
you've got six people in your family. Are the kids
free or are you going to be paying for the kids?
Is there a limit on the number of free breakfasts
that are offered. Other fees are that people overlook are
airport luggage fees. So if you're with an airline that
(14:33):
you don't have a credit card where you can carry
a bag for or check a bag for free. If
your bag is too big, you're going to be paying
to check that bag, right and they're not. You can't
sweet talk them, you're going to be paying to check
the bag. With rental cars, when you get to the
rental car desk, are you going to be paying for
(14:56):
the insurance. Are you going to pay a head for
the g ask I personally, because I'm very risk averse,
I usually get the insurance because it's not a whole lot,
but I never prepay the gas. There's always a gas
station close to the airport that's going to be cheaper
than the gas, but I know I'm going to get
(15:18):
back in time to drop off the car with full tank.
So those are the hidden costs. I think that I
would worry about people who go on cruises. Are you
prepaying you for your drinks package? Because cruises are so
(15:41):
easy to overspend because all you have to do is
like that wrisk band or that card, and you never
see the dollars till you get to the very end
unless you check. So if you're going to give the
kids buying power, making sure they know what they're limb
it is and that you're checking it to make sure
(16:03):
that they're sticking to it, right, I'm laughing. I was
on a cruise with our daughter several years ago, and
she was old enough to be off on her own,
and like, we met up at the time that we
had agreed to and I was like, what did you do?
And she's like, Mom, I had so much fun. We
(16:24):
played in the arcade all day and I'm like, uh,
you don't have charging privileges. She's like, no, there was
a boy there and all he had to do was
swipe his arm and we could play whatever we wanted.
And I'm like, oh, no, I don't even want to
be the fly on the wall for that one.
Speaker 2 (16:42):
No.
Speaker 1 (16:42):
No, that's when you get the scroll bill at the end.
It just keeps on going. Yeah, yeah, yeah, Mom and
dad can make that mistake too, because one of the
cruises that we did, we got to the end and
my jaw hit the floor when the bill came because
I'm like, wait a minute, wait a minute, keep going,
it go, it it going. So yeah, Mom and Dad
(17:03):
can can just as easily make those same mistakes for sure.
Speaker 3 (17:07):
Yeah. I avoid the customer service area the last night
of the cruise because the people who are angry, yes
or upset it just breaks my heart and I'm like,
I don't want to be there to see that. So yeah,
if you're cruising, pay attention to how much you're spending
because the bill doesn't go away.
Speaker 1 (17:27):
Right and you know it's what you were talking about earlier.
It goes against the whole reason you're taking the vacation
to begin with, Right, You're doing it to make memories,
You're doing it to relax, and that's certainly is not relaxing.
Just like you said the last night of the cruise,
take it. Take a detour by the customer service desk
and you'll you'll see everyone that's not relaxing all in
(17:49):
one place.
Speaker 3 (17:52):
Yeah. And like my husband and I, we cruise fairly often.
I love being an empty ness. I love my kids,
but I love being an empty nester and getting to
jump on a ship and escape for a few days.
And nine times out of ten we don't purchase the
drink package because we would never drink as much as
(18:14):
it costs. And you know, the one time we did
purchase it recently, we didn't want to worry about the
bill and it was like this is a longer. We
had a lot more c days, and it was like,
we're just going to treat this like we can do
whatever we want.
Speaker 1 (18:32):
You go.
Speaker 3 (18:33):
So, really, just an anybody trying to avoid excessive costs
is weighing the pros and cons of anything that's added
to the fees.
Speaker 1 (18:44):
Right, since we're talking about crauisying. Do you have a
favorite cruise line just out of curiosity?
Speaker 3 (18:51):
Oh gosh, no, it depends on what I'm looking for,
I guess. Oh no, I've been on all of them.
I love Disney, even though it's very expensive. When the
kids were young and I love Disney, but I don't
think I would go on an adult's only Disney cruise
(19:14):
because that wouldn't be the best value for me. Sure,
when my kids were younger, I absolutely loved the how
pampered they were. But I'll do Carnival, Royal Celebrity just
one of my first Virgin Voyages cruise that was awesome.
Speaker 1 (19:34):
And that that one's weird. Virgins set up a little differently.
Did you enjoy the contrast between how they run things versus,
you know, Carnival or Royal Caribbean.
Speaker 3 (19:46):
Yes, I will say the first cruise, I was about
half well, it's only been one so far. I was
probably halfway through the week before I really appreciated what
Virgin was trying to accomplish. But there's something about my
(20:09):
husband might not be happy I'm telling this story out
there to the whole world, but he happens to love.
He loves saltwater taffy. Okay, And they have a candy
bar on Virgin Ships that he found way before I did.
He came and sat down next to me. We were
(20:30):
doing something I don't even remember, trivia or something, and
he had a bag of candy like you would get
at the ten cent store when you're a kid, full
of saltwater taffy. And he had the biggest grin on
his face and like he was just a happy, happy,
happy guy.
Speaker 1 (20:49):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (20:50):
So I do like it, actually, you know, for the
right vacation and the mood that I'm going for, it
was great to not have kids around for a few days.
Speaker 1 (21:00):
Sure, I mean you can always.
Speaker 3 (21:03):
Travel.
Speaker 1 (21:04):
Writer, No, listen, listen, you got you gotta have you
gotta have a breather every now and then. Right, You
mentioned food, all right, so that's a good segue here.
What are some what are some creative ways that families
can save money on food while they're traveling without sacrificing quality.
You mentioned when you're in New York. You know you
like to eat New York food. Well, New York food
(21:25):
isn't exactly cheap, So you know, what are some ways
that families can save money when they're trying to get
food on the on the road.
Speaker 3 (21:36):
Well, specific to New York, we tend to do New
York cheap food most of the time, the pizza because
I'm sorry, New York has great pizza.
Speaker 2 (21:49):
And.
Speaker 3 (21:51):
You know our street hot dog and we have survived
all of them, but a lot of the less expensive.
There's a lot of inex options in New York. And
then we splurge on like the Fancy Night or whatever
you want to call it, and do a pre fee menu.
(22:12):
So it's one hundred and fifty dollars for a four
course meal for two. Yes, that's expensive, but that's not
horrible for a fancy er dinner in New York. So
we do a lot of that in other vacations because
we don't what we used to do when our kids
(22:34):
were growing up, we'd hit the big meal mid day,
like at lunchtime, one o'clock ish, so that the kids
kind of got a breather from running around. We even
did this at Disney. Our sit down meals were always lunchtime,
a little bit cheaper usually than the dinner menu for
(22:55):
the exact same food, and the kids get a chance
to just relax a little bit and catch their breath
and not have to process all the new things that
are hitting them. And then after lunch you can go
out and do stuff as a family and they're rejuvenated.
We also try to stay at hotels with kitchens or
(23:23):
vacation rentals with a kitchen that I could prepare food
before we went, like cook and freeze chili or beef
stew or any of our We used to always go
away from New Year's so a lot of those winter foods,
but even in the summertime, pre cook our food, freeze it,
(23:48):
just pack a cooler and take it and have four
or five planned meals that we'd enjoy in our living space,
where the kids could have some downtime where they did
watch a movie, or our youngest would get a chance
to hang out in the bubble back and just have
a half an hour to herself without all the stuff.
(24:11):
She's ten years younger than her brother, so giving her
that downtime would let her recharge. And we're also saving
money eating food. I know everybody's gonna like that's awesome.
Speaker 1 (24:24):
That's exactly what we do at Disney. By the way,
we always do our sit down meal at lunch, because
I mean, it's not. It's not a huge savings, but
it is a savings when you're eating the sit down
meal at lunch and then you know, do something quick
service in the evening. So I love that all right. Now,
this next question I almost regret putting it in, only
(24:45):
because there are entire podcasts on this topic. So this
may be, you know, too broad of a question, and
if it is, you can please tell me. But what
are some ways that families can take advantage of the
loyal programs, the travel rewards, credit card perks to help
reduce the costs.
Speaker 3 (25:07):
I actually chuckled when I read the question. I have
this thing I do every year. I've been doing it
for twenty five years where I set a new skill
to learn for the year. Okay, so one year it
was gardening, and I planted twenty trees. I learned everything
(25:30):
I could about how to grow a tree, and all
twenty trees are still alive. And we're doing a lot
of natural gardening without chemicals and stuff, and my neighbors
think my yard looks great. So I'm doing okay. In
the early years of the blog, learning how to be
a better photographer, learning how to write better, those kind
(25:52):
of things. Every year I had a new skill. This
year's skill happens to be credit card points to use
the travel reward points to reduce the cost of travel.
And you're right, there are experts on this, and I
never will claim to be an expert. But what I
(26:14):
would say is, if you have a favorite airline, get
their credit card if you've got the discipline to pay
off the card every month, because the minute you don't
pay the card off, you've lost every advantage of the points.
But if you have a favorite airline, get their credit
card and use it to build up the points so
(26:37):
that you can buy airline tickets either with a mix
of cash and points or points only travel. If your
employer offers something like especially cost Go membership, take advantage
of that Costco membership. Costco Travel has some good packages
(26:58):
that people can save a lot. We've used it. I'm
looking at how to use it better, but we used
it on a vacation three or four years ago and
it was almost six hundred dollars less than if I
had bought it with anybody else.
Speaker 1 (27:14):
Wow.
Speaker 3 (27:15):
So Costco has good volume. And then the same if
your hotel loyal if you if there's a hotel brand
that you are loyal to. For us, it's Home to
Suites because we have cats who travel, okay, and Home
two Sweets is the one hotel brand that is cat
(27:38):
friendly and my cats, my cats love their hotel vacations,
so and I don't worry about them being at home
all alone because they're very social. So we use Home
two Suites and it's part of the Hilton brand of hotels.
So after ten nights we get at a free night
(28:01):
and then the points build up through the year and
all of that. So brand loyalty, if it works for you,
is a great way to do it right right.
Speaker 1 (28:12):
What about strategies for finding free or low cast family
friendly activities.
Speaker 3 (28:20):
This is my favorite one.
Speaker 1 (28:22):
Okay, this is.
Speaker 3 (28:24):
This is this is my sweet spot. This is where
I live. The way that I find free or low
cost activities at a destination is actually by going to Instagram,
okay and putting in the search free things in whatever
city I'm going.
Speaker 1 (28:43):
To, Oh nice, okay, and you.
Speaker 3 (28:47):
Will get a plethora. It will be overwhelming how many
free things you will find to do in a particular destination.
So that's one. I also use the Visitor Bureau website.
It's called the CBB or the to find what they
(29:09):
have that's free. They'll have a list of free things
to do in their city or county, so I'll look
at that as well. I sometimes not very often because
I'm not happy with Google right now. Google is not
always as accurate as it used to be. But I'll
google free things to do in whatever place, and then
(29:31):
I'll scroll down past all the sponsored stuff to find
articles that have free things, and I'll look to make
sure that the date is recent, because if it's not
from twenty four, twenty twenty four, twenty twenty five, it's
probably not accurate. So that's how I find free things.
(29:53):
The other thing that I always look for, well, I
don't want to say always. If I'm going to be
someplace a long long enough that i'll back up. My
son just went to New Orleans. He got the New
Orleans City Pass or go pass, whichever one they have. Yeah,
different cities have different ones to prepay for all the
(30:17):
museums that they wanted in attractions they wanted to go to.
He saved about thirty percent over paying rack rate. So
if it's a major vacation city destination, or if it's
a popular destination on its own, but not a major city.
You can often get a pass that consolidates or that
(30:40):
offers a discount on the main attractions. If you want
to go to all those. It's a great way to
save money. Yeah, did that make sense?
Speaker 1 (30:50):
Absolutely? Yeah. Did your son do the National D Day
Museum in New Orleans? By chance?
Speaker 3 (30:55):
He did, and he sent me a picture and he
said it was the most most amazing museum he's been
to in years.
Speaker 1 (31:03):
It is amazing. It. I actually when I went, I
lucked out and got behind a family where I guess
it was you know, the grandfather who was actually participated
in D Day, and so he was telling stories as
we're Wow it was I mean, I was in tears.
It was amazing. It was absolutely amazing. But the museum
(31:26):
itself is amazing as well. Even if you don't get that,
you know, that kind of experience. What about national parks, museums,
other attractions. How can families make the most of those
kind of experiences, you know, the places that offer discounts
or free days, those kinds of things.
Speaker 3 (31:45):
So national parks do offer free days, but they're very
limited and they tend to be very crowded because everybody
knows about them now. But you can buy a National
park annual pass, or you can buy a pass that's
a week long. So if you're going someplace where you
will be visiting a lot of National parks, you know
(32:07):
I talked about Washington, d C. There are several small
National parks near DC. You can save a lot of
money by buying that temper that park pass for either
the year or the week, and it's much less than
paying for each day. Museums and zoos, I'll add the
(32:29):
museum zoos and aquariums. A lot of them offer reciprocal
admission or discounted admission across the country. We live in
the Carolinas. We were going to Ohio for vacation and
wanted to go to the Columbus Zoo. So we bought
(32:50):
an annual pass at our local zoo for the year
because we knew we would go there at least a
couple times, and it included free admission in Columbus. So
we got and we ended up throwing in a couple
more zoos. We went to Birmingham, we went to the
North Carolina Zoos, so we hit four or five zoos
(33:11):
over the course of the year for the price of
one family membership.
Speaker 1 (33:15):
That's awesome. You know you mentioned cruises, and a lot
of people like cruises because of the all inclusive nature.
So I wanted to talk about all inclusives with you.
What's your stance, how do you feel about let's say,
CanCon places like that that offer the all inclusive experience.
I did air quotes. Nobody can see that, but.
Speaker 3 (33:38):
If you could see me, my arms are waving all
over the place. I talked with my hands because I
used to work with deaf kids, not because I'm Italian,
because I'm not, but my arms are always moving. Okay,
this is personal opinion only. Sure, all inclusive are great
(34:03):
if you're looking for a beach vacation where you don't
have to worry about anything, okay, and someplace like King
Kun or Jamaica where you're not you might take a
day to or to go someplace else or something like that,
(34:23):
but you're really there for the beach. It's a great value.
But if you want to go someplace and experience the place,
and all inclusive is going to isolate you from the culture.
Speaker 1 (34:40):
Yeah, I see what you're saying, and.
Speaker 3 (34:43):
So it depends again, this gets back to your value
for budget kind of question. If the vacation you're going
for is total relax relaxation where you don't have to
think about anything and all inclusive is great. But if
your goal is culture and learning about the place that
(35:04):
you're going to, and all inclusive is really a waste
of your dollars because so much happens beyond the all
inclusive and a good example of this is Bermuda. I
don't know if you've ever been to Bermuda.
Speaker 1 (35:21):
I have not.
Speaker 3 (35:23):
It is absolutely, one hundred percent my number one favorite
place in the world. Wow, Okay, and I don't say
that lightly because until I went to Bermuda, I could
never peg any one place down as my favorite. The
people of Bermuda are simply beautiful. The food, the culture,
the beaches. Even if you go in the wintertime, the
(35:45):
water's too cold, but it's still gorgeous. It is just
a nice place. There is one resort. There are lots
of resorts in Bermuda that offer a meal package to
go along with your stay, but there are so many
incredible restaurants in Bermuda that you probably end up paying
(36:09):
for meals you're not going to be actually eating. And
it's a very safe overall compared to most places, a
lot of places, it's very safe place to travel. If
you end up leaving the resort to go do something
in the city and you eat in the city, you're
double paying for the meal. You pay that the all
inclusive and then you pay downtown and then what do
(36:32):
you do? And that like when my husband and I cruise,
because we like to keep our budget. We want to
vacation a lot, so we try to keep our vacation
dollars tight. We eat a giant breakfast before we leave
that ship, and that way, when we're off doing whatever
we're doing on the island, we can enjoy the meal
(36:52):
that we're out there. But we also if we don't
eat a big meal while we're out, that's okay too.
But anyway, that's just us.
Speaker 1 (37:00):
Hey, there's nothing wrong with that at all, and a
perfect segue into my next question. Okay, with so many families,
including the one you're talking to here, having limited vacation budgets,
we just paid for a wedding, so our vacation budget
is yeah, it's pretty much not existent. But anyway, with
so many families having limited vacation budgets, what's your number
(37:23):
one piece of advice to make the most of the vacation.
Speaker 3 (37:26):
Stay closer to home. If you can look within six
hours of where you live and find a place that
you would enjoy vacationing, go there okay, because you don't
have to fly and flying is expensive. You don't have
to rent a car because that's expensive. If you're within
(37:50):
six hours of home, you're not giving Because there's more
to vacation than the dollar cost. There's the time cost.
So if you're not using two full days of your
vacation time to get wherever it is you want to go,
you've got more time to enjoy your vacation destination. So,
(38:12):
like we just went to My husband just changed jobs
and was able to take a big chunk of time
off between jobs. So we traveled a lot this year,
more than normal, and one of our trips was to Chattanooga.
I've never been to Chattanooga.
Speaker 1 (38:28):
It's a great say, it is.
Speaker 3 (38:30):
An amazing city and it is probably, like I said,
Bermuda is my all time favorite in the world. I
would put Chattanooga as one of my top budget travel
destinations that families will be happy they did because there's
just so much to do and most of it is
(38:51):
low cost or free.
Speaker 1 (38:52):
Yeah, that's two hours from us. So maybe with our
very limited vacation budget this year, maybe that's where we
do go with Chattan. Well, what about your favorite resources
websites apps for families looking to plan an affordable yet
memorable trip.
Speaker 3 (39:09):
Well, Instagram is still my favorite for finding low cost
things to do. I know it's a crazy recommendation perhaps,
but it works every single time. And then there are
even for restaurants. If you do like hashtag foody, whatever
city or the name of the city foody, you will
(39:32):
find so many recommendations and as soon as you ask,
like where's the best place to find a burger under
fifteen dollars, You're going to get an answer. So Instagram,
believe it or not, is one. I use the viator
or I don't know how everybody else pronounces it app
if I'm looking to book a tour, and then the
(39:56):
other one if I'm looking if you want, like if
I'm looking for a place to stay where I want
more space than a hotel, I use vrbo verbo. I
like it better than the other one because the pricing
is a lot more transparent and it's also a little
bit smaller, so I find that when I like, I
(40:20):
never end up in a place that isn't what I
expected it to be.
Speaker 1 (40:25):
Last question, what is one travel hack that has completely
changed the way that you vacation on a budget.
Speaker 3 (40:32):
I've thought about this. I appreciate the heads up, I think.
Can I give two? Absolutely, if you go someplace that
has public transportation, not a bus system, I mean subways, right,
(40:53):
real transit, don't be afraid to use it. New York, Washington, Paris, Bermuda.
I'm trying to think where else. Atlanta public transportation is
wonderful because you're not paying parking fees and it makes
life really easy. So that would be one, And I
(41:17):
think the second one would be plan with the goal
in mind, goal budget, destination rather than destination, budget rather
than destination first, put your goal first, then make sure
(41:39):
it fits your budget, and then decide where you're going
to go. So for you you're on a tight budget
this year, you know, Chattanooga is probably not too exciting
if it's only two hours away. You've been there before,
but there might be someplace else within three or four
hours that or you haven't really explored. Had a new
(42:00):
I don't know, but considering what your goal is out
of vacation. Do you want to relax on a beach?
Do you want to see all the site My son
wanted to see all the sites. New Orleans was four
hours away. It was a slam dunk for him.
Speaker 1 (42:18):
That's awesome. There's plenty of good food in New Orleans.
I mean you can go to ors just for food.
Speaker 3 (42:23):
I mean the original Cafe Dumont and sent me a
picture of his beignets.
Speaker 1 (42:28):
You know, I'll be honest. I thought the first time
I went to New Orleans, I thought, how good? I mean,
it's a donut? How good could a beignet be? And
I don't know if it's just not only how good
it is, but where you're eating it. It is absolutely stellar.
It is worth all the hype that people put on
the beignets. If you're in New Orleans, you gotta try beignet.
(42:51):
That's just that's my two cents.
Speaker 3 (42:53):
Okay, can we can we talk one last donut? Though?
Speaker 1 (42:56):
Yes? Oh we can always talk donuts.
Speaker 3 (43:00):
Have you ever been to Carolina Beach in North Carolina
near Wilmington.
Speaker 1 (43:05):
It has been a long time.
Speaker 3 (43:07):
Okay, I am going to I am going to steak
my reputation here. The donuts at Britz b R I
T t apostrophe s are the best donut in America.
Speaker 1 (43:25):
Wow, Okay, all right, I have.
Speaker 3 (43:28):
Never been able to go and eat just one.
Speaker 1 (43:32):
Now, See. I feel that way about the donut Hole
in Destin, Florida. That's if I were to judge my
favorite donut of any They have a donut called a
vanilla Angel.
Speaker 3 (43:44):
Okay.
Speaker 1 (43:45):
I don't want to know how many calories are in
that thing because it is it is pure sugar. But man,
that oh goodness, so good, so good. But Brits Carolina Beech.
Speaker 3 (43:57):
Carolina Beach in North Carolina.
Speaker 1 (44:00):
Well, you're laying down the gauntlet. I've got to travel
there now and try that donut and I will give
everyone my feedback on how it ranks against the donut Hole.
Speaker 3 (44:10):
And that's a You know, if you stay in Wilmington,
you can go to Carolina Beach for the day and
save a whole lot of money. Okay, And Wilmington's fun
little town all on its own.
Speaker 1 (44:20):
Awesome, all right, Well, you're throwing some stuff all the
way out. I love it. Thank you so much, Karen,
Thanks so much for being on the show. This has
been a fun conversation and so much good information. Thanks
for taking the time to come on the show with me.
Speaker 3 (44:36):
It was my pleasure. I hope you have a great day.
Speaker 1 (44:39):
You too for everyone listening. You can learn more from
Karen at family Travels on a Budget dot com. One
of the cool things about her website is you can
not only search by destination, you can also search by
age groups. Super helpful. We'll have all of her links
in the show notes. If you found this episode helpful,
make sure to hit thisubscribe button, leave a quick review
(45:02):
and share the episode with someone that you know who's
planning their next vacation on a budget, And as always,
remember keep your hearts and your passports open. Safe travels everyone.
Speaker 2 (45:14):
Thank you for listening to the Family Vacation.
Speaker 3 (45:17):
Make sure I like it.
Speaker 2 (45:18):
Subscribe to hear more from Robin Tracyyery Tracy
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