Bite the Travel Bug Back

September 15, 2015

 

I love to travel. Big trips are great, of course, but I’ve come to appreciate weekend getaways just as much. Earlier this year, I was browsing Groupon and found a hotel deal for $49/weekend night in Las Vegas. Considering Vegas is one of my favorite cities, I couldn’t pass it up.

However, when I began searching for flights, I was less than thrilled with what I found. Jetting out on a Friday and returning on a Sunday totaled $260. Since I am no stranger to LAX to LAS flights, I know better than to spend more than $200 on a roundtrip ticket. There was no way I would shell out that kind of dough for a random escape to the state next door. Furthermore, as a Los Angeles native, I’ve taken the four-hour car ride to and fro Sin City more times than I’d like to admit; at this point in my life, unless I have an extended period of time off, I prefer the 45 minute flight any day.

To avoid another dreaded road trip, I began calculating my remaining vacation days to see if I had any to spare. Realizing that I did, I modified my flight search to view a low fare calendar for the month I planned to travel and saw a huge drop in price during the week. I reread the fine print on my Groupon and confirmed that I was within the timeframe to cancel with a full refund. So cancel I did. Next, I purchased another hotel deal on Groupon for the same rate, this time, to a name brand hotel on the strip for Sunday – Tuesday. For these days I found airfare for $160 roundtrip. Not only did I save $100 on my flight by rearranging the dates to travel, I didn’t have to worry about purchasing a rental car because my hotel was in the middle of the action, allowing me to walk wherever I wanted to go. I was also able to avoid the normal Vegas-weekend crowds on the strip.

Las_Vegas

Yes, traveling can be expensive, but for some us, it’s a necessity to scaling our work-life balance. Stepping away from work to rest and rejuvenate is important. While it’s ideal to capitalize on the weekends, you could be saving a significant amount of money by traveling during the week. You’ll also find that some activities you may want to try on vacation are discounted Mondays through Thursdays as well.

So if you’re planning to get away anyway, it’s not enough to get bitten by the travel bug. Take a bite out of the expenses and save as much as you can!