GUEST BLOG POST: Vacations for Memorial Day or Thereabouts

May 26, 2011

Summertime and the living should be easy.  Unfortunately, the cost of easy living – what most of us call “vacation” – is going to be hard to swallow this year.  The prospect of $6 gas and soaring airfares have a lot of Americans wondering if they can afford to travel this summer.

Those desperate to get away may resort to desperate measures, like borrowing from their emergency funds, going into debt or siphoning funds from other necessary expense categories.

“Let’s see,” you say, “if we stick to mac-and-cheese for the next 30 days, we can afford a day at the beach.”  If the fuzzy math doesn’t work, and the credit cards are off limits, there is always a “stay-cation” where you enjoy your time off from a lawnchair on your own deck.

There is hope, however.   It is possible to enjoy a real vacation this year, without the dire alternatives of mortgaging the house (if you even can) or having to break the news to the kids that you’re going to stay put.

You can keep vacation costs reasonable with a little creativity and a lot of planning.  Given that there may be no getting around the higher costs of travel – whether by car, train, or plane – you need to focus on all the other expense items of your vacation for opportunities to save.  In addition to the usual ideas of traveling to off-season places for your vacation, or using coupons and perks offered through AAA or American Express, here are some new ideas for cost-cutting without cutting out the fun:

• Plan your every move before you start.  Map out how you will spend each day of your vacation – where you will eat, what you will do, what you will buy – and approximately what each activity will cost.  Knowing your costs beforehand is a powerful budgeting tool, whereas leaving everything to chance, proximity, and hunger pangs can get expensive.  What’s more, planning can heighten and extend the fun of the actual excursion, as any ten-year old getting ready for a trip to Disney World can tell you.
• Get everyone in on the act.  If you are taking a family vacation, give everyone – even school-aged kids – budget responsibility for one aspect of the trip.   Have that ten-year old manage the snack or bottled water expenses; a teen can be responsible for lunches or sightseeing expenses.   You can make it a contest: best budget manager gets a “splurge allowance” (which, of course, you have already planned for!).
• Consider a home swap or hospitality exchange.  In the first case, you actually trade homes for a specified time with a person or family living in the area you wish to travel to.  In the second case, you host travelers in your home, and then are hosted by them in return.  These arrangements are generally far less costly than hotels or vacation rentals.  The internet has greatly facilitated and broadened the market for home exchanges, particularly in the case of foreign travel.
• Return to a favorite place rather than someplace new.  Similar to the benefits of advance planning, going back to a place you have visited before provides important pre-travel information you can use to keep your expenses in check.  You will already have a good idea of the places to eat, to stay, to visit and to shop, and can make cost-effective choices accordingly.  For example, how many times do you opt for a four-star hotel, because you are not certain of the area you will be visiting? Or walk into a super expensive restaurant because you don’t know where else to eat? Familiarity with the area may spare you the extra cost.

If, in spite of these strategies, you simply cannot work a compromise between your vacation plans and your budget, remember that getting away can be more a state of mind than a matter of geography.  No, I am not going back to the “stay-cation” idea, but rather suggesting becoming a bona fide visitor in your own city or town. Stay at a local hotel, and plan your days as a tourist, seeing and doing things you’ve assumed you could always do later.  Since you won’t be going far, you can splurge on a taxi or a tank full of gas.

Finally, for parents:  if a family trip is just not possible, at very least consider sending the kids to camp.  Then sleep late and enjoy one luxury that is completely free.