Save Money On Summer Vacation

Summer provides us with an opportunity to spend time with family, but it is also a time when we spend more on driving, camping, hotels and restaurants.  With so many people taking a hit in the wallet the past 2 years there are many who are looking for ways to have the family trips without blowing their budget.

Hotels:  Hotels have a wide variety of costs.  Sometimes paying for the most expensive hotel does not mean the nicest stay (although the service is usually better), but choosing the lowest priced hotel can often lead to a bad experience.  There are many websites that allow former customers to rate their hotel stay.  People will submit their opinions on location, service, cleanliness...  It's a great way to see if a hotel is worth staying at.

You can lower hotels costs by using websites that offer last minute discounts at hotels, like hotels.com or priceline.com, but by waiting until the last minute you may not get a room at the hotel you want or close to the location you would like. You can also use the internet to find coupon codes that can drop the price of a hotel room by up to 20%.  Lastly, if you are willing to stay in a 2 star hotel instead of a 3 star hotel, you will often get a room for about $40 cheaper.

Camping:  Many people go to the same campground each year because they have found a place they enjoy. They know the costs, the amenities and the distance and are not looking for a change.  However, there are many others trying to find a site that they like and don't know where to look.  There are many websites that use similar reviews as the hotel sites.  They can help you decide whether or not you want to use a certain campground.

Camping costs vary.  A tent is much less expensive than a trailer or RV, but then you have the inconvenience of having to pack up everything whenever you go camping.  A tent also doesn't offer a lot of protection from the cold, whereas a trailer can.  A non-powered tent site can be from $15 to $3$ per night depending on the campground.  Most people in trailers want a powered site, which can cost anywhere from $5 to $25 more per night than the non-powered sites.

With camping you need to bring your food, cooking gear, heat for cooking (usually propane and stove), and ice or some other way to keep food cold.  At most sites you also have to pay for wood, often at $7/bundle.  A bundle can provide a small fire for a couple of hours.  If you want a bigger fire, you will need 2 or 3 bundles for one night.

While the costs of camping can add up, they are usually cheaper than staying at a hotel and provide a different experience than what most people have throughout the rest of the year.

My family recently went on a camping trip for 2 nights.  We have a large tent, but stayed at a powered site because were with family who has a powered trailer.  The cost was $30/night for the site.  We planned out a menu ahead of time and purchased the food the day before going camping.  We had 2 coolers that had ice (3 bags at $2/bag).  We did the typical hotdogs, hamburgers with basic condiments of ketchup, relish and mustard.  We sort of skipped lunches, and just had carrots and crackers for snacks.  We had instant pancakes for breakfast.  The total cost of the food was around $35.  We brought our own wood (tight fit in the van).  The total cost of camping plus food was around $100.  This may seem like a lot, but it is far cheaper than staying at a hotel and eating at restaurants.

We also had a lot of fun hiking and playing games together, making the camping vacation totally worth it to us.  A trailer would be nice and convenient, but our tent cost less than $200, whereas even a cheap tent trailer would be over $3,000.  It would take a lot of camping to make up for that difference, never mind the cost of RVs.  We will probably have to go with the tent as long as we are putting money into our home to get it in the condition we want.  Jerry