Travel Budget Tips

The following five travel budget tips will help you save money while still enjoying your retreat in style.

Rent a car seat. Child car seats can be expensive to fly with as airlines are now charging for every checked bag. Check with your rental car company to see if it might be cheaper to rent one at your destination.
Eat more food at breakfast and lunch and enjoy a small repast at dinner. Most breakfast and lunch menus are cheaper than dinner menus. So get the most of your calories during the day and have a smaller meal at night. Plus it’s healthier too.
Make your own meals. One great way to experience a new place is to cook your own food. Sure, it’s nice to sample the local restaurants, but it can be expensive and even unhealthy. By making your own food you get to experience a local market and the various trappings of a foreign kitchen. Also, you know that the food you prepare will be something you’re willing to eat.
Talk to the locals. By talking to the locals, you not only get a sense of the people in your new environments, but also may glean useful hints and tips about places to visit or eat away from the usual tourist traps. Who knows, you might even make a friend.
Visit during the off-season. By traveling during the off-season you can avoid many of the crowds and grifters that prey on tourists. Anyone who has ever tried to see the Mona Lisa in The Louvre during mid-summer knows that it can be more than a little frustrating. But that same experience in January is much more rewarding and much cheaper for tickets and accommodations.

Travel story from our family trip to China. "It doesn't taste like chicken."

by Michael

When my wife, Jennifer, announced her brother Scooter was getting married and we were all invited to the wedding, the thought of a spending a few days in Manhattan didn’t fill me with anxiety as it had in the past. Our children, Hannah and Liam, had already taken a few bites out of The Big Apple on previous trips, so I even toyed with the idea we might even have fun this time.

"Oh the wedding is not in New York," she informed me. "It’s at someplace called The Good View Resort."

Good View? Didn’t exactly conjure up the most inspiring of locations. Why not Great View?

"Where’s that, upstate New York?" My fleeting expectation of a fun week in Manhattan was quickly fading. "No. China."
Read more about our family trip to China.