Travel Tips

Planning a Cheap Summer Vacation: Lower the Cost of Lodging

If you are planning a summer vacation on a budget, you are not alone. In fact, many American families are completely foregoing summer vacations. You do not have to give up your yearly trip. Instead, just focus on ways to reduce the cost. A great place to start is with your overnight accommodations.

So, how can you lower the cost of lodging when planning a summer vacation on a budget?

Try to stay with friends and family. If you are traveling to a destination where you have friends and family in the area, ask if you can stay with them. This is ideal if your family is small, as it wont be seen as a big inconvenience. If dealing with family, most will let you stay free of charge. Still, even if you offer to pay $20 a night, it is much cheaper than a $100 a night hotel room.

Consider camping instead. This alternative is cheap and perfect if you have a large family or do not know anyone in the area. State parks and campgrounds are your best and safest camping options. If you dont already own a tent or two, buy them. You can get great deals at department stores or sporting goods store. To save money, consider buying used or ask to borrow supplies from friends and family. Nightly camping rates vary greatly across the country, but you should pay no more than $50 a night, which is still cheaper than a hotel.

Compare hotels to find the best deal. Most popular vacation destinations have hundreds of hotels to choose from within a reasonable distance. Visit an online travel website. They are nice because they let you compare the cost of multiple hotels in a matter of minutes. Look to find the best deal or the best value for your money. For example, most families are willing to pay more for a hotel with an onsite swimming pool and fitness center. If you arent necessarily aiming for the best cost, aim for the best value for your money.

Dont discount smaller hotels, motels, or even bed and breakfast inns. Sometimes, they charge lower rates, especially if there is a lot of competition nearby. Americans automatically think of well-known hotels, like Holiday Inn. These smaller establishments need to draw attention to themselves and most usually do so with affordable rates.

Avoid traveling during holidays. If you are planning a summer vacation, you are already vacationing in a peak travel season. However, you should try to avoid holidays and weekends. You can expect to pay more for a hotel the weekend of July 4th than the last week in July. Speaking of which, experiment with travel dates. If your plans arent set in stone, test out a few different dates. Are the hotel rates different? If so, opt for the cheapest.

Avoid traveling during convention times. Once again, if your travel plans arent set, look at what is happening around the area. Is there a popular concert, big sporting event, or business convention hosted that same weekend? If so, the hotels may already be filled. If not, they are likely to charger higher rates.

Bring your own snacks and drinks. Many hotels have onsite restaurants. These are nice, but you arent likely to find the lowest prices. They are designed more for convenience than anything else. At the very least, opt for affordable fast food or casual restaurants nearby. However, bring your own snacks and drinks. They are more expensive at convenience stores and in hotel lobbies. For extended trips, it may be wise to pay the extra costs for a suite upgrade that gives you access to a working kitchen. For extended trips, such as 5 days or longer, you will save a lot of money by preparing your own meals.

Staying with friends, at a hotel, or camping are your three cheapest options in terms of overnight accommodations. However, if you have your heart set on a private vacation rental, compare prices, look for discounts, or make it like a double date. Plan your family vacation with another family and spilt the cost of a private rental.

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A Cheap Summer Vacation Idea: A State Park Tour

Are you trying to plan a summer vacation on a budget? If so, you may feel as if you are trying to accomplish the impossible. Your family may be used to spending a week on the beautiful beaches of Hawaii, but what if you can no longer afford that type of trip? Do you want to stay closer to home? If so, think outside of the box. You might not have given state parks a close look before, but they are the perfect vacation destination for those on a strict budget.

Right about now, you may be asking yourself a state park; really? Yes! At the least, you could easily spend an entire day at a state park. It sounds nice, but remember your family is accustomed to weeklong vacations. You can still give them a weeklong vacation. The goal is to create a state park tour. Each day you visit a new state park. Start with the parks near your home. The first two or three days, your family can return home and sleep in their own beds. As you get further from home, find an affordable hotel or motel.

Once again, you may wonder about state parks. Family vacations are supposed to be fun. Wont your children get bored with visiting state parks again and again? Yes, they might. Luckily, each park is different and has something unique to offer. Speaking of which, many have campgrounds. Consider camping a night or two.

Returning back to making state parks fun, the key is to pick unique locations. If you and your children have visited a state park before, forego that one and move on to the next. To save money, make your first two visits closest to home. As you move away, consider the activities. The more activities you have available, the more fun you are likely to have.

The key is to also do something different each day. For example, day one can be at a local state park known for their natural pools underneath a waterfall. If the weather is nice, your family could easily spend hours swimming. Then, plan a barbeque lunch or dinner or both! Before you know it, the day will be over with. For day two, visit a state park known for their great hiking trails. You and your family could spend the entire day hiking. Stop for lunch or dinner. Once again, before you know it the day will be over with.

In addition to making use of the activities state parks make available through facilities, consider brining your own activities. For day one, bring baseball equipment. You and your family can easily a fun game of softball or baseball. For day two, bring a Frisbee to throw or a soccer ball to kick around. The younger your children, the easier it will be to plan activities. For example, a bottle of bubbles could easily keep a toddler occupied for an hour.

As for the costs, most state parks do charge admission fees. You should consider this when comparing your options. If you have two state parks within a half an hour drive, opt for the one with the lowest price. Parks that charge by the carload, as opposed to the person, is usually a good deal. As for food, make use of the picnic areas and barbeque pits available. Start planning for your trip beforehand. Stock up on drinks, snacks, and meat whenever you see a sale at your local grocery stores. Then, use a cooler to transport your goods to the park.

In short, do not forego your annual summer vacation just because you are on a budget. Instead, think closer to home and outside of the box. Yes, state parks are usually reserved for day trips, but you can easily turn them into weeklong vacations by visiting a new state park each day. Luckily, all states have multiple state parks. In fact, some have hundreds. You should not have to travel too far, keeping your summer vacation costs low.

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The American continent is such a vast landscape of every imaginable terrain and climate. In the same country, you can walk in a tropical rain forest, play on a Caribbean beach, hike in a mountain range or fish on a tranquil lake. And if you enjoy camping, you know that nothing compares to the sense of intimacy and becoming one with nature with the experience of pitching a tent and sleeping nestled in natures arms.

One of the hardest things about living in a country of such great diversity, with so much to offer in term of sightseeing and of such great size is how do you take it all in and really enjoy everything to see and experience? Many have taken on the challenge of a cross country journey to scratch that itch. There is nothing like traveling by car from one coast to the other to give you a deep appreciation of the magnificence God has put into the American landscape.

But to really make that cross country trip an adventure that will stay with you forever, you might consider planning such a trip and combining it with those well developed camping skills you have developed. By camping across America, you can enjoy that same sense of getting close to nature but broaden your experience by camping at different state parks from Washington to Florida or New Jersey to California or whatever route works best for you.

Of course, such an adventure will take plenty of planning. For starters, you should carefully map out your route so you know from night to night where the next camping location exactly is. The great thing about the National Parks System is that you can virtually visit any campsite in the country using the internet and view the locations of the campsites and even make your reservations on the computer so you know you have a campsite waiting for you at every stop along the way.

Other preparations fit in with your existing camping discipline including how to prepare for meals, the equipment checklist and emergency preparedness. A camping trip of this scope can take several weeks and you dont want to rush it because part of the joy of camping coast to coast is getting to know the land at every stop along the way. If you are new to camping, taking a good amount of time to work out your camping skills, your equipment checklist and building your campsite abilities will pay off well when you set off on this kind of great adventure.

A couple other words of advice will pay off well that pertain to being prepared for any contingency. While camping is clearly less expensive than staying in hotels, you should be sure your budget is sound should an emergency arise and you find you need to use hotels or buy new equipment to replace things that get damaged. Always be aware of accommodations nearby should the weather take a turn for the worse. If you are caught in a flood in your campsite half way through your coast to coast adventure, that can throw off the entire trip. So be prepared to make other arrangements in a hurry.

With good preparation and plenty of well rehearsed emergency fall back plans, you can be ready for just about any circumstance that might come up during your big trek across the American continent. But even with those adjustments, you will look back fondly on this great undertaking and the many nights you became close to nature in yet another of the scenic and soul inspiring camping locations across this great land. And dont be surprised if after you get home, you are already starting to plan your next great outing camping coast to coast.