We all know travel isn’t cheap. And travel with kids (especially over the age of free) is definitely not the cheapest way to go. Read on for 5 tips for saving money when booking a family trip.
I don’t love it in day to day life, but when it comes to being able to afford adventuring with my kids, I’m pretty dang good at #budgeting and girl math.
And I don’t mean choosing cheap or all inclusive only options. I mean exploring the world with our kids – regular family style. Over school breaks (maybe with an educational absense or unexcused absense along the way), without tons of points and miles, with family of 6.
If you follow these tips and are willing to invest a little time on the planning end, I promise you can explore Europe with your kids for cheaper than you can stay at Disney World. No shade to Disney, just facts.
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Make sure you’re using Rakuten
I’ve been using Rakuten for years and love earning cash back on purchases I’m already making anyway. Why not?! BUT holy moly the thrill of catching VRBO on a 10% cash back offer?!? YES PLEASE AND THANK YOU. Truly with one of the houses we booked during this cash back date, we’re essentially getting one night for free. For doing nothing except booking at the right time.
Make sure you have Rakuten downloaded on your browser, watch for the specific jump in cash back rate, and book accordingly if possible!
Set a price alert on Google Flights & Kayak
If you’re flying, I love to start my flight search by checking both Kayak and Google Flights. Both sites can set a price alert and also tell you if the current prices are high, low or average. This information is super helpful when booking a flight especially to a new or unfamiliar location.
I also love to check surrounding airports with Kayak specifically. For an upcoming girls trip, we knew the dates that we needed to travel but were flexible on our location, so I was able to search with the dates and then choose a location based on the price of flights.
Similarly, with an upcoming family trip to Scotland, I knew the date range but wasn’t set on one specific UK arrival airport or even our NC departure airport. That allowed me to search (quickly!) every possible combination of flights to easily find the best (direct + cheapest) option.
Compare Housing Prices
Yes, this takes time, but it honestly doesn’t have to take as much time as much as you think it does. And if you don’t have the time or desire to do this, don’t forget that we can do it for you!
Once I have a location & dates, I begin my housing search on VRBO, Airbnb & Booking.com. I often also check hotel prices either through Kayak or my credit card travel sites (if I’m using points) or Costco travel.
As mentioned above, VRBO is the option that I often see with additional cash back offered through Rakuten, typically making it the smartest choice.
Many properties (and definitely hotels) offer great cancellation policies, so don’t forget to double check properties / pricing a few days or weeks later if you’re not totally satisfied with what you booked the first go-around.
If you’d like more info on how to find the best vacation rental for your crew, don’t miss this post!
Double Check Rental Car Prices
Similar to houses and flights, rental cars can be the other place you can save some serious money if you’re willing to do some quick research & check your work (shout out to my elementary-aged kids’ math homework).
For car rentals I always start with Kayak and Costco. Both often end up sending you through Expedia or directly through the rental car company links, but I like seeing prices on both sites to compare. I’ve had great experience with pricing at Costco, and the process has always been easy as can be. However, for some destinations and vehicle sizes, Costco doesn’t have the selection that Kayak can offer.
I recently booked a rental car for our upcoming family trip to Scotland. It’s a pretty significant rental fee (in my opinion), but since we’ll be there for over 3 weeks and need a car for our family of 6+luggage, I figured we just had to suck up the $$ required. When I checked back on rental rates a couple of weeks later, I saved over $700 (!!!) on the same exact car for the same exact dates.
Absolutely worth the 5 minute check.
Do a quick Google search about your destination
Sometimes you can just get lucky, but it’s helpful to do some research ahead of time if you’re really hoping to save $ and stick to a budget once you’re on the road.
There are often specific promotions (like this one where kids ride free on the ferries around NYC) or discounts for kids under a certain age, which vary widely from place to place. If your travels are taking you somewhere you’ll be taking trains, ferries, or other transportation, it’s worth a quick price check ahead of time because you may be able to save some serious cash if you’re flexible on dates/times.
Similarly, often museums or other tourist destinations may run promotions for kids, BOGO, etc. Again, always worth a quick search or enlisting the help of a travel planner if it will save you money overall.
You also may hear things about your destination that can help with your packing choices on the front end and save you money once you arrive.
For example, we heard Iceland was crazy expensive food wise (like all islands?!) and also didn’t have a lot of grocery options. We packed an entire small carry on suitcase full of Costco snacks from NC that saved us significant money as we road tripped through Iceland with 4 small kids. And the bag was free to carry on! Work smarter, not harder.
We have many other money saving tricks to share, but those are the five that I start with every time I’m planning & booking a trip for our family.
Often it seems that traveling families must just be independently wealthy, have incredible remote jobs, world school their kids, or only travel with 1-2 children. While we have none of those options, traveling and adventuring – both locally and abroad – is something that is incredibly important to us, so we do everything we can to make it happen while our kids are young. Where do you want to go next with your kids?!
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