Maximize Your Travel

My family has been fortunate to travel to so many places.  I imagine some people think we are wealthy or have a secret source of money.  Not true.  Like much in life if one wants to travel one needs to make choices. Jim, our youngest son, used to say things like, “All my friends have snowmobiles” and “I am the only one who hasn’t been to Darian Lake.” My response was usually something that annoyed him like, “Oh, well, you have been down the Nile in a felucca.”

From the very beginning we tried to take advantage of every travel opportunity.  We always volunteered to be bumped.  It happened more frequently years ago than it does now.  I was penalized if I missed the first day back to school after a vacation so sometimes I flew home alone while John and Jim stayed behind to get the reward for being bumped. 

If you have a credit card it should be rewarding you.  For years we

had one with United Airlines but I recently cancelled it.  Airlines’ rewards have changed so that the rewards are hard to accumulate and use.  We have, over the years, booked many flights for free using our points. In fact, our winter trip to Asia will be with the points we have with United.  Our new credit card is Sapphire which allows us to use the points for money, flights, and they can even be transferred.  We are using the points for our next trip. That makes two trips with free air travel. Credit cards offer bonuses for signing up and no service charge for a year.  Some people get a credit card to use the bonuses then discontinue it at the end of the year before the yearly fee is due. Never charge more than what you know you can pay at the end of the month so you don’t accumulate interest charges. For international travel it is best to have both a Visa and Master Card.  Credit Union and Discovery cards are not accepted out of the country.  Your card should not charge foreign transaction fees. 

Our second card is with InterContinental (think Holiday Inn).  We chose it because they have the most hotels worldwide.  We often use points and dollars to get a reasonable room rate. We find it is best to book directly with the hotel and always sign up for their loyalty programs. We have never found a better deal on any of the sites offering special hotel prices regardless of what they say.  Booking a B&B or a condo is also a great way to save money.  And, if you do your own cooking you will act like a local when shopping. This is the best option if you have children, however, Holiday Inn often has “children stay and eat free.” We haven’t done this but you can swap accommodations with people and even couch surf.  

If we are going to book a tour we do it with a local group.  Many

places offer free or almost free walking tours. Try Freetour.com. We have used Globalgreeters.com several times.  Meeting the locals is a big plus.  Volunteering to teach, work on a farm, or some other community service is another great way to get in touch with locals. 

Go off season or where it is the least expensive. It is sometimes less expensive to fly to Shanghai than it is to fly to California. I check google.com/flights and then decide.  It doesn’t matter where you go as long as you go.  

Getting the most out of your travel dollar

Often I am asked how we manage to travel so often.  The short answer is that I do all the planning myself and have for more than 20 years. However, it takes a lot of time.  When people book a tour they are paying someone else to do the work. We can usually travel several weeks for what it costs two people to take a seven-day cruise. Also, we tend to stay in a location for many days and most packaged tours and cruises do not allow that. The internet has made it so much easier.

1.     Air travel:  Fly on Tuesday, Wednesday or Saturday and stay over on a Saturday night. Tickets are usually less expensive off-peak. Tickets prices are usually lower midday on Tuesday when fare sales go into effect. In the past I have purchased air tickets from consolidators and bucket shops but airline websites now offer the best price more often than not.  My favorite consolidator went out of business because they could no longer compete with the airlines. Budget airlines offer good deals.  We frequently fly Air Asia.

2.     Accommodations: Many web sites offer deals on rooms but watch out for the hidden costs.  Priceline.com offers some great last minute deals if you bid on the price and so does Skyauction.com.  Bid low and work your way up. Groups three or more, especially if traveling with children, should check out apartment stays at Homeaway.com, Airbnb.com, and Flipkey.com.  Many come with access to a kitchen eliminating eating out for every meal.  For the budget traveler there are many hostels with no-nonsense accommodations and most no longer have age requirements.  And, for the adventurous rock-bottom budget traveler there is Couchsurfing.com. It is a good way to meet people. Hotel web sites often offer early booking and long stay specials rates.

3.     Customer loyalty programs: This is the key to keeping expenses down. Joining is free and usually offers some perks. I always join even if I think it will never come in handy. We get extra benefits from our two credit cards: one with United Airlines (one free bag allowed) and one with Priority Club. The Holiday Inn family has the most hotels worldwide and we have earned many free nights. Check out their point and dollars option. 

4.     Food: We don’t eat out every night at home so we don’t eat out every night on the road. Think local. Look for farmers’ markets. If a microwave available we get ready-to-eat meals from the supermarket delis.  In Alaska and Iceland food was so expensive that we ended up having great meals purchased from the frozen food and/or deli section.  Boiling water is usually available everywhere making Cup of Soup a choice and, in Asia they sell great meals where all we had to do was add water.

5.     Tours:  We try to book everything locally.  Many destination web sites have free walking tour guides. Hong Kong offers a slew of excellent free guided tours. Some places offer free city walking tours such as NYC’s BigAppleGreeters.org.  We have taken several of these worldwide. Most walking tours are reasonable. Search “local tours” and your destination. Our “Walk This Way” tour of Manila with Carlos Celdran was one of our best all-time tours.

6.     And then: Look for coupon books at road stops, in airports, and on line. It is a wonderful world… don’t miss it. 

Maximize your travel

John and I travel compulsively and have since the 1980s. Now that we have retired we are on the road six to seven months a year. Over the years we have developed ways to keep our traveling expenses down.

We belong to an amazing number of customer loyalty programs but try to concentrate on Continental Airlines and their partners. Our credit card also gives us miles on Continental. We are using some of our miles for this winter’s trip. Our other credit card helps to accrue credit at the InterContinental family of hotels which includes Holiday Inns. We picked IC Hotels because they have one of the largest selections of hotels worldwide. We charge everything. The trick with credit cards is to pay them off each month.

We save money by visiting places in the off-season and looking for discounts. There are coupons for US hotels, restaurants and attractions in free booklets at visitor centers and other stops along major highways. Also, most telephone books have a section with coupons.

A guidebook is not only helpful in planning a trip but offers many money-saving tips. Most official tourist office web sites have a list of free things to do. The Hong Kong Tourist Board has wonderful free tours. Museums usually have one day or evening when admission is free. Greeters programs in NYC, Toronto, Chicago, Buenos Aires and several other locations offer excellent free walking tours. We make most of our arrangements ourselves and try to deal locally. Dealing locally helps the local economy especially in third world countries and cuts out the middleman. The Internet is a wonderful thing when planning. If I am unsure about a place I post a question on the forum at Virtualtourist.com. I have received valuable information from other travelers especially with how to get from Point A to Point B.

We travel with our net books so we can plan as we go, e-mailing the family is cheaper than phoning, and we can store our images from our camera. We also save our images on the Kodak Gallery where we can share them with the family and have the pictures waiting for us when we get home.

Connecting with the local people enhances travel. Ask the hotel receptionist about farmer’s markets, school performances, and other local events. There are “meet-the-people” web sites. We like to visit schools.

In the United States we love to letterbox especially with the grandchildren. There are thousands of secret boxes hidden all over the United States including Oswego County. Go to letterboxing.org, click on a location, and then follow the clues. They usually end up at an interesting location.

Eating out can be expensive. We don’t eat out every night when we are home nor do we when traveling. Most hotels provide breakfast. Buying a sandwich to eat in a local park is not only inexpensive but is restful. For dinner most evenings we get something from a local deli or store. Some of our favorite meals have been on the patio or balcony of our hotel.

Before we head to a foreign country we print out a Financial Cheat Sheet from a money conversion site so we know the value of the money we are dealing with.
Travel, like everything else, is a matter of priorities. There are, and were, many things we did not do or purchase so there was money for travel.