In my first post, I did a small dive into traveling with kids because that is a big topic of discussion we get from others. If you are interested in my top 10 tips for travel with children then go check
out that post! Our second and equally as talked about topic is usually how we can afford to do all the travel that we do. The answer to this question is multi faceted, so i'm going to try to explain as best as I can.
We enjoy traveling so much that we chose to make sacrifices in other areas such as: I almost always bring my lunch to work and do not buy out, I rarely get starbucks and instead I stick to store bought coffee that I make at home, and we look for ALL the deals when it comes to shopping (coupons are a necessity in this economy)! My husband and I are both fortunate that our parents paid for our educations, we both work full time, and we bought our first house at a very optimal time that helped us to sell it within three years for a great profit that we were then able to turn around and put into our second home where we are raising our children. We are both also very fortunate that we can do extra side work through our positions in our full time jobs, that helps supplement our incomes to continue to do the things we do.
Even with all of these decisions, we still always look for the best bargain on our travels because we want to travel as much as we can and we love to travel as a family. Sometimes this means traveling in the off seasons, down seasons, or shoulder season because you are going to get a WAY better deal. My husband and I's trip to Italy was during a shoulder season, especially in Positano. October is the end of the season and they shut most things down from November to March, so we got way better deals and we had way smaller crowds. This January we head back to Italy to explore, Milan and Lake Como with the kids and my parents. They actually do their Christmas Markets into the first week of January, so we will get to experience those still, but we are traveling there during their off season. Right after Christmas when the holidays are done and when the weather is not warm yet is definitely as off season as you'll get in Lake Como. This helped us to save a ton of money on this trip and we have heard we will get a less crowded experience, which I am always happy about! Some people don't want to travel during off seasons because they have the expectation of seeing a place as it is in the peak season, however our family has the belief that we would rather have the opportunity to travel and see all the places we want to see, even if it's not the optimal season. If we are being honest, these places are gorgeous during any season and bring different opportunities with each of the seasons as well.
We splurge on some trips more so than other trips, however each year even with really splurging on one or two of our trips, we then cut back and choose to spend a bit less on some of our other travels throughout the year. Just because we "cut back" on some trips, doesn't make them any less amazing, but it helps us to be able to take more trips throughout the year if we don't go ALL OUT on the splurges for EVERY trip we take.
Another way that helps us save money is by using POINTS! We use American Express (AMEX) points, Capital One points, and Hilton and IHG points. When you sign up for these cards, they usually offer a sign on bonus, which is a large amount of points to start you off. The best way to get started with points is to pick one card that fits your needs best. We started with one good points earning card and as we started to see the value in that card, we then started branching out and getting a few other cards that have great travel point redemptions. Some of our cards
give better points for grocery stores and restaurants, some give better points for gas and other random everyday purchases, and some give better points for travel and other categories. Once we got proficient at the points game, we started making sure to use certain cards for certain categories to make sure we maximize our points earning, then we just pay those cards off. The best thing you can do to maximize earning points is to NOT use your debit card for any purchases. You are literally wasting potential points when you use a debit card for purchases and something a lot of people don't know is that you actually get way better travel protections and buying protections with your credit card than you would with your debit card. If we can divert payment through our credit cards then we do because we don't want to waste potential points. Netflix: auto payment on the card, disney/hulu bundle: auto payment on the card, electric bill, go ahead and put that on the credit card as well and then pay it off! We even put daycare on the card for a small fee that is still worth it. The mortgage and car
payments are the only things we can't divert through our credit cards first to earn points, but if we could we would! We also are able to earn points by referring other people to credit cards as well. As our family and friends have seen our experiences, they have begun to get on board with points as well, and we have started helping set them up with cards that would be best for them to start earning points. One more way you can save with points is to just straight up buy points. Points go on sale through different companies at different times and we have found that you can actually get a way better deal buying some points to pay for your stay somewhere, instead of paying cash rate for that same place. Just remember that the best deal is going to be buying points when they are buy one get one free.
Here is an awesome example of how great my husband has gotten with points. He planned a trip for my mother, myself, and my daughter to Grand Cayman for Spring Break in 2024. When he was looking at the Kimpton Seafire Hotel in Grand Cayman, it would have been $9000 outright if he would have just bought us a double queen bedroom with an ocean view. Instead, the points
were on a sale for buy one get one free, so he bought the points through IHG to pay for the hotel in points. So instead of paying $9000 for a week in one of their rooms with a view we payed $1800 (which was what he spent to buy the points). This $1800 will then be split between my mother and I. Also, it's important to know that you need to get one of their IHG credit cards when using points because you can then also get your fourth night free (when you have one of their cards), which helps with the overall savings that I just explained!
More helpful information is that, we try to start booking trips 9 months to a year in advance. That way when the availability is there we can get it before it's gone. This helps us get flights on points, the best airbnb's, and if needed the right car/van rental. This also helps us plan the things we want to do and the places we want to see during our trip so that we don't miss out. Many attractions and events need tickets to be bought in advance or reservations due to their popularity. This could mean that if we don't get the tickets right when they become available, then we may not get the
opportunity to do some of the amazing things we do while we are traveling. THE VIP keymaster tour of the Vatican and Sistine Chapel (which we did and you can see pictures of the experience on my The Traveling Wordsmith Facebook page and my The Traveling Wordsmith Instagram page) is a great example of something you want to book in advance. They only do it two to three times a week with at most 20 people so it's very exclusive. Another example of this is if you plan a trip to Milan and you want to see the last supper painting. You have to get tickets when they become available a few months in advance or you most likely won't be seeing the famous painting while you're in Milan. When traveling, rental cars are not always necessary, especially in Europe, however we ended up getting rental cars on our trip to France, our trip to Spain, and our trip to Italy. A great example of rental car savings, was on our most recent trip to Italy, my husband kept an eye on the car that he reserved for us for our Amalfi Coast portion of our trip, and over time the price went from $350 to $119 for the 4 day rental of the vehicle, saving us over $200 dollars. If he would not have been paying attention and rebooking it when the prices went down, then we would have wasted over $200 dollars.
Other ways of saving include traveling with family or friends. Just make sure you pick people you like and who have similar ways of living for the best experience. So really you just want to make sure you like the same type of things and are on the same page with your ideas for a trip. Do you like to sleep in but they are early risers? Are you more outdoorsy than them? These are the things to really think about when finding travel companions. If you travel with other people, it helps split the cost of your accommodations, especially if you do an Airbnb/VRBO property. We have noticed that prices of Airbnb's in Europe have been super reasonably priced and are honestly usually cheaper than a lot of hotels in the United States for a whole home with a pool
and a great view! We love traveling with my parents and with my husbands parents because we get to make great memories and it helps ease the costs. When we went to Spain with my parents, our 5 bedroom Airbnb house with a pool was $3100 for five nights right on the Mediterranean with a cliffside view. This means it was $620 a night, so split between us and my parents we paid $310 a night to have our own huge house with a private pool and an AMAZING view. This included all taxes and extra fees in that cost as well. If someone is on an even stricter budget, they had plenty of great options for even less money as well that would blow you away!
Another huge piece of advice is always choosing to pay with Euros instead of US Dollars while in Europe. We use our credit cards that get good points while we are traveling and any time the machine asks if we want to pay in Euros or US Dollars, we always pick Euros. Our bank will do the conversion and it will cost us less money overall!
Finally, if you are really looking for ways to cut costs but not sacrifice on your travel experience, you can either skip breakfast (especially if you sleep in) or keep some quick go breakfast foods in your hotel room to help cut costs. Also, if you have an Airbnb/VRBO, you can cook some of your own meals which will significantly cut costs while traveling. While we were in Italy, our hotel in Positano had free breakfast and in Rome, we would just grab a quick and cheap croissant for breakfast in the mornings. Then in Positano, we would grab quick service pizza to eat while we walked around and explored (a HUGE pizza slice was only 4 euros). Then we would splurge more so at dinner and we would eat at a sit down restaurant.
All in all, we still splurge more than some people when we travel. However, we do try to cut back in other areas of our life and work extra in our down time to help accommodate our love of travel. Also, we splurge more on some trips than we do on other trips, but whether we splurge or not, the quality of our trips and the experiences are still unforgettable. We have really em
braced the motto "work to live, don't live to work" and our travels bring our family together in a new and exciting way. If you have any further questions about budgeting for travel or you want me to elaborate on anything specifically in this blog post then just let me know! I love getting to share this part of our life with you guys and spreading the love of travel!
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