Financially Savvy Summer Vacation Planning Ideas

Is summer really only two months away?! It’s time to start narrowing down those travel options for your family vacation. While it can be tempting to choose from a list you may already have in your mind of a place or two you have been meaning to go, let me tell you why letting the “deal” dictate your location can be financially advantageous.

One type of option to consider is cruising. Just like tours, the closer you get to a cruise, the cheaper they become. This is because the boat doesn’t want to leave half-empty! Money is made when people are on-board, so they heavily discount when it gets close to the departure date. A travel agent can be useful for this purpose, however if you want to plan it alone Cruise Sheet or Cruise Deals are two of the most helpful websites I have found. The trick with this option is definitely flexibility! You may not have much room to choose the destination of the cruise or the exact cabin available. One tip to remember is that you can usually call the cruise line or travel agent and if the price drops before you cruise, you might be able to get the difference in the price drop as on-board credit. Just be diligent on checking the numbers and you can really come out ahead.

Another option is to make sure your passport is up to date! These days, you can often book international travel destinations more affordably than many domestic destinations. Following various flight deal trackers such as The Flight Deal or Scott’s Cheap Flights can give you access to deals you didn’t know existed, at prices you thought were impossible! A lot of these deals are usually within travel dates between 1-3 months from when you are looking, which can be convenient for last-minute travel plans. A few examples are Boston to Vancouver, Canada for $259 RT on American Airlines or Boston to Tel Aviv, Israel for only $570 RT on United Airlines or even Boston to Finland for $395 on Scandinavian Airlines, all of which are full service airlines and not in risk of stranding you anywhere (WOW Airlines, anyone?!)

Traveling with kids? Some airlines offer amazing deals when traveling with kids. The best I have seen that comes to mind is with Scandinavian Airlines. Usually one to two times per year they offer a kids fly free deal (up to 8 children!) where you only pay taxes/fees (usually $20-50 per child). Their deal originates from select airports in the U.S. and works for any destination in Scandinavia (Finland, Sweden, Norway etc.). A friend of mine was able to bring herself and her two children to Stockholm from Los Angeles for $550 total for the three of them. Frontier Airlines has been running their own kids fly free deal as well with differing limitations. However, if you live near a Frontier hub, this can be very beneficial.

Want to instead enjoy our own backyard, maybe with a road trip? How would you like that road trip to be free or at an insanely low cost? Am I starting to send like a click-bait Facebook ad? I get it. But trust me when I say that an RV relocation deal could be just what you need for the summer vacation road trip of your dreams! RV and car relocation deals come up when a rental car company needs a rental to be moved to a different rental office, one way. This can be for supply and demand reasons or sometimes when a vehicle is getting ready to be sold. The reason it is so cheap (usually about $1 per day) is because it can be very expensive to hire a transport company or alternatively pay someone to drive it to the other location and then pay for their return flight. iMoova and Jucy are the most utilized search engines in the United States to find these deals. Keep in mind that the best deals are only a few weeks out as desperation creeps closer. Fun fact: sometimes you can even get gas reimbursement incentives or amenity kits, so it’s always worth asking.

Traveling this summer does not have to break the bank. It’s important to not take on an exuberant amount of debt, or hopefully any debt for that matter to make vacation memories. Be creative and enjoy!

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