Budget Travel Blog

I recently wrote here on the blog about my ideas for affordable Valentine’s travel. One of the things that I think is a great thing to do for Valentine’s day is to spend the night away from home in a local hotel. It feels like a nice little getaway, someone else makes the bed and you get a new place to experience some romance. Unfortunately, it can be a lot easier to find deals on hotels than it is to find hotels that are worth it. Luckily, it’s really not that difficult to spruce up a budget hotel room to make it a whole lot more romantic.

Here are five easy ways to make economy hotels more romantic for Valentine’s Day:

1. Bring your own sheets. Do you have really wonderful, luxurious sheets at home? Bring them with you to your budget hotel. Sure it means that you need to make the bed yourself but it also means that you’ll enjoy it a lot more.
2. Light some candles. All rooms are more romantic when you turn out the overhead lights and use candles to give a glow to the space. This is a really frugal way to make your hotel night getaway a special one.
3. Add ambience with your iPod. If you have an mp3 player and a set of speakers then you can create a more romantic mood in your hotel room just by playing some great music for you and your partner.
4. Pack a picnic. It’s so tempting to go out to eat nearby when you stay in a hotel. But why waste your money? Pack yourself a terrific picnic instead. Spread out on the hotel room floor with a blanket, wine and chocolates and rekindle the romance in your relationship.
5. Keep the television off. Nothing kills the Valentine’s mood like the TV. Keep it off during your in-town getaway.

These are cheap things that you can do to make it romantic to stay at a budget hotel in your city for Valentine’s Day. Is there anything else that you’d recommend?

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I love paying attention to travel news, don’t you? Unfortunately, that news has been a little bit depressing ever since the recession started. Sure, there have been a lot of great articles about how to save money on travel and which destinations are cheapest but those are mostly coming from blogs. The real media headlines seem to keep reporting that people just can’t afford to travel. I’m happy to say that this trend seems to be changing.

Two different news articles caught my attention that both seem to indicate that travel is ramping up again:

1. 21% Increase in Travel Searches on Google. This means that quite a lot more people are at least thinking about traveling this year than last year. The most frequent searches were for car rental and hotels. Interestingly, people aren’t just looking for budget travel anymore; the number of people looking into luxury travel options is also on the rise. I’d say it’s smarter to stick with looking for budget travel information, though, wouldn’t you? It’s not as though the recession is over yet!
2. Asia’s Budget Airlines Prospering. This article indicates that growth in travel isn’t just a Western thing. Things are getting back on track in Asia, too, although the emphasis there seems to still be on budget travel. Specifically, there is expected to be a lot of growth in the budget airline sector in Asia. The one concern is that high fuel prices may limit this growth.

These news headlines seem to say something important which is that we’re not in the clear yet as far as this recession goes but we can start thinking about doing more fun stuff again. Travel isn’t just fun; it’s also important. Travel helps us to expand our experiences and to better understand the world around us. We may need to stick with looking into budget travel for now but we can certainly be looking. With good planning and a keen eye for deals it’s definitely possible for us to do some traveling this year!

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What do you look for in a good travel website? There are a handful of things that I think should all come together to make a great website for the person who is interested in budget travel. The most important features of a travel website for me are:

• Great deals. I want to use a website that will offer the best hotel deals and best airfare.
• Ease-of-use. I definitely want to make sure that any website that I use is going to be one that is really user-friendly. No glitches; no tough-to-read text, etc.
• Lots of information and reviews. I don’t just want to know about the latest hotel specials; I want to know about what makes each hotel special!
• Personality. I’d like to see the personality shine through the site as I’m reading it. This makes it easy to get a feel for whether or not a recommended deal would be right for me.
• Variety. A website that offers the same deals over and over again is boring. A website that offers new stuff all of the time is going to keep me interested.

It doesn’t matter to me whether a travel website is an independent site or one that’s produced by a chain company. What matters to me is the content and the quality of that content. I want to check out travel websites that are going to really be useful to me. Let’s face it; we all have a limited amount of time that we’re able to spend online. I don’t want to waste mine on travel websites that aren’t the best websites.

One of the websites that I’m really excited about right now is the Choice Hotels website. This website was already a good website by the above standards. However it’s recently undergone a site redesign that makes it even more appealing to me as a reader. Features of the new site include:

• New advanced search bar. They’ve made it a lot easier to search for good hotel deals close to the destinations that you want to visit.
• Rate comparison tool. I love that they’ve made it possible to easily compare the costs and features of different rooms that are available. You can easily look at photos of the room as well as package deals that might make it cheaper.
• Look for deals within certain interests. A cool new feature lets you look for the best deals in certain categories such as romantic vacations. That makes for easy planning!

What do you think?

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I am starting to think about Valentine’s Day. Should my husband and I do something special to celebrate the day between just the two of us? Should we take the family somewhere to celebrate? Or should we just stay home and celebrate together there (either with or without the kids since they could always go to the sitter)?

I haven’t made a decision yet. I’m doing a lot of thinking about it, though, so I’ve come up with a list of affordable Valentine’s travel ideas that we might consider. Hopefully other families in the same position would benefit from seeing this list as well.

My list of cheap Valentine’s ideas for 2010 so far includes:

• Look for local deals on hotels. It’s romantic to do a hotel getaway with your spouse. Actually getting away can be pricey, though. Getting away to a hotel in your own area is a neat way to rekindle romance without spending a lot of money.
• Stay home with the family and celebrate love. Do Valentine’s arts and crafts. Put together a family play or musical about why you love one another. Celebrate your love with the whole family instead of just the romance between you and the spouse. It’s the ultimate holiday staycation.
• Combine Valentine’s and anniversary travel. Want to get away for a romantic weekend with your hubby but not sure where the travel money would come from? Consider working out your travel budget for the entire year so that you combine this trip with your anniversary plans. Infuse the weekend with romance and you won’t feel like you missed out by doing a two-for-one.
• Have a daytime date with your spouse. Take the day off of work and pretend that you’re on vacation together. Go to a park. See a movie. Hold hands. Make out. Enjoy being in love again.
• Have a romantic night at home. Send the kids to visit their grandparents. Take out the candles, the rose petals, the bubble bath and the lingerie. Stay home, spend little and enjoy one another for hours and hours. You won’t feel like you need to travel anywhere else ever again!

I think it’s great to travel for Valentine’s Day if you can work it out. However I also think there are dates that can be had at home that can replace travel on this special day.

What are you doing for Valentine’s Day this year?

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I think it’s important to take our families on a variety of different types of vacations. I think children should get a chance to experience many different things as they are growing up. International travel, off-the-beaten-path travel, travel to family hot spots like Disneyland and nature-based travel are all important for kids. I certainly want my kids to grow up with a range of different experiences.

Nevertheless, there are some types of travel adventures that I’m never going to take my kids to enjoy. And, truth be told, I really hope that they don’t get the urge to do these things even though I like to believe that I want them to have whichever life experiences are right for them.

The five travel adventures I’d prefer my kids miss out on are:

1. Extreme Bungee Jumping. A lot of people like to travel to exotic locations and to bungee jump off of high cliffs or bridges in those beautiful areas. I envision the bungee cord snapping and my children plunging to their untimely deaths in some foreign destination. I hope they skip this one.

2. Swim with Sharks. My eldest has already asked about swimming with sharks. She saw it when we were looking up information on whale watching and swimming with dolphins. I tried to explain to her that a dolphin and a shark are not the same thing. And that I’m not getting into a cage surrounded by sharks for any reason at all!

3. Tank Adventures. This is where you learn to drive a tank and go out and crush things with it. I’m opposed to the destruction and violence of this one. Plus it’s really expensive and I want to teach my kids to mostly enjoy budget travel. Luckily my kids are too young to be interested in this yet but I can see the little one asking about it someday.

4. Cliff Jumping. I admit that I have done this before from low heights and actually found it really fun. I think it can be great if you do it safely. However it’s not something that I want my kids doing right now. Maybe I can be flexible about this on in the future.

5. Skydiving. I dislike this one for the same reason that I dislike bungee jumping. I hope my kids never want to do it – either on vacation or close to home!

Are there activities you don’t want your kids to enjoy on vacation? What are they?

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One of the New Years goals I have for 2010 is to try to take my family out of the country this year. I would really love to go to Buenos Aires but I just don’t know if it’s going to be financially feasible. Right now what I’m working on doing is learning everything that I can about how to make international travel affordable for us.

The main thing that I’m learning about right now is how to save money on hotels. When I first started looking at traveling to Buenos Aires I was trying to find economy hotels that would be affordable for my family. However I couldn’t seem to find anything that I was happy about.

I was complaining about this to a friend who reminded me about the possibility of doing a home stay in Buenos Aires. This is where you actually stay in the home of someone who is a resident of the city. They may rent the home to you at a really low cost or they may even rent the room to you for free depending on the way that you set up the home stay.

To get a free stay in Buenos Aires I would probably need to actually pay to join a site that is designed to connect people who are interested in traveling this way. Since I don’t plan to use this method of travel often, I don’t think that it would be worth the cost to travel this way. Instead, I think I will look at using free sites to set up an affordable home stay.

There are two choices with home stays: staying with the resident or staying in their home when they are not there. I think it would be best to stay with the resident because then he or she could provide us with additional information about how to make our trip more affordable while we are there. Plus this would allow us better insight into the culture of the area.

Has anyone else tried home stays in the past? Do you have any tips on how to use them effectively in order to save money? Are there any safety issues that I should be concerned about when traveling with my family this way?

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One of the options that we have as people who want to travel frugally is to participate in volunteer travel. This refers to the kind of travel where you do volunteer work at the destination in exchange for your room and board. You may do anything from teaching a local family’s children in English to building homes for people who don’t have them. You can do volunteer travel for almost any length of time in almost any destination that you want to visit.

I have mixed feelings about volunteer travel as a way to save money. Here’s what I see as the pros and cons of volunteer travel:

Pros

• You do save a lot of money. You don’t have to pay for your accommodations at all plus you typically get free meals. That saves a lot of money especially on trips where you want to stay awhile.
• You can safely visit exotic destinations. You might feel safer traveling to some countries if you are doing so with a group of other volunteers.
• You meet a lot of great people including locals. You really get to see the inside of the culture that you are visiting.
• You get to help others. That’s always a good thing. It’s also great for family travel since it teaches your children that they can have a great worldly experience while also aiding others who need their help.

Cons

• Volunteering takes up most of your time. My experience with volunteer travel is that you don’t actually have a lot of time to explore landmarks and other destinations because you are busy with your volunteer work.
• Some volunteer experiences are inevitably negative. You do jobs that you don’t want to do with people you don’t like too much and the result can be a negative travel experience. Of course this isn’t always the case but it’s a risk that you take.
• You miss out on staying at cool local hotels. I’d actually rather get great hotel specials and stay in a unique local spot than stay at a volunteer location. ( Sometimes you can find great rooms on special like these cheap hotels in NYC.

So I think that there are pros and cons to volunteer travel. I definitely think that it’s something that you should try at least once in your life. I just think that it shouldn’t replace other kinds of travel because it does have its drawbacks.

Have you ever done volunteer travel? Did you have a good experience with it?

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Last month I wrote a post about 5 super-cool hotel types that I would like to try staying at some day. (For example, I’d love to find an affordable underwater hotel to stay at for a night!) However I am not one of those adventurous people who wants to try staying at all of the different types of hotels that exist. In fact, there are quite a few popular niche hotels that just don’t interest me at all.

5 types of hotels I wouldn’t ever want to stay at:

1. Prison Hotels. There are several old prisons around the world that have been converted into hotels. Some are nice hotels in old prisons. Others actually give you a prison-like experience complete with bread and water for dinner. Creepy.
2. Haunted Hotels. There are a lot of people who love to stay in hotels that are supposedly haunted. They want to see if they can get up close and personal with the ghosts. I’ll let them be, thanks. Besides, the popularity of these types of hotels makes them really pricey and I always try to travel on a budget.
3. Crane Hotels. Yes, people actually get into hotels that are hoisted into the air on huge cranes. I think I’ll pass on that experience. Treetop hotels are high enough for me!
4. Moving Hotels (like Exploranter). There is definitely something appealing about basically staying in an RV that someone else is driving. Still I don’t think that this is actually a hotel experience I’d really like.
5. Grain Silo Hotels. I’m glad that there are people who are interested in staying in a grain silo that has been converted into a hotel. It’s great because it makes use of a building that otherwise would just sit there unused. Nevertheless, I’m not the kind of person who wants to stay in a grain silo. I’d rather camp out.

What type of hotels would you have absolutely no desire to stay in? Are there weird hotels that you’ve stayed in at some point during the past that you would never want to stay at again?

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San Diego is a destination that I keep trying to learn more and more about. It just seems like such a great place for families and yet a place that’s hip and cool (as compared to, say, Disneyland). Right now I’m interested in the best hotels in San Diego for families that are interested in traveling on a budget.

Here are seven of the most family-friendly San Diego budget hotels that I have found so far:

1. Quality Inn Airport Seaworld Area. This isn’t the cheapest of the budget hotels on my list but it’s one of my favorites because it is located so close to Sea World. That’s an attraction I really love even though it’s kind of pricey. This is one of the most affordable hotels in the area so I think staying here would be a great choice.
2. Comfort Inn and Suites Zoo and SeaWorld. This is another one that I’d choose for the location.
3. Comfort Inn Airport at Old Town. Old Town San Diego provides so much entertainment and a lot of it is free. Staying at this affordable hotel would be good, too.
4. Quality Suites I-5 Miramar. What I love about this hotel is that there are a lot of deals offered by budget hotel sites for perks that can be added during your stay.
5. Comfort Inn at the Harbor. If you couldn’t tell, yet, I am a fan of the Comfort Inn. This is one of the most affordable locations of this chain if you’re traveling to San Diego.
6. Rodeway Inn and Suites Downtown. I don’t know for sure if I’d stay downtown with my family or not. It seems like more of a nightlife area. But people have told me that it’s family-friendly. This hotel is pricier than the rest because of the location but it looks like a good one if I did decide to stay downtown.
7. Porto Vista Hotel and Suites. I don’t get the chance to stay in boutique hotels too often but this is one that I think I could afford.

Do you have any experience with any of these hotels? Do you recommend them?

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Guess I’ve gotten off to a slow start with my blog posting for this year. It’s been more than a week since my last post! I’m the type of person who tends to beat myself up a little bit about things like that. However, one of my personal New Year’s goals is to be kinder to myself. Although I hope that a lot of you are enjoying my budget travel blog, I realize that it’s not the end of your world if I don’t post every few days. I’m trying to remind myself of that and to just be happy that I get the chance to post as often as I do.

That said, the New Year has gotten off to a great start here. I was able to take a little bit of time to myself to solidify some of my goals for 2010. I had already established my travel goals for the year but I wanted to take the time to make some other personal goals instead. Like the one about being kinder to myself. And I also want to be more compassionate and caring with my family. It’s so easy to snap at the ones that we love but it’s so unfortunate that we do this, isn’t it?

Anyway, I’d love to know how your holiday travels went. Were you able to get good deals on hotels? Did you spend as much as you thought you would or more than that or less? The friend I’ve mentioned on the blog before (who originally wrote to me about Houston hotel deals) actually ended up not spending anything at all on her holiday travels. I thought that the way that she did this was great so I figured I’d share it here to get us all off on the right foot for a great New Year.

Here’s what she did:

• Used frequent flyer miles that she’d accumulated to pay for her flight.
• Used travel points from her credit card to pay for an affordable hotel room.
• Traded her time and energy for food (by cooking the food bought by relatives in the area so everyone was happy)
• Committed to only enjoying free activities – and kept that commitment
• Refused to buy anything new for the trip or during the trip

How inspiring! I think a new 2010 goal of mine might be to travel next Christmas season without spending any money.

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