Budget Travel Blog

Single travelers do have some benefits over parents who are traveling with their children. It’s obviously a lot simpler to deal with just your adult self than with your whole family. Still, family travel is a whole lot of fun which is why families do it. Smart parents have learned some great tips over the years for making family travel go more smoothly. Single travelers could actually learn a lot from these folks and would have a better travel experience because of it.

Some tips for single travelers that come from smart parents include:

• Always be prepared for injury or illness. Parents know that it would be awful to be stuck in a new city trying to hunt down a 24-hour pharmacy to get medication for a sick child. That’s why they pack the basics including a first aid kit. It’s a smart thing for single travelers to consider doing as well.
• Pack clothes that layer. Kids complain that they’re too hot and then too cold. That’s why we dress them in layers when traveling. Single travelers would find all destinations more comfortable if they got used to doing this.
• Leave yourself a lot of time. Parents traveling with small children know that everything takes longer than they expect it to. They leave a lot of room between flights to make sure that they catch the second flight even if the kids are cranky, hungry and need to stop at the bathroom. They assume the road trip will take longer than it probably does. Single travelers would save themselves a lot of stress if they, too, gave themselves this type of time cushion.
• Don’t pack your days too full. Kids need time to sleep, rest, relax. It isn’t good to rush from sight to sight without a break. Adults who learn this lesson can enjoy their solo trips a lot more too.
• Budget hotels may give you more for your money. Parents know that good economy hotels will give you great service, good amenities and a full breakfast. Why pay more for less?
• Go with the flow. It’s great to plan out the perfect vacation but things inevitably go wrong. Parents learn to go with the flow. Single travelers will enjoy their trips more if they can do this too.

I wish I had known all of this before I had kids! Don’t you?

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St. Patrick’s Day is coming up. Most families don’t seem to think about traveling for this holiday. However, it can actually be a perfect time to take a little family trip. It’s off-season for many places so you can easily find good deals on hotels. Destinations aren’t too crowded. And you can see some things that you wouldn’t normally see on family trips.

Five terrific places to think about visiting for St. Patrick’s Day this year are:

1. Ireland. This would, of course, be the ideal St. Patrick’s Day destination. It’s not easy to find budget flights to Ireland at the last minute but if you can swing it then it would surely be an experience to remember.
2. San Francisco. Believe it or not, this is a terrific city for celebrating St. Patrick’s Day. There is a very cool historic green church which is, of course, St. Patrick’s church. There are also great Irish restaurants and other fun activities to enjoy in this big city during St. Patrick’s Day.
3. New York City. Many people love to visit St. Patrick’s Cathedral in New York City. What better time to see this landmark than during St. Patrick’s Day? Get a cheap Times Square hotel room and make a whole weekend out of it!
4. Chicago. Another major city where you can see a lot of fun events and also visit a St. Patrick’s church is Chicago. The church here is also well-known and fun to spend time at with your family.
5. Boston. If the thing that you are most interested in is a great St. Patrick’s Day parade then look no further than South Boston. Over half a million people attend this event, though, so be sure to keep an eye on the little ones!

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There are many tips out there about how to save money on hotels. These tips are varied in how applicable they might be to you. If you happen to be someone with a family who really enjoys family travel then you’ll want to look specifically for ways to save money on hotels when you’ve got the whole brood with you.

Here are five tips for saving money on hotels when you bring the kids along:

1. Look for “kids stay free” deals. One of the best hotel deals that you’ll frequently see offered is that kids can stay free. Often this also means that they can eat for free as well. Pay attention to the details of the deal to make sure that you’ll be saving money.
2. Stay in a place that has complimentary breakfast. Yes, you’ll all get breakfast for free, of course. However, if you’re smart then you can also get the kids snacks and lunch out of the deal. Choose an economy hotel that has a full breakfast and take muffins, cereal, juice boxes and other extras to go. You’ll save money on meals out during the day while you’re trekking around.
3. Choose hotels that have entertainment for kids. If there is a lot for your kids to do at the hotel then you won’t need to pay to take them out for entertainment as much. Of course, you’ll still enjoy your trip but you can also just spend some time in the hotel’s pool or bowling alley and spend less money.
4. Find a hotel that offers affordable daycare. There might be a few fancy things that you want to do with your spouse during your vacation. Sure, you could take the kids along to a nice restaurant, a Cirque du Soleil show or some other event but you’d be spending a lot of money for the extra bodies. If your hotel has a childcare service that’s safe and affordable then you can enjoy an adults-only part of your trip for less.
5. Stay at hotels that advertise being kid-friendly. The best thing about these hotels is that local businesses often network with them. You can get deals and discounts on kids’ activities in the area when you’re staying at one of these places. Ask about this when making reservations.

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I would love to say that I’m going on a great vacation right now. Unfortunately, that’s not the case. I have some neat family trips planned for later in the year but this is one of those lulls during which I’m not getting the opportunity to travel much. Even when you are great at traveling in a low-budget way, you can’t afford to travel all of the time!

Whenever I get antsy about the fact that I’m not traveling in the present, I devote myself to past and future travels. This gives me a chance to re-live some of the travel that I’ve enjoyed before and to get excited about some of the travel that I’ll be doing in the future. That’s what is great about travel; it really transcends time!

To bring the travel from the past into the present, I usually engage in travel-related projects. Scrapbooks are a favorite activity of mine. I’ll pull out the pictures from recent trips and add them to new family scrapbooks. Alternatively I might make a scrapbook for someone else using photos from our travels together over the years. Of course, I can always just look through old photo albums to reminisce about past travels. This gives me something to do in the present that brings back a little of those wonderful feelings experienced on a great trip.

Then there is the future. Planning out trips is always a lot of fun for me. Ideally I’ll plan trips that are coming up in the near future. However, I’ve also been known to plan elaborate trips that I probably won’t ever even take. Looking up where I’d go and what I’d do in an exotic destination is almost like a little vacation for me. It’s planning for the future – even if it’s the make-believe future – and it makes the present that much sweeter.

What do you do to feel like you’re on vacation in the present even when you can’t travel?

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One of the ways that you can enjoy budget travel around the world is to attend holiday and event celebrations that aren’t traditional. Many people travel for Christmas and for Spring Break so costs of travel at this time can be high. There are many other holidays that are widely celebrate but aren’t commonly high-traffic holidays in terms of travel. Traveling during this time allows you to experience a very festive vacation without spending a lot of extra money. Chinese New Year is coming up and that’s a great example of a popular holiday that isn’t too traffic-heavy in terms of a passenger rush.

Technically Chinese New Year actually started on Valentine’s Day of this year. If you aren’t familiar with this holiday then what you should know is that it lasts for approximately two weeks. Most places that celebrate it have events going on throughout those two weeks. However the big celebration is usually at the end of the two-week event on the first full moon of the Chinese New Year. This year that’s going to be the weekend of the 26th and 27th of February.

This doesn’t give you a lot of time to do your planning. It’s definitely going to be a last minute trip for you if it’s something that you hadn’t thought about doing before. However, since it’s not a highly popular travel season, it’s likely that you can still get good deals on economy hotels and cheap flights if you want to take a quick trip.

The most popular place to travel for this holiday is, of course, China. You probably aren’t going to want to make that trip this year. Traveling internationally is a lot of fun but it typically requires more planning that what you’ve got left to enjoy the celebration this year. You probably won’t be able to get the good deals if you travel to China. However, there are U.S. celebrations that are feasible to do on a budget at the last minute.

The most popular U.S. destination to visit for Chinese New Year is San Francisco. With the world’s largest Chinatown, this is a destination that really knows how to celebrate the holiday. There are events in Chinatown all weekend long with a final lengthy parade on Sunday the 27th. It’s easy to get around San Francisco so you can stay in an affordable hotel anywhere in the city and make your way to Chinatown for the events.

San Francisco is your best bet. However there are a few cities that are doing their celebrations on the 20th and 21st. That’s a bit too soon even for most last-minute travelers but if you’re interested in trying that trip then check out one of the major cities. There is a parade in LA and one in New York, too.

Are you going to celebrate Chinese New Year?

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If you’ve been following this blog for awhile then you know that a few months back I made friends with a stranger from the blogosphere. She’d written to me about Houston hotel deals and we started chatting online about everything under the sun. I love these little relationships that form online as a result of blogging. You “meet” people you otherwise never would have met.

Unfortunately, though, the problem with online relationships is that they’re as easy to lose track of as they are to form. It’s easy to go a long time without answering someone’s email even though you don’t mean to put it off. That’s what’s happened with me and my Houston friend. I keep meaning to write to her and I keep putting it off for no good reason. It’s frustrating, too, because I do want to know what she’s been up to but I can’t seem to gather myself together to write to her to find out.

I thought maybe I’d write about that here because I figure it will motivate me to go ahead and write that email. After all, I know that she’s going to see this post and that she’s going to know that I have no good excuse for not writing. Sometimes we have to do little things to hold ourselves accountable to do the things that we want to do.

Anyway, none of this has much to do with why you read this blog but it did get me thinking about Houston travel again. In fact, because it’s nagging at the back of my mind that I need to write that email, I’ve been thinking about Houston travel quite a bit lately.

One of my favorite sites for travel daydreams is YouTube. You can use general searches on YouTube to find out lots of different travel information. You can get travel news from clips posted on YouTube. You can watch beautiful slideshows of other people’s trips to a destination. You can learn detailed information about an area’s budget hotels or best restaurants. These videos are a great place to explore the idea of traveling somewhere new.

So, yes, I’ve been watching Houston travel videos on YouTube and yes I wanted to share a few of them with you here:

Enjoy! Now I’ve got an email to go write!

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I love the Etsy site. I love to browse through the vintage and handmade items that are there. I love to see what creative people are doing. And I love the fact that if I do decide to buy something from here I’m supporting independent artists. Usually I wait to find a good deal on Etsy before I buy anything but even if I splurge I feel like it’s a good shopping decision if I made my buy on Etsy. Plus since I’m usually great at getting good deals on hotels and flights I feel like it’s sometimes okay to spend a bit more on things that are going to be really useful for travel.

There are a lot of cool things that you can get on Etsy for traveling. Here are ten that caught my interest.

1. Vintage Luggage. You say it’s old and banged up. I say it’s beautiful. We don’t have to agree but I’d love to win you over to my side of the argument. What do you think?

2. Binoculars. I’m not a bird watcher but these goggles make me want to become one on my next vacation!

3. Handmade Eye Pillows. These are perfect for making sure that you get enough rest during your trip. Use them in the car, on the plane or just in your hotel room.

4. Vintage Pajamas, Nighties and Bloomers. I would love to say that I wear things like this all of the time to sleep but of course that would be a lie. I’m more of a sweatpants kind of mom. Still, I would like to own a few of these fun pieces on vacations when I get away from my own life for a little bit!

5. Urban Toolbelt. Okay, so I’m probably giving up any cool points that I’ve earned since this item is sneakingly similar to the fanny pack but it’s so practical for travel and I think it’s cute!

6. Handmade Coffee Cuff. At home I usually drink coffee from my own pot. If I do go to a coffee shop, I take my trusty refillable mug with me. However, on vacation, I’m known to frequent coffee shops and to get their disposable cups. I don’t want to drag my mug along with but I could be at least a little bit green by bringing my own traveling coffee cuff.

7. Handmade Coin Purse. Who doesn’t need a coin purse when they travel? You just don’t know when you’ll need change for a meter or a bus or something else in your destination city. Why not have a cute one that’s practical too?

8. Traveling Notepad. I would love a little pocketed notepad that could hold stationery, stamps, passports, pens and a puzzle book. That’s about all I need for myself when I’m traveling!

9. Children’s Backpacks. I may not need much on a trip but the kids end up needing tons of snacks and whatnot. I like to have them each carry their own little bag of what they need. Handmade backpacks would be a cute new way to do this.

10. Multi-purpose Shoe Bags. These can hold shoes at home but I can also see them holding toothpaste and things like that when we travel. And they’re so cute!

Do you shop on Etsy?

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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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