I recently got into a discussion with some girlfriends about what it means to enjoy budget travel. Although most of us turned out to be on the same page about it, we did play a little bit of devil’s advocate during the discussion. Here are some of the things we decided that budget travel does (and does not!) mean to us.

Budget Travel Does Mean

• Getting a fair price on a trip. Budget travel doesn’t necessarily mean paying the lowest price possible to go somewhere. It means being able to enjoy a trip at a price that you consider fair. For example, it means getting good deals on hotels even if those hotels are more expensive than some of the ones your friends would choose to stay in.
• Finding free and cheap alternatives to higher cost options. We all agreed that budget travel means doing your research to find ways to enjoy your trip that are lower-cost than the average traveler may pay to take the same vacation.
• Learning to budget. Ultimately, we felt that budget travel means learning how to set limits and boundaries for yourself when planning your trips. It means learning to create a realistic travel budget and then to stick to that budget when traveling. It means setting a travel spending cap for the year and not exceeding it (unless an emergency warrants it, of course).

Budget Travel Doesn’t Mean

• Being uncomfortable. Budget travel means getting a good price for good travel. It may mean staying in economy hotels but only economy hotels that are comfortable and safe. It doesn’t ever mean sacrificing comfort and safety for the lowest price.
• Traveling to the cheapest places. Sometimes budget travel does mean traveling to destinations that are cheap rather than to expensive cities. However, it doesn’t necessarily mean this. It may mean budgeting wisely to go to a more expensive destination.
• Being cheap. There is a big difference between being frugal and being cheap. None of the gals in the group wanted to be penny-pinchers, to skimp where it wasn’t necessary or to skip travel altogether to save money. Instead, we want to be frugal with how we spend our money when we travel, making smart choices that reflect our strongest beliefs about how we spend both time and money.

What does budget travel mean to you?

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One of the most popular phrases in my personal budget travel handbook is “instead of”. You can use this phrase to make some really great choices that allow you to travel at a lower cost. You aren’t saying that you won’t travel just because you want to save money. You’re saying that you will travel one way “instead of” another way to cut costs.

Here are ten examples of “instead of” options if you want to save money on travel:

1. Choose to stay at economy hotels INSTEAD OF more expensive hotels. Better yet, choose to stay at hostels instead of hotels to save even more money.
2. Opt to visit small local museums INSTEAD OF major museums or costly landmarks.
3. Pack your own food or shop at grocery stores along the way INSTEAD OF spending the extra money to purchase meals at restaurants or fast food chains.
4. Visit local swimming pools, watering holes and small creeks INSTEAD OF going to water parks to cool off with the kids while you are on vacation.
5. Get library books before you leave to read while you’re on the road INSTEAD OF investing in video games, DVDs and other more expensive forms of road trip entertainment.
6. Find out what types of festivals and events you can attend for free at your destination INSTEAD OF going to costly attractions or more expensive events.
7. Look for deals and promotions INSTEAD OF paying full price. It’s always great if you can do exactly the kind of trip that you want to do but pay less for it because you took the time to look for a deal.
8. Always pay cash INSTEAD OF using a credit card so you don’t accrue interest charges for your vacation costs. Better yet, use a cash back rewards credit card INSTEAD OF cash and pay it off immediately before any interest is added.
9. Set a budget for your trip in advance INSTEAD OF trying to figure out after the trip how you’re going to make up for all that money that you spent while you were on vacation.
10. Visit friends and family in smaller destination cities INSTEAD OF traveling to the more expensive hot spots.

These are just a few of the most basic ideas for travel alternatives that will save you money. I’m sure that you could make an entire list of your own. Feel free to share your ideas in the comments!

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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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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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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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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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I started thinking about taking a trip to San Diego and now I can’t stop thinking about it. San Diego is just such a great destination. It’s good for couples, solo trips and family travel. It’s particularly great because there are a lot of free and cheap things to do in San Diego.

I’m not actually going to get the chance to go to San Diego right now but it doesn’t hurt to plan a trip there for whenever I do get the chance to do. I like to keep tabs on the cheapest ways to travel to destinations that interest me. Based on my research so far, I’d say that these are the best ways to save money on a trip to San Diego:

• Don’t plan too far in advance. I keep getting information about great travel deals for San Diego. This looks like the kind of destination where you can plan a last minute trip and save money.
• Save money with economy hotels. I have seen terrific online hotel reviews for a large number of San Diego budget hotels. Of course, there are a lot of expensive hotels, especially in the Gaslamp Quarter, but I think you can stay at a really nice place in San Diego without spending a lot of money on your room.
• Get a cheap rental car. It looks like San Diego is a city where you really need a car to get around. It’s just not feasible to use public transportation here as a visitor from what I can see. I think it’s worth it to get a rental car that’s affordable for this trip.
• Do a lot of people watching. It seems like the best cheap activities in San Diego are things that let you just walk, window shop and people watch. Hanging out at the beach, walking through the Gaslamp District and sitting outside at a cheap outdoor cafe are all great ways to spend a day in San Diego.
• Spend a day at Old Town San Diego. This is a popular attraction and yet it doesn’t cost any money. You can see all of these neat historic things and you get to enjoy a famous place in the city but you don’t have to spend a fortune. That’s the way I like to travel!
• See things at Balboa Park other than the San Diego Zoo. The San Diego Zoo is amazing but it costs a lot of money. It’s located inside of Balboa Park where there are a lot of other things to do that are free or cheap. The museums here, the botanical gardens, the outdoor concerts and the Japanese Tea Gardens are all much more affordable to do and just as fun for the whole family.

That’s what I’ve learned so far about saving money on a trip to San Diego. I’m sure I’ll keep researching this in case I get to go someday so I’ll keep you posted as to what I learn. And any tips that you have about this are welcome!

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