Taking A Frugal Vacation – Part 1
Alrighty, so I’ve finally arrived. From my house, Myrtle Beach is about 5.5 hours which in my eyes is still considered close. However, we did stop to see DH’s parents since they were on the way. His mom has had some health issues so we wanted to check in with her. Having that said, we ended up getting here later than initally planned…but that’s ok.
When planning a frugal family vacation (depending on what you’re looking to do) look at attractions, lakes, and beaches within your state or one over. Some attractions even offer in state resident discounts. I think you reap the best values this way. When traveling with the family, traveling by car is more than likely going to be the cheapest way to go so that’s why I recommend close by vacations. Also when planning your vacation, you really need to put the emphasis on “plan”. You really need to do your homework to ensure you get the best deal possible. This may include checking travel sites, direct tourism sites for the place you want to visit, and/or discount travel broker sites.
Speaking of discount travel sites, that is how I got our room we’re in now. I used a little site called Priceline.com . You get to name the price for your hotel room. If you’ve read my blog before, then you know I’m in love with that site. Now the gig behind this site when bidding on hotel rooms is, that you don’t know where you’re staying until after you’ve paid. Now before you pass it off let me tell you that you get to pick the area you want to stay and how many stars (1-4). So don’t worry that you’ll get put in a crap hole if you’re looking at 3 star hotels. I did find a little helper with this though. There is a site called Biddingfortravel.com. This site is a forum where people who use Priceline go to post their deals that were accepted. You can look and see what’s been accepted in the area you’re planning on visiting. There is also a directory for each state sorted by stars telling you which hotels Priceline fishes in those areas. It gives you a good idea about what you’ll get but it is not an exact science. I have, in the past, gotten a hotel that was not on the list. It wasn’t a problem and was a great hotel…just letting you know.
We are staying at a Fairfield Inn that I was able to reserve for $62 a night. If you don’t travel a lot, $62 in the beach area over Memorial Day weekend is an insane deal! It is very nice and family friendly with free wi-fi. It is not beachfront but for $62 I was ok with that. Plus, it has a heated indoor pool.
(Found him hanging around)Tonight I don’t think we have anything planned since we got here later. I’m so excited to take DS to the beach since he’s never seen it before. It should definetly be an experience. Tomorrow, I will discuss saving on food and our low cost day.
