I have to agree, we normally don’t fly, and I save a ton of money by driving!
For us, no amount of savings could ever offset the cost of plane tickets verses the cost of driving and that’s factoring in a hotel stay and meals on the way because we take two days to drive down. Even when we have flown on points for free, by the time we added the tax and fees, the gas to the airport, airport parking fee, cost of luggage, cost of shipping stuff to the hotel, and car rental, we didn’t really come out ahead. Also, we still have meals on the travel day as well, and unlike in the car where we can pack an inexpensive picnic, when flying, we usually end up eating expensive meals in the airport. So even a free ticket, usually costs us more than driving would. Then if you factor in the monetary value of the points we used, we really came out bad.
Not flying is almost always a given for us, so I’d say our biggest savings are deals on the rooms. We usually have a large group of people and need at least two hotel rooms. If we had to pay rack rates, we’d never be able to afford to go anywhere. Thank goodness for my Hilton points, family who work at Loews, and vrbo. We have had great luck with condos and houses on vrbo, and like others have said, this allows us to eat meals in the house to save more money.
I think our biggest money savings come from staying in houses instead of hotels and minimizing our eating out. We plan simple fast meals that don’t really take any preparation or time to make. Breakfast and lunch everyone is basically on their own. We stock up on cereal, fruit, granola, and bakery items. Lunch we have sandwiches, crackers, raw veggies and dip, cheeses, salsa, hummus, that kind of thing. Dinner we do simple meals, things like frozen pizzas or TV dinners, pot pies, corn dogs or fish sticks, casseroles, soup or stew, pasta, or tacos. We usually don’t cook every day either. We might make a casserole on Monday, go out on Tuesday, and then on Wednesday everyone eats leftovers either from their meal out Tuesday or the casserole. When that food is gone, we’ll cook again on Thursday. Minimal hassle, maximum savings.
In addition, we normally stay in houses that come with perks such as game rooms, a swimming pool, a game system, bicycles, or even kayaks. This saves us more money as we are more content to stay and enjoy the amenities at the house, then going off and spending money on an activity we’d have to pay for.
For instance, we did a stay at a lake house once. We had a list of activities in the area, but we never even went and did any of them. The house was stocked full of games and puzzles. There was a full size tennis table and a fuse-ball table. There was a huge outdoor area for games outside, a fire pit, and a dock to swim off of. We had a blast just hanging out at the house, and it cost me the same as what I would have paid for one room at a hotel. I think it was about $150 / night for a 5 bedroom 3 bath lake house with game room and large balcony deck overlooking the lake. I also got a great deal on a $60 / night including tax 3 bedroom 2 bath condo in a resort in Orlando before on vrbo. Can’t beat 3 bedrooms for 10 nights at $600 total.
