Vacation Dreaming
by Shannah Compton

I won’t even try to hide it. I love to travel. You could call me up on a Friday night and tell me that I have to be packed in 10 minutes and I would be ready to go! I even go so far as not unpacking my toiletries after each trip, just in case. For me traveling is an experience that I can’t ever seem to put into words. I love exploring but more than that I love the element of escape that comes with travel.

I was recently asked how I manage to travel so much. My husband and I try to take at least three weeks a year off to explore new places. Many people wonder if I have a money tree growing in my back yard that affords me the luxury to travel to so many great places. I tell you I certainly don’t have a money tree, but I have adopted a system that has created many opportunities for me to travel to wonderful places and not break the bank.

Below are some of my creative ideas for maximizing your vacation dollars both before and after your vacation:

  1. Find a great credit card that offers you rewards. We use a Starwood American Express for all our day to day purchases, and then pay off the bill each month. The reward is that they start you out with so many points that you are already ¾ of the way to 3 free nights stay. There are also great cards for airline rewards etc. My philosophy is that if you are already spending the money on day to day items, why not get an extra bonus for your $$. We have gotten a few round trip tickets over the years, and in fact we flew free and stayed free for a week in Paris in November!
  2. Find a credit card that offers 0% interest for a given period of time. What we do is purchase our vacation on this type of card, and then pay it off over the 0% interest period. The first place to call is your current cards that you have and ask if they have any 0% offers for purchases or balance transfers. Interest rates are pretty low right now and these 0% offers are easy to come by if you have a good credit score. Again, this must be used in moderation and make sure you set limits on how much you spend so that you can reasonably pay off your balance.
  3. Always research the travel sites. I am known as the travel queen. I LOVE to travel and I LOVE to stay at nice places, but I don’t love to pay high prices. So, I have about a dozen or so sites that I search to find good deals.  One of my favorites is www.kayak.com. I use this site to search for the best airfare deals in the Continental US. Often times I can find the same hotel, car, or flight for much less by just searching a couple different sites. It does take time, and is a bit of a game, but well worth it.
  4. Always take a look at craigslist for wherever you want to go. Check their vacation rental section. Many times you can rent a great condo, apartment, or home for much, much less than staying in a hotel, plus you have more space and a kitchen so you can eat some meals in.
  5. Stash away your dollar bills. Another good idea is to take any money you have in your wallet that is say under $5 at the end of the week and put it in jar or box and don’t touch it. We did this one year starting on Jan 1 and we saved well over $500. It is a fun game to play, and you can select any amount you want. The idea of course is to stick with it and keep the money growing.
  6. ING Orange. Another idea is to switch your checking or savings account to an account like ING’s electric orange. Most banks do not pay you any interest on your money. The ING Orange account does! My theory is the more money you can generate the better. Let’s say you earn an extra $25 per month in interest that you wouldn’t be getting at your bank – that’s an extra $300 at the end of the year. This is a great return on your “investment” and is certainly enough for a plane ticket, or a few nights in a hotel.
  7. Buyer Beware. My last tip is a bit of the “buyer beware” theory. Many people are lured into purchasing passes, especially in Europe, that offer access to hundreds of museums and tourist sites. While these passes always seem like a great offer, my research has shown that these passes cost you more money in the long run. For instance, when we traveled to Paris in November the “Paris Pass” cost one hundred Euros each, or $294 US dollars total. Sure we got access to every museum, art gallery, and touristy location. However, we only ended up having time to visit three museums throughout our trip which cost us around $50 US dollars total. I don’t want to discourage you from purchasing a pass such as this one; I just want you to spend some time researching the price of the pass versus your allotted time to visit these locations. There was simply no way that we could have visited all 350 locations that the pass gave access to over the week.

In This Issue: