Family vacations can be expensive. The cost of lodging, gas, meals, snacks, admissions and souvenirs add up quickly. Our family of five has come up with several easy ways to keep trip expenses down and save money on family vacations.
1 | Limit the Convenience Store Snacks
We all know that gas station goodies like chips, candy and soda are overpriced. Grabbing a quick snack and soda every time we stop for gas can easily add up to $5 or more PER PERSON. If you stop for a gas fillup 1-2 times each day on vacation, that can easily add up to hundreds of dollars spent on overpriced snacks.
We save money by bringing plenty of snacks (including junk food) and drinks with us. Instead of purchasing these items on the road, we stock up before the trip and bring them with us. It is much more affordable to purchase these items in large quantities from the grocery store.
As an added bonus, we can enjoy our tasty treats whenever we want; we no longer have to wait until the driver is ready to stop for gas.
2 | Limit Souvenirs
Souvenir shops are not exactly known for their bargain prices. We very rarely purchase souvenirs.
If we do allow the children to purchase a souvenir, we often steer them towards the postcard racks. Postcards make great souvenirs – they feature pictures of favorite aspects from that sight, they usually offer a snippet of educational information within the caption, they take up very little space in our suitcases, and they are super affordable.
Once or twice on a trip, we let the children pick out other toys or trinkets. In those instances, we keep expenses down by assigning a price restriction of $5 or $10.
3 | Hydrate the Eco-Savvy and Affordable Way
Bring reusable water bottles. Fill them up every morning before you leave, and refill them at drinking fountains along the way as needed.
Not only will you save money by avoiding overpriced concession machines, but you are helping the environment by not throwing away a bunch of disposable bottles. Win-win!
4 | Make It a Road Trip
We are a road tripping family for many reasons – it allows us flexibility to change our itinerary whenever we want, it allows us to enjoy stops between our home and end destination, it doesn’t restrict how much we can pack, and it SAVES US MONEY.
RELATED: Check out our road trip tips.
We don’t have to purchase plane tickets for five people. We don’t have to pay for a car rental once we get to our end destination. We don’t have to pay additional fees if we want to bring an extra suitcase or two. And, we can bring our own food. If you are keeping count, that’s four ways it saves us money!
5 | Find a Park
When researching vacation destinations, I ALWAYS check out what parks are in the area. We first learned this little trick on a family vacation to Hilton Head Island.
Whether it’s a National Park, State Park or local park, this can be a wonderful (and affordable) way to experience a local area. Many parks feature visitor centers, interesting exhibits and monuments dedicated to local history. Other parks have beautiful nature trails that allow you to truly experience the local terrain and see its beauty. And, other parks will have amazing playgrounds that your children will rave about for weeks/months/years afterwards.
6 | Pack a Picnic
One of our biggest cost-saving tips for family travel is to bring our own food (for at least one meal each day). I know, I know. Eating out is part of the fun when traveling. We enjoy eating out as well but eating every meal at a restaurant can also be expensive. Thus, we have found a happy balance.
Each day, we pack a picnic for one meal and dine at a restaurant for one meal. (In the morning, we usually enjoy the hotel’s continental breakfast or a quick on-the-go breakfast.) This allows us to dine at the restaurants we are excited about and not break the bank to do it.
7 | Google It Ahead of Time
Thank goodness for the internet and its various search engines! It has helped us plan some amazingly fun vacations and saved us a lot of money at the same time.
There are a few Google searches that I do before each and every trip:
- free things to do in [destination]
- affordable things to do in [destination]
- things to do with kids in [destination].
Using these search results, I have found some really great information and planned some amazing stops for our family. We have discovered zoos with free admission, special discount days for museums, free festivals, beautiful admission-free gardens and conservatories, amazing parks and kids-eat-free days at various restaurants.
Voila! Super fun vacation with very little expense!
RELATED: Helpful Tips for Planning Family Travel.
8 | Memberships, Reciprocal Programs, Multi-Attraction Passes and Groupon
If we are interested in a certain museum or zoo or other place, I will do a quick search for admission deals. Watch for reciprocal programs, memberships, multi-attraction passes, and Groupon deals.
Museums and zoos often have reciprocal programs where if you are a member of one museum/zoo, then you get free (or discounted) admission to other museums/zoos. For instance, our family has an ASTC Travel Passport as part of our membership to the Grand Rapids Public Museum. The Travel Passport program gives us free access to hundreds of museums nationwide (and beyond) including many of our favorites in Chicago, Indianapolis, Washington DC, and more!
Big cities often have special passes that will get you into multiple popular tourist attractions. If you are already planning on visiting a few of these attractions, a CityPASS (or similar program) might be a good deal for you.
Also, be sure to check into historical society memberships. While visiting Minnesota, we discovered that the family membership to the Minnesota Historical Society gave us free admission to several attractions that we were already planning to visit. It saved us a lot of money.
And finally, don’t forget to check Groupon for deals on any attractions you want to visit. If you plan your stops ahead of time, you can often find some really great deals with Groupon.
How do you save money on your family vacations?
That’s how our family saves money when traveling.
Now, it’s your turn. Please share your best money-saving travel tips in the comments below.
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We try to stick with one hotel chain while traveling and thereby collect loyalty points. Points, in turn, are used for free nights.
We often do that, too! You gotta love those free nights!
We try to find hotels with a mini fridge.This allows us to eat breakfast at the hotel and make sandwiches for our day.
Those mini fridges come in handy! We do that, too.
These are great tips! We bring our own snacks and water bottles, and def limit souviniers. We love groupon as well! Great tips!
Yes, those souvenirs add up to big money really fast! Isn’t Groupon awesome?
These are fantastic tips and will definitely be using them this year I find it hard taking my family on trips being a single parent xo
I traveled as a single parent with my oldest when he was toddler/preschool age, and I managed that okay. But I think it would be VERY challenging to do with multiple small children. Good for you for taking on that challenge! Happy travels!
We always try to stay in a hotel with continental breakfast so that at least one of the meals isn’t a worry. We also try and do road trips instead of flying. It saves so much money!
Thanks for joining #WanderingWednesday!
I agree with you on both of those points. We are so disappointed when a hotel doesn’t offer continental breakfasts, and I just can’t bring myself to splurge on airfare for FIVE people. Thanks for reading!
Great tips! We take roadtrips quite a bit, as my side of the family is pretty spread out. If we are staying at hotels on our trip, we try to find one with a decent pool. It provides a “free” activity without having to travel somewhere.
Hotel pools are the best! They are always the highlight of every trip for my children. And it helps to tire them out before bed, too. Win!
Great tips! I completely agree that bringing your own food is a good idea! I have so many fond memories of picnicking while traveling.
We recently thought about doing a road trip with the kids when they’re older. Like you pointed out, you can save money, but it also can be fun and part of the trip, too! #wanderingwednesday
great ideas! We do most of these, but also pack our own snacks. And since we fly free, we have teh cost of a rental car. But we use ‘wild card’ rentals through thrifty or National “Aisle” and are usually able to find a van for the cost of a car (since we have 6 people).
Great tips! Definitely limit souvenirs. Too many of them end up becoming clutter at home. We use hotel points.
Such useful tips! You can also travel free to national parks on designated free days. Crowded yes, but it’s a money saver!