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Are you ready to save money on your next vacation?  If you’re like me, you can’t wait to go on your next trip either!

Whether it’s a weekend getaway or a long road trip, I am just so ready to get out there and explore! But, I don’t want to spend a fortune.  Over the years, I’ve travelled a lot and tried a lot of different travel hacks to save money. I’ve found that most vacation money is spent on the big three:    airfare, accommodations, and food. 

So, I set out to find the absolute best travel hacks to save money ways in these three categories and I’m sharing today so YOU can save money on your next trip! If you use these travel hacks on your trip, you will save money!

How To Save On Airfare

Sometimes you can’t drive or you just don’t want to drive to your destination.  We travel from Nebraska to Florida a lot and we always debate about whether to drive or fly.  Both have their pros and cons, but we usually fly to save time.   There are many variables that go into airline pricing schedules. The biggest factors are: popularity of flight, length of flight, and time of flight.

Every airline has their own pricing schedule based on the variables that they take into account.  This is why there’s such a wide range of prices for the same flight.  So, you have to search the right way in order to find the best flight.  Here are my favorite hacks to save money on flights.

1. Google Flights is my go-to whenever I’m searching for a flight.   Google Flights makes it so easy.  You can enter a bunch of different search criteria and google will instantly come back with great flight options. 

2. Momondo.   Momondo is another good flight search engine.  Momondo is much less well known than Google Flights, but it has robust search capabilities and very often finds cheaper prices than Google Flights.  The only downside is that it doesn’t return your search results as fast as Google Flights.  It can sometimes take up to *gasp* 60 seconds!

More Travel Hacks For Airfare

3. If you aren’t 100 percent ready to book a flight you found on Google Flights or Momondo, but you still want to lock in a flight, book on Southwest Air.  Booking on Southwest is great because you can check back for better rates and always rebook with no fee if you find a better rate!

4. For a fun and spontaneous way to travel, check out Scott’s Cheap Flights.  You can sign up for their emails and they’ll send you the best flight deals of the day.  Once you sign up for their free daily emails, they will send you emails with all the best flight prices they’ve found that day. 

So for instance, they may find a great deal from your city to Las Vegas.  You’d see the deal in the email and be able to click on the link in the email to book it.  Scott’s has great deals but you have to act fast because the deals sell out quickly.     This is a great way to great way choose a vacation destination when you have nothing specific in mind for a trip.  Just go wherever has cheap flights! 

How To Save On Accommodations

The next category that can take a big bite of your travel budget are accommodations.  To save expenses on accommodations, first start by thinking about exactly who’s going and what your needs are.   Is this a couple’s trip for you and your husband or is it a girl’s trip? 

If it’s just you and your husband and he’s anything like my husband, he’s happy anywhere that’s walkable to all the action.  I’ll  look for accommodations that are more basic but super close to the beach. Because, all he cares about is being able to walk to the beach every morning. 

If I’m going on a girl’s trip, I’ll look for higher end accommodations like a hotel with a great pool and pool bar because we love to have cocktails at the pool!  Once you’ve determined the type of accommodation you need, it’s time to research where to stay!

Travel Hack to Free Nights

5. Use your hotel points to score great deals.  If you don’t have any points (yet), I recommend signing up for a rewards credit card or two so that you can start racking up points!  This is a great travel hack to save money as long as you’re able to pay off your balance in full each month. Most cobrand hotel cards typically charge an annual fee, but they also give you a certificate for a free night’s stay that offsets the annual fee.    

All the big hotels offer loyalty cards – I currently have Marriott, Hyatt, and IHG (Holiday Inn).   Believe me, you can really get some great deals using points instead of cash.  I was recently doing some research for a trip we’re taking next year to Clearwater Beach, Florida.  For our dates in March the Grand Hyatt has rates of over $500 per night, but if you book using points, it’s only 12,000 points per night.  That’s an insanely great point conversion rate!

Hotel Loyalty Programs

6. Sign up for the hotel loyalty program.  Make sure you sign up for the hotel loyalty program at every hotel you stay at.  It’s super easy to sign up and it’s completely free.  The loyalty programs that I’m a part of really do have great perks like late checkout, free room upgrades (sometimes even suites) and free breakfast.   

For instance, if you’re a World of Hyatt member you get a lot of freebies. You qualify for free breakfast, free bottles of water and waived resort fee for nights booked with the free certificate.  Breakfast can easily be $15 so that’s a nice savings.  Plus, as a member, you’re always guaranteed the lowest room rate.

 More Travel Hacks For Accommodations

7. When you do a paid room, make sure you book a room that you can cancel and always check back frequently to see if the rate has changed to a better rate.  I like to open an “incognito” browser and check for a better rate going “incognito”.  This is because if you’ve already booked or even looked, hotels & airlines will recognize your computer browser. If they recognize your browser from your prior session they will quote you the same rate.  So, it’s best to go incognito when checking back for the best rate. 

8. Be Flexible with Dates.  The more popular the dates or day of the week, the more expensive the rate will be.  So, a stay at a California beach property will generally be more expensive on a weekend in July than it would be for a weeknight stay in January.  If you can be flexible and stay a Wednesday through Saturday rather than Friday through Monday you will generally pay less.

Ways To Save On Food

9. Food costs can eat up a huge chuck of your vacation budget.  If you’re like me, trying new restaurants is one of my favorite things to do on a trip!  I love to eat and sample new foods.  And it’s always so fun to try local specialty foods.   Of course, we all have to eat on vacation, luckily there are ways to control your food budget while travelling.

10. A no brainer travel hack is to always book a room with a kitchen or at least a refrigerator, coffee pot and microwave.  Even if you don’t think you’ll want to cook while you’re on vacation, at least you’ll have the option if you change your mind.  I think it’s convenient to just stop at the local grocery store, pick up a deli chicken, some lettuce and fruit and eat that for lunch or a light dinner all week.  The savings can really add up if you only eat out once a day.

More Travel Hacks To Save Money On Food

11. Join FaceBook Travel Groups.  Some travel hacks to save money are better than others, and this one is a keeper! Talk to the locals about their favorite, cheap places to dine in their city.  I’m a member of numerous Facebook Travel groups and I’m always amazed at the wealth of information people have about so many different cities. 

All you have to do is ask your question and someone almost always responds quickly.  I’ve rarely seen posts go unanswered, so rest assured there’s bound to be someone with experience about the dining scene in your destination city.  There’s no better way to get a restaurant recommendation than straight from the locals.

12. Check out Groupon.  Groupon can be a goldmine for great deals on dining out in your destination city.  Simply go to groupon and put in your destination city.  All the deals for that city will pop up and you can choose your favorites.

Get Free Breakfast

13. Book a hotel with free breakfast.  Make sure you take advantage of hotels that offer free breakfast.  Even if the cost to book the room is a few dollars more than a competitor that doesn’t serve breakfast, go for it.  It’s totally worth it to pay a few dollars more for a reservation when the hotel is offering a free breakfast. 

If you book at a property with a free breakfast, that means everyone in your room gets a free breakfast!  Breakfast can easily be $15 per person, so if there are four of you, that’s an easy $60 savings.   My favorite free breakfast is the free breakfast buffet at Embassy Suites with made to order omelettes.  Yum.

Bonus Hack: Skip a big dinner.  One of my favorite ways to save money (and calories!) is to go out to a nice lunch and then do happy hour for “dinner”.  Lunch and dinner menus often have the same entrees available, but the lunch menu will usually be less expensive – sometimes significantly less expensive.  It’s true that sometimes the lunch portion is a little smaller than the dinner portion, but I think that’s a good thing. 

Restaurants seem to always serve such huge portions; and who really wants that much food?   I’d rather have a smaller portion and pay a much lower price.  Once you’ve had a great lunch, head out to a happy hour in your area for snacks and maybe a drink or two. 

We went to a GREAT happy hour a few months ago in Florida.  This cute little Irish bar in expensive Boca Raton, Florida was offering five dollar wine (very decent wine!) and mini pizzas during their happy hour.  Two of us ate and drank for $25.  Score!

Wrap Up

So, there you have it, my top 13 travel hacks to save money on your next trip.  I’ve used all these tips & tricks myself to save money and they really work.  Even if you only use a couple of the ones I have listed here, you’ll save money.  And you can put those savings towards your next grand adventure!

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