Reducing Accommodation Costs

1. Save on major items like air fare and hotel. Shop online for the best deals, don’t just go to a travel agent. Before internet I found the best deals while in Europe rather than in advance: many countries have tourist centers right by the main train station. In some countries renting an apartment is cheaper than staying in a hotel, and some apartments are rented specifically for tourists for short-term.

2. Set minimum requirements for hotel. E.g. central location, shower/toilet in the room, etc. At the same time, decide in advance how much money you want to spend on a hotel. Then find out the cost of hotel that satisfy these requirements. If the cost of a hotel is higher – sacrifice some of your requirements.

3. Eat in a restaurant only once a day, make other meals less formal. Breakfast is included in most places in Europe. If breakfast isn’t included – don’t eat in a hotel; chances are you’d find just as a good a breakfast in a cafe next door for a fraction of the cost. At the very least – check it out. Make the third meal light: e.g. a sandwitch in a deli, fruit bought from a street vendor, nuts and dry fruits bought in a supermarket.

4. This will leave you money for your main meal. For the main meal, set up a ballpark figure of how much you are willing to pay for it. It’s OK to spend a little more one day, but then spend a little less the next day. Just don’t go overboard. Keep in mind that the best restaurant in town isn’t necessarily the most expensive one. I found better food in cheaper restaurants and was overcharged in bad ones.

5. Avoid tourist traps for both stores and restaurants. The basic rule though – if a place is filled with locals it is likely to be good. If a place is empty and is located in some popular tourist location it is likely to be overpriced and not-so-good. Ask someone in hotel’s lobby what they suggest.

5. Apply common sense to spending. Do you really need that many postcards, tour books, etc? Will you really use these souvenirs? Some items may be worth it for you – things you really like, can easily afford and cannot get anywhere else. As to general “shopping” for stuff you can find in the US as well – there is no real reason to do it in Europe. The stores there were expensive even when the dollar was high. Even when I was in Europe 10 years ago I rarely bought anything because I thought prices were ridiculous. As my friend told me – and that was 20 years ago – imagine Bloomingdale without sale and you’ll get prices in Europe. Last time I was there I’d look at some blouse and say to myself “oh, it is cute”. Then I look at the price tag and say “but not THAT cute”. Sure, maybe locals know where to shop. But we don’t.

6. Learn how to use public transportation. A lot of time tourists use a taxi to get to a hotel from the airport when a nice and cheap subway ride would get you there as well. In Western Europe public transportation is expensive but still much cheaper than taxis. In Eastern Europe, public transportation is really cheap. I was always amazed when I looked at foreign tourists in St Petersburg, Russia taking taxis when a ride on a bus or Metro (subway) was 20 cents (and the Metro there is really worth the visit, anyway, with its marble columns and mosaics).

7. Money. Taking the maximum allowed amount from ATM saves on fees since local ATM fee is usually fixed, not percentage. Just don’t take more than you need while you are there, you don’t want to have to change it back. You can plan your cash vs credit/debit card purchases so that you don’t have too much foreign currency left.
Be careful of change. A pound or 5 Euro may be a coin, but it is not the same as a quarter. This was one reason I tended to spend more in the UK before Euro – I just didn’t think of coins the same way I thought about paper bills or credit card. It was like minor expenses and “pocket change” vs major expenses (paper bills, credit card). So coins just disappeared… At the same time keep in mind that you can only exchange coins, even large coins, while there, but not anywhere else. So spend it before paper bills.

7. While in Europe, don’t pay directly in dollars, get local currency first or you’ll get the worst possible rate. This applies to travel agencies, hotels, etc. If a local travel agency cites you the price in dollars or puts the price in dollars on your card, ask what the cost in local currency is. Sometimes the latter is considerably cheaper. I took a tour from Madrid to Southern Spain once. The tourists on the bus spoke English, Italian and Spanish, so the guide alternated between these languages. There were a couple of special events – e.g. an extra tour, a concert. As we were approaching Seville the guide described the evening concert and cited the price. When he talked in English, the price was in dollars; when he talked in Spanish and Italian, he cited the price in pecetas (this was before Euro). I speak both Spanish and Italian, so the moment I heard it, I did a quick calculation in my head and realize that there was a 20% difference in price; hid my card and got out my pecetas. I then said very loudly in English “$X isn’t the same as Y pecetas”. An Egyptian couple next to me did the same calculation and also started counting their pecetas. American tourists ignored it, though. I guess they were rich or just wanted to put it on the card… I thought it was pretty stupid – why waste the money?

there are many ways to reduce vacation expenses, but some of them require time. you can reduce airfare expenses by being a courier. you can reduce lodging expenses if you like to vacation where friends are. I’ve used SERVAS (http://joomla.servas.org/), which is a great way to travel. but this is off topic.

i think the most important thing is to realize that it is a vacation, that if you are going to an expensive places like Europe, that with the dollar exchange rate, things are going to be expensive, budget accordingly, but also have some float so you can enjoy rather than spend all your time fixated on money and your budget.

To be honest, if our going to France (hopefully our next overseas trip, but who knows) hinged on sticking to say $75 / day, with limited ability to cope with variations, I wouldn’t bother going. If I wanted to fret about cash, I could stay at home.

“The luxury traveler and his poorer cousin, the common tourist, are constantly encased in gleaming metals and other costly materials; preened mechanically by resentful lackeys; surfeited with overpriced, denutrified victuals; treated to vulgar and expensive entertainments; intentionally or unintentionally lied to; sneered at even by themselves; led like sheep through attractions that bore them? This is not travel; this is butchery of soul. This is how money, an artificial form of energy, distorts reality for its own ends. To travel cheaply, in any form at all, weakens the power of money to trick you into phony realities that profit only the Travel Industry.”
–Ed Buryn, Vagabonding in the USA (1980)

I don’t think “vacation budget” is an oxymoron at all, but something very doable and can add to the pleasure, peace of mind, and even luxury!

We are big believers in frugal travel and find that we can live large on little in Europe. Our total budget for a year is only 25K for a family of 3 and that includes some luxury hotels and meals. I have known families that have spent half of that for two weeks. Why pretend to be a 2 week millionaire when you can live a life of luxury travel on a budget instead?

To add to budget travel ideas, I would propose staying longer as long flights tend to be one of the biggest expenses. Weekly rentals are good, monthly rentals are better.

Off season also helps.

We stayed in luxury villas in gorgeous warm southern Spain the last two winters for under 4o dollars a day for a family of 3!

Frugal family travel and luxury travel do not have to be two separate things in our experience.

I can’t get my husband or son to do a money carrier inside their clothes, but I read a tip in Budget Travel that if you put a rubber band around your wallet, it is pretty pickpocket proof. So they will do that and we have not really been in pickpocket situations, but it makes sense that it will work.

A good ATM option for certain situations is to get one of the cards from AAA. We did this with our son when he went on several foreign educational trips. You get two cards automatically, so you have a spare if one gets lost. And, in the worst case, if your cards are stolen and even used somehow you’d only be out the amount you put on the card or had left at the time the card was stolen. The cards can also be reloaded several times, so he actually used the same set of cards for two summers. And, when he ran low on the funds the first summer due to higher meal costs than we’d anticipated, I just reloaded it from home. There is a small fee for these cards, but it was well worth the piece of mind. You do have to be a AAA member to purchase them. AAA also has different currency that you can purchase before leaving home. This allowed him to have money to purchase food right off the plan instead of having to search for an ATM (and pay a fee). Again, there is a small fee for that service as well.

We also leave emergency info on the kitchen counter for relatives taking care of our pets so they can reach us in case of an emergency, know our flight info, hotels, etc. And, with that we leave the same phone numbers we have with us, in case our list gets lost or we need further assistance from the homefront.

Make sure you take any certification info with you that you might need. Our son, who was a new diver, didn’t take his scuba diving certification card because he didn’t think he’d be diving, but then he got an opportunity to dive the Great Barrier Reef and, luckily, we were able to scan it and email it to the dive shop.

After reading the comments I have a few more things to add:

WRT the VAT refund, it is important to understand in advance how the process works. At many airports, you can only get the refund for items in your carryon baggage (that way you can show the customs agent the item after you clear security). That can be problem if your carryon is full or if your duty free item was, for example, perfume. We travel with two small kids, so we’re already bogged down with carryon baggage and I’m rarely able to get a VAT refund, therefore I don’t calculate the cost of my purchases as if I will.

If you do apply for the VAT refund, ask whether there is an option to credit your credit card in local currency (and then save your receipts and double check once you get home) The credit card refund often gives you the best exchange rate and you aren’t stuck trying to spend foreign currency on things you don’t need at the airport.

It is always a great idea to bring along the phone numbers of your credit cards. One easy way to do this is to photo copy the fronts and backs of your cards (and passport) before you leave home. Put one copy in your carryon bag and leave one with a trusted friend or relative.

We also carry an emergency contact sheet with us when we travel. It includes all the phone numbers and information we might need if something went wrong. Now that I have it, I reuse the same sheet from trip to trip (and it’s also great for the babysitter back home) Here’s a link to a list of the information you would include on an emergency checklist
http://www.deliciousbaby.com/travel/family-travel-tips/travel-documents/emergency-information/

Thanks!
Debbie Dubrow

I took about 10 notes and stuck them in my jeans pocket and kept the rest of my money for the day in a money carrier close to my body. That way, if I ever got mugged, I could fork over something without having to give up my whole wallet (or ALL of my money). Apparently, this is pretty common in some countries.

http://adventures-of-sam.blogspot.com/2008/05/vacation-on-budget-update.html

My vacation came in under budget by about $400. It is a great feeling to return from vacation knowing that no bills will be following me home.

Beware when claiming VAT or other taxes at the airport when departing, they’ll offer to give you your refund and also exchange your money at the same time but you’re better off taking the local currency. We received $80 as a VAT refund but when we agreed to get it back in CDN funds, it was the worst exchange rate by over 15 cents per euro.

Also, in case you’ve got extra money left over from the vacation, the shops in the airport can be really dangerous. I tend to spend every last foreign currency at the duty free shops on useless gifts and alcohol but it could have been a great way to get a head start saving for the next vacation.

Keep doing the financial management things that work for you at home. Keep receipts, use an envelope system, give every dollar (or Euro) a name, etc.

Works out really well as you always know that you can get through every day with at least something.

Hotel and airfare I’ve always seen as separate, so we only did this budgeting in terms of our daily spending (food, entertainment).

… try telling that to my wife who is currently cruising the Aegean Sea with her girlfriends!

There are just some things that you shouldn’t HAVE TO budget … AJC.

Hands down the best way to get money is to get it from an ATM. It beats the pants off any other currency exchange rate. I usually get a large amount at a time to minimize bank fees. Make sure to keep the bulk of your currency hidden in a money belt, or some other location. I usually keep a few Euro in one pocket, and more money in a hanging neck pouch so that noone can pickpocket me for much or rob me for all of my money.

ATMs in Europe don’t have letters for numbers like they do here. If you’re like me and spell out your pin code make sure to remember the numerical equivalent.

Save your receipt for any purchases. In some countries you can get a refund for VAT, and also there have been people who have been charged 10x or 100x the value of an item either mistakenly or intentionally, and your receipt is your only chance of disputing these charges.

Less Than a Shoe String

She travels insanly cheap, for example she did Five days in London, including flights to/from Berlin, cost me under £100 I’m sure most people would spend more than that on the first day alone.

Her speciality is flying around Europe for pocket change. For example in her latest post she payed on 17€. For most of us might spend for a 2 week vaction to Europe she can spend the whole summer there and come home with change. The only thing I don’t like is that she stays for free at peoples homes, something I don’t do anymore.

When we were in Vienna a few years ago, an ATM machine misbehaved and didn’t give us our money. We figured it was just a glitch and did another withdrawl and went on our way.

Several days later when we got somewhere we could check our bank account we saw that we had been charged for both transactions and that $400 had been taken out of our account for both transactions!

This also triggered an overdraft fee…

I had to sort that all out using Skype on a flakey wireless connection. At least I had the bank phone number and could get it sorted out!