Budget travel tips

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This week’s topic: Budget travel tips

Because a) I just got back from roughly two weeks off; first on a hiking trip in Switzerland with my sister-in-law, (Bern-Mürren-Leysin-Geneva) then at the NAJIT conference, so I’m feeling a little mentally drained, b) summer vacation season is coming up, and c) as usual I’m a frustrated travel writer, I thought I’d do a post about budget travel tips. I won’t even call this “off-topic” because every translator and interpreter loves to travel! Here we go; my top tips for hitting the road on the cheap!

Determine your tolerance for the miles and points game

I’m putting this first because it’s a big one. I listen to a lot of travel podcasts, and it’s easy to be drawn in by the promise of “never fly economy again,” “fly business class to Europe for free at least once a year.” And people are really doing this! One of my favorite miles and points podcasts is Frequent Miler, and one of the hosts recently discussed how he scored four business-class tickets to Asia on miles and points.

However, there’s a big “however.” If you dig in (and Frequent Miler is totally up-front about this, which I appreciate), you’ll learn that it’s really difficult to accumulate this many points through normal travel and spending. The real gold mine is in credit card sign-up bonuses, which require more management and tracking than I personally want to do. You need to be constantly tracking which cards are offering the juiciest sign-up bonuses, then meeting the minimum spend (the amount you have to charge to the card in the first few months in order to get the bonus), then paying that card off, cancelling it, and signing up for a new one, sometimes holding three or more cards at one time. Even for free tickets, I’m not ready to go there yet, partially because I’m very financially conservative (I have one credit card and pay it off every month), and partially because I don’t want the hassle of transferring all of my auto-pays over to a new credit card several times a year.

Either way, make the most of the credit card(s) that you have

Even if you don’t want to play the credit card signup game, there are other things you should be doing to save money on travel.

• Make sure you’re getting all the benefits from the credit card(s) that you have. For example, I have the Southwest Rapid Rewards Premier card, and it was news to me (after reading Frequent Miler’s complete guide to the Southwest Rapid Rewards program) that the card gives me free Early-Bird check-in on two flights a year. Who knew? Not me! I want to use this the next time I fly, especially because rumors are swirling that Southwest may end open seating soon, which may put an end to the whole Early-Bird check-in situation.
• Check for double/triple/quadruple (or even more!) points increases. My Southwest card gives triple points on all Southwest purchases: a big boost! On a recent Frequent Miler episode, one of the hosts commented that one of his cards has a “rent day” special, where you get double points on all purchases on the first day of the month, even if those purchases are already automatically doubled or tripled. In his case, the card gives triple points on dining, so if you eat out on the first of the month, you actually get 6x points. Make sure that you’re taking advantage of these types of offers!

Other ways to save money on airfare

My other two airplane tickets hacks are pretty simple, but effective. Book early, and try not to travel on peak dates. When my daughter was growing up, we often went to Europe for the month of July, and I would typically book the tickets in December or January. Likewise, when I went to Iceland last summer, we paid around $600 round trip for the tickets (less than I paid for my daughter to fly from New Jersey to Colorado for winter break!!) by booking about six months ahead.

The “avoid peak dates” advice applies in large and small ways. The reality is, if you have kids, you’re locked into their school vacations, so you can’t travel during the shoulder seasons in May and October. This is still true for us now that my daughter is in college, and we take a “splurge” trip over New Year’s (most recently to Belize) every year. But I’ve found that by slightly shifting our dates, for example going from December 30-January 6, slightly later than most people take their holiday vacation, the airfare is less crazy. And traveling during the shoulder season, which I can now do when I travel by myself, is really where it’s at. For my recent trip to Switzerland, I paid $1,200 on United (already a good deal), even though I flew into and out of different cities (into Zurich and out of Geneva). I think this would have easily been over $2,000 in July or August.

Once you’re there, spend strategically

Some places (Switzerland) are generally very expensive, and others (Belize) are generally pretty cheap. My husband and I backpacked in Asia for a year after we got married, and if we spent $20 on a hotel room in Thailand (outside Bangkok), it was a really, really nice place. But the key, especially in an expensive place, is to spend strategically. Is your priority a nice hotel? Great meals? A particular guided activity that you want to do?

Taking my recent Switzerland trip as an example, we stayed in three-star hotels that were about $250 a night including breakfast (fairly “budget” for Switzerland where there really is no inexpensive lodging), and we planned one nice meal in each location. The rest of the time we did picnics from the grocery store, or casual things like crepes. Our primary activity was hiking (free) and we bought snacks at the grocery store.

Don’t ignore low-status status

I often joke about the fact that I have Elite Platinum status at Choice Hotels (the conglomerate chain that runs Econo Lodge, Comfort Inn, and Quality Inn). While some people are getting free nights at floating hotels in the Maldives, I’m treating my husband to a romantic night at Econo Lodge in Grand Junction, CO! But, all joking aside, it’s pretty impressive how quickly you can accumulate enough points for a free night at these types of places. We tend to use these on road trips where we’re literally rolling in at 9 PM and leaving at 8 AM; it saves some money and meets our (admittedly pretty low!) standards.

If the only goal is to save money, stay home!

This is an attitude into which I’ve evolved over the years. When my husband and I traveled for an entire year (2000-2001), we cut the budget to the bone, because we earned nothing and spent a lot during that year. Seven dollars was seven dollars (a pretty decent meal in Southeast Asia!).

But if you’re traveling for a shorter period, there’s a risk that you cut the budget so much that the trip ends up not being fun. If you book a hotel that’s so noisy you can’t sleep, or you don’t pay for a once-in-a-lifetime experience, or you take red-eye flights where you land at 3 AM, the whole trip may be un-fun, and then why not just stay home, which is free.

As I’ve gotten older, I’ve become much more willing to spend money on experiences rather than things. In December 2022, when things were finally (finally!) starting to feel more normal after COVID, we took our first family vacation since 2019. As we sat on the beach together in Sayulita (Nayarit, Mexican Pacific coast) and watched the sun drop into the ocean on the last day of the year, it was one of those priceless moments in life. The trip was expensive by our standards, and I easily would have paid way, way more for the memories we created while we were there, and the feeling that the world was opening up again.

To close,  not a budget tip but just a general travel tip if you live in the U.S. I find TSA PreCheck and Global Entry to be 100% worthwhile, for the fact that the lines are usually shorter, you don’t have to remove your shoes or your electronics, and you can use the automated passport readers when you return to the U.S. Additionally, I just renewed my Global Entry membership and was able to do it entirely online; no interview required and the same low fee ($100 for five years).

If you’re planning a summer vacation, I hope these tips are helpful!