People often ask how to travel internationally without breaking the bank. It’s a complex question because everyone’s situation is different. Some have access to budget-friendly airports, while others prioritize spending in different areas of their lives. While not everyone can afford luxury travel to every corner of the globe, seeing the world is more achievable than many believe.
Overlooking Prague
I’ve previously discussed giving the gift of travel to our children and shared ten tips for saving money while traveling. But how do I manage to significantly reduce travel costs so we can take our kids to multiple countries each year? Here’s my approach to finding Cheap Family Trips.
Smart Airfare Strategies for Affordable Family Vacations
Leverage Frequent Flyer Miles for Free Flights
Even with the slight devaluation of miles over time, they remain an invaluable tool for affordable travel, even making it possible to fly for free. I currently utilize six credit cards that accumulate miles or points with every purchase. Different cards offer bonus miles for various categories like travel, dining, gas, or groceries. I make sure to use the optimal card for each purchase to maximize rewards. If you find a credit card offering a substantial signup bonus, like 75,000 miles, seize the opportunity. Once you have these cards, charge as many expenses as possible to pave the way for affordable family vacations. In my previous job, I strategically charged all reimbursable work expenses to my mileage cards, earning up to 250,000 miles in some years – enough for numerous free trips!
You can find the credit cards with the most lucrative signup bonuses HERE. This list is regularly updated to reflect the best current offers.
The Daily Drop newsletter is an excellent resource for daily updates on miles and points, helping you maximize your earnings and get the most value when redeeming points for travel. Best of all, it’s free to subscribe.
Using a mileage-earning credit card for all purchases is a smart way to make family travel more affordable!
Airline Alliance Loyalty for Enhanced Benefits
By primarily flying with United and its Star Alliance partners, I consistently achieve 1K status annually. This elite status provides benefits such as earning more miles per flight and accessing a wider selection of award flights. I typically redeem miles for free tickets for my family while purchasing my own tickets to maintain my status. Additional perks of 1K status, like expedited check-in and security lines, priority boarding, frequent upgrades, and international lounge access, significantly simplify family travel.
Connecting in Bangkok
Advance Planning for the Best Flight Deals
I plan our travel itineraries up to a year in advance and immediately start searching for the best flight deals to keep affordable family trips within reach. I utilize price alerts on Kayak to receive daily email updates on ticket prices for my desired travel dates. I am constantly on the lookout for affordable family vacations. Sometimes, when I discover an exceptional fare 10 months ahead of time, I book it, even if the routing isn’t perfect. More often than not, the airline will adjust its schedule, allowing me to switch to a more convenient routing at no extra charge.
Explore Diverse Routing and Ticketing Options
If direct flights to a destination like Africa are expensive, I consider flying to a more affordable hub like Dubai or Oman and then booking a separate ticket on another airline from there. While this strategy can occasionally backfire, it generally works well. For a trip to Asia with my son, we visited four countries in 16 days. I strategically planned the destinations and dates around inexpensive flights, examining numerous ticketing options. Ultimately, I booked 10 flights across 5 airlines on 5 different tickets – including an open-jaw ticket on United, a round-trip ticket on ITI Air, and three one-way tickets on Air Asia, Thai Air, and Eva Air. It worked flawlessly, and I’m confident I paid less than anyone else with a similar itinerary. While the flight research took around 10 hours, the savings were well worth the effort.
Another example: last year, I circumnavigated the globe to visit every continent in a single year. I booked Qatar Airways from Los Angeles to Zanzibar, then Zanzibar to Perth. Next, I booked Singapore Airlines from Perth to Sapporo and EVA Air from Sapporo back to Los Angeles.
Exploring the Wisdom Path in Hong Kong during a stopover en route to Palawan, a perfect example of maximizing a trip.
Consider Alternative Departure Airports for Savings
Living in Southern California, we have several airport options within driving distance. I always compare prices from each airport to maximize savings and make travel more affordable. Think about all potential departure points within a reasonable distance from your home to broaden your options for cheap family trips.
Travel During Off-Peak Seasons
Our children’s school break schedule differs from most, allowing us to book flights at significantly lower prices compared to peak travel periods. However, even when we must travel during peak season, I seek out the cheapest travel days to create affordable family vacations, even if it means taking the kids out of school a day early. Departing on the Friday before Christmas or Thanksgiving break, for instance, can be half the price of flying out on Saturday or Sunday. When heading to Morocco before our winter break, we opted to leave on a Friday instead of Saturday due to the lower fares.
We love Hawaii, but we always avoid traveling there during peak tourist seasons to save money.
Combine Multiple Destinations for Extended Value
Since airfare is often the most significant travel expense, we maximize our trips, especially to Europe. We often spend 5-6 weeks there at a time, utilizing budget-friendly intra-Europe flights to explore multiple countries. We rarely travel to a single destination and return home immediately. When I took my daughter to Bali, we added Sydney as a stopover, partly due to routing and also because it’s a vibrant city worth visiting. When my son wanted to go to Easter Island, adding stops in Panama City, Santiago, and Iguazu Falls barely increased the overall cost. His 2015 trip to Denmark included Oslo, Amsterdam, and Zagreb, again, at a relatively low incremental expense.
Plitvice Lakes National Park in Croatia was a summer highlight, easily added to our Denmark trip due to affordable travel options.
Finding the Best Hotel Deals for Budget Family Travel
Utilize TripAdvisor for Hotel Research
When I have a destination in mind but haven’t chosen specific accommodations, I turn to TripAdvisor. I search for hotels in the desired location, input my dates, and it provides pricing for a wide range of hotels. I then filter the results by “Family Friendly” and browse the top-rated hotels at the best prices.
Contact Hotels Directly for Potential Deals
Once I have a shortlist of hotels and preliminary pricing from TripAdvisor, I reach out to the hotels directly. I explain that we are a family of five, specify our optimal room setup and travel dates, and inquire about their pricing options. We’ve had the pleasure of staying at incredible hotels worldwide because their reservation agents were more accommodating than their websites in finding solutions for our family size. The Four Seasons Bora Bora and the Rosewood Mayakoba both made exceptions to their standard policies, allowing all five of us to stay in one room. This halved our accommodation costs, making luxurious hotels in dream destinations comparable in price to much less impressive places that would have required us to book two rooms.
Feeding fish at Rosewood Mayakoba – made much more affordable by accommodating our whole family in one villa.
Seek Out Value Dates for Lower Hotel Rates
Hotel pricing is typically based on anticipated occupancy rates. If staying at the Four Seasons Bora Bora is your dream, determine the absolute cheapest time to visit. If value dates aren’t readily available on the hotel’s website, contact them directly – it’s always worth asking!
At Six Senses Zighy Bay in Oman, summer offers significant savings for cheap family trips.
Consider Apartment Rentals for Cost-Effective Stays
Whenever financially sensible, based on the destination and trip duration, we explore apartment rentals. Vrbo is an excellent resource for this. If you’re planning a family trip to Paris on a tight budget, renting an apartment is a fantastic option. Regardless of the apartment’s location, the Metro provides easy access to the city, and you can enjoy a similar Paris experience to someone paying $2,000 a night at the George V – perhaps even a richer, more local experience.
At our apartment in Paris. Preparing some meals in the apartment provided additional cost savings for our family trip.
Embrace Flexibility for Affordable Family Travel
The world is vast and full of incredible destinations. While I want to show my kids everything, there’s no need to visit places in a specific order. When planning spring break trips, I consider destinations that aren’t heavily trafficked during that week, avoiding competition for flights and hotels. If Santorini is on your list, avoid visiting in the summer; prices are significantly lower in October. If you dream of staying in an overwater bungalow but Bora Bora is too expensive, explore options in the Philippines, Malaysia, Thailand, or Mexico for more affordable family vacations. Both the bungalows and associated costs like airfare and food are typically more budget-friendly in these regions.
Overwater bungalows in Palawan, Philippines offer a more affordable alternative to Bora Bora, with plenty of activities for families.
Prioritize Travel in Your Budget for Cheap Family Trips
This is likely the key differentiator between frequent travelers and those who dream of travel but believe it’s unaffordable. Frequent travelers make travel a primary budget priority. This means consciously choosing to reduce spending in other areas, like extravagant cable packages, frequent car upgrades, daily expensive coffee habits, frequent restaurant meals, or non-essential personal services. They prioritize saving so that when an unexpected cheap flight deal arises, they can seize the opportunity for an incredible adventure – often for less than many people spend on dining out in a month. Social media might portray their lives as dreamlike, constantly posting from exotic locations, but the reality is simply different spending priorities.
In Barbados, horses are taken to the sea every morning. It’s a free and memorable experience, and the nearby Hilton offers rooms at reasonable prices. Flights from the US can also be affordable. Making cheap family trips a reality is about prioritizing your spending.
One strategy for affordable travel, which I discussed in my article on giving the gift of travel, is minimizing gift-giving. Birthdays might involve a single thoughtful present. Our Christmas tree often has plenty of empty space underneath. My wife and I rarely exchange gifts. We’ve never participated in “Doorbuster Black Friday Sales” or bought something simply because it was discounted. If you choose to wait in line at Wal-Mart on Thanksgiving night to save a small percentage on a large television, that’s your choice. However, it might delay realizing your dreams of affordable family travel.
Take your kids everywhere! But always strive to pay no more than necessary. There are countless ways to plan cheap family trips and make those travel dreams a reality.
Naxos, Greece, is a fantastic, family-friendly summer destination, offering more affordable options than Mykonos or Santorini.
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