Top Travel Saving Tips

Hi guys, thanks for stopping by my blog. I mentioned a few weeks ago on my Instagram page (follow me @titispassion if you aren’t.) about my love for travel and how I especially love saving on my vacations. I decided to start a monthly travel post to share my experience, how I save, traveling with kids and much more. Today I am sharing 4 traveling tips. I am currently on vacation in Cancun, Mexico. I’ll will sharing images from my trip on my next post.

I am yet to meet a soul who doesn’t like travel but there always seems to be an excuse, valid in most cases on why that vacation can’t happen. Here is what works for me and I hope you can put them into practice, because it works, lol.

Never waste your miles on local travel

It’s a waste of miles except you have so much miles and it doesn’t apply to you. A lot of airlines now have a non expiring miles policy, so take advantage of it and just save your miles for a trip outside of the country. A local flight can cost up to 40,000 miles, for that exact miles or less you can visit a Caribbean Island.  If you don’t travel often and rack up miles, ask friends and family who do, requests miles as a birthday present option over other gifts.

Saint Joseph Market, Barcelona

Plan, Plan, Plan

Just like you would with everything you do (I do so, LOL) Plan your next vacation. Do you want to visit Istanbul next year? Start making plans! It will save you time, effort and your wallet will thank you. Start putting the money aside, look up the hotel you want to stay, what are the top ten things to do in that city? These and more will make for a fantastic vacation! And the number one reason why you should start planning deals come and go so fast, if you already have funds saved up, you can take advantage of the deals.

Seafood Pasta  at  Terrazza restaurant in Naples, Florida

Take advantage of travel sites

If you have no idea where you want to go, use travel search engines such as Kayak.com, and Fly.com to plan your next getaway. Subscribe to their mailing lists and get alerts on affordable vacation options. I especially love Kayak for this. I pick my dates and different cities I am interested in and it advises me on dates and pricing (to buy or to wait) also it informs me when tickets have gone down. Perfect innit?

Snorkeling in Puerto Vallarta

Target Off-peak seasons

Traveling to tropical areas are expensive in the summer/fall so why not plan a winter vacation to a tropical Island? Its warm there and there are less tourists too! January/February are off-peak seasons to most Caribbean Islands.  By March prices starts to go up again (think tax refunds, lol.) Winter is right after the Christmas holidays, people aren’t traveling as much (they have spend so much over the holidays.) Most places offer amazing deals to lure travelers. Take advantage of this and more. I have a lot of examples, but I’ll share this. I visited Naples, Florida in July and stayed at the Ritz Carlton resort which normally cost upwards of  $1000/night in December (their peak season) for $350 a night which included other major perks on food, parking, activities, etc. Their Golf resort which is next door cost $199/night plus perks for a 5 star-hotel! Just to show you that off-peak doesn’t always mean cold weather. (I’ll dedicate a whole post to this soon.) It’s different for every city, a little bit of research goes a long way.

Trunk Bay, St. John

Travel should be fun and relaxing not stressful or cause for a miserable time. For these reasons, as I have gotten older there are some things I don’t scheme on anymore and on top of that list is my hotel. I love nice things but I almost never pay full price. If you are like me then you will find my travel series very useful. I have a lot of tips and tricks( yes I used that word, lol) I activate when I travel. I will be sharing them here, I planned on a longer post but I am on vacation after all, so I’ll stop here. This last photo taken in St.John back in 2012 was our cheapest vacation. We spend 3 days, 2 night in St. Thomas/ St.John and spent under $600 hotel and flight included. Enjoy the rest of your week!