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For most of us, the opportunity for family travel comes when children are out of school. But we all know everything is higher during that season, doesn’t matter if it’s near or far. The airplane tickets, the gas, accommodations, tickets to attractions, meals, and the list can go on and on. “What should I do?” you asked yourselves. On the other hand, someone you know took off every vacation easily. Seems like they never had a problem. “How did they do it?” you asked yourselves again.

You know what? They were in the same boat with you, but they just have more experiences than you. So, they know what to do for their next family vacations.

Here, 6 family travelers reveal their secrets exclusively for you on how they could afford family travel during high season. Read along, so you will know what to do for your next family vacation.

How to Afford Family Travel During High Season

After working for 20 years in corporate communications for world-leading technology, healthcare and pharmaceutical companies, Paige McEachren decided to stay home to help her two kids navigate life with ADHD and dyslexia, and… making plans for family vacations. Here’s what she said:

Our family loves to travel. We have found ways to save on traveling, which allows us to travel more. First is the planning. We try to travel on the shoulder of high season for example the week before spring break. We also try to travel during mid-week when it is less expensive – Thursday to Monday trips are our favorite for weekends and Wednesday to Saturday for a 10 day. If you are able to book well in advance you can save. Booking your spring break in September can save a family of four thousands. Also, use what you have. If you have frequent flyer points they aren’t always easy to use for flights, but we find them great for hotel, car rental and tickets to attractions. When traveling with kids bring snacks. My kids are always hungry and when doing activities, tours or a day at the beach. We save $50 or more a day by bringing our own snacks, water and lunches. One of the best ways to save with food is to book an AirBnB or house swap. This allows you to prepare your own meals.

(To know more about Paige McEachren and her family’s adventure, follow her blog www.pieceofpie.ca)

Natalie Tanner from The Educational Tourists together with her geologist husband always put the educational information part whenever they travel with their two children. They’ve been traveled since the oldest one was weeks old, and here’s her number 1 tip on how to afford family travel during high season:

We travel a lot and food and drinks for our family of four really adds up! My number 1 tip for saving money when you travel during high season is to eat and drink on the cheap. We do this by hitting the local grocery for sandwich fixings which gives us one inexpensive meal every day and saves lots of money for our family of four. I bring our own reusable water bottles. By adding tap water from the hotel and then packets of drink powder like crystal light or koolaid saves us lots of money on drinks. Peanut butter crackers and raisins pack well in the suitcase as cheap afternoon snacks.

(Follow Natalie and her family educational traveling on www.theeducationaltourist.com and Instagram: The Educational Tourist).

Melissa Delaware from Thrifty Family Travel like to go on family travel adventures around the globe. As the name suggest, this family of three are looking for the best deals and saving money wherever they can without ever compromising their experience. They also love to splurge every now and again. These are her tips:

With a little one in school, we often travel during school holidays where prices are somewhat inflated.  One of my best tips of how to save money traveling during these times is to book flights a day or two before or after the official start of the school holidays.  This goes for coming home as well.

Also, be sure to use websites such as Skyscanner where you can easily compare not only different airlines, but also different departure dates and airports.  You will be surprises what a saving you can make by leaving a day or two earlier or later.

(Follow Melissa and her family adventures around the globe through https://thriftyfamilytravels.com and her Instagram.)

 

For April Berry, exploring this BIG world with her little FAMILY is always and ADVENTURE. Together with her husband and their three children, they like to ride on their mini van to explore their home state Michigan and across the state. Here’s what they like to do during vacation on high season:

Check out the local parks. When researching vacation destinations, we ALWAYS check out what parks are in the area. Parks – whether National Parks, State Parks or local parks – are a wonderful (and affordable) way to experience and learn about a locale. Many parks feature visitor centers, interesting exhibits and monuments dedicated to local history. Some parks offer nature trails that allow you to truly experience the local terrain and see the area’s natural beauty. And, other parks have amazing playgrounds that your children will rave about for weeks/months/years afterwards. See our blog post for more money saving travel tips.

(Follow April and her minivan on www.minivanadventures.com and Instagram.)

Due to her husband working for an airline, Jamie Harper and her family don’t have the expense of airfare, but still, travel can be costly for her family of 6. Here’s how they do it on a budget:

Hotels: We accumulate points on various credit cards to stay at the Hilton, Marriott, Wyndham or Hyatt for free.  We especially love filling up on free breakfast at hotels.  My kids would prefer free breakfast to nice resorts!

Rental Car: Signing up for a rental company’s clubs will ensure that you get free upgrades and get through the line faster.  Reserving early usually gets you a better rate.  We need a minivan to travel with our family but will sometimes reserve 2 smaller cars from different companies.  When we show up to the first one with all our kids they might upgrade us for no extra cost! 

Food: Bring snacks and food with you.  We typically eat out one meal a day and just have breakfast at the hotel, snacks along the way, a late lunch/early dinner and bedtime snacks.

Activities: We always try to do free activities first. Parks, beaches, hikes, and picnics are our favorites.  We might pick one attraction to pay for, but mostly we want to just see and experience the area for free.  

Souvenirs: We travel enough that we don’t spend money on souvenirs.  If it is a bigger trip, our kids get $10 each to pick something out.  They have to budget.  On smaller trips, we only buy a magnet and a postcard for the kids.  

We also rent our home on Airbnb while we travel.  We are earning money while we vacation.  

(Jamie is a blogger from Fly by The Seat of Our Pants. Click here and learn how they spent only $500 in Hong Kong for 5 days for 5 of them, including lodging, airfare, food and all incidentals. You can also follow her last-minute family adventures in Instagram.)

My friend Flora Andriany (Oya) and her family are world travelers. They travel extensively since the children were babies until both are in college and a senior in high school now. Here are what they did to make traveling during high season affordable for their family of 4.

Once the kids started school, the only time we can travel as a family is during school holiday where tickets and accommodations prices are at its peak. We tried to book the airplane tickets, accommodations, and car rental as early as we can. But sometimes you can get a good deal on last-minute booking. Browse frequently or find alternatives. For example, when we wanted to go on a RV for our vacation. We found out the company would give a cheaper rate from one location to another (one-way), rather than paid somebody to drive the RV back to its original location.  For our Spring Break trip to Grand Canyon and Utah, we found out it’s cheaper to rent from Phoenix, AZ than Las Vegas, Nevada. For airplane, when we lived in Dubai, we always flew with Emirates. Not just because Dubai is the hub for Emirates, but because Emirates fly to almost every city in the world. With the mileage we collected, we got to fly free or paid super cheap several times. I would say for airplane tickets you must browse a lot. I like to check on Kayak then go to the airplane’s website for comparison. For traveling with train, like traveling around Europe, we chose night train, so we saved on accommodations. Then found hotel near the station, that way we saved on transportation.

(Oya is not a travel blogger, but you can follow her on Instagram and get inspired by her amazing travel pictures from around the world.)

How about you? What did your family do to afford family travel during high season? Let me know your tips and tricks by commenting below.