One of the best gifts I received upon graduating from college was a membership to AAA. Sure the AAA membership and a new car would have been even more reason to celebrate… But, seriously, I consider the auto club membership one of the smartest travel investments a person can make. And these days who isn’t looking for a way to save money while on the road? From record high gas prices to sky-high airfare—family travel is not exactly cheap.
However, there are a few ways you can make it from point A to point B without breaking the bank. The following memberships, deals and plans have saved our family a small fortune over the years:
AAA Membership. As I mentioned earlier having a triple-A card brings with it a wealth of savings. For $57 (basic membership) you are entitled to discounts on hotels, restaurants, rental cars, theme park tickets, vacation packages, cruises, train travel, shopping and more. Enough that you could easily make back the money you spent on the membership on just one family vacation.
National Park Pass. If your family loves spending time in the great outdoors getting a National Park Pass is a wise investment. Eighty bucks will get you unlimited access to national parks for an entire year. In a previous blog I wrote about the attempts to raise the entrance fees to national parks and the controversy that has followed. Currently, individual parks are charging entrance fees of about $10 to $20 per visit. Do the math… if you spent one summer visiting five parks you would just about break even.
CityPass. If you are a frequent visitor to major U.S. cities the CityPass is your ticket to major savings. The pass allows you to explore hot spots in cities such as Boston, Chicago, New York, San Francisco, Philadelphia, and Atlanta for a flat fee. The card lumps the admission fees of major attractions in each city into one low price, and it lets you jump to the front of every line. For example, we used the CityPass in Chicago ($50 per adult) and got to tour the Shedd Aquarium, Alder Planetarium, the Field Museum, the Museum of Science and Industry and the Hancock Observatory. If I paid admission to each of those five attractions without the pass it would have cost me $95. The CityPass is the way to go if you are looking to save money in a major metropolitan area with cool places to visit.
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