Transportation is a large expense when it comes to vacations. Both the transportation to and from wherever you are going, and the transportation once you are there. This can add up very fast, and to a surprisingly high figure. Plane tickets within the US depending on where you fly out and where you’re going can be more than $1,000 or more each. A taxi ride from the Craig Hospital in Englewood Co. to the Denver Airport is $70, and a shuttle is $45. We never found out if that was per person riding the shuttle there if there was more than one or if it was just $45 for the stop, because we didn’t need to. A car rental there was around $150 for 4 days for a small car, but you can’t do that if you don’t have a credit card, and a lot of people don’t.
So to save on transportation to your destination there are a few things you can do. First, drive yourself. It will take longer, and just the thought of it may make you change your mind about the vacation, but if you plan it right, it can be fun. Plan your trip there as part of your vacation. Look up places that you will go through on the way there, and see what they have to offer to people vacationing there. Stop once a day for a few hours to enjoy what ever you found in your search. First, it give an automatic break from driving for an hour or two. It will also help wear out the kids and they may just take a nap once you get back into the car. It will also make the trip in the car more fun, and will help them to remember the whole vacation, not just hours of boredom in the car. Even with the high gas prices, this is still less expensive than a $500 or more plane ticket.
Look into other forms of transportation. Greyhound and the train are valid options. If you can get a group of people together to split the costs, you could even charter your own bus. Yes, I know spending several hours on the bus does not sound like your idea of a good time, but I know I would deal with it if it meant that it would bring our vacation within our grasp. Pack a bag of toys, books and special treats to bring with you on the bus to make it more enjoyable.
If you really want to take the plane, or have no other option then let it help you decide on a destination. Pretty much anywhere you can travel has an off season. Find out what it is, and look for tickets for that time. If you know when you can travel, but don’t have your heart set on a destination, find out what’s off season during that time, and choose from those. Shop for tickets late at night/early morning. The airline computers that set the rates want people buying tickets all the time. Between approximately midnight and 3 AM ticket sales slow, so the computer drops the prices of tickets to try to get more people to buy them. Look up prices on websites that give multiple prices at once to find the cheapest, but buy from the airline directly. First, it usually runs about $7-10 less to order directly off the airline website, and if you need to make changes, the airline is a lot easier to deal with believe it or not. Not mentioning names here, but my sister bought tickets for her and the rest of her kids to go see my niece in Co., and when she called to see about changing the date to fly back by one day, they wanted to charge her $7,000 to change the date on just 4 tickets. Needless to say, she could have and did by different tickets for less than that.