A Cornucopia of Budget Travel Tips #395

can't not help but think of the Hunger Games. Yeah, of course I picture it just like they talked about in the book, right, like this giant metallic architectural wonder full of weapons, which actually makes me wonder, what if you were in the Hunger Games? What item do you think you would have gravitated to? My gosh, I would have ben for like the bow and arrow Like I would have been out in no time, So I feel like I would have had to choose something like an

axe or a sword. But even still, I wouldn't have lasted very long with it. You wouldn't have um which one of which one of the guys like took the classes on how to like disguise himself and make him blend into the mud, Like I feel like you would have done good just to be like, Okay, I'm out of here, guys. Let all of you kill each other and then I'll be the last man standing. I'm not

gonna hiding either, so we're doing a disaster. I'm not like the biggest dude, you know, like if I had to go hand to hand combat with somebody, so I would probably have like set like traps and I would have been all about the snares. So you do that, you're little sneaky. Yeah, yeah, well yeah, today it's it's not a corny copia of weapons, it's a corn copia budget travel tips. That's we're gonna talk about today about travel. Man.

There's just so many things, Matt, especially as people are beginning to travel again in big numbers, and hopefully the delta variant doesn't have just like this huge negative impact on people starting to travel again, but as people are looking to that, they're starting to book those trips again. Like, we want to give you a ton of ideas for how to save money on that trip that you're looking

to take, So stay tuned. There are going to be a lot of tips, that's right, and kind of on that note to the beer that we're enjoying this episode is called v K day Dreams, and on the can it says calendar and it's in the trash physically, good riddance. This was a beer that they were essentially acknowledging the fact that we all had plans that we had to put on hold. Those vacation plans just became day dreams.

But like you said, hopefully these are plans that we are going to be able to get back to, and so I'm excited about enjoying this beer on the episode. But at first you wanted to talk about like a little shopping tip, right, I just wanted to mention just one thing I stumbled upon recently. As you know, before a recent summer trip, I was looking to buy some sunscreen and decided to get this sunscreen from Target, you know, super wonderful little store named Target that everyone everyone has

near where they live. And I didn't realize this, but I was looking online and attempting to pick up in store because we just didn't have enough time before the trip to get a shipped. And I found out by happenstance that that was actually the cheapest way to get this products. Because having it shipped, you know, even with zero dollars and shipping costs would have actually cost been would have actually been more expensive. And also going into the store just to grab this product off the shelf

would have been more expensive. For some reason, on certain products, Target incentivizes you to add it to your cart online and then to choose in store pickup and they give you an additional discount. So on these products it was

an additional fiftent savings. Uh. For some random reason, I think they're just really trying to promote that service and saying I just wanted to mention that two people that check the price online before you walk into the store, because sometimes it's going to be priced lower online to your due diligence when you're shopping. And and you know, my sunscreen needs were substantial, Matt, so it was a big savings. Yeah, that's right. At the time, you were

getting sunscreen for two full weeks at the beach. Right, So you did a family trip and then we did a family trip together, or we did a combined family trip essentially, And that was my my first time ever doing literally two weeks back to back. And I gotta say I recommend it to everyone. But the most I've ever done is like eight or nine days. And to do a full like fourteen days where I was gone and wasn't working, which is really nice because sometimes it

takes a few days just to feel like you've got away. Um, you still kind of feel connected or those the things that you have on your to do lists are still humming in the back of your mind. And so to be gone for two weeks was just was wonderful. Yeah, we're almost kind of getting in lunching in the upiside a little bit too taking as much vacation as you

possibly can. But but yeah, that's a great chip. Look online to make that purchase, but then opt to pick it up in person and there might be some discounts that you snag along the way. You don't want to do the opposite where you go in in person and then order and then wait for it to get shipped. Tone that's the opposite of what you want, right, that's just inefficient, Yeah, exactly, But ye, hopefully that tip helps you out in your future shopping endeavors. But Matt, let's

get onto the topic of hand. Let's talk about these budget travel tips, and and anybody who's listening to How the Money for a while knows that disc golf is one of my favorite pastimes. It has been for a while, and it's apparently gaining in popularity. I just saw that, Uh, some disc golfer signed some sort of ten million dollar deal. Uh.

Some of these disc golf tournaments are being broadcast on ESPN. Now, I was like, all right, it's good to see one of my favorite sports kind of start to get into the limelight. Yes, Ben thirty five the Ocho. Yeah, And I think one of the coolest things about disc golf is how accessible the sport is. Right, Like, anybody can play disc golf, and you know, you buy one or two discs at a place like Play Again Sports, you're gonna spend fifteen dollars, and you know that's gonna afford

you years of fun. It's one of the cheapest sports around. The fact that it costs little to no money is is really just the cherry on top. I would say, of the many wonderful days I've had outdoors, whether it's by myself or with my friends, you and I going to hang out and you know, play some discolf together,

that's right. And when something that you would do anyway, Like I would play disc golf no matter what because I love it, but when it's substantially discounted, like you don't pay money at almost any disc golf course to play the public parks, there are something that are really nice, yeah, that you would pay for that's like a private club. I've never been to one of those, but I want to see one kind of is going to a different direction than what we like about. Yeah yeah, but like

even if I did, I don't know. Like that that free the ability to play for freeze like this, like cherry on top of the Sunday right, like um, and I think that is the same thing when it comes to travel. Right today, we're gonna talk in depth about

something that lots of our listeners like to do. They like to travel, and then how to partake in that activity while consistently spending less on it, because that is going to be the silver lining really, when it comes to doing something you love but doing it for less money, there's nothing wrong with that. It's just all good. Yeah, well you call the silver lining, but in some instances

maybe it's like the whole point. Right at least here on the show we talk about money first and foremost, and finding ways to spend as little money as possible and all things. But in this case, travel, that's what we're talking about. And you know, like you said, travel is basically back. It might look a little bit different than you know, kind of how it used to look before covid um. And along with travel comes spending money.

It can cost a lot of money. That's probably you know, the first thing that you think of when you, yes, you see pictures or videos of a friend of yours, like traveling abroad or even like a fun city here in the States, you might be thinking, oh, ouch, like that probably costs a lot of money. Honestly, that's kind of like the first thing I think of. That's kind of the first place my mind goes to. But we're trying to point out that it doesn't have to cost a lot of money. There are a lot of ways

to do it on the cheaps. You're like addering up their itinerary in your mind and like, oh gosh, that's that's that's a lot of money. But then again, it doesn't have to cost you a fortune. When we want all of our listeners out there to experience just all the joy of travel while listening the financial pain of it.

The amount of money that Americans have spent on travel over the years, it has steadily increased to the point that before the pandemic, this is back in nineteen we collectively spent nine and seventy two billion dollars on domestic travel alone, so without even leaving the States. And so in this episode, we're gonna cover just a litany a cornucopia of tips and tricks that will allow you to

save on your next trip. Will attempt to cover every aspect, giving you the just the different knowledge and the different resources that we've come across that you can keep coming back to in order to save every single time that you book a trip in the future. All Right, so let's get straight onto it, man, Let's get and do it. The tips will start digging in, and yeah, there are a lot here, um, but the first one we want to say is to go when others aren't going to

zig when everybody else is at right. And this is like a good kind of thing to remember when it comes to a lot of things in life. When you're doing what everyone else is doing, often you're paying more. Often it's going to be crowded or maybe less enjoyable. But when you're kind of going the opposite route of what everyone else is doing, it's gonna save you money, it's gonna be less frustrating. Um and this, of course can be harder to do for folks with kids. Right.

Possibly the only perk of virtual school last year was the fact that your travel schedule was freed up in a big way. You could, you know, do that schooling from anywhere, and you could travel wherever or however you wanted. And so people took off in droves, you know, around the country. Lots of people hit the road who otherwise wouldn't have been able to and Matt lot of those folks decided that the RV life was the best way

for them to do that. It seemed like the best way to do virtual school, and um, yeah, that's gonna be a lot harder for families in one as kind of some schools. Most schools get back to a little

bit more normal hours. So yeah, maximizing those non summer school breaks is one of the essentials to saving money on a trip if you have kids, And for people who don't have kids, you'll find that you're able to score some of the best deals far more easily actually by taking the advantage of some of these times when families can't go, by taking advantage of non summer travel, right. Basically, when you have that flexibility, that's going to lead to

you saving money. Yeah. And in another perk is that when you go when others aren't going, there's fewer people. The crowds are just less. As example, when I went to Ireland going at an off period time, you know, some of those main attractions, some of those main beautiful places that people want to visit, they're not overrun with people. So I would say shoulder season for the win here when you're considering when to travel, shoulder season rocks and uh,

you know, it saves you money. To Matt, we've been to Ireland before together. B and B rates are much cheaper in the fall than they are in the summer travel season. So there's fewer people and you're paying less money. It's kind of a win win. Yeah, and the pubs are a little less crowded as well. And so you know this is true here in the States if you're

exploring our beautiful country. But yeah, like you said, it's also true when you're looking abroad to other countries as well, visiting your favorite European destination in the summer is gonna mean higher airfare, higher costs just all around, right, lodging and car rental costs as well. And then you know, again like you mentioned the crowds, so make sure that you are getting the seasonality right when it comes to

that booking. Uh. This is sort of a big picture item that's gonna lead to you saving hundreds of dollars. And so for instance, let's get specific here, April and October are typically the best months for European vacation. Uh, if that's where you're headed, Joel, you mentioned the r vs and how a lot of folks you know rented RVs or even maybe purchased r vs because they knew

that they weren't gonna be able to travel abroad. I got a feeling in the coming years we might be able to actually snag in our v uh for cheap.

I mean, I'm not looking to buy one, but like the different sites where you can rent r vs from other individuals, the different companies that exist, they're gonna have a lot of RVs on hand, and I got a feeling that they're going to come down and cost in the coming year, So like that's already something I'm already looking ahead to because I'm thinking, all right, there was a massive increase in the number of folks who were interested in that, but that interest is gonna wane. I'm

gonna be there to catch that ball. I think there are a lot of people who are going to be in that position if they're looking for it, right, And so I think that you know, going when others aren't going. Well, that's true on just this this macro level, but it's also it can be true on a micro level. There are you know, smaller ways that we can zig when others are zagging. There are ways that we can influence the price all on our lonesome, no matter when we're going.

And so like, for instance, when you book your flight matters a whole lot, right, So we would suggest to be sure that you're booking at the right time in order to save the most money. And I don't necessarily mean not buying your ticket on a Tuesday versus a Friday. There have been studies done in the past, and I think they did show maybe that Tuesday was it used to be a thing like now it's like in reality, the savings it's I mean, it's school one percent. It

doesn't really work the way it used to work. Um, and I think that's partially because airline pricing changes happen so much more frequently. But yeah, studies have shown that you'll get the best deals on international flights when you book at least six months out, so you know, when you're planning an international trip, basically it pays to be a planner. However, when you book domestic travel, you're likely going to see the best deals two to three months

in advance of your trip. So yeah, if you try to book that domestic trip eight or nine months in advance, you're actually gonna pay more. You're actually gonna be penalized for planning ahead. Fares are likely to be higher than they would be if you waited a bit longer, or if you're booking last minute, like that's going to cost you a whole lot extra two that's right, Yeah, And so make sure to set air fair alerts right so then you'll be notified when the prices of the particular

flight that you're looking for experiences a price drop. Because you know, although these kind of overall tips are going to be helpful when it comes to you budgeting travel. Air Fares do fluctuate quite a bit, and it's important to know that Google Flights specifically is probably the best

airfare search tool on the market. Uh. They just do such a great job helping you to see whether the price that you're looking at is solid, whether or not you should book, or you know, whether they might actually come down in the coming weeks. They've got this price graph and they've got this date grid. They are incredibly helpful and they make it just crystal clear that by changing one of your travel dates that you might be

able to to save a big chunk of money. When you know, they put the prices on every single one of those days just to let you know what every single day is going to cost. I love that. It's like Google somehow has a lot of information or something in this disposal to create these authorithms. I wonder how they have all that infot I don't know, that's a question. Uh. Yeah, So again, travel date flexibility is crucial to saving. Also to sign up for the different flight tracker emails uh

specific to Google Flights. UH. And so you know, as you start to look at the different prices as they show up in your inbox. It can help you to learn what is a good deal and what isn't a good deal. So if you know that there's a trip that you're interested in, start looking ahead of time. That way you feel really good about pouncing on a deal. So, for instance, Joel to this a few weeks ago for

flights from Atlanta to Denver. Kate and I were kind of talking about, like what if we went away for the weekend did some hiking, And so now I know that if I see a flight that's like forty one bucks, that's a really good deal because it sounds like a good seeing deals that low before uh. And then again if I see a price maybe on a weekend that we're interested in that's sitting around to fifty three hund oh,

I know that is not a good deal. So obviously you've got the price grid and you have all the information there at your disposal. But it's also helpful for you as an individual just to be confident not just looking at the tools, but just but also knowing what is and what isn't a good deal. And I want to say if you're a planner, oftentimes you planners like they they want to book, they want to have that air fair like in their hands, and they want to

make sure that that's over and done with. UM. But ultimately those people do end up paying more, is what we said. But one way if you're a planner that you can actually take advantage of your tendency to think ahead is to set up those air fair alerts. And it feels like you've done something to gain some control of the situation without actually spending too much money. So I agree that those fair alerts are really important, especially for people whom I have a tendency to book too early.

Uh And skip lagged dot com is another site we're checking out. By the way, we're going to mention a lot of sites on this episode, so we'll link to all of them in our show notes. Um, it'll be a more lengthy show notes for this episode. But the airlines actually aren't too fond of this site, and they're actually recently sued by Southwest Mats for displaying some of the airline's cheap fairs that you know, Southwest only wants to exist on Southwest dot com. But yeah, well we'll

see what happens in that one. Skip lagged has actually won previous lawsuits by airlines trying to prevent them from sharing cheap deals that the airlines don't want you to see, because what they're doing is they're exposing something called hidden city fairs. And so what this means is that you might be able to book a trip to New York City with a stop in Ohio, but actually where you want to go is not New York City. You want

to go to Ohio. So let's say you start in Atlanta and uh that that your trip to New York City is routed through Columbus, and instead of taking the whole itinerary, you hop off the plane in Columbus, you leave the airport, and boom, you're where you want to be. But if you would booked directly to Columbus instead of booking to New York City, you would have paid more because of how airlines priced their tickets. So this is

what skip lagged is taking advantage of. So yeah, it's definitely worth checking out a site like skip lagged in order to potentially get an even better deal on a ticket. But really, when it comes down to it, airline tickets are only one piece of the puzzle when it comes to saving money on travel. So yeah, we've got a lot more budget travel tips to get to and we'll hit those up right after this break. All right, we'll back.

We are still talking about travel tips, like ways to make the trip you want to take less expensive and not. We've covered I feel like a lot of tips about saving on air travel, which is certainly a big part of the puzzle for a lot of trips that people want to take um but there are other things that people need to consider as well, And I just wanted to say, you know, kind of from an overall standpoint, one of the other tips that we have is to

not make the destination the primary consideration. And that might sound weird because they're like, uh, dude, I want to go to this one place and you just told me, Well, that's what travel is all about, exactly. You pick some place that you want to go, and you go get to know that place, you enjoy, you experienced the culture. But there are ways to do that without having to

pay out the nose. Yeah, and you're like, I want to go visit Turkey and I just told you to go to Iceland because it's cheaper, and you're like, that's not cool, man, those are two totally different places. Well, I just wanted to share this example to like my wife and I we always wanted to visit Norway, um, partly because of my Norwegian ancestry, but yeah, the Motherland.

Exactly a number of years ago, like we we basically were like, no, it's not gonna happen, and we didn't plan a trip there because it was just so expensive to get to Norway. But then ticket prices dropped to roughly five bucks round trip and we decided to pounce.

And that was essentially thanks to these new airlines. Who are you know doing discount flying out of Norway And so yeah, if we had just basically forced that way trip before those fair drops happened, like we would have ended up paying at least a thousand dollars more for that trip. Um. So yeah, I suggest that one of the ways, like put a list at least together of five to ten places that you want to go and

then wait for the deal to pop up. Instead of just having your heart set on this one place in the world that you have to be and trying to forcibly make that trip happen, you know, let the deal inform the destination that you're going to travel to. Absolutely, yeah, it definitely pays to have an open mind when it comes to your travels. Where it is that when a vacation to uh, make sure to check out Kayak dot com.

Everybody's heard of Kayak obviously, but go to Kayak dot com forward slash explore because this is a great tool for seeing the best prices for destinations worldwide at a glance. It can just, you know, really open your eyes to see just some really awesome places that you you may not have otherwise considered visiting. But then you think about it for a second, you're like, wait a minute, that

sounds like a pretty awesome spot to check out. And like you said, Joe, if you kind of have a list, like a short list of I don't know, maybe like a dozen you know, different places or even half that, like just say six if six seven different places that you want to check out, that I think can definitely help you to spend a whole lot less and just going to where the deals are, not necessarily going to where it is that you want to go this year. So yeah, pull that side up, start dreaming based on

the lowest cost places to fly. It's a great interface really just to kind of dig around and you're like what second, I didn't realize with there's something in Europe that's three? Why is that? What is that place? And then like oh that can I get around from there to other places I want to visit even to that it's just like a great resource to see the globe at a glance, pricing at a glance. Yeah, And so basically you're kind of flipping travel on its head a

little bit. But obviously this may not work if you have to be somewhere specific right to So you have to like go somewhere for a wedding, not only do you have a specific destination, but you also have a specific date, like you have a specific time frame, which is the worst. When you have a preset location and time that you have to be there, there's not a whole lot of flexibility. You're basically just beholden to whatever

it is that the airlines decided to choose. And so essentially we want to free you up, um that want you to be open to all the different destinations as well as different dates as well. That's why we say, say note to international weddings, say sorry, mom, I can't go to your wedding ceremony because like you're getting married overseas and like, yeah, scot too much, too much money, I love you, but not coming And I'm just I'm

just kidding. Sometimes that happens. Might be you might be considered cheap, yeah, but do your best to stay flexible. And yeah, there are a couple of other you know sites actually that are that are worth bookmarking, Scott's Cheap Flights and Airfare Watchdog. Um, Like, if you're a travel nuts signing up for you know, the newsletter from Scott's Cheap Flights, we would say as a must. Scott's been

on the show before. We love his philosophy and and just his service in helping people see you know where the cheap flights are and you know that forty nine dollars paying Scotch Cheap Flights can save you hundreds or potentially even thousands of dollars on your next trip. Um, those newsletters can be a great tool to push you towards a destination that you might not have considered based on an incredibly low fair to Matt, because like Scott

does a great job highlighting some of these destinations. I remember last time he came on with us for some reason airfare to Japan, which just incredibly low. There were like four tickets from a bunch of cities around the United States, And in his newsletter, not only did he make mention of, you know, how inexpensive the flights were, but he also kind of gave you some background information on a couple of the cooler cities in Japan that

he's visited. And if I was in a different life space without multiple children, I would have I would have pounced on that man. That sounds so exciting. So yeah, I feel like those resources can be helpful, especially if you are like a big time travel nut. Totally. Yeah. And you know, here's the thing too, wherever you end up, make sure that you always stay the weekend. This is another little practical tip, and so if you include a Saturday night stay where you're going, you're almost always going

to save more money. Especially when you're traveling to Europe. You'll save a heck of a lot more if you travel Monday through Sunday instead of Monday through Friday. And that's because you know, if you don't stay for the weekend, the airlines assume that you are a business traveler, and business travelers always pay more because there's a corporation typically behind them that's willing just to pay out that money because it's not about getting the best deal and travel.

It's about closing the closing the deal on the you know, giant project or whatever business that they're working on. Uh. And plus you know who wants to just you know, go travel abroad for a few days anyway, Uh, enjoy your time. Hopefully you have some of that flexibility not only with your travel dates, but with your work as well. And you know, actually there is one location where the

the opposite is actually true. If you go to the Caribbean, it actually costs more if you stay through Saturday, if you stay for for the full week, because typically when someone goes to the Caribbean, there's not a whole lot of business going on. Now. People are going there to vacate for a week pleasure exactly. And so again it's about being flexible and basically doing the opposite of what most folks are doing in order to save the most money.

All right. Yeah, and so there are just so many things we have to talk about when it comes to airfare and Uh. One of the other things, Matt, we have to mention is to fly from or to somewhere else We've already talked about being flexible with your destination. But let's say you kind of know where you want to go, or you kind of honed in on some things. Well, there is no rule, and I feel like we have to tell people this because there are very few people

who actually search different parameters. There's no rule. It says that you have to fly from the airport that's closest to your house, but sometimes we treat it like there is one non negotiable exactly, or in the case of like skip Blagg, which I mentioned earlier, think that you actually have to make you know your make it to your destination either, right, Like, that's not a rule either. Um, you can book to another destination and hop off early.

But yeah, depending on where you'd like to fly, you might want to drive even further to an airport in order to get the best deal. For example, some of the best to flight deals to Europe come out of like Chicago or New York. And so if you live in the Midwest and you've got family in Chicago, will combine that trip with the chance to see those folks

spend a couple of days there. Uh, it could drastically reduce the overall expense of your trip, and you know, stubbornly attempting to book that European vacation from Birmingham, Alabama or Memphis, Tennessee could end up costing you a whole lot more and just being a little more flexible. For instance, Matt, like for us to get the Chicago it's in incredibly cheap, so you know, booking that international trip from there and then booking a separate trip to Chicago can make a

whole lot of sense. Yeah, and let's say you really want to visit a super cool spot like Croatia and Eastern Europe. Well you might find that the ticket prices to Croatia never or like at least rarely go on sale, and so instead consider booking round trip tickets to another European destination that frequently has cheap tickets, like maybe London

or Paris. It all depends on the tickets from your local airport or whatever airport that you're you're willing to drive to or to fly to to get the best deal. But there's a good chance that it's gonna be a heck of a lot cheaper to book travel on one of the euro discount airlines to your Eastern European destination from a bigger Western European city, Rome to Rio, like the number two. That's a great site that can help

you defind cheaper ways to get around Europe as well. Yeah, Matt, even just for like a non European trip as well. For a lot of folks who want to go to a cool place like Hawaii and you live on the East Coast, oftentimes the best way to get to why by paying the least amount of money is to book a trip first to an airport on the West coast, whether it's like l A or San Francisco or you know, Seattle, Maybe hang out for a day or two and one of those cool, you know cities on the West Coast,

and then hop over to Hawaii from there. There's just so many more deals to Hawaii from the West Coast, and ultimately you're just gonna pay a whole lot less money by kind of splitting up your itinerary in that way. Yeah. And so while we're talking about destinations, consider the different costs that you're gonna occur wherever it is that you're planning to vacation to, right and so it's gonna be more expensive to get to Thailand than it is to say,

get to San Francisco for most places. But San Francisco is an expensive city to hang out in. Uh and so if you're staying for a couple of weeks, the overall cost of your trip is actually gonna likely be smaller if you ought for Thailand instead of San Francisco, even though the price of the plane ticket is going

to be like three times as much. So just know how expensive the city that you're planning to visit actually is before you book, and think about the total over all cost of your trip, not just the cost of your flight. The cost of the flight is definitely important because that's oftentimes the most expensive aspect of your vacation, but it also depends on how long you're willing to

stay there and the costs associated with that destination. Yeah, totally, And Matt, like you said, there are so many ways that we can save on the cost of our trip. Well, if you're looking for great ways, great ideas to stretch your dollar at the destination that you're going to, trip advisor is a website that you really really need to check out. Right to me, like what yelped did for finding a good restaurant trip Advisor did for helping you, like find the diamond in the rough boutique hotel you

know that wasn't crazy expensive. Um. There's just like so much information mostly coming from travelers helping other travelers. They're finding the cool stuff to visit, finding the cheap places to stay that are really nice. Um. Finding the cool things to hit up and see in a particular location that don't cost a whole lot of money. So yeah, trip Advisor is definitely a site that you're gonna want to, you know, spend quite a bit of time on, usually

for a lot of destinations that you don't know much about. Yeah, And speaking of the overall cost of your trip adding up, be aware of fees. The lowest price plane ticket might not mean the lowest overall price, and that's because of the different airlines. They all have different fee structures, So be aware of the fees, the different baggage charges that different airlines charge. So Jill, earlier, I mentioned that forty one flight from Atlanta to Denver, Well, that's flight is

with Spirit Airlines. I figured that might be the case, and they are charging an extra eighty seven bucks for you to bring a carry on item you're allowed the cost of the ticket. Yeah, and that crazy Yeah, they got you with the fees. And so it's just important to be aware of that because I mean, in my case, if I can travel with a small backpack, uh, and that's good for the weekend, well, you know what, Like, make sure that you're aware of all the other fees,

not just the baggage fees. For instance, make sure that you print your ticket out at home, right right. Don't spend the two bucks to get it printed out at a kiosk or god forbid, have the attendant printed off, because that will be an extra tin dollars. And so you want to make sure that you're aware of all these different fees. If Southwest, if they fly out of your home airport, make sure to check their flight schedule on southwest dot com Google flights. They don't list Southwest

fairs uh. And if Southwest is the same price, you likely want to fly with them. Because of their commitment to tamping down fees. There are no check baggage fees on the first two bags that you can that you bring on board. And said that, could you know that could be a huge savings in and of itself. Uh. And plus it's actually kind of perfect if you want to bring some tasty craft beers back from your trip, depending on where you're traveling to. Also, Southwest doesn't play

the change fee game as well. If you need to change your dates after booking, you'll only pay for the additional fair costs if there are any. If you need to change your dates with Delta, well it's typically two bucks. Although change fees are actually being waved right now on the cheapest basic economy fairs through the rest of the year as they are just struggling with customer service whole times.

A lot of folks are having their flights bumps, a lot of folks are on the phone waiting for that customer service, and so some of these change fees are being waved with the different carriers, and make sure to look into that if you're looking to book anytime soon. Yeah,

fees are an important part of the equation. And one of the other things that we haven't really talked about yet is rental cars, and that's that's an important part of a trip equation for a whole lot of people, and it's one of the most frustrating parts of booking a trip right now for for most folks too, right, And and that's partly because it's like rental car prices of Skyrocket, Actually getting a rental car has become really difficult in a lot of places dollar a week cam

Re Rental and Jackson Hole or whatever we're looking at. Yeah, and when we mentioned one, I don't know a couple of months ago in Hawaii that you know was similarly priced. So yeah, the rental car prices have gone up so much that it behooves you to pay even more close attention to that. Whereas before you could save you know, bucks, now you can potentially save hundreds and hundreds of dollars by booking rental car well, and we actually talked about

that with Clark Howard recently. Where you know, where you fly should be partially termine right now by rental car costs on the ground, especially right now, and always booking a refundable car immediately upon booking your flight with one of the major car rental companies is something that we encourage you to do. Basically, it's like having the burden the hand, right, so you have this, you at least have our rental car booked, even if it costs way

too much money. But after that, you should be shopping rates as you get closer to your trip. You know, one excellent way to have someone else do that for you is by using a site called auto slash dot com. We'll link to that in the show notes too, but basically auto slash shops those car rental rates for you, uh, you know, behind the scenes, so you're not even having

to put in the effort. It's one of the best sites really when it comes to getting a good deal on a car that you need while you're sipping around on vacation. Yeah, and also consider a company like Turo. Right now to you are, Oh, you could save more by renting a car from an individual kind of like Airbnb style instead of renting from one of the major

car rental companies. Hopefully the car rental industry gets back into a state of normalcy soon where the prices are are more predictable, but for the time being, this needs to be a major consideration when making your travel plans. And also, do you know, kind of consider skipping a car rental altogether. There are a lot of alternatives now that are available to us, like lift using Uber, even just the different micro transportation options available right like EA scooters,

bike share programs, not to mention just walking. Make sure you pack a good pair of walking shoes. And it's just it always amazes me at how far I can get somewhere if I decided to walk there the same distance that I normally run multiple times a week. I'm like, okay, Like normally I'll go for like a three mile run, Like, how far could I get within the city Where I just to walk three miles? Chainces are You're a lot closer to a lot of the destinations that you might

want to check out than you realize. It's just we have this disconnect between exercising for fitness and then actually walking places we feel that we have to. Oh, like, well, how are we going to get there? It's impossible. It's like no, there's sidewalks there, There are ways to get to the places that we want to get to, plus the added serendipity that comes with that kind of travel, right man, Yeah, I think walking around a city that you're visiting is the best way to get to know

that city. Like, I much prefer it, even though you know we'll walk miles and miles and miles in a day when we're visiting someplace but that's how we find some of these cool hidden spots. That's how you get to know the city in a way that you don't otherwise when you're like confined to a taxi cab or yeah, because really, oh I have to get to this place.

Oh we have dinner reservations. But what if you walk to that place and then you might pass this amazing smelling taco truck and you're like, you know what, let's cancel those plans. There's a there's great music over there, and there's a bunch of folks over there like lined up for the you know, for those tacos. That sounds like what I want to do instead, And so yeah, it's just a fun way to approach travel, sort of like again with the destinations, it's all about being open,

it's all about being flexible. Uh. Not only could it lead to a lot more fun, but you can also save a ton of money as well. And so we've got even more things for you to consider when you're trying to book a great trip on the cheap, including vacation packages. And we'll get to more right after this break. All right, we're back. We're talking about how to save money on travel and Matt, we're gonna get to booking

a cruise. Do you need a travel agent. We're gonna talk about vacation packages, all that kind of stuff in just a second, but let's talk about lodging for a second as well. Um, you know, simpler to booking a rental car booking, we talked about booking a refundable rental car and then shopping around with the service like auto Slash or even just yourself, like doing the searches to see whether prices have dropped or not. Well, booking a refundable room can be the best first step when you're

booking a hotel as well. Right, Hotel Tonight is one of the best sites for last minute lodging deals, but price line and hotwire are actually my two favorites to the best to overall sites in my opinion. For booking a hotel room, you can save even more by getting like really nerdy and bidding for a hotel on price line. That's something not many people do. Part of the reason why is because when you bid for a hotel on price line, you don't know what hotel you're gonna be

staying at, and people are like, I don't know about that. Like, I kind of want to know where I'm staying. But there is a site called bidding for travel dot com. They were links in the show notes that can help you.

It's this old school style message board where people reveal the hotels that they've been getting UM and how much they got it for, which can help you in in your bidding UM and that can save you even more money, like I've never paid less for a hotel room than I've paid on price line, Like that's just the best

value mar none if you're bidding. But yeah, Matt, actually UM took advantage of price lines like bidding a feature back in the day when Emily and I were getting married and there were three four star hotel rooms in downtown Memphis where we got married, and I knew there

was one I wanted to stay at. But when I looked at the hotel and I looked at all these other one third party websites, the best rate I could find was something like four UM and I didn't have that kind of money or a better yet, I just didn't want to spend that kind of money. And I was like, you know, they're all four star hotels, even though there's this one I want to stay at I have to I'm going to go in this other direction.

So I did the bidding feature and I ended up I think it was like a hundred and sixty dollars a night was the price I got, and serendipitously, I got the hotel I want. Yes. Yeah, sometimes you can kind of like read between the lines a little bit and like see what different amenities they offer, and it's just like, okay, is that how they talk about what it is they offer on their own website? So yeah,

but that doesn't always work, right, It doesn't. You could have ended up at the hotel you didn't want to stay. I could have. I could have, but I STI would have been okay because I just like that price a little bit nice. If it was like aff yell o price effors tonight, I probably would have settled uncertainty. But I was willing to bid in order to get the lowest possible price. And so yeah, I always think back to that. I feel like the price line gods were

were on my side when it for you man. Yeah, And for the longest time now, it hasn't made a whole lot of sense to book directly through the hotel because these third party sites were far superior when it came to saving money, but that isn't as true now as it once was, because these hotels are starting to realize that they need to price competite of lee and so if you want to a specific hotel, check the rate on their site as well. And so for instance, Marriott,

they they've got this best rate guarantee. If you find a lower rate and then you submit acclaim form, they will give you an additional off which is pretty awesome. It's like this price match guarantee. It's like it's like Walmart our best Buyers something. Uh. And sometimes it helps just to you know, pick up the phone actually make a phone call. Us millennials have to fight that a little bit because we want everything to be online, we

want it to be easy, but actually with somebody. Now, in this case, you probably need to actually make the phone call talking with the human. Yeah. Man. You might get some helpful information too about what's what of other discounts are available that might be difficult to find on the website. They might have something that they're offering that isn't quite public yet, especially for some of those smaller hotels.

They don't always publish everything, and they might be like, oh, yeah, we got this and this, and if you come at this point in time, well you're gonna save this much money. You can ask some probing questions and get some helpful money saving answers. And and Matt I mentioned trip Advisor earlier, but I feel like trip Advisor is also just like the best site to that when you're looking for lodging.

You don't have to book through Triprovisor, although you can, but yeah, especially if you're looking at some of those smaller boutique hotels, you know that they're helpful reviews and rankings on that site. So yeah, you might even find a better hotel um than you were initially planning to stay at the guests love, which costs less money per night. So you might be like, oh, man, I just found a better option than a cooler part of town that costs less money than what I was planning on spending.

And I've had some some success finding really cute hotels that are kind of in like a part of town that I want to stay in, or maybe some of the bigger hotels you know aren't. And yeah, so the folks who rate and review on trip Advisor just really have a big impact on that. It's a great community and it's a great place to really, you know, do some research before you decide to book a place to stay.

That's right, Okay, cruises, let's talk about those, man. If you are a fan of cruises, cruise compete dot com, this is probably the best site for booking one and getting a deal. Personally, I've never actually been on a cruise, but that's where i'd go, uh if I was gonna

if I was gonna book same here. Also never been on Yeah, yeah, and I don't really have a desire although maybe I don't know someday will I'm not opposed to it, it's just I don't want to do that right now and it feels kind of old school and guess what, so do these websites. But but that doesn't mean that you can't get some great savings from cruise compete dot com. There's this other side as well, cruise

critic dot com. That's another great side if you're trying to get just you know, educated, if you're trying to learn all about taking a cruise. Also, timing plays a big role here. The best time to to get a cruise is typically the period between Thanksgiving and Christmas. Uh. And you might even want to consult a travel agent if it's your first time booking a cruise, just so that you can make sure that you're able to get

the experience that you're looking for. It all depends on how much time you're willing to invest in this little vacation of yours. Yeah, you could educate yourself to the max and then you know, put your your own cruise and save some money. But um, there's a lot to learn, and you can make a big mistake and you could be stuck on a ship that you aren't really excited to be on for a week or ten days or something like that. Um, and and that would be a travesty.

So yeah, booking using a travel agent might make the most sense, especially for newbie cruisers. Match it's probably the tact I would take it into going on my first one, so I didn't screw it up and end up hating my life for a week. So let's continue talking about travel agents for for for just a little bit longer. Right, Um, it feels like travel agents feel like this thing that old school people used to do, and now we just book our own travel directly. It's simpler, it's easier, and

we have all the control. But I think it can be worth hiring someone to help you plan and book a trip, especially like let's say you're going in a larger group, or you're taking a lengthy trip that includes a lot of like planes, trains, and automobiles, Like you're

hopping all over the place. You're hitting a bunch of different and different types of transportation, maybe like a biplane, and like, I don't know, you're gonna parasale somewhere too, um tug boat and tugboat travel agents got your back on that. So yeah, it's it's important to ask, if you're going to use a travel agent, how they get paid. And if they say that you don't have to pay them a dime, well, then it means that they're making

commissions from the vendors that they work with. So the hotel that you're staying at might get they might get a nice kick back from that hotel, and so yeah, their decisions for you might be based on what's in their best interest. You just want to make sure you know that ahead of time. But if you are in that position and you think a travel agent might make

the most sense, for you. Travel sense dot org is a site that's worth checking out if you feel like you need that expert advice to kind of help you with planning your trip, because I love planning trips, Matt, but it can be a little daunting, it can be a little overwhelming. I think I saw a stat like the average person spends something like thirty hours planning a trip and they go to something like thirty eight different websites. So it is intense to plan a big trip and

it takes a lot of time. But honestly, for me, I feel like that's a big part of the fund,

Like I don't want to miss out on that, dude. Absolutely, Yeah, And you know, like a different a site like that, Like they'll say that they can save you some money as well, but let's be honest, I think the biggest advantage is the fact that it's convenient, Like you don't have to spend a ton of time on it, and there's nothing wrong with paying for convenience sometimes if you know what you're getting into, if you know what you're getting into, and of course if you have the money

to spend. But like, yeah, like you said too, if a large if you're looking at traveling with a larger group, or if you're looking at it like a non English speaking country or just somewhere that's really off the beaten path. I think it's like like travel suce dot org would definitely come in handy. And also let's talk about vacation packages, you know, like all inclusive kind of deal, Like you buy this package and it includes travel, include your lodging,

different little perks that they throw in as well. That's like my little sister's favorite way to travel value right, Well, these could be a good deal. Often you are going to say the most by booking everything directly yourself, but like we said, that can also be the most labor intensive way to book travel, and so these packages might be honestly just sort of like a stop gap. It's like halfway between doing everything yourself and then going with a full on agent that is also going to cost

a lot more. But Costco Travel, have you ever done any packages through Costco Travel? I've been checking them out recent now that I'm a Costco member. I'm like, Oh, what what all do they have to offer? Which I am so proud of you for that. No, I've definitely perused them before, but I've never actually pounced on one of those Costco travel trips, but they're well reviewed and

they've got a lot of amazing the different packages. If you're interested in booking a trip without making you know all that trip planning like your part time job, and so if you're a costco member, it might be worth checking to see what they offer before you start to piecemeal your own trip together because in the end, wow, if they have something that's pretty much exactly like what you would have planned for yourself, well why not go

with that package? And there truly might be some serious discounts built into that package because they're taking advantage of scale and their ability to offer that at a discount to their members, no doubt. There's a few more tips we gotta get you, Matt. Let's talk about travel insurance. Depending on what's going on in your life, travel insurance is a purchase that could end up saving you a lot of money in the end if you aren't able

to take the trip that you've booked. So we would suggest to make sure to shop for that travel insurance any third party site. Oftentimes, Matt, people get their travel insurance when they're booking their airfare. They're buying a product that's told by the airline, and we would say no, no, don't do that, Go get your own policy right instead, And so yes, it's like square mouth and Ensure my

trip are great for getting your own policy. Look at the fine print and make sure that your policy, the pilot policy you're buying, will cover any possible reason that you are likely to cancel. The worst place to be stuck in is when you can't go on a trip but your policy doesn't cover the specific reason that you're canceling. So you want to make sure that you're not cheaping out, that you're buying the insurance that's going to cover every

possible reason for cancelation if you need it. Yeah, really, I'll find print regarding pandemic related cancelations, right because a lot of folks found themselves in this position spring of last year. Also, another quick tip, use the right credit card, because booking a big trip can be the perfect time to add a new card into your life, into your financial life. You can take advantage of a sweet sign up bonus because maybe you're about to drop a decent

chunk of money on that trip. Right that being said, of course, you want to make sure that you have the cash on hand to pay that balance off in full when the bill does come due. But that new card that can allow you to travel for free or at least for much cheaper. I can also offer other travel benefits that you you may not have considered, like a rental car insurance. A lot of them have zero

foreign transaction fees. Regardless. You want to make sure that you're not using a card that's gonna charge you every time you swipe when you're traveling. Some cards to have that free lounge access if you're into that kind of thing, to say, pre check status is included sometimes for free, a lot of different things like that. And so definitely put your trip expenses on a credit card for those perks, but again only if you have the cash to pay

off that balance in full. Yeah. Another tip man I want to mention, and I think you briefly handed at it earlier, was is to tell people just to go on a longer trip. You're talking about your your two weeks back to back at the beach, and hell you're able to complete, yeah, unplug in a better way than if it was just a shorter trip exactly. And so I think you know for that reason a longer trip is really helpful. But for another reason is that longer

travel actually helps save you money. Right we we We talked about this actually with Nomadic Matt not too too long ago. But yeah, this doesn't work for everyone's schedule, and not everyone even wants to travel like this. But when one round trip plane ticket allows you to explore an entire country or even a region by spending three weeks or a month or or even longer, well, it

lowers the cost per day dramatically. Um. Instead of staying in hotels, you can stay in a cheap airbnb, or you can stay in a variety of different low cost places. And yeah, basically the discounts on long term lodging can be substantial. So yeah, we would say booking for a month instead of a week, going on a longer trip can have just all these money saving effects. Um. And it can actually help you unplug in a better way.

So don't be afraid to travel longer than just a week long vacation, which I feel like it's kind of the norm in the States. Um. And you know, I don't take a page out of the book of the offseas or the Germans, and and and go on like

a little bit longer of a trip. Yeah, and again, I mean transportation costs are often the most expensive part of traveling, right, And so if you're constantly just hopping from one city to the next, if you're in Europe, if you're taking the plane every couple of days to get to a new city, or or even taking a train, like,

all that adds up. And if you can what nomatic mat said was basically travel slower, right, And so if you can stay in a city for longer, take your time, don't spend all of your money on transportation, but instead get to know a place, uh, hang out a little bit. Hopefully you will not only save money, but find that you are able to enjoy yourself a lot more as well. And so we feel that this litany of travel tips is going to help you the next time that you

attempt to book your next getaway. And it's worth mentioning that being company loyal like that's going to cost you money. Right if you only fly one specific airline, or if you're only willing to stay at a particular hotel chain, it's gonna be a whole lot harder to save money on your trip. The overarching maxim that we're going to basically keep repeating here is flexibility. This is another area where flexibility is going to be crucial in order to

save money when you're taking a trip. Not only does that apply to where you go when you go, but also just the different companies that you do business with. Yeah. Man, I remember a coworker and a friend coming to me one time asking me how to save money on a trip. And he was very staunch in the company so he wanted to do business with and the dates he wanted to go. And I was like, I'm sorry, man, if you if you can't be a little more flexible on some of these things, like a lot we can do

for you. I showed him, Hey, this other airline has a much lower fare on these dates that are close to when you're going, Like would you be willing to do this? And he's like nah, And I'm like, okay, well the price is the price. Then if if you're not willing to be flexible in that way, So You're right, flexibility is key. It's really um when it comes down to it. The number one word we would say is the crux of saving money on travel. It all comes

down to being flexible absolutely. All right. Well, um, let's get back to the beer that we had on this episode. Mat. This one was called Vaca Daydream, And since you know we're talking about taking a vacation, I feel like this was the perfect beer to have on this episode. This one is by Pipe Works Brewing Company. What was your take on this beer? Yeah? On the front, I'll just mention the label here real quick. It's got a like they include a unicorn like in a lot of their branding,

like a lot of their different beers. There's like a unicorn in it somehow, and there's a you know, this unicorn sitting there like a tropical the Island shirt, just sitting there watching TV, watching an island on TV. He's like he wants to go. But they're trying to infuse some of those vibes into this beer as well. Uh. And they also loaded it up with just all the different tropical kinds of flavors. What's the there's that avery

beer with the like the tiki Tiki guy. It kind of reminds me of that what it It's like mango and passion fruit I think in that one. But is that a Belgian? I think that's like a Belgian or something like that. This kind of has like Belgian wit flavors to a certain extent. It's it's it's a little herbally and kind of once you infuse some of those tropical flavors like that. This is probably the least tasting Hazy I p a I think I've ever had. But that doesn't mean I didn't enjoy. I thought it was

really good. Yeah, I thought it was okay, Like it was. It was a little it's a little weird, um like maybe too many vacation vibes thrust into this beer. Um. I do like the pineapple vibe that that was going on, but I feel like it was a bit maybe too much lacto and coconut that just kind of like muddled up some of the flavors for me. Um, I'll say it's it's decent, but not, you know, not not one of the top beers we've ever had on the show.

Especially about Pipe Works too, because they make some really really good stuff. And yeah, I guess my expectations were high to before them. I would expected something a bit more, but just across the board, I thought it was pretty solid. And it includes Sabro hops as well. Uh, and that

naturally has a coconut like flavor profile going on. So I don't know if they added coconut on top of the sabro hops, because you can get a dry hoped I p A or whatever, just a double hazy with Sabro hops with no fruit added, and it'll taste coconutti. So if they added coconut on top of those hops, I think that could have lent to the heavy handedness of those tropical flavors. But yeah, they're not all the

perfect beer. They're not all grain slams, are they. No. No, we drink a lot of good ones, and sometimes even one that's good. Let's me down a little bit, but that's okay. I still have hypeworks and leve a lot of the beers they put out, But that's gonna do it for this episode. Yeah, you can find our show notes up on our website how to money dot com. Again, we mentioned obviously a ton of resources and websites in

this episode. They will all be up there and linked for you, so you can kind of like, yeah, go through those resources as you're planning your next trip, and hopefully you're able to save a ton of money when doing it. Yeah, you can bookmark it, which nobody ever does anymore. That's right, and if you've been listening for a while, we would love it if you were to

let others know how much you enjoy the show. Head over to Apple Podcasts, where you can leave us a solid review over there, help us to get the word out, as we're on a mission to help others to hang on to more the money, especially when they're looking to travel. So Joel, that's gonna be it for this episode, Buddy. Until next time, best Friends Out, Best Friends Out,