It Came From the Chat: Summer Savings Tips

Monday's chat with the Travel section Flight Crew (most Mondays at 2 p.m.) was a busy one, with readers weighing in on such varied topics as Hawaiian B&Bs, Charlottesville dining, honeymoon planning and pickpockets in Italy. We asked for ideas about how to save $$ on summer travel, and we got some great suggestions. Here's a sampling:

Well, we're saving money on our summer vacation this year by not taking one. Perhaps an extreme approach, but it works.
But seriously, sometimes it's fun to play tourist in your own back yard. Make a list of things in your area that you've never seen, set a week aside, and go do them. Bonus points for using public transportation to get to them. Extra bonus points for stopping the mail that week as if you really were on vacation.

One creative daughter has another plan:
My parents have found a way to cut their summer travel costs: me! They will be going to Atlantic City for a few days, where I will meet them and drive them to New York. We'll spend a few days in New York, then I'll drive them back to the Philadelphia airport on my way back to DC. Meanwhile, I'm saving money by sharing their New York hotel room, so I suppose it all works out.

More staycation methods:
Due to both gas prices and the economic concerns, actually I am planning to stay in town, take time off, and do all those things I always wanted to do: bike to Alexandria, see Mt. Vernon, go on top of Washington Monument, visit Library of Congress, Dumbarton Oaks, etc. (couple weeks ago Weekend section had a great list). The best way to do is when you do not stay at home, so if you can afford a hotel B and B in town that is great, otherwise, I'd suggest doing a house swap with one of your friends so you get to be "on vacation". If you stay at home, you get pulled in the regular stuff and errands... I do this quite often when I do housesitting for my friends, it gives me an opportunity to "go on vacation" and see other parts of the city I've never seen. I recommend you swap houses with someone totally from another part of town, for example I live in MD and had a house in Reston last week. I biked to Town Center, went to Wegman's, went to the Dulles Space Museum, Leesburg... you get the idea.

Here's a plug for in-town vacationing:
Vacationing at home: Did this one year and had a great time. One plus: If you like chatting with new people, you have a chance to meet a lot of retirees during the days while everyone else is working. Had a great conversation at a tiny county museum with one man who'd been in the Merchant Marine immediately after WWII; another one at a pie shop counter about the air conditioning business (not so historical, but useful.) Pie is a good vacation experience too, by the way.

Doubling up on family reunions is one idea:
We are going to S.D. for vacation this summer... combining a family wedding with a week in the Black Hills. We have rented a house there for a mini family reunion. Invited a brother in law and sister in law who are financially strapped to come from the West Coast. So for us, it will be a chance to see them and for them... a very cheap vacation... all they have to do is get there!

Another chatter broke it all down by the numbers:
Gas prices shouldn't make that big a difference in most people's plans. Let's say you're planning to take two weeks and drive to Miami and back. If you're on a budget and are planning $150 a day for hotel, meals, and entertainment, that's $2100 over 14 days. Miami is 1100 miles from here, so round trip, getting 25 mpg, you'll need 88 gallons of gas. Last summer, at $3 a gallon, that would have been $264, bringing your total cost to $2364. Now, if you end up paying $4 of gallon. Your total trip cost has increased by about 4 percent, from $2364 to $2452. That's equivalent to an extra $6.28 a day. For a family of 4, you can make up the cost by spending 52 cents less per person on each meal.

Any more hints? We're running a round-up of ideas this coming Sunday, so if you have your own money-saving vacation tips for your fellow readers, speak up!

By Christina Talcott |  May 9, 2008; 6:01 AM ET  | Category:  Budget Travel , Christina Talcott , Travel Strategies
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