About this time last year, I wrote about increasing our yearly budget for travel. We had taken a last-minute trip abroad after Mr. PiN’s father died, and I was looking at a vacation rental for a winter trip to warmer weather, but these were going to be much more expensive than our usual trips.
Since our finances seemed okay, this sounded like a good time to loosen the purse strings for something Mr. PiN and I both enjoy.
We decided to travel more, and with less concern for costs, in 2025.
This year saw us taking more trips than we have in some time: 3 vacations and 2 meetings together, 2 solo trips for me to see my mom, and 1 solo trip for Mr. PiN to visit an uncle. The vacations have been higher end than we have done before. It’s been fun.
Although I haven’t quite made myself add everything up (I will do that at the end of the month), I am pretty sure we have spent more in one year on travel than we ever have before.
I realize that travel after COVID is just more expensive. Also, inflation is a thing, and keeping our travel budget the same as in 2010 means we are effectively spending less. So it’s okay to spend more on travel. Nevertheless, I am thinking it’s time for me to review ways to spend less on travel for 2026. I already have 4 trips half-planned, and it would be nice to save a little money to splurge on 1 or 2 more.
I’ve written about saving money on travel before, but I think it would be good for me to go over some of those tips again.
Plan Ahead
This is probably one of the most important principles of saving money, especially when traveling. Unfortunately, Mr. PiN and I have been struggling with this lately.
Sometimes we have to negotiate our destination.
Sometimes we have agreed on a destination, but searching for a hotel we both approve of leads to paralyzing indecision.
It’s clear that there is a sweet spot for finding better prices on flights and hotels. We may have passed that time for our February break, but I need to get moving on the other Spring trips we have planned.
If we can finalize plans, and arrange flights, hotels, and car rentals well in advance, I think we can save a good amount of money.
Stay For Free
Visiting family can be both a joy and a chore, depending on your relationship.
One benefit it can offer is free housing for your visit, assuming that the family you are visiting has a spare bedroom to offer.
Mr. PiN and I were able to take advantage of this for our solo trips this year.
In the past, we were able to finagle a winter trip to my parents’ place in Florida; unfortunately, that condo has been sold. [This might be part of the reason our travel costs have increased.]
Three of the 4 trips already planned for the year involve visiting family, but it’s clear that we won’t be able to stay with family for at least 2 of these trips. The third hasn’t been been accompanied by an invitation to stay, so I don’t know how successful a strategy it will be this year.
I still expect a free room when I go home to visit my mother, though.
Find a Deal
One family trip is to see my sister and her son’s high school graduation.
She lives in an expensive resort town, and for some reason, hotel rooms are already pricey for our trip dates in the off-season.
Though she isn’t a native, she is a local, and after nearly 30 years in town, she has connections. She thinks she can get us local rates through a friend who manages several hotels. We’ll take it.
Another trip is for a medical conference. Though the hotel rooms don’t look cheap to me, they are significantly cheaper than the retail rate. I’ll book there too.
For finding flight deals when the dates and destination are mostly firm, I love Google Flights. It shows me all sorts of options. I don’t always pick the cheapest–sometimes leaving at 6 AM with 2 layovers isn’t the best deal for me–but it’s good to look.
Play the Points and Miles Game
We haven’t used many of our points and miles in the past year, and they have been slowly accruing.
Though I’m tempted to hoard them to have an outrageously cheaper trip–as I did a number of years ago to travel to Greece–points do expire or get devalued periodically.
Next year might be a great time to cash in points to cover some of our travel costs.
However, I think I can find ways to lower my spendings–especially on hotel rooms–while holding on to points for my dream redemption (lie-flat seats to Oceania).
Right now, I can see a few ways to stretch our hotel budget:
- Exchanging points or rewards for hotel gift cards. I do this frequently with my Discovercard account. I see also that using the Capital One Shopping extension has left me with about $95 that I can use to get a card with Hotels.com.
- Checking for credit card benefits. A number of travel credit cards offer discounts or credits for travel. If you haven’t used them yet for the year, they are a great way to save money on your trip. (You can argue that you have already paid for this with your annual fee, but I think it would be worse to pay the fee and not get the credit.).
- Using my hotel rewards points, of which I usually don’t have many, to cover 1-2 nights. This may knock $200-$600 off our lodging bills, depending on how we use them.
- Redeeming my rewards from Hotels.com to lower the bill for bookings. The rewards system has changed and is now less generous, but I still have about $75 to use towards a reservation.
Consider Your Activities
Travel offers the opportunity to try many different experiences. Some are cheap, and some are expensive.
I would never ask Mr. PiN to give up on something he really, really wants to do because of the price–not at this stage of the game–but luckily we both enjoy less expensive activities when we travel.
I hope that we will be able to see beautiful scenery, take pleasurable walks, and visit interesting museums, in addition to visiting family and attending educational talks.
This is all much less expensive than other activities I hear about. I suppose we could go on a wine tour, or investigate hot air balloon rides, or try other pricey experiences. But there is no need to pursue them if we enjoy less expensive activities.
If we did want to do something that’s more of a splurge, there are usually ways to look for a discount. If not, saving money on the other aspects of travel leave a bit more room in the budget for these sorts of things.
What are your favorite ways to stretch your money when planning travel?
Excellent tips. We usually try to book accommodation that includes breakfast, or has a small kitchenette where we can make some of our own meals. It saves a lot and usually means we eat healthier.
I’ve also started packing a small travel kettle to make my own tea. Those $8 Starbucks teas add up!
Thanks for commenting, Michelle!
Yes, we love staying somewhere with a kitchen, if possible. Coffee and oatmeal made at home is much cheaper and healthier than anything we can buy out. I forgot about this tip since we won’t be staying anywhere with a kitchen in our next 3 trips.