How to Lower Family Vacation Costs + Vacation Budget Evaluation Worksheet

There is no way around it, traveling as a family is expensive. Each person you add in is added airfare, extra mouths to feed and potentially extra hotel rooms you need. That all adds up and MUCH more quickly than we would like. There are things you can do though to lower the cost and stay on a reasonable budget!

Make sure you first learn how to budget for a family vacation. Then use what this post teaches you to evaluate your family vacation budget and figure out how to lower family vacation costs. Whether you new to family travel or not this will help you learn where you can save a little extra cash each trip.

This post may contain some affiliate links. This means I make a small profit from your purchase but at no increased cost to you. I only recommend products that I love and would purchase myself! Full disclaimer here.

Setting Your Budget

I know I just said this isn’t the post to teach you how to budget but I do think a few quick things need to be said so that we are all on the same page.

Average Cost of a Family Vacation?

The cost of a vacation can vary GREATLY from camping vacations to luxury resort vacations that can cost upwards of $10,000 to anything in between. According to a survey done by Nerdwallet the average vacation budget by families that planned to travel was $2,256. Of course they could end up going over budget and we’d never know.

Like we will talk about more later in this post there are ways to have an amazing vacation without spending a fortune. If you have the desire to travel but don’t have endlessly deep pockets to fund it you may have to accept some level of inconvenience to save money. IT IS WORTH IT IN THE END! To me the memories and experiences that you get from traveling aren’t ruined by having to stick to a budget and find ways to save money.

Sites like budgetyourtrip.com can help estimate costs for specific vacations, just take it all with a grain of salt and do some research on your own.

Determining Your Family’s Vacation Budget

In order to figure out your personal family vacation budget the best place to start is to see how much you can spare to spend. Going on vacation is not worth going into debt for because that will ultimately put you in a worse situation in the long run.

Start by assessing your monthly spending and see where you can cut back to save some extra money. Can you cut out a coffee run a week, or decrease how often you eat out? What can you cut back on to save up for that epic vacation?

If you can save $250 a month that would be $3000 in one year and that is your next vacation covered right there!

Another place to look for some extra travel money is work bonuses, tax refunds, overtime, or money making side projects. What can you do in your spare time that could fund your travel habit? Is there something you can make and sell? Can you flip free furniture on facebook marketplace?

That is how I got into blogging. I had lots of spare time after I applied to medical school and wanted to earn extra travel money. It took longer than I’d hoped but every little bit helps!

Start by setting a goal for a specific date, divide that amount by the number of months left until your vacation. That is how much you need to be saving a month for your next vacation. It can be helpful to open a separate bank account and feel the excitement as you watch the money add up.

Look Back and Compare

Now comes the important part: figuring out how to lower family vacation costs so that you can afford to go on vacation more frequently. You should start by evaluating your last vacation budget and seeing where you went over and where you can cut back. The vacation budget evaluation worksheet makes finding what areas can use the most improvement easy to do!

Do this after each vacation for the best long term results.

Expenses to Consider

Transportation to + from
Transportation at
Lodging
Food
Activities
Costs at home
Gear
Misc: Souvenirs and other shopping, insurance

General Family Vacation Savings

Let’s start with a few tips to help you lower your overall vacation costs.

Travel Off Season OR Book as Early as Possible

Traveling in the off season has so. Many. Perks. Less crowds, better weather and lower prices! If you can swing it, I highly recommend trying to vacation at times when other people can’t.

I know with kids this can be difficult when you’re working around school, work and sports. So if you can’t travel in the off season then try to book your vacation as early as possible. It is hard to blame companies for raising prices during the busy season but it’s not ideal while trying to travel on a budget. By booking as early as possible you can beat the price hike, take advantage of deals and promotions and make sure all the best deals aren’t already booked.

Discount Vacation Packages

When you are planning your vacation don’t forget to look into vacation packages. These can sometimes offer deals at unreal prices for everything you get. Gate1 Travel is one of my favorite places to watch for deals and sometimes airfare is even included!

Another great place to look is Costco, they have a whole travel section online with some really great discounts.

Senior, Student, Military and AAA Discounts

When booking your trips as well as during your trip make sure you ask about senior, student and military discounts! Many museums and attractions in particular often have 10%+ discounts off entry prices. It never hurts to ask everywhere you go.

These little discounts can add up to big savings.

More Ways to Save for Vacation

Lower Transportation Costs

Transportation is a top expense on almost every vacation. I find road trips to be cheaper than flights most times especially as you welcome more children into your family. See if driving is a viable option for your next vacation. If a drive can take a day or less then it could be worth it.

If you do drive, there are still ways you can save even more money! We will talk about bringing your own food in the food section but you can also use the app “Gas Buddy” to save on gas costs while road tripping.

Flying

You may still decide to fly, maybe you would rather not use your vacation time to drive or maybe it’s an undrivable destination (hello other continents!). Good news, you can still save money! Start by checking comparison sites and setting fare alerts for your desired flights. This way you can see the best dates to fly, the best fare options and can get alerted when prices drop.

My places to watch flights are google flights and Hopper. As an added bonus when you book a flight through Hopper you get “carrot cash” that you can apply to hotel and car rentals too.

The cheapest flights are usually in the middle of the week so try to fly on a Tuesday, Wednesday or Thursday if you can. It could save you hundreds of dollars. Another great way to save money is to avoid extra baggage fees. Nowadays it feels like airlines charge an arm and a leg for anything more than a purse. Make sure you check what baggage comes included with your ticket and try to stick to it. I bet you are almost always bringing more than you ACTUALLY need.

My two week packing list fits entirely in a carry on and has gotten me through many international trips. If you do decide to bring extra bags though don’t add one per person. Still try and consolidate it down as much as possible to keep the price down.

Finally, if you are a smart money manager don’t be afraid to use credit card welcome offers to help cover the cost of your flights. Many welcome offers can be as much as $1,000 dollars that you could apply towards flights. Just make sure you are paying off your credit card balance monthly or else you’re actually losing money on interest payments.

Transportation at Your Destination

Renting a car can add up fast but sometimes it is a necessity. If you are in a place that offers reliable public transportation however then it is a great way to save money. Car rentals add up quickly when you add in insurance and gas to the primary amount. Big cities in the U.S. as well as the majority of Europe have amazing train and bus systems that can get you almost anywhere you want to go for a fraction of the cost. Don’t be afraid to try them out, trying new things is part of the excitement of traveling.

How to Lower Lodging Costs

Hotels are my least favorite expense of any trip! It sucks to shell out hundreds of dollars just for a place to sleep for the night. This is also the area I struggle with finding savings, so make sure you drop any tips you have in the comments so we can all learn. Here is what I do to save when I can.

Hotel credit cards will often give rewards like free upgrades or 4th night free rewards to their members. Hotel points can also be used to pay for hotel stays. If you don’t have hotel points also check places like your work or phone providers benefits. Many large companies will offer exclusive discounts for big sites like hotels.com. My phone provider, T-mobile, gets me 10% off!

For last minute hotel bookings you can find big savings using the app Hotel Tonight. Plus the more you use the app you earn access to higher tiers which gives you access to even more savings.

Other Lodging Options

Look into options like home exchange so you can use someone’s home and they can use theirs for their vacation. It can lead to some great savings.

Hostels are a great affordable option. They require a little different travel style and I recommend bringing a lock for your locker but this can be a good, affordable option especially for a night or two. Hostelz is a great place to look for reputable, affordable hostels for your next vacation.

Another option for really inexpensive lodging is to camp! Camping gets you out in nature, allows you to see local outdoor settings and costs significantly less than a hotel. Don’t be afraid to try something new if it allows you to visit a unique place.

Lower Food Costs

I really enjoy eating out on vacation. I like to try local cuisine, and small local restaurants. Eating out adds up fast though so it can be important to cut back on your food budget in order to make the trip possible. Try to have access to a kitchen. This allows you to cook your own meals occasionally which can save a ton. Airbnb and VRBO are great options for this as well as extended stay hotels.

If you are driving to your destination, bring some food with you. I like to pack snacks, hiking food and some easy breakfast foods. If you could easily bring sandwich fixings for lunch and only eat out for dinner. OR eat out for lunch and make sandwiches for dinner because some places offer lunch discounts.

Lastly, stay at hotels that offer breakfast. That is one less meal you have to pay for that gets rolled into the cost of a hotel you’d be paying for one way or another. There are even some hotels that include dinner which offers the opportunity for big savings. I’ve never stayed at them but Drury and Embassy Suites are known to offer dinner or finger foods.

Read More: 17+ Ways to Save on Eating Out

Save on Activities and Attractions while on Family Vacation

One of my favorite ways to save on attractions (especially local ones) is to follow them on social media. This way when they post about discounts I am the first to know and I don’t have to be visiting their website all the time. Same goes for joining their email lists if they have one, then any deals, discounts or even free days will come right to your inbox.

A great way to lower family vacation costs is to take advantage of free admission days. Museums often have free days that they offer. It is usually like “the first tuesday of every month”. Look on their website or social media to find out. You can also reach out to them and ask if you can’t find any information online.

Another great place to look for discounts are sites like Groupon. Activities you were already planning to do may be offering deals you can take advantage of. When we visited Miami, FL we saved half on an everglades tour!

I also like using services like CityPASS to see multiple sights in one location at a discounted bundle price. My sister and I used CityPASS in New York for big savings on sights we were already going to go to like the Empire State Building and the 9/11 museum.

Know When and Where to Save and Splurge

You have to decide where to splurge and where to save on vacation that is right for your family so that you can figure out how to lower family vacation costs. You don’t have to cut back in every single area, you just have to cut back enough that your vacation fits inside your budget while still getting to experience an amazing vacation. I recommend figuring out where you are willing to cut back BEFORE you get on vacation otherwise it is too easy to not stand your ground and splurge on everything.

It is ok to accept some inconvenience to save money. It doesn’t mean your vacation is ruined, it doesn’t mean you’re not giving your best to your kids or anything like that. I’d go through a lot of inconvenience if it meant visiting a dream destination like Petra, Jordan.