Saving Money on a Holiday

Going on a family vacation can be considerably more expensive than going with your partner only. Instead of buying two airline tickets and renting a double room in a hotel, you need maybe four or five tickets and at least two hotel rooms.

Fortunately, there are a lot of family-friendly offers that help keeping things in budget. Still, there are some aspects where you can cut on costs.

An expense that is often not recognized is the food. When on holiday, you often either lack the opportunity to cook or you're not in the mood to continue that annoying household routine. Dining out is fine and surely an essential part of the recreation - after all, you want to enjoy your stay. But that doesn't mean that every little snack has to be bought ready-made somewhere. If you can't bring food, maybe because you're going by plane and your luggage weight is limited, it might pay to look for a supermarket at your destination. And a sandwich, for example, does well as a replacement for a whole round of hot dogs as an afternoon snack.

If you're staying in a hotel, you can try and ask at the reception if they can empty the minibar at your rooms. Anyway, you should definitely avoid touching something in there, as the price is normally astronomic. And this way, you can make use of it as a fridge to keep some supplies there.

When you're booking the trip and you're not too fixed on a certain location that you want to go to, you can consider going to a travelling agent. Make a budget limit, and ask them what they can do with it. You might also want to check out several agents so you can choose the best offer. Instead of going to a hotel, renting a holiday house can be seriously cheaper. If you have a befriended family, maybe even with kids, too, then you can think about sharing a larger house. The atmosphere is more personal than in a hotel, and mostly you'll find a cooking site - if you don't mind gastronomical activities during your free time. If your family is insisting on a hotel, tell them what nice things you can do on your trip with all the money saved.

Brigitte Meier is an occassional author for E-nterests.com. Find some interesting travel related articles here too.