Speaker 1: Welcome to How the Money. I'm Joel and I am Matt,
Speaker 1: and today we're discussing a cornucopia of budget travel tips.
Speaker 1: So do you see a cornucopia or do you say
Speaker 1: corn ucopia? Can? I'm gonna go back and forth, like
Speaker 1: whenever I'm feeling in the moment. It all depends on
Speaker 1: what you have for breakfast, I guess exactly. Um So, counacopia.
Speaker 1: That's not a word that we use often, and we
Speaker 1: can't not help but think of the Hunger Games. Yeah,
Speaker 1: of course I picture it just like they talked about
Speaker 1: in the book, right, like this giant metallic architectural wonder
Speaker 1: full of weapons, which actually makes me wonder, what if
Speaker 1: you were in the Hunger Games? What item do you
Speaker 1: think you would have gravitated to? My gosh, I would
Speaker 1: have ben for like the bow and arrow Like I
Speaker 1: would have been out in no time, So I feel
Speaker 1: like I would have had to choose something like an
Speaker 1: axe or a sword. But even still, I wouldn't have
Speaker 1: lasted very long with it. You wouldn't have um which
Speaker 1: one of which one of the guys like took the
Speaker 1: classes on how to like disguise himself and make him
Speaker 1: blend into the mud, Like I feel like you would
Speaker 1: have done good just to be like, Okay, I'm out
Speaker 1: of here, guys. Let all of you kill each other
Speaker 1: and then I'll be the last man standing. I'm not
Speaker 1: gonna hiding either, so we're doing a disaster. I'm not
Speaker 1: like the biggest dude, you know, like if I had
Speaker 1: to go hand to hand combat with somebody, so I
Speaker 1: would probably have like set like traps and I would
Speaker 1: have been all about the snares. So you do that,
Speaker 1: you're little sneaky. Yeah, yeah, well yeah, today it's it's
Speaker 1: not a corny copia of weapons, it's a corn copia
Speaker 1: budget travel tips. That's we're gonna talk about today about travel. Man.
Speaker 1: There's just so many things, Matt, especially as people are
Speaker 1: beginning to travel again in big numbers, and hopefully the
Speaker 1: delta variant doesn't have just like this huge negative impact
Speaker 1: on people starting to travel again, but as people are
Speaker 1: looking to that, they're starting to book those trips again. Like,
Speaker 1: we want to give you a ton of ideas for
Speaker 1: how to save money on that trip that you're looking
Speaker 1: to take, So stay tuned. There are going to be
Speaker 1: a lot of tips, that's right, and kind of on
Speaker 1: that note to the beer that we're enjoying this episode
Speaker 1: is called v K day Dreams, and on the can
Speaker 1: it says calendar and it's in the trash physically, good riddance.
Speaker 1: This was a beer that they were essentially acknowledging the
Speaker 1: fact that we all had plans that we had to
Speaker 1: put on hold. Those vacation plans just became day dreams.
Speaker 1: But like you said, hopefully these are plans that we
Speaker 1: are going to be able to get back to, and
Speaker 1: so I'm excited about enjoying this beer on the episode.
Speaker 1: But at first you wanted to talk about like a
Speaker 1: little shopping tip, right, I just wanted to mention just
Speaker 1: one thing I stumbled upon recently. As you know, before
Speaker 1: a recent summer trip, I was looking to buy some
Speaker 1: sunscreen and decided to get this sunscreen from Target, you know,
Speaker 1: super wonderful little store named Target that everyone everyone has
Speaker 1: near where they live. And I didn't realize this, but
Speaker 1: I was looking online and attempting to pick up in
Speaker 1: store because we just didn't have enough time before the
Speaker 1: trip to get a shipped. And I found out by
Speaker 1: happenstance that that was actually the cheapest way to get
Speaker 1: this products. Because having it shipped, you know, even with
Speaker 1: zero dollars and shipping costs would have actually cost been
Speaker 1: would have actually been more expensive. And also going into
Speaker 1: the store just to grab this product off the shelf
Speaker 1: would have been more expensive. For some reason, on certain products,
Speaker 1: Target incentivizes you to add it to your cart online
Speaker 1: and then to choose in store pickup and they give
Speaker 1: you an additional discount. So on these products it was
Speaker 1: an additional fiftent savings. Uh. For some random reason, I
Speaker 1: think they're just really trying to promote that service and
Speaker 1: saying I just wanted to mention that two people that
Speaker 1: check the price online before you walk into the store,
Speaker 1: because sometimes it's going to be priced lower online to
Speaker 1: your due diligence when you're shopping. And and you know,
Speaker 1: my sunscreen needs were substantial, Matt, so it was a
Speaker 1: big savings. Yeah, that's right. At the time, you were
Speaker 1: getting sunscreen for two full weeks at the beach. Right,
Speaker 1: So you did a family trip and then we did
Speaker 1: a family trip together, or we did a combined family
Speaker 1: trip essentially, And that was my my first time ever
Speaker 1: doing literally two weeks back to back. And I gotta
Speaker 1: say I recommend it to everyone. But the most I've
Speaker 1: ever done is like eight or nine days. And to
Speaker 1: do a full like fourteen days where I was gone
Speaker 1: and wasn't working, which is really nice because sometimes it
Speaker 1: takes a few days just to feel like you've got away. Um,
Speaker 1: you still kind of feel connected or those the things
Speaker 1: that you have on your to do lists are still
Speaker 1: humming in the back of your mind. And so to
Speaker 1: be gone for two weeks was just was wonderful. Yeah,
Speaker 1: we're almost kind of getting in lunching in the upiside
Speaker 1: a little bit too taking as much vacation as you
Speaker 1: possibly can. But but yeah, that's a great chip. Look
Speaker 1: online to make that purchase, but then opt to pick
Speaker 1: it up in person and there might be some discounts
Speaker 1: that you snag along the way. You don't want to
Speaker 1: do the opposite where you go in in person and
Speaker 1: then order and then wait for it to get shipped.
Speaker 1: Tone that's the opposite of what you want, right, that's
Speaker 1: just inefficient, Yeah, exactly, But ye, hopefully that tip helps
Speaker 1: you out in your future shopping endeavors. But Matt, let's
Speaker 1: get onto the topic of hand. Let's talk about these
Speaker 1: budget travel tips, and and anybody who's listening to How
Speaker 1: the Money for a while knows that disc golf is
Speaker 1: one of my favorite pastimes. It has been for a while,
Speaker 1: and it's apparently gaining in popularity. I just saw that, Uh,
Speaker 1: some disc golfer signed some sort of ten million dollar deal. Uh.
Speaker 1: Some of these disc golf tournaments are being broadcast on ESPN. Now,
Speaker 1: I was like, all right, it's good to see one
Speaker 1: of my favorite sports kind of start to get into
Speaker 1: the limelight. Yes, Ben thirty five the Ocho. Yeah, And
Speaker 1: I think one of the coolest things about disc golf
Speaker 1: is how accessible the sport is. Right, Like, anybody can
Speaker 1: play disc golf, and you know, you buy one or
Speaker 1: two discs at a place like Play Again Sports, you're
Speaker 1: gonna spend fifteen dollars, and you know that's gonna afford
Speaker 1: you years of fun. It's one of the cheapest sports around.
Speaker 1: The fact that it costs little to no money is
Speaker 1: is really just the cherry on top. I would say,
Speaker 1: of the many wonderful days I've had outdoors, whether it's
Speaker 1: by myself or with my friends, you and I going
Speaker 1: to hang out and you know, play some discolf together,
Speaker 1: that's right. And when something that you would do anyway,
Speaker 1: Like I would play disc golf no matter what because
Speaker 1: I love it, but when it's substantially discounted, like you
Speaker 1: don't pay money at almost any disc golf course to
Speaker 1: play the public parks, there are something that are really nice, yeah,
Speaker 1: that you would pay for that's like a private club.
Speaker 1: I've never been to one of those, but I want
Speaker 1: to see one kind of is going to a different
Speaker 1: direction than what we like about. Yeah yeah, but like
Speaker 1: even if I did, I don't know. Like that that
Speaker 1: free the ability to play for freeze like this, like
Speaker 1: cherry on top of the Sunday right, like um, and
Speaker 1: I think that is the same thing when it comes
Speaker 1: to travel. Right today, we're gonna talk in depth about
Speaker 1: something that lots of our listeners like to do. They
Speaker 1: like to travel, and then how to partake in that
Speaker 1: activity while consistently spending less on it, because that is
Speaker 1: going to be the silver lining really, when it comes
Speaker 1: to doing something you love but doing it for less money,
Speaker 1: there's nothing wrong with that. It's just all good. Yeah,
Speaker 1: well you call the silver lining, but in some instances
Speaker 1: maybe it's like the whole point. Right at least here
Speaker 1: on the show we talk about money first and foremost,
Speaker 1: and finding ways to spend as little money as possible
Speaker 1: and all things. But in this case, travel, that's what
Speaker 1: we're talking about. And you know, like you said, travel
Speaker 1: is basically back. It might look a little bit different
Speaker 1: than you know, kind of how it used to look
Speaker 1: before covid um. And along with travel comes spending money.
Speaker 1: It can cost a lot of money. That's probably you know,
Speaker 1: the first thing that you think of when you, yes,
Speaker 1: you see pictures or videos of a friend of yours,
Speaker 1: like traveling abroad or even like a fun city here
Speaker 1: in the States, you might be thinking, oh, ouch, like
Speaker 1: that probably costs a lot of money. Honestly, that's kind
Speaker 1: of like the first thing I think of. That's kind
Speaker 1: of the first place my mind goes to. But we're
Speaker 1: trying to point out that it doesn't have to cost
Speaker 1: a lot of money. There are a lot of ways
Speaker 1: to do it on the cheaps. You're like addering up
Speaker 1: their itinerary in your mind and like, oh gosh, that's
Speaker 1: that's that's a lot of money. But then again, it
Speaker 1: doesn't have to cost you a fortune. When we want
Speaker 1: all of our listeners out there to experience just all
Speaker 1: the joy of travel while listening the financial pain of it.
Speaker 1: The amount of money that Americans have spent on travel
Speaker 1: over the years, it has steadily increased to the point
Speaker 1: that before the pandemic, this is back in nineteen we
Speaker 1: collectively spent nine and seventy two billion dollars on domestic
Speaker 1: travel alone, so without even leaving the States. And so
Speaker 1: in this episode, we're gonna cover just a litany a
Speaker 1: cornucopia of tips and tricks that will allow you to
Speaker 1: save on your next trip. Will attempt to cover every aspect,
Speaker 1: giving you the just the different knowledge and the different
Speaker 1: resources that we've come across that you can keep coming
Speaker 1: back to in order to save every single time that
Speaker 1: you book a trip in the future. All Right, so
Speaker 1: let's get straight onto it, man, Let's get and do it.
Speaker 1: The tips will start digging in, and yeah, there are
Speaker 1: a lot here, um, but the first one we want
Speaker 1: to say is to go when others aren't going to
Speaker 1: zig when everybody else is at right. And this is
Speaker 1: like a good kind of thing to remember when it
Speaker 1: comes to a lot of things in life. When you're
Speaker 1: doing what everyone else is doing, often you're paying more.
Speaker 1: Often it's going to be crowded or maybe less enjoyable.
Speaker 1: But when you're kind of going the opposite route of
Speaker 1: what everyone else is doing, it's gonna save you money,
Speaker 1: it's gonna be less frustrating. Um and this, of course
Speaker 1: can be harder to do for folks with kids. Right.
Speaker 1: Possibly the only perk of virtual school last year was
Speaker 1: the fact that your travel schedule was freed up in
Speaker 1: a big way. You could, you know, do that schooling
Speaker 1: from anywhere, and you could travel wherever or however you wanted.
Speaker 1: And so people took off in droves, you know, around
Speaker 1: the country. Lots of people hit the road who otherwise
Speaker 1: wouldn't have been able to and Matt lot of those
Speaker 1: folks decided that the RV life was the best way
Speaker 1: for them to do that. It seemed like the best
Speaker 1: way to do virtual school, and um, yeah, that's gonna
Speaker 1: be a lot harder for families in one as kind
Speaker 1: of some schools. Most schools get back to a little
Speaker 1: bit more normal hours. So yeah, maximizing those non summer
Speaker 1: school breaks is one of the essentials to saving money
Speaker 1: on a trip if you have kids, And for people
Speaker 1: who don't have kids, you'll find that you're able to
Speaker 1: score some of the best deals far more easily actually
Speaker 1: by taking the advantage of some of these times when
Speaker 1: families can't go, by taking advantage of non summer travel, right. Basically,
Speaker 1: when you have that flexibility, that's going to lead to
Speaker 1: you saving money. Yeah. And in another perk is that
Speaker 1: when you go when others aren't going, there's fewer people.
Speaker 1: The crowds are just less. As example, when I went
Speaker 1: to Ireland going at an off period time, you know,
Speaker 1: some of those main attractions, some of those main beautiful
Speaker 1: places that people want to visit, they're not overrun with people.
Speaker 1: So I would say shoulder season for the win here
Speaker 1: when you're considering when to travel, shoulder season rocks and uh,
Speaker 1: you know, it saves you money. To Matt, we've been
Speaker 1: to Ireland before together. B and B rates are much
Speaker 1: cheaper in the fall than they are in the summer
Speaker 1: travel season. So there's fewer people and you're paying less money.
Speaker 1: It's kind of a win win. Yeah, and the pubs
Speaker 1: are a little less crowded as well. And so you
Speaker 1: know this is true here in the States if you're
Speaker 1: exploring our beautiful country. But yeah, like you said, it's
Speaker 1: also true when you're looking abroad to other countries as well,
Speaker 1: visiting your favorite European destination in the summer is gonna
Speaker 1: mean higher airfare, higher costs just all around, right, lodging
Speaker 1: and car rental costs as well. And then you know,
Speaker 1: again like you mentioned the crowds, so make sure that
Speaker 1: you are getting the seasonality right when it comes to
Speaker 1: that booking. Uh. This is sort of a big picture
Speaker 1: item that's gonna lead to you saving hundreds of dollars.
Speaker 1: And so for instance, let's get specific here, April and
Speaker 1: October are typically the best months for European vacation. Uh,
Speaker 1: if that's where you're headed, Joel, you mentioned the r
Speaker 1: vs and how a lot of folks you know rented
Speaker 1: RVs or even maybe purchased r vs because they knew
Speaker 1: that they weren't gonna be able to travel abroad. I
Speaker 1: got a feeling in the coming years we might be
Speaker 1: able to actually snag in our v uh for cheap.
Speaker 1: I mean, I'm not looking to buy one, but like
Speaker 1: the different sites where you can rent r vs from
Speaker 1: other individuals, the different companies that exist, they're gonna have
Speaker 1: a lot of RVs on hand, and I got a
Speaker 1: feeling that they're going to come down and cost in
Speaker 1: the coming year, So like that's already something I'm already
Speaker 1: looking ahead to because I'm thinking, all right, there was
Speaker 1: a massive increase in the number of folks who were
Speaker 1: interested in that, but that interest is gonna wane. I'm
Speaker 1: gonna be there to catch that ball. I think there
Speaker 1: are a lot of people who are going to be
Speaker 1: in that position if they're looking for it, right, And
Speaker 1: so I think that you know, going when others aren't going. Well,
Speaker 1: that's true on just this this macro level, but it's
Speaker 1: also it can be true on a micro level. There
Speaker 1: are you know, smaller ways that we can zig when
Speaker 1: others are zagging. There are ways that we can influence
Speaker 1: the price all on our lonesome, no matter when we're going.
Speaker 1: And so like, for instance, when you book your flight
Speaker 1: matters a whole lot, right, So we would suggest to
Speaker 1: be sure that you're booking at the right time in
Speaker 1: order to save the most money. And I don't necessarily
Speaker 1: mean not buying your ticket on a Tuesday versus a Friday.
Speaker 1: There have been studies done in the past, and I
Speaker 1: think they did show maybe that Tuesday was it used
Speaker 1: to be a thing like now it's like in reality,
Speaker 1: the savings it's I mean, it's school one percent. It
Speaker 1: doesn't really work the way it used to work. Um,
Speaker 1: and I think that's partially because airline pricing changes happen
Speaker 1: so much more frequently. But yeah, studies have shown that
Speaker 1: you'll get the best deals on international flights when you
Speaker 1: book at least six months out, so you know, when
Speaker 1: you're planning an international trip, basically it pays to be
Speaker 1: a planner. However, when you book domestic travel, you're likely
Speaker 1: going to see the best deals two to three months
Speaker 1: in advance of your trip. So yeah, if you try
Speaker 1: to book that domestic trip eight or nine months in advance,
Speaker 1: you're actually gonna pay more. You're actually gonna be penalized
Speaker 1: for planning ahead. Fares are likely to be higher than
Speaker 1: they would be if you waited a bit longer, or
Speaker 1: if you're booking last minute, like that's going to cost
Speaker 1: you a whole lot extra two that's right, Yeah, And
Speaker 1: so make sure to set air fair alerts right so
Speaker 1: then you'll be notified when the prices of the particular
Speaker 1: flight that you're looking for experiences a price drop. Because
Speaker 1: you know, although these kind of overall tips are going
Speaker 1: to be helpful when it comes to you budgeting travel.
Speaker 1: Air Fares do fluctuate quite a bit, and it's important
Speaker 1: to know that Google Flights specifically is probably the best
Speaker 1: airfare search tool on the market. Uh. They just do
Speaker 1: such a great job helping you to see whether the
Speaker 1: price that you're looking at is solid, whether or not
Speaker 1: you should book, or you know, whether they might actually
Speaker 1: come down in the coming weeks. They've got this price
Speaker 1: graph and they've got this date grid. They are incredibly
Speaker 1: helpful and they make it just crystal clear that by
Speaker 1: changing one of your travel dates that you might be
Speaker 1: able to to save a big chunk of money. When
Speaker 1: you know, they put the prices on every single one
Speaker 1: of those days just to let you know what every
Speaker 1: single day is going to cost. I love that. It's
Speaker 1: like Google somehow has a lot of information or something
Speaker 1: in this disposal to create these authorithms. I wonder how
Speaker 1: they have all that infot I don't know, that's a question. Uh. Yeah,
Speaker 1: So again, travel date flexibility is crucial to saving. Also
Speaker 1: to sign up for the different flight tracker emails uh
Speaker 1: specific to Google Flights. UH. And so you know, as
Speaker 1: you start to look at the different prices as they
Speaker 1: show up in your inbox. It can help you to
Speaker 1: learn what is a good deal and what isn't a
Speaker 1: good deal. So if you know that there's a trip
Speaker 1: that you're interested in, start looking ahead of time. That
Speaker 1: way you feel really good about pouncing on a deal. So,
Speaker 1: for instance, Joel to this a few weeks ago for
Speaker 1: flights from Atlanta to Denver. Kate and I were kind
Speaker 1: of talking about, like what if we went away for
Speaker 1: the weekend did some hiking, And so now I know
Speaker 1: that if I see a flight that's like forty one bucks,
Speaker 1: that's a really good deal because it sounds like a
Speaker 1: good seeing deals that low before uh. And then again
Speaker 1: if I see a price maybe on a weekend that
Speaker 1: we're interested in that's sitting around to fifty three hund oh,
Speaker 1: I know that is not a good deal. So obviously
Speaker 1: you've got the price grid and you have all the
Speaker 1: information there at your disposal. But it's also helpful for
Speaker 1: you as an individual just to be confident not just
Speaker 1: looking at the tools, but just but also knowing what
Speaker 1: is and what isn't a good deal. And I want
Speaker 1: to say if you're a planner, oftentimes you planners like
Speaker 1: they they want to book, they want to have that
Speaker 1: air fair like in their hands, and they want to
Speaker 1: make sure that that's over and done with. UM. But
Speaker 1: ultimately those people do end up paying more, is what
Speaker 1: we said. But one way if you're a planner that
Speaker 1: you can actually take advantage of your tendency to think
Speaker 1: ahead is to set up those air fair alerts. And
Speaker 1: it feels like you've done something to gain some control
Speaker 1: of the situation without actually spending too much money. So
Speaker 1: I agree that those fair alerts are really important, especially
Speaker 1: for people whom I have a tendency to book too early.
Speaker 1: Uh And skip lagged dot com is another site we're
Speaker 1: checking out. By the way, we're going to mention a
Speaker 1: lot of sites on this episode, so we'll link to
Speaker 1: all of them in our show notes. Um, it'll be
Speaker 1: a more lengthy show notes for this episode. But the
Speaker 1: airlines actually aren't too fond of this site, and they're
Speaker 1: actually recently sued by Southwest Mats for displaying some of
Speaker 1: the airline's cheap fairs that you know, Southwest only wants
Speaker 1: to exist on Southwest dot com. But yeah, well we'll
Speaker 1: see what happens in that one. Skip lagged has actually
Speaker 1: won previous lawsuits by airlines trying to prevent them from
Speaker 1: sharing cheap deals that the airlines don't want you to see,
Speaker 1: because what they're doing is they're exposing something called hidden
Speaker 1: city fairs. And so what this means is that you
Speaker 1: might be able to book a trip to New York
Speaker 1: City with a stop in Ohio, but actually where you
Speaker 1: want to go is not New York City. You want
Speaker 1: to go to Ohio. So let's say you start in
Speaker 1: Atlanta and uh that that your trip to New York
Speaker 1: City is routed through Columbus, and instead of taking the
Speaker 1: whole itinerary, you hop off the plane in Columbus, you
Speaker 1: leave the airport, and boom, you're where you want to be.
Speaker 1: But if you would booked directly to Columbus instead of
Speaker 1: booking to New York City, you would have paid more
Speaker 1: because of how airlines priced their tickets. So this is
Speaker 1: what skip lagged is taking advantage of. So yeah, it's
Speaker 1: definitely worth checking out a site like skip lagged in
Speaker 1: order to potentially get an even better deal on a ticket.
Speaker 1: But really, when it comes down to it, airline tickets
Speaker 1: are only one piece of the puzzle when it comes
Speaker 1: to saving money on travel. So yeah, we've got a
Speaker 1: lot more budget travel tips to get to and we'll
Speaker 1: hit those up right after this break. All right, we'll back.
Speaker 1: We are still talking about travel tips, like ways to
Speaker 1: make the trip you want to take less expensive and not.
Speaker 1: We've covered I feel like a lot of tips about
Speaker 1: saving on air travel, which is certainly a big part
Speaker 1: of the puzzle for a lot of trips that people
Speaker 1: want to take um but there are other things that
Speaker 1: people need to consider as well, And I just wanted
Speaker 1: to say, you know, kind of from an overall standpoint,
Speaker 1: one of the other tips that we have is to
Speaker 1: not make the destination the primary consideration. And that might
Speaker 1: sound weird because they're like, uh, dude, I want to
Speaker 1: go to this one place and you just told me, Well,
Speaker 1: that's what travel is all about, exactly. You pick some
Speaker 1: place that you want to go, and you go get
Speaker 1: to know that place, you enjoy, you experienced the culture.
Speaker 1: But there are ways to do that without having to
Speaker 1: pay out the nose. Yeah, and you're like, I want
Speaker 1: to go visit Turkey and I just told you to
Speaker 1: go to Iceland because it's cheaper, and you're like, that's
Speaker 1: not cool, man, those are two totally different places. Well,
Speaker 1: I just wanted to share this example to like my
Speaker 1: wife and I we always wanted to visit Norway, um,
Speaker 1: partly because of my Norwegian ancestry, but yeah, the Motherland.
Speaker 1: Exactly a number of years ago, like we we basically
Speaker 1: were like, no, it's not gonna happen, and we didn't
Speaker 1: plan a trip there because it was just so expensive
Speaker 1: to get to Norway. But then ticket prices dropped to
Speaker 1: roughly five bucks round trip and we decided to pounce.
Speaker 1: And that was essentially thanks to these new airlines. Who
Speaker 1: are you know doing discount flying out of Norway And
Speaker 1: so yeah, if we had just basically forced that way
Speaker 1: trip before those fair drops happened, like we would have
Speaker 1: ended up paying at least a thousand dollars more for
Speaker 1: that trip. Um. So yeah, I suggest that one of
Speaker 1: the ways, like put a list at least together of
Speaker 1: five to ten places that you want to go and
Speaker 1: then wait for the deal to pop up. Instead of
Speaker 1: just having your heart set on this one place in
Speaker 1: the world that you have to be and trying to
Speaker 1: forcibly make that trip happen, you know, let the deal
Speaker 1: inform the destination that you're going to travel to. Absolutely, yeah,
Speaker 1: it definitely pays to have an open mind when it
Speaker 1: comes to your travels. Where it is that when a
Speaker 1: vacation to uh, make sure to check out Kayak dot com.
Speaker 1: Everybody's heard of Kayak obviously, but go to Kayak dot
Speaker 1: com forward slash explore because this is a great tool
Speaker 1: for seeing the best prices for destinations worldwide at a glance.
Speaker 1: It can just, you know, really open your eyes to
Speaker 1: see just some really awesome places that you you may
Speaker 1: not have otherwise considered visiting. But then you think about
Speaker 1: it for a second, you're like, wait a minute, that
Speaker 1: sounds like a pretty awesome spot to check out. And
Speaker 1: like you said, Joe, if you kind of have a list,
Speaker 1: like a short list of I don't know, maybe like
Speaker 1: a dozen you know, different places or even half that,
Speaker 1: like just say six if six seven different places that
Speaker 1: you want to check out, that I think can definitely
Speaker 1: help you to spend a whole lot less and just
Speaker 1: going to where the deals are, not necessarily going to
Speaker 1: where it is that you want to go this year.
Speaker 1: So yeah, pull that side up, start dreaming based on
Speaker 1: the lowest cost places to fly. It's a great interface
Speaker 1: really just to kind of dig around and you're like
Speaker 1: what second, I didn't realize with there's something in Europe
Speaker 1: that's three? Why is that? What is that place? And
Speaker 1: then like oh that can I get around from there
Speaker 1: to other places I want to visit even to that
Speaker 1: it's just like a great resource to see the globe
Speaker 1: at a glance, pricing at a glance. Yeah, And so
Speaker 1: basically you're kind of flipping travel on its head a
Speaker 1: little bit. But obviously this may not work if you
Speaker 1: have to be somewhere specific right to So you have
Speaker 1: to like go somewhere for a wedding, not only do
Speaker 1: you have a specific destination, but you also have a
Speaker 1: specific date, like you have a specific time frame, which
Speaker 1: is the worst. When you have a preset location and
Speaker 1: time that you have to be there, there's not a
Speaker 1: whole lot of flexibility. You're basically just beholden to whatever
Speaker 1: it is that the airlines decided to choose. And so
Speaker 1: essentially we want to free you up, um that want
Speaker 1: you to be open to all the different destinations as
Speaker 1: well as different dates as well. That's why we say,
Speaker 1: say note to international weddings, say sorry, mom, I can't
Speaker 1: go to your wedding ceremony because like you're getting married
Speaker 1: overseas and like, yeah, scot too much, too much money,
Speaker 1: I love you, but not coming And I'm just I'm
Speaker 1: just kidding. Sometimes that happens. Might be you might be
Speaker 1: considered cheap, yeah, but do your best to stay flexible.
Speaker 1: And yeah, there are a couple of other you know
Speaker 1: sites actually that are that are worth bookmarking, Scott's Cheap
Speaker 1: Flights and Airfare Watchdog. Um, Like, if you're a travel
Speaker 1: nuts signing up for you know, the newsletter from Scott's
Speaker 1: Cheap Flights, we would say as a must. Scott's been
Speaker 1: on the show before. We love his philosophy and and
Speaker 1: just his service in helping people see you know where
Speaker 1: the cheap flights are and you know that forty nine
Speaker 1: dollars paying Scotch Cheap Flights can save you hundreds or
Speaker 1: potentially even thousands of dollars on your next trip. Um,
Speaker 1: those newsletters can be a great tool to push you
Speaker 1: towards a destination that you might not have considered based
Speaker 1: on an incredibly low fair to Matt, because like Scott
Speaker 1: does a great job highlighting some of these destinations. I
Speaker 1: remember last time he came on with us for some
Speaker 1: reason airfare to Japan, which just incredibly low. There were
Speaker 1: like four tickets from a bunch of cities around the
Speaker 1: United States, And in his newsletter, not only did he
Speaker 1: make mention of, you know, how inexpensive the flights were,
Speaker 1: but he also kind of gave you some background information
Speaker 1: on a couple of the cooler cities in Japan that
Speaker 1: he's visited. And if I was in a different life
Speaker 1: space without multiple children, I would have I would have
Speaker 1: pounced on that man. That sounds so exciting. So yeah,
Speaker 1: I feel like those resources can be helpful, especially if
Speaker 1: you are like a big time travel nut. Totally. Yeah.
Speaker 1: And you know, here's the thing too, wherever you end up,
Speaker 1: make sure that you always stay the weekend. This is
Speaker 1: another little practical tip, and so if you include a
Speaker 1: Saturday night stay where you're going, you're almost always going
Speaker 1: to save more money. Especially when you're traveling to Europe.
Speaker 1: You'll save a heck of a lot more if you
Speaker 1: travel Monday through Sunday instead of Monday through Friday. And
Speaker 1: that's because you know, if you don't stay for the weekend,
Speaker 1: the airlines assume that you are a business traveler, and
Speaker 1: business travelers always pay more because there's a corporation typically
Speaker 1: behind them that's willing just to pay out that money
Speaker 1: because it's not about getting the best deal and travel.
Speaker 1: It's about closing the closing the deal on the you know,
Speaker 1: giant project or whatever business that they're working on. Uh.
Speaker 1: And plus you know who wants to just you know,
Speaker 1: go travel abroad for a few days anyway, Uh, enjoy
Speaker 1: your time. Hopefully you have some of that flexibility not
Speaker 1: only with your travel dates, but with your work as well.
Speaker 1: And you know, actually there is one location where the
Speaker 1: the opposite is actually true. If you go to the Caribbean,
Speaker 1: it actually costs more if you stay through Saturday, if
Speaker 1: you stay for for the full week, because typically when
Speaker 1: someone goes to the Caribbean, there's not a whole lot
Speaker 1: of business going on. Now. People are going there to
Speaker 1: vacate for a week pleasure exactly. And so again it's
Speaker 1: about being flexible and basically doing the opposite of what
Speaker 1: most folks are doing in order to save the most money.
Speaker 1: All right. Yeah, and so there are just so many
Speaker 1: things we have to talk about when it comes to
Speaker 1: airfare and Uh. One of the other things, Matt, we
Speaker 1: have to mention is to fly from or to somewhere
Speaker 1: else We've already talked about being flexible with your destination.
Speaker 1: But let's say you kind of know where you want
Speaker 1: to go, or you kind of honed in on some things. Well,
Speaker 1: there is no rule, and I feel like we have
Speaker 1: to tell people this because there are very few people
Speaker 1: who actually search different parameters. There's no rule. It says
Speaker 1: that you have to fly from the airport that's closest
Speaker 1: to your house, but sometimes we treat it like there
Speaker 1: is one non negotiable exactly, or in the case of
Speaker 1: like skip Blagg, which I mentioned earlier, think that you
Speaker 1: actually have to make you know your make it to
Speaker 1: your destination either, right, Like, that's not a rule either. Um,
Speaker 1: you can book to another destination and hop off early.
Speaker 1: But yeah, depending on where you'd like to fly, you
Speaker 1: might want to drive even further to an airport in
Speaker 1: order to get the best deal. For example, some of
Speaker 1: the best to flight deals to Europe come out of
Speaker 1: like Chicago or New York. And so if you live
Speaker 1: in the Midwest and you've got family in Chicago, will
Speaker 1: combine that trip with the chance to see those folks
Speaker 1: spend a couple of days there. Uh, it could drastically
Speaker 1: reduce the overall expense of your trip, and you know,
Speaker 1: stubbornly attempting to book that European vacation from Birmingham, Alabama
Speaker 1: or Memphis, Tennessee could end up costing you a whole
Speaker 1: lot more and just being a little more flexible. For instance, Matt,
Speaker 1: like for us to get the Chicago it's in incredibly cheap,
Speaker 1: so you know, booking that international trip from there and
Speaker 1: then booking a separate trip to Chicago can make a
Speaker 1: whole lot of sense. Yeah, and let's say you really
Speaker 1: want to visit a super cool spot like Croatia and
Speaker 1: Eastern Europe. Well you might find that the ticket prices
Speaker 1: to Croatia never or like at least rarely go on sale,
Speaker 1: and so instead consider booking round trip tickets to another
Speaker 1: European destination that frequently has cheap tickets, like maybe London
Speaker 1: or Paris. It all depends on the tickets from your
Speaker 1: local airport or whatever airport that you're you're willing to
Speaker 1: drive to or to fly to to get the best deal.
Speaker 1: But there's a good chance that it's gonna be a
Speaker 1: heck of a lot cheaper to book travel on one
Speaker 1: of the euro discount airlines to your Eastern European destination
Speaker 1: from a bigger Western European city, Rome to Rio, like
Speaker 1: the number two. That's a great site that can help
Speaker 1: you defind cheaper ways to get around Europe as well. Yeah, Matt,
Speaker 1: even just for like a non European trip as well.
Speaker 1: For a lot of folks who want to go to
Speaker 1: a cool place like Hawaii and you live on the
Speaker 1: East Coast, oftentimes the best way to get to why
Speaker 1: by paying the least amount of money is to book
Speaker 1: a trip first to an airport on the West coast,
Speaker 1: whether it's like l A or San Francisco or you know, Seattle,
Speaker 1: Maybe hang out for a day or two and one
Speaker 1: of those cool, you know cities on the West Coast,
Speaker 1: and then hop over to Hawaii from there. There's just
Speaker 1: so many more deals to Hawaii from the West Coast,
Speaker 1: and ultimately you're just gonna pay a whole lot less
Speaker 1: money by kind of splitting up your itinerary in that way. Yeah.
Speaker 1: And so while we're talking about destinations, consider the different
Speaker 1: costs that you're gonna occur wherever it is that you're
Speaker 1: planning to vacation to, right and so it's gonna be
Speaker 1: more expensive to get to Thailand than it is to say,
Speaker 1: get to San Francisco for most places. But San Francisco
Speaker 1: is an expensive city to hang out in. Uh and
Speaker 1: so if you're staying for a couple of weeks, the
Speaker 1: overall cost of your trip is actually gonna likely be
Speaker 1: smaller if you ought for Thailand instead of San Francisco,
Speaker 1: even though the price of the plane ticket is going
Speaker 1: to be like three times as much. So just know
Speaker 1: how expensive the city that you're planning to visit actually
Speaker 1: is before you book, and think about the total over
Speaker 1: all cost of your trip, not just the cost of
Speaker 1: your flight. The cost of the flight is definitely important
Speaker 1: because that's oftentimes the most expensive aspect of your vacation,
Speaker 1: but it also depends on how long you're willing to
Speaker 1: stay there and the costs associated with that destination. Yeah, totally,
Speaker 1: And Matt, like you said, there are so many ways
Speaker 1: that we can save on the cost of our trip. Well,
Speaker 1: if you're looking for great ways, great ideas to stretch
Speaker 1: your dollar at the destination that you're going to, trip
Speaker 1: advisor is a website that you really really need to
Speaker 1: check out. Right to me, like what yelped did for
Speaker 1: finding a good restaurant trip Advisor did for helping you,
Speaker 1: like find the diamond in the rough boutique hotel you
Speaker 1: know that wasn't crazy expensive. Um. There's just like so
Speaker 1: much information mostly coming from travelers helping other travelers. They're
Speaker 1: finding the cool stuff to visit, finding the cheap places
Speaker 1: to stay that are really nice. Um. Finding the cool
Speaker 1: things to hit up and see in a particular location
Speaker 1: that don't cost a whole lot of money. So yeah,
Speaker 1: trip Advisor is definitely a site that you're gonna want to,
Speaker 1: you know, spend quite a bit of time on, usually
Speaker 1: for a lot of destinations that you don't know much about. Yeah,
Speaker 1: And speaking of the overall cost of your trip adding up,
Speaker 1: be aware of fees. The lowest price plane ticket might
Speaker 1: not mean the lowest overall price, and that's because of
Speaker 1: the different airlines. They all have different fee structures, So
Speaker 1: be aware of the fees, the different baggage charges that
Speaker 1: different airlines charge. So Jill, earlier, I mentioned that forty
Speaker 1: one flight from Atlanta to Denver, Well, that's flight is
Speaker 1: with Spirit Airlines. I figured that might be the case,
Speaker 1: and they are charging an extra eighty seven bucks for
Speaker 1: you to bring a carry on item you're allowed the
Speaker 1: cost of the ticket. Yeah, and that crazy Yeah, they
Speaker 1: got you with the fees. And so it's just important
Speaker 1: to be aware of that because I mean, in my case,
Speaker 1: if I can travel with a small backpack, uh, and
Speaker 1: that's good for the weekend, well, you know what, Like,
Speaker 1: make sure that you're aware of all the other fees,
Speaker 1: not just the baggage fees. For instance, make sure that
Speaker 1: you print your ticket out at home, right right. Don't
Speaker 1: spend the two bucks to get it printed out at
Speaker 1: a kiosk or god forbid, have the attendant printed off,
Speaker 1: because that will be an extra tin dollars. And so
Speaker 1: you want to make sure that you're aware of all
Speaker 1: these different fees. If Southwest, if they fly out of
Speaker 1: your home airport, make sure to check their flight schedule
Speaker 1: on southwest dot com Google flights. They don't list Southwest
Speaker 1: fairs uh. And if Southwest is the same price, you
Speaker 1: likely want to fly with them. Because of their commitment
Speaker 1: to tamping down fees. There are no check baggage fees
Speaker 1: on the first two bags that you can that you
Speaker 1: bring on board. And said that, could you know that
Speaker 1: could be a huge savings in and of itself. Uh.
Speaker 1: And plus it's actually kind of perfect if you want
Speaker 1: to bring some tasty craft beers back from your trip,
Speaker 1: depending on where you're traveling to. Also, Southwest doesn't play
Speaker 1: the change fee game as well. If you need to
Speaker 1: change your dates after booking, you'll only pay for the
Speaker 1: additional fair costs if there are any. If you need
Speaker 1: to change your dates with Delta, well it's typically two bucks.
Speaker 1: Although change fees are actually being waved right now on
Speaker 1: the cheapest basic economy fairs through the rest of the
Speaker 1: year as they are just struggling with customer service whole times.
Speaker 1: A lot of folks are having their flights bumps, a
Speaker 1: lot of folks are on the phone waiting for that
Speaker 1: customer service, and so some of these change fees are
Speaker 1: being waved with the different carriers, and make sure to
Speaker 1: look into that if you're looking to book anytime soon. Yeah,
Speaker 1: fees are an important part of the equation. And one
Speaker 1: of the other things that we haven't really talked about
Speaker 1: yet is rental cars, and that's that's an important part
Speaker 1: of a trip equation for a whole lot of people,
Speaker 1: and it's one of the most frustrating parts of booking
Speaker 1: a trip right now for for most folks too, right,
Speaker 1: And and that's partly because it's like rental car prices
Speaker 1: of Skyrocket, Actually getting a rental car has become really
Speaker 1: difficult in a lot of places dollar a week cam
Speaker 1: Re Rental and Jackson Hole or whatever we're looking at. Yeah,
Speaker 1: and when we mentioned one, I don't know a couple
Speaker 1: of months ago in Hawaii that you know was similarly priced.
Speaker 1: So yeah, the rental car prices have gone up so
Speaker 1: much that it behooves you to pay even more close
Speaker 1: attention to that. Whereas before you could save you know, bucks,
Speaker 1: now you can potentially save hundreds and hundreds of dollars
Speaker 1: by booking rental car well, and we actually talked about
Speaker 1: that with Clark Howard recently. Where you know, where you
Speaker 1: fly should be partially termine right now by rental car
Speaker 1: costs on the ground, especially right now, and always booking
Speaker 1: a refundable car immediately upon booking your flight with one
Speaker 1: of the major car rental companies is something that we
Speaker 1: encourage you to do. Basically, it's like having the burden
Speaker 1: the hand, right, so you have this, you at least
Speaker 1: have our rental car booked, even if it costs way
Speaker 1: too much money. But after that, you should be shopping
Speaker 1: rates as you get closer to your trip. You know,
Speaker 1: one excellent way to have someone else do that for
Speaker 1: you is by using a site called auto slash dot com.
Speaker 1: We'll link to that in the show notes too, but
Speaker 1: basically auto slash shops those car rental rates for you, uh,
Speaker 1: you know, behind the scenes, so you're not even having
Speaker 1: to put in the effort. It's one of the best
Speaker 1: sites really when it comes to getting a good deal
Speaker 1: on a car that you need while you're sipping around
Speaker 1: on vacation. Yeah, and also consider a company like Turo.
Speaker 1: Right now to you are, Oh, you could save more
Speaker 1: by renting a car from an individual kind of like
Speaker 1: Airbnb style instead of renting from one of the major
Speaker 1: car rental companies. Hopefully the car rental industry gets back
Speaker 1: into a state of normalcy soon where the prices are
Speaker 1: are more predictable, but for the time being, this needs
Speaker 1: to be a major consideration when making your travel plans.
Speaker 1: And also, do you know, kind of consider skipping a
Speaker 1: car rental altogether. There are a lot of alternatives now
Speaker 1: that are available to us, like lift using Uber, even
Speaker 1: just the different micro transportation options available right like EA scooters,
Speaker 1: bike share programs, not to mention just walking. Make sure
Speaker 1: you pack a good pair of walking shoes. And it's
Speaker 1: just it always amazes me at how far I can
Speaker 1: get somewhere if I decided to walk there the same
Speaker 1: distance that I normally run multiple times a week. I'm like, okay,
Speaker 1: Like normally I'll go for like a three mile run, Like,
Speaker 1: how far could I get within the city Where I
Speaker 1: just to walk three miles? Chainces are You're a lot
Speaker 1: closer to a lot of the destinations that you might
Speaker 1: want to check out than you realize. It's just we
Speaker 1: have this disconnect between exercising for fitness and then actually
Speaker 1: walking places we feel that we have to. Oh, like, well,
Speaker 1: how are we going to get there? It's impossible. It's
Speaker 1: like no, there's sidewalks there, There are ways to get
Speaker 1: to the places that we want to get to, plus
Speaker 1: the added serendipity that comes with that kind of travel,
Speaker 1: right man, Yeah, I think walking around a city that
Speaker 1: you're visiting is the best way to get to know
Speaker 1: that city. Like, I much prefer it, even though you
Speaker 1: know we'll walk miles and miles and miles in a
Speaker 1: day when we're visiting someplace but that's how we find
Speaker 1: some of these cool hidden spots. That's how you get
Speaker 1: to know the city in a way that you don't
Speaker 1: otherwise when you're like confined to a taxi cab or yeah,
Speaker 1: because really, oh I have to get to this place.
Speaker 1: Oh we have dinner reservations. But what if you walk
Speaker 1: to that place and then you might pass this amazing
Speaker 1: smelling taco truck and you're like, you know what, let's
Speaker 1: cancel those plans. There's a there's great music over there,
Speaker 1: and there's a bunch of folks over there like lined
Speaker 1: up for the you know, for those tacos. That sounds
Speaker 1: like what I want to do instead, And so yeah,
Speaker 1: it's just a fun way to approach travel, sort of
Speaker 1: like again with the destinations, it's all about being open,
Speaker 1: it's all about being flexible. Uh. Not only could it
Speaker 1: lead to a lot more fun, but you can also
Speaker 1: save a ton of money as well. And so we've
Speaker 1: got even more things for you to consider when you're
Speaker 1: trying to book a great trip on the cheap, including
Speaker 1: vacation packages. And we'll get to more right after this break.
Speaker 1: All right, we're back. We're talking about how to save
Speaker 1: money on travel and Matt, we're gonna get to booking
Speaker 1: a cruise. Do you need a travel agent. We're gonna
Speaker 1: talk about vacation packages, all that kind of stuff in
Speaker 1: just a second, but let's talk about lodging for a
Speaker 1: second as well. Um, you know, simpler to booking a
Speaker 1: rental car booking, we talked about booking a refundable rental
Speaker 1: car and then shopping around with the service like auto
Speaker 1: Slash or even just yourself, like doing the searches to
Speaker 1: see whether prices have dropped or not. Well, booking a
Speaker 1: refundable room can be the best first step when you're
Speaker 1: booking a hotel as well. Right, Hotel Tonight is one
Speaker 1: of the best sites for last minute lodging deals, but
Speaker 1: price line and hotwire are actually my two favorites to
Speaker 1: the best to overall sites in my opinion. For booking
Speaker 1: a hotel room, you can save even more by getting
Speaker 1: like really nerdy and bidding for a hotel on price line.
Speaker 1: That's something not many people do. Part of the reason
Speaker 1: why is because when you bid for a hotel on
Speaker 1: price line, you don't know what hotel you're gonna be
Speaker 1: staying at, and people are like, I don't know about that. Like,
Speaker 1: I kind of want to know where I'm staying. But
Speaker 1: there is a site called bidding for travel dot com.
Speaker 1: They were links in the show notes that can help you.
Speaker 1: It's this old school style message board where people reveal
Speaker 1: the hotels that they've been getting UM and how much
Speaker 1: they got it for, which can help you in in
Speaker 1: your bidding UM and that can save you even more money,
Speaker 1: like I've never paid less for a hotel room than
Speaker 1: I've paid on price line, Like that's just the best
Speaker 1: value mar none if you're bidding. But yeah, Matt, actually
Speaker 1: UM took advantage of price lines like bidding a feature
Speaker 1: back in the day when Emily and I were getting
Speaker 1: married and there were three four star hotel rooms in
Speaker 1: downtown Memphis where we got married, and I knew there
Speaker 1: was one I wanted to stay at. But when I
Speaker 1: looked at the hotel and I looked at all these
Speaker 1: other one third party websites, the best rate I could
Speaker 1: find was something like four UM and I didn't have
Speaker 1: that kind of money or a better yet, I just
Speaker 1: didn't want to spend that kind of money. And I
Speaker 1: was like, you know, they're all four star hotels, even
Speaker 1: though there's this one I want to stay at I
Speaker 1: have to I'm going to go in this other direction.
Speaker 1: So I did the bidding feature and I ended up
Speaker 1: I think it was like a hundred and sixty dollars
Speaker 1: a night was the price I got, and serendipitously, I
Speaker 1: got the hotel I want. Yes. Yeah, sometimes you can
Speaker 1: kind of like read between the lines a little bit
Speaker 1: and like see what different amenities they offer, and it's
Speaker 1: just like, okay, is that how they talk about what
Speaker 1: it is they offer on their own website? So yeah,
Speaker 1: but that doesn't always work, right, It doesn't. You could
Speaker 1: have ended up at the hotel you didn't want to stay.
Speaker 1: I could have. I could have, but I STI would
Speaker 1: have been okay because I just like that price a
Speaker 1: little bit nice. If it was like aff yell o
Speaker 1: price effors tonight, I probably would have settled uncertainty. But
Speaker 1: I was willing to bid in order to get the
Speaker 1: lowest possible price. And so yeah, I always think back
Speaker 1: to that. I feel like the price line gods were
Speaker 1: were on my side when it for you man. Yeah,
Speaker 1: And for the longest time now, it hasn't made a
Speaker 1: whole lot of sense to book directly through the hotel
Speaker 1: because these third party sites were far superior when it
Speaker 1: came to saving money, but that isn't as true now
Speaker 1: as it once was, because these hotels are starting to
Speaker 1: realize that they need to price competite of lee and
Speaker 1: so if you want to a specific hotel, check the
Speaker 1: rate on their site as well. And so for instance, Marriott,
Speaker 1: they they've got this best rate guarantee. If you find
Speaker 1: a lower rate and then you submit acclaim form, they
Speaker 1: will give you an additional off which is pretty awesome.
Speaker 1: It's like this price match guarantee. It's like it's like
Speaker 1: Walmart our best Buyers something. Uh. And sometimes it helps
Speaker 1: just to you know, pick up the phone actually make
Speaker 1: a phone call. Us millennials have to fight that a
Speaker 1: little bit because we want everything to be online, we
Speaker 1: want it to be easy, but actually with somebody. Now,
Speaker 1: in this case, you probably need to actually make the
Speaker 1: phone call talking with the human. Yeah. Man. You might
Speaker 1: get some helpful information too about what's what of other
Speaker 1: discounts are available that might be difficult to find on
Speaker 1: the website. They might have something that they're offering that
Speaker 1: isn't quite public yet, especially for some of those smaller hotels.
Speaker 1: They don't always publish everything, and they might be like, oh, yeah,
Speaker 1: we got this and this, and if you come at
Speaker 1: this point in time, well you're gonna save this much money.
Speaker 1: You can ask some probing questions and get some helpful
Speaker 1: money saving answers. And and Matt I mentioned trip Advisor earlier,
Speaker 1: but I feel like trip Advisor is also just like
Speaker 1: the best site to that when you're looking for lodging.
Speaker 1: You don't have to book through Triprovisor, although you can,
Speaker 1: but yeah, especially if you're looking at some of those
Speaker 1: smaller boutique hotels, you know that they're helpful reviews and
Speaker 1: rankings on that site. So yeah, you might even find
Speaker 1: a better hotel um than you were initially planning to
Speaker 1: stay at the guests love, which costs less money per night.
Speaker 1: So you might be like, oh, man, I just found
Speaker 1: a better option than a cooler part of town that
Speaker 1: costs less money than what I was planning on spending.
Speaker 1: And I've had some some success finding really cute hotels
Speaker 1: that are kind of in like a part of town
Speaker 1: that I want to stay in, or maybe some of
Speaker 1: the bigger hotels you know aren't. And yeah, so the
Speaker 1: folks who rate and review on trip Advisor just really
Speaker 1: have a big impact on that. It's a great community
Speaker 1: and it's a great place to really, you know, do
Speaker 1: some research before you decide to book a place to stay.
Speaker 1: That's right, Okay, cruises, let's talk about those, man. If
Speaker 1: you are a fan of cruises, cruise compete dot com,
Speaker 1: this is probably the best site for booking one and
Speaker 1: getting a deal. Personally, I've never actually been on a cruise,
Speaker 1: but that's where i'd go, uh if I was gonna
Speaker 1: if I was gonna book same here. Also never been
Speaker 1: on Yeah, yeah, and I don't really have a desire
Speaker 1: although maybe I don't know someday will I'm not opposed
Speaker 1: to it, it's just I don't want to do that
Speaker 1: right now and it feels kind of old school and
Speaker 1: guess what, so do these websites. But but that doesn't
Speaker 1: mean that you can't get some great savings from cruise
Speaker 1: compete dot com. There's this other side as well, cruise
Speaker 1: critic dot com. That's another great side if you're trying
Speaker 1: to get just you know, educated, if you're trying to
Speaker 1: learn all about taking a cruise. Also, timing plays a
Speaker 1: big role here. The best time to to get a
Speaker 1: cruise is typically the period between Thanksgiving and Christmas. Uh.
Speaker 1: And you might even want to consult a travel agent
Speaker 1: if it's your first time booking a cruise, just so
Speaker 1: that you can make sure that you're able to get
Speaker 1: the experience that you're looking for. It all depends on
Speaker 1: how much time you're willing to invest in this little
Speaker 1: vacation of yours. Yeah, you could educate yourself to the
Speaker 1: max and then you know, put your your own cruise
Speaker 1: and save some money. But um, there's a lot to learn,
Speaker 1: and you can make a big mistake and you could
Speaker 1: be stuck on a ship that you aren't really excited
Speaker 1: to be on for a week or ten days or
Speaker 1: something like that. Um, and and that would be a travesty.
Speaker 1: So yeah, booking using a travel agent might make the
Speaker 1: most sense, especially for newbie cruisers. Match it's probably the
Speaker 1: tact I would take it into going on my first one,
Speaker 1: so I didn't screw it up and end up hating
Speaker 1: my life for a week. So let's continue talking about
Speaker 1: travel agents for for for just a little bit longer. Right, Um,
Speaker 1: it feels like travel agents feel like this thing that
Speaker 1: old school people used to do, and now we just
Speaker 1: book our own travel directly. It's simpler, it's easier, and
Speaker 1: we have all the control. But I think it can
Speaker 1: be worth hiring someone to help you plan and book
Speaker 1: a trip, especially like let's say you're going in a
Speaker 1: larger group, or you're taking a lengthy trip that includes
Speaker 1: a lot of like planes, trains, and automobiles, Like you're
Speaker 1: hopping all over the place. You're hitting a bunch of
Speaker 1: different and different types of transportation, maybe like a biplane,
Speaker 1: and like, I don't know, you're gonna parasale somewhere too,
Speaker 1: um tug boat and tugboat travel agents got your back
Speaker 1: on that. So yeah, it's it's important to ask, if
Speaker 1: you're going to use a travel agent, how they get paid.
Speaker 1: And if they say that you don't have to pay
Speaker 1: them a dime, well, then it means that they're making
Speaker 1: commissions from the vendors that they work with. So the
Speaker 1: hotel that you're staying at might get they might get
Speaker 1: a nice kick back from that hotel, and so yeah,
Speaker 1: their decisions for you might be based on what's in
Speaker 1: their best interest. You just want to make sure you
Speaker 1: know that ahead of time. But if you are in
Speaker 1: that position and you think a travel agent might make
Speaker 1: the most sense, for you. Travel sense dot org is
Speaker 1: a site that's worth checking out if you feel like
Speaker 1: you need that expert advice to kind of help you
Speaker 1: with planning your trip, because I love planning trips, Matt,
Speaker 1: but it can be a little daunting, it can be
Speaker 1: a little overwhelming. I think I saw a stat like
Speaker 1: the average person spends something like thirty hours planning a
Speaker 1: trip and they go to something like thirty eight different websites.
Speaker 1: So it is intense to plan a big trip and
Speaker 1: it takes a lot of time. But honestly, for me,
Speaker 1: I feel like that's a big part of the fund,
Speaker 1: Like I don't want to miss out on that, dude. Absolutely, Yeah,
Speaker 1: And you know, like a different a site like that,
Speaker 1: Like they'll say that they can save you some money
Speaker 1: as well, but let's be honest, I think the biggest
Speaker 1: advantage is the fact that it's convenient, Like you don't
Speaker 1: have to spend a ton of time on it, and
Speaker 1: there's nothing wrong with paying for convenience sometimes if you
Speaker 1: know what you're getting into, if you know what you're
Speaker 1: getting into, and of course if you have the money
Speaker 1: to spend. But like, yeah, like you said too, if
Speaker 1: a large if you're looking at traveling with a larger group,
Speaker 1: or if you're looking at it like a non English
Speaker 1: speaking country or just somewhere that's really off the beaten path.
Speaker 1: I think it's like like travel suce dot org would
Speaker 1: definitely come in handy. And also let's talk about vacation packages,
Speaker 1: you know, like all inclusive kind of deal, Like you
Speaker 1: buy this package and it includes travel, include your lodging,
Speaker 1: different little perks that they throw in as well. That's
Speaker 1: like my little sister's favorite way to travel value right, Well,
Speaker 1: these could be a good deal. Often you are going
Speaker 1: to say the most by booking everything directly yourself, but
Speaker 1: like we said, that can also be the most labor
Speaker 1: intensive way to book travel, and so these packages might
Speaker 1: be honestly just sort of like a stop gap. It's
Speaker 1: like halfway between doing everything yourself and then going with
Speaker 1: a full on agent that is also going to cost
Speaker 1: a lot more. But Costco Travel, have you ever done
Speaker 1: any packages through Costco Travel? I've been checking them out
Speaker 1: recent now that I'm a Costco member. I'm like, Oh,
Speaker 1: what what all do they have to offer? Which I
Speaker 1: am so proud of you for that. No, I've definitely
Speaker 1: perused them before, but I've never actually pounced on one
Speaker 1: of those Costco travel trips, but they're well reviewed and
Speaker 1: they've got a lot of amazing the different packages. If
Speaker 1: you're interested in booking a trip without making you know
Speaker 1: all that trip planning like your part time job, and
Speaker 1: so if you're a costco member, it might be worth
Speaker 1: checking to see what they offer before you start to
Speaker 1: piecemeal your own trip together because in the end, wow,
Speaker 1: if they have something that's pretty much exactly like what
Speaker 1: you would have planned for yourself, well why not go
Speaker 1: with that package? And there truly might be some serious
Speaker 1: discounts built into that package because they're taking advantage of
Speaker 1: scale and their ability to offer that at a discount
Speaker 1: to their members, no doubt. There's a few more tips
Speaker 1: we gotta get you, Matt. Let's talk about travel insurance.
Speaker 1: Depending on what's going on in your life, travel insurance
Speaker 1: is a purchase that could end up saving you a
Speaker 1: lot of money in the end if you aren't able
Speaker 1: to take the trip that you've booked. So we would
Speaker 1: suggest to make sure to shop for that travel insurance
Speaker 1: any third party site. Oftentimes, Matt, people get their travel
Speaker 1: insurance when they're booking their airfare. They're buying a product
Speaker 1: that's told by the airline, and we would say no, no,
Speaker 1: don't do that, Go get your own policy right instead,
Speaker 1: And so yes, it's like square mouth and Ensure my
Speaker 1: trip are great for getting your own policy. Look at
Speaker 1: the fine print and make sure that your policy, the
Speaker 1: pilot policy you're buying, will cover any possible reason that
Speaker 1: you are likely to cancel. The worst place to be
Speaker 1: stuck in is when you can't go on a trip
Speaker 1: but your policy doesn't cover the specific reason that you're canceling.
Speaker 1: So you want to make sure that you're not cheaping out,
Speaker 1: that you're buying the insurance that's going to cover every
Speaker 1: possible reason for cancelation if you need it. Yeah, really,
Speaker 1: I'll find print regarding pandemic related cancelations, right because a
Speaker 1: lot of folks found themselves in this position spring of
Speaker 1: last year. Also, another quick tip, use the right credit card,
Speaker 1: because booking a big trip can be the perfect time
Speaker 1: to add a new card into your life, into your
Speaker 1: financial life. You can take advantage of a sweet sign
Speaker 1: up bonus because maybe you're about to drop a decent
Speaker 1: chunk of money on that trip. Right that being said,
Speaker 1: of course, you want to make sure that you have
Speaker 1: the cash on hand to pay that balance off in
Speaker 1: full when the bill does come due. But that new
Speaker 1: card that can allow you to travel for free or
Speaker 1: at least for much cheaper. I can also offer other
Speaker 1: travel benefits that you you may not have considered, like
Speaker 1: a rental car insurance. A lot of them have zero
Speaker 1: foreign transaction fees. Regardless. You want to make sure that
Speaker 1: you're not using a card that's gonna charge you every
Speaker 1: time you swipe when you're traveling. Some cards to have
Speaker 1: that free lounge access if you're into that kind of thing,
Speaker 1: to say, pre check status is included sometimes for free,
Speaker 1: a lot of different things like that. And so definitely
Speaker 1: put your trip expenses on a credit card for those perks,
Speaker 1: but again only if you have the cash to pay
Speaker 1: off that balance in full. Yeah. Another tip man I
Speaker 1: want to mention, and I think you briefly handed at
Speaker 1: it earlier, was is to tell people just to go
Speaker 1: on a longer trip. You're talking about your your two
Speaker 1: weeks back to back at the beach, and hell you're
Speaker 1: able to complete, yeah, unplug in a better way than
Speaker 1: if it was just a shorter trip exactly. And so
Speaker 1: I think you know for that reason a longer trip
Speaker 1: is really helpful. But for another reason is that longer
Speaker 1: travel actually helps save you money. Right we we We
Speaker 1: talked about this actually with Nomadic Matt not too too
Speaker 1: long ago. But yeah, this doesn't work for everyone's schedule,
Speaker 1: and not everyone even wants to travel like this. But
Speaker 1: when one round trip plane ticket allows you to explore
Speaker 1: an entire country or even a region by spending three
Speaker 1: weeks or a month or or even longer, well, it
Speaker 1: lowers the cost per day dramatically. Um. Instead of staying
Speaker 1: in hotels, you can stay in a cheap airbnb, or
Speaker 1: you can stay in a variety of different low cost places.
Speaker 1: And yeah, basically the discounts on long term lodging can
Speaker 1: be substantial. So yeah, we would say booking for a
Speaker 1: month instead of a week, going on a longer trip
Speaker 1: can have just all these money saving effects. Um. And
Speaker 1: it can actually help you unplug in a better way.
Speaker 1: So don't be afraid to travel longer than just a
Speaker 1: week long vacation, which I feel like it's kind of
Speaker 1: the norm in the States. Um. And you know, I
Speaker 1: don't take a page out of the book of the
Speaker 1: offseas or the Germans, and and and go on like
Speaker 1: a little bit longer of a trip. Yeah, and again,
Speaker 1: I mean transportation costs are often the most expensive part
Speaker 1: of traveling, right, And so if you're constantly just hopping
Speaker 1: from one city to the next, if you're in Europe,
Speaker 1: if you're taking the plane every couple of days to
Speaker 1: get to a new city, or or even taking a train, like,
Speaker 1: all that adds up. And if you can what nomatic
Speaker 1: mat said was basically travel slower, right, And so if
Speaker 1: you can stay in a city for longer, take your time,
Speaker 1: don't spend all of your money on transportation, but instead
Speaker 1: get to know a place, uh, hang out a little bit.
Speaker 1: Hopefully you will not only save money, but find that
Speaker 1: you are able to enjoy yourself a lot more as well.
Speaker 1: And so we feel that this litany of travel tips
Speaker 1: is going to help you the next time that you
Speaker 1: attempt to book your next getaway. And it's worth mentioning
Speaker 1: that being company loyal like that's going to cost you money.
Speaker 1: Right if you only fly one specific airline, or if
Speaker 1: you're only willing to stay at a particular hotel chain,
Speaker 1: it's gonna be a whole lot harder to save money
Speaker 1: on your trip. The overarching maxim that we're going to
Speaker 1: basically keep repeating here is flexibility. This is another area
Speaker 1: where flexibility is going to be crucial in order to
Speaker 1: save money when you're taking a trip. Not only does
Speaker 1: that apply to where you go when you go, but
Speaker 1: also just the different companies that you do business with. Yeah. Man,
Speaker 1: I remember a coworker and a friend coming to me
Speaker 1: one time asking me how to save money on a trip.
Speaker 1: And he was very staunch in the company so he
Speaker 1: wanted to do business with and the dates he wanted
Speaker 1: to go. And I was like, I'm sorry, man, if
Speaker 1: you if you can't be a little more flexible on
Speaker 1: some of these things, like a lot we can do
Speaker 1: for you. I showed him, Hey, this other airline has
Speaker 1: a much lower fare on these dates that are close
Speaker 1: to when you're going, Like would you be willing to
Speaker 1: do this? And he's like nah, And I'm like, okay,
Speaker 1: well the price is the price. Then if if you're
Speaker 1: not willing to be flexible in that way, So You're right,
Speaker 1: flexibility is key. It's really um when it comes down
Speaker 1: to it. The number one word we would say is
Speaker 1: the crux of saving money on travel. It all comes
Speaker 1: down to being flexible absolutely. All right. Well, um, let's
Speaker 1: get back to the beer that we had on this episode. Mat.
Speaker 1: This one was called Vaca Daydream, And since you know
Speaker 1: we're talking about taking a vacation, I feel like this
Speaker 1: was the perfect beer to have on this episode. This
Speaker 1: one is by Pipe Works Brewing Company. What was your
Speaker 1: take on this beer? Yeah? On the front, I'll just
Speaker 1: mention the label here real quick. It's got a like
Speaker 1: they include a unicorn like in a lot of their branding,
Speaker 1: like a lot of their different beers. There's like a
Speaker 1: unicorn in it somehow, and there's a you know, this
Speaker 1: unicorn sitting there like a tropical the Island shirt, just
Speaker 1: sitting there watching TV, watching an island on TV. He's
Speaker 1: like he wants to go. But they're trying to infuse
Speaker 1: some of those vibes into this beer as well. Uh.
Speaker 1: And they also loaded it up with just all the
Speaker 1: different tropical kinds of flavors. What's the there's that avery
Speaker 1: beer with the like the tiki Tiki guy. It kind
Speaker 1: of reminds me of that what it It's like mango
Speaker 1: and passion fruit I think in that one. But is
Speaker 1: that a Belgian? I think that's like a Belgian or
Speaker 1: something like that. This kind of has like Belgian wit
Speaker 1: flavors to a certain extent. It's it's it's a little
Speaker 1: herbally and kind of once you infuse some of those
Speaker 1: tropical flavors like that. This is probably the least tasting
Speaker 1: Hazy I p a I think I've ever had. But
Speaker 1: that doesn't mean I didn't enjoy. I thought it was
Speaker 1: really good. Yeah, I thought it was okay, Like it was.
Speaker 1: It was a little it's a little weird, um like
Speaker 1: maybe too many vacation vibes thrust into this beer. Um.
Speaker 1: I do like the pineapple vibe that that was going on,
Speaker 1: but I feel like it was a bit maybe too
Speaker 1: much lacto and coconut that just kind of like muddled
Speaker 1: up some of the flavors for me. Um, I'll say
Speaker 1: it's it's decent, but not, you know, not not one
Speaker 1: of the top beers we've ever had on the show.
Speaker 1: Especially about Pipe Works too, because they make some really
Speaker 1: really good stuff. And yeah, I guess my expectations were
Speaker 1: high to before them. I would expected something a bit more,
Speaker 1: but just across the board, I thought it was pretty solid.
Speaker 1: And it includes Sabro hops as well. Uh, and that
Speaker 1: naturally has a coconut like flavor profile going on. So
Speaker 1: I don't know if they added coconut on top of
Speaker 1: the sabro hops, because you can get a dry hoped
Speaker 1: I p A or whatever, just a double hazy with
Speaker 1: Sabro hops with no fruit added, and it'll taste coconutti.
Speaker 1: So if they added coconut on top of those hops,
Speaker 1: I think that could have lent to the heavy handedness
Speaker 1: of those tropical flavors. But yeah, they're not all the
Speaker 1: perfect beer. They're not all grain slams, are they. No. No,
Speaker 1: we drink a lot of good ones, and sometimes even
Speaker 1: one that's good. Let's me down a little bit, but
Speaker 1: that's okay. I still have hypeworks and leve a lot
Speaker 1: of the beers they put out, But that's gonna do
Speaker 1: it for this episode. Yeah, you can find our show
Speaker 1: notes up on our website how to money dot com. Again,
Speaker 1: we mentioned obviously a ton of resources and websites in
Speaker 1: this episode. They will all be up there and linked
Speaker 1: for you, so you can kind of like, yeah, go
Speaker 1: through those resources as you're planning your next trip, and
Speaker 1: hopefully you're able to save a ton of money when
Speaker 1: doing it. Yeah, you can bookmark it, which nobody ever
Speaker 1: does anymore. That's right, and if you've been listening for
Speaker 1: a while, we would love it if you were to
Speaker 1: let others know how much you enjoy the show. Head
Speaker 1: over to Apple Podcasts, where you can leave us a
Speaker 1: solid review over there, help us to get the word out,
Speaker 1: as we're on a mission to help others to hang
Speaker 1: on to more the money, especially when they're looking to travel.
Speaker 1: So Joel, that's gonna be it for this episode, Buddy.
Speaker 1: Until next time, best Friends Out, Best Friends Out,