How to Pick the Cheapest Way to Travel

Picking the cheapest way to travel for a vacation requires some investigations and some money crunching. There are many different ways to travel across the country. It all depends on your budget. Most importantly, your flexibility.

Driving or flying? Which fits the budget better? The answer might surprise you. Do investigate the different options.

Driving:

Driving your car is a great way to save money. It is nice to have your car on your vacation. There are pros and cons. One pro is it’s in your budget. You aren’t renting a car. One con is you will add miles to your car. When we take our car, the following are the costs that we have:

1. Gas- We fill up every 3-4 hours at the cost of $50-$60 a stop
2. Hotel- We have to stop in hotels if the trip is longer than a day trip. I like to stay under the $200 range. I always pick a hotel that has a free breakfast and a pool
3. Food- Packing breakfast and lunch on the first day is a smart choice. This helps a little on food costs. Beyond that, you will need to consider costs for lunches and dinners.

Renting a car or an RV

If you decide not to take your car, there are two other options. Those are renting a car of renting an RV. Each has pros and cons.

1. Pros for renting a car: Renting a car saves the wear and tear on your car.
2. Cons for renting a car: The cost to rent could be too much for your budget.
3. Renting an RV has it’s pros and cons
   1. Con: The cost for gas is much higher
   2. Pro: The cost of staying in an RV campsite is cheaper than staying in a hotel. This type of traveling helps larger families that would need two hotel rooms.
   3. Pro: The cost of food is less as you can carry your food with you. You can shop at grocery stores which would meet the demands of picky eating children.

Flying

1. Pros: You save lots of time. Instead of taking the days to drive, you can be there in half a day. Which means you get to spend more time in the location you are traveling to. 
2. Cons: The cost to fly might be too much for your budget.
3. Cons: You will need to rent a car.

What I learned on my last trip

For my family, we drive in our own car. We have always driven. It wasn’t until recently we decided to fly. We had to rent a car as well . The trip was going out west to Yellowstone, Grand Teton and Glacier National Parks.

That drive would take 30 hours and 3 days. After adding up the cost for driving out and back only, the cost came to $2,400. I did have other things planned, like staying in Chicago for two nights and going to the Rodeo out in Cody, Wyoming. The costs was about $1,200 each way. I add all the days we were out west. The trip cost a little over $5,000 by my estimations. Yikes!

I presented this information to my husband and he was very worried to how we would pay for the trip. He did his investigation into flying and renting a car. The cost came to about the same amount as driving there and back. The reason he liked it the best was that he didn’t have to drive the 30 hours there and back which would take 6 days total. 

He saved money on the flight and rental as we have the Chase Sapphire card. This is the credit card we use to purchase everything. As we spend, we accrue points towards traveling. My husband and I have gone to Italy cheaply using the points from Chase. He used the points we had accrued towards this trip. In the end we saved $1,200 as the flight which was paid for with Chase points.  

The take away:

1. Take time to investigate your options. The answer might surprise you!