Summer vacations get downsized

I have friends all over the world so I just go places where I know people… airfare seems a lot more affordable when you don’t have to pay lodging. As for food and recreation, only locals can tell you the best places to eat and have fun without spending a fortune, so it’s best to go where you know a native! Of course, don’t forget to return the favor when your friends are in your neck of the woods.

We are traveling from Illinois To North Carolina (outer banks). We rent a large condo for two families and share the costs…makes it much cheaper that way. we are driving our family SUV which will actually cost us more than the rental fees for the condo. I’m fuguring 8 fill ups at about $100 a shot. The condo is on $600 for our half. All in all it’s still a cheap vacation and an excellent spot for a great vacation.
Next Year Disney…and we are flying…I’m already saving up for that trip. I’m guessing it will cost us about 6000 – maybe more…Alot of the money for the happiest place on earth…but we don’t go every year…we went four years ago and spent half as much. Luckily we are pretty blessed and have great jobs.

I’m travelling to the US from Europe for a road trip. Gas prices are so cheap in the US.

I have two good friends that go with me on a girls-only vacation. One lives on the Big Island in Hawaii and the other in Phoenix. We were going to go to Oahu but with the cost of flights and hotels, we opted to piggy-back on my friend’s business trip to the mainland and planned a vacation in San Diego & a 5 day Mexican Cruise which only cost $300pp.

We decided to skip our family summer trip to Crested Butte ($275/night), and instead booked a campsite at Rocky Mountain National park for $20/night. Also, my wife’s family is taking us to Italy in the fall, we are fortunate that we don’t have to pay for flight/lodging, but we do have to pay for expenses. We set up a SmartyPig.com savings account goal to start saving now for our trip, so we don’t have put it on credit and pay out the nose on credit cards.

We booked a trip to Orlando Florida, we are staying in our time share so lodging is basically free, we plan on packing most food and eating in. We have a 1 day pass to a theme park left over from 3 years ago so we plan on using them and the rest of the week will be sitting by the pool to save gas. But we have planned on high gas so we added more gas money to our budget

We are vacation close to home this year. We live in San Francisco Bay Area and instead of Hawaii we are vacationing to San Diego to visit friends.

My wife and I were planning a trip to Montana from Arizona. With our aging parents we try to get up north at least once a year but with the price of gas where it is and where it is going we decided to stay home and save the money for a trip later.

I’m cutting my distance from 500 miles to 120 at Gulf Shores, not Smokies

My husband and I were planning to drive to Mobile, AL. from our home in western Virginia to visit friends. Once gas prices started going up and up we decided to go camping at a State Park in neighboring West Virginia instead. We’re both avid campers and will have a great time in WVa., but we were really looking forward to our visit to Mobile and it’s just financially possible now.

We are cutting back our vacation to a 4 day weekend, leaving the kids with the grandparents and staying Lake City FL. It is cheaper because it is not a tourist “town” but it has fantastic swimming, snorkeling, diving and tubing at the area natural springs without the expense of staying on either Florida coasts.

Our plans to visit the Jersey Shore and Martha’s Vineyard (two separate car trips) are not changing! We will load up our truck with essentials to minimize what we’ll spend on groceries, and economize on some items to make up the difference in gas prices. We usually eat out every other night, so maybe we we eat in one extra night. The point is not to miss your life’s opportunities for fun, because it may get much worse before it improves. Family beach vacations to the nearest shore are the best when kids are young. For the dollar, driving is still the best value. Taking three people to the Vineyard in a car is approx. $1,500 less than flying. Get creative to save – keep on truckin’!

We usually go to the coast 2 or 3 times a summer with our travel trailer. Since we are teachers we have the time to travel. This year we are looking for a place to store the trailer in Corpus so we don’t have the excess gas pulling it back to Dallas.

We just came home from vacation. My son graduated from basic training at Fort Knox. We did a major road trip from the Smokey Mountains up to New England. The price of gas was ridiculous. But the memories were worth every penny. We cut costs by hiking and picnicking. The rest of the summer will be spent by the pool.

I purchased 4 tickets to the US Virgin islands in early January at a cost of 1147.00 leaving early July. If I were to book it online today the cost is over 2,600.00. It’s really a shame how the price has increased so much in less than4 months.

We cancelled our week trip to the outer banks. Instead we are spending the upcoming weekend at Busch Gardens.
We will need the saved money for gas and food price increases. I keep wishing for the end, but I have a feeling the end is far from near.

We’re retired. We’ve gone bicycling in Germany and France every year since 1997, for as long as 6 weeks. Last year we kept it to less than 3 weeks, and this year we’ll likely stay in the US. Weak dollar is the main reason, tho the high cost of air travel is also a big factor. We’re sure going to miss those adventures.

My wife and I are NOT changing our summer travel plans because of rising gasoline prices or the state of the economy. We booked our airfare to Kalispell, MT way back in December, and the only thing that’s changed is the addition of a $25 surcharge for checking a second bag.

Nearly all of our vacations over the past 37 years have been camping vacations, and this one is no different, so we automatically save a considerable amount on lodging.

We’ll probably log somewhere between 1,500 and 1,750 miles as we drive our rental car from Glacier National Park to Banff and Jasper National Parks in Canada before returning to Kalispell. With a compact car getting 30 mpg, the difference between paying $2.50 and $4.50 per gallon for gas is only $117. That’s not enough to make us change our plans.

I actually prefer to travel in the fall (and remain in Chicago in the summer for the only warm weather the city will get for the year). I was originally planning to go to Madrid, but now I will go to Buenos Aires. The decision change didn’t have to do with cost, but it certainly does help that US dollars are worth 3 times as much as Argentine pesos, (whereas the euro is worth 50% more than the dollar)!

I’m hiring a car and travelling through France for three weeks! I can’t stand the US for vacations, there is no culture, no history, no old cities and buildings to visit. All there is in the US are themeparks, dirty beaches and run-down national parks. I love the relaxed feeling France has, and everything there is so much better maintained then here, that it always feels like a big step back when I return to the US.

And if I have to pay more to see such things, so be it. For me, it beats theme parks any day of the week, and it’s well worth the expense. I’d rather spend more on my vacation and have a great memory, then spend less and look back at my vacation wondering why I went.

I’m staying home.