Yellow Pages
Apologies for the lengthy absence! I had my first five-day stretch off of work in almost a year and I was on the road for most of it. I got to see a part of the country I've never clapped eyes on (from South Carolina to Missouri) and spend time with someone I hadn't seen in entirely too long. It was a lot of fun and definitely an adventure, but I could have done a lot better on the frugality part of it.
This road trip was only "planned" in the sense that I knew when I flew into South Carolina and I knew when I needed to be at the airport in St. Louis. We were flying by the seats of our pants in the truest sense of the expression. Again, this was an adventure and not one I regret, but if I were planning another, similar trip in the future, I'd take a little more care with the legwork before I left.
One thing I'd do is look up hotel coupons online. Hotels were easily the biggest expense of the trip (well, that and gas) and if we'd had a packet of various walk-in coupons (which can be printed for free from sites like RoomSaver) for hotels along the way, it would have saved a bundle. Even if you only use one of the four you had printed, you're still coming out ahead. And it's not like a half-dozen pieces of printer paper are going to take up a whole lot of room.
On the last day of driving, my traveling partner and I wised up and stopped at a grocery store before we hit the road. The deli counter provided cold cuts and a little cheese, and along with a bag of hoagie rolls and some hummus, we had a delicious roadside lunch. The drive took us through the Appalachians and Mark Twain National Forest, but until that last day we weren't really able to enjoy our surroundings — we were stuck on the highway and in towns for food. It would be cheaper and infinitely more flexible to have a cooler in the backseat with lunch fixings ready when you were hungry.
My big screw-up was the rental car. Screw. Up. I made the rookie mistake of assuming there would be one-way rentals available at the airport in Columbia, SC — it's a state capital, right? That's gotta be a decent sized airport. A reservation would have locked us into leaving on a certain day and I didn't want to sacrifice the flexibility. Well. I was mistaken. There were two rental cars to be had at that airport that would get us to St. Louis, and both were in the $150-$200 a DAY range. I had figured about $500-$600 TOTAL for the rental car, and the woman at the counter was quoting me prices above $1,500. After a minor freak-out on my part, my companion's mother (a travel agent) stepped up and started haggling. She asked about discounts, she asked about economy pricing even though the only car available was a premium. I was in awe. The woman at the rental counter was able to get the price to about half what she'd initially quoted (though it did jump a bit when she took my license and realized I was under 25 and would have to pay the underage driver fee — I should be flattered, right?).
So what would I do differently on the rental car? RESERVATIONS. Even though you have to commit to a date, it saves a good chunk of money. Again, looking online or through a travel agent (after seeing one in action, I have the utmost respect for their mad skills) can probably add even more savings. A quick Google search and entering dummy reservation info for the same locations and days gave me a price well below what I paid.
Great. Now I'm mad at myself again. Hopefully you'll learn from my dumb mistakes in time for your next vacation!
Got a way to save on vacations, or even just a good story? Leave it in the comments! The photo? Taken out the window just after crossing the Mississippi at sunset. From the passenger seat, thankyouverymuch.
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Vacation time, and how to do it better
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