Vacation Savings Strategies
October 25th, 2006Thought I’d compile an off-the-cuff list of some of the ways we saved money during our California vacation in Orange County, Los Angeles, and the Central Coast:
-Planned ahead. Last-minute travel is more our norm, and that always seems to be more expensive because we don’t have the details figured out.
-Flew on free plane tickets. My husband’s credit card rewards come in airline mile form, and we cashed them in.
-Shopped around for the best rate on the car rental (a convertible!), which ended up being at National and using a $20 off weekly rental Entertainment coupon.
-Picked up free local maps and brochures from information kiosks and hotel lobbies.
-Split one entree at several meals (The benefit of big portions)
-Printed some Capital One Perks Saversguide coupons - $9.50 off each for our round-trip to Catalina Island, 2 free wine tastings at Buttonwood Farm Winery ($12 value), etc.
-Got Entertainment Card rates for several hotels. (”Direct-to-Hotel” is a recent discovery I’ve made, and I’ll save it for its own entry.)
-Stayed at hotels that offered free internet, free parking, and free breakfast (Hampton Inn!).
As far as the trip itself -my first time in California- we didn’t care for the smog and traffic of LA, although Venice Beach was fun to see. OC was actually chilly and cloudy, so not quite the stuff TV shows are made of. Our favorite part was wine tasting in Paso Robles. The zins and the countryside were wonderful!