Is There Such A Thing As Affordable Family Travel?

Experts state that just one week away for a family of four can cost almost $8,000 if you don’t watch your spending. And, as anyone who’s used to traveling with kids will tell you, it’s surprisingly easy to reach those staggering heights. From flights to hotels, and additional spending for meals out and excursions, taking your kids anywhere can cost a good few months of your earnings.

For this reason, many parents either don’t take their children abroad, or don’t do so anywhere near as much as they would like. Unfortunately, with kids standing to gain so much from regular travel, including confidence and diversity, you won’t want to skip these experiences altogether. 

Luckily, there are ways to knock as much as a few grand off your overall vacation bill, even if there are four or more of you traveling. This should be enough to make vacations justifiable again, or even to afford you all another trip later in the year. 

Keep on reading to find out how to make family travel affordable at last. 

# 1 – Research transport options

When you’re heading abroad, a plane will typically feel like the most obvious transportation option. It’s certainly the most convenient, fast choice. Unfortunately, flights are also expensive, especially if you need to add things like car seats to your travel costs. Pile on extras like luggage, and flight expenses could quickly outstrip what you intended to spend on your trip overall.

You can overcome this by taking time to research your transport options in full. For instance, options like overnight trains, while expensive upfront, can save the need for things like additional luggage payments, and even hotel stays during any stopovers. Equally, if there’s a boat available for a trip closer to home, you could cut costs in half. Even with flights, researching choices like late night flights or last-minute deals, could save you significant amounts of money.

# 2 – Choose cheap destinations

Some countries are inherently more expensive for travel than others. By choosing cheaper options, you can save money on not just travel and accommodation costs themselves, but also food, drink, and general expenses throughout your trip. That’s sure to add up and can make a family vacation a far more viable choice. Top affordable destinations to consider include – 

• Mexico
• Brazil
• Sri Lanka
• Egypt
• Malaysia
• Etc.

When trying to get a feel for whether or not a location is affordable, make sure you look at costs on the whole. It would be a false economy to find a cheap hotel in a location with food and excursion costs that are through the roof. To make this a truly affordable option, seek somewhere that can keep costs down across the spending board.

# 3 – Earn as you travel

The idea of earning as you travel might not be the most appealing thing when you’re trying to have fun with your family. However, some great on-the-go earning opportunities could pay for your entire trip without requiring much legwork. Travel blogging is an obvious choice right now, and there’s a huge market for family-based travel blogs that consider things like ‘to-do’ lists in certain destinations, or even the affordability of any given location. Equally, by taking a computer along with you on your trip, you could manage to sell stuff you’ve got lying around the house or even sell worksheets or crafts that could fund you as you go. Just make sure you check out local postage or have someone back home who can send off anything you sell while you’re away. 

Other earning opportunities might include fun work days on things like local farms, which could become free excursions in themselves. Equally, taking a night or two out of family activities to earn with a little bar or restaurant work could pay for at least a few nights of your hotel stay. 

# 4 – Go off-peak

If your kids are in school, you’re unfortunately tied to travel during peak periods, which is sure to be more expensive. But, if your children aren’t of school age yet, you could save yourself a fortune by simply traveling off-peak. Broadly, this means avoiding travel during the school break, though official off-peak periods, when travel is cheapest, vary depending on your destination as follows – 

• Southeast Asia – June to October
• India & Sri Lanka – May to August/September
• Mexico – May to mid-December
• Europe – November to March

In some instances, such as when traveling to areas like Mexico and India, you may even be able to secure off-peak travel during the summer break with school kids. The main thing to remember when traveling like this is that you may not be blessed with great weather for your trip. However, if you’re interested in under-cover excursions, or are willing to take the risk, then the possible savings may be more than worthwhile. 

# 5 – Choose all-inclusive

Choosing all-inclusive travel is one of the best things you can do to keep vacation costs down, especially if you’re traveling as a family of four. This option does have the downside of looking more expensive on paper, but the inclusion of food and drink in accommodation costs can quickly pay off during your stay. In fact, with vacation food costing an average of $58 per person per day in even an affordable location, you stand to save a few thousand during a four-person week away.

To make all-inclusive travel even more affordable, consider a package deal that also includes your flights and travel to and from the airport. Again, this is going to look more expensive on paper, but once you break down the costs of what you’re getting compared with how much you’d pay for everything individually, you should see that this is a great affordable alternative for even large families. 

Traveling with your family is a goal worth saving for. Make sure you’re able to bring that savings pot up to standard by seeking affordable family travel in these ways. 

Note: This is a collaborative post