Traveling On A Budget – Weekend Adventures

Our bank accounts do not allow for unlimited traveling to anywhere we would like, unfortunately. However, traveling without breaking the bank is very possible, and very affordable. Here are some of my experiences and ideas of traveling on a budget.

The Tip of the Iceberg

When people think of vacation, we think of a cruise with wonderful beaches, tanning while reading a good book or scrolling through social media, warmth, and swimsuits for days. Or, we think of Disney World/Disneyland with rides and fun. Whether it is just relaxing or on the go, vacations are expensive. In my experience, going to Disney World for a week costed around $3,000 for two people and that was without a meal plan. Most of us do not have three grand in our bank accounts, especially if we are struggling college students barely making ends meet with one or even two minimum wage jobs.

The trick? A weekend get-away with a range of a few states away. With a weekend get-away, you will be far enough away from home to enjoy a few days away. There will not be a big enough time range to plan days worth of activities which will give you less stress, less packing, less amount of saving, and less planning, but just enough adventure to refresh your mind and scratch that adventure itch. Even in winter!

Next tip? Use your car! Do not travel by plane for just a few days unless it is for business. There will be more stress about carry-ons and security as well as more money going for a trip that would not be worth it at that point. Using your car will reward you with less packing! Also it will be a lot cheaper.

Last tip. Use Booking instead of hotel websites. Although using an Airbnb is a choice, I personally would not recommend. You do not know who’s house you are walking into, a rapist, a pedophile, someone with hidden cameras (hello 13 Cameras?). Also, Airbnb does not require background checks and has a lot of reviews of scammers or dangerous situations. Credit to Asher and Lyric from their blog: https://www.asherfergusson.com/airbnb/ for more information. Booking on the other hand, worries about your needs and not the hotels, (like the host’s in Airbnb). Booking https://www.booking.com/ allows the guest to make a reservation and pay on property. Once again, there is a risk with putting a credit card on file to make the reservation, but I personally have never had a problem and I find this site to be very reliable. This site shows real hotel sites with great previous guest reviews, as well as showing all the amenities and local distances to tourist sites at very affordable prices. Although, you do need to search for the right hotel for you. Along with the hotel websites, for some of the hotels, a cancellation needs to be made a couple days in advance while some others show cancellations can be made the night before with no problem. However, with all of the price drops and “Best Match” shown in red lettering, you do need to read very thoroughly. Also, looking for parking is a must! Some of the hotels on booking show there is parking available. HOWEVER, some of that “parking available” is in a parking garage down the street or in a luxury parking garage with a pricey nightly rate. Make sure you read the reviews and the information about the hotel and rooms before you make a reservation! If you happen to have a hotel that does not have parking but you want to stay at that specific hotel, a tool called SpotHero will be useful. Although I have never personally used SpotHero, this app makes a “reservation” in a parking garage at highly discounted rates. The guest can put in specific times and the app will calculate the exact price for that amount of time. The app will give you a parking pass as your confirmation. For more information on this handy app, check out SpotHero’s blog! https://blog.spothero.com/how-spothero-works/

Tips Into Trips

Here are some of my weekend trips using the tips that I have stated above.

New York City

New York City is a beautiful place, unless you’re surrounded by a couple hundred thousand people on New Year’s Eve. Although this photo was taken for my school trip, I have been to New York City on my own time three times, once on New Year’s Eve (worst idea) and twice for a Yankees baseball game at Yankee Stadium.

Yankee Stadium was the first major league stadium I have ever been to and it was beautiful. Yes, the traffic shown is pretty accurate. It is constantly stop and go traffic so if you ever plan to take a trip to see a Yankees game, plan to give yourself extra time! Plan to arrive at the stadium at least 2 hours before the game start. There are plenty of photo opportunities, monument park, and a museum all free, as well as great food (quick-service and sit-down restaurants) although the food can be a little pricey. The first two times I went to New York City, I did not get a hotel for the night and I drove there and back. From where I live, New York City is about a 6 hour drive without stops. So, do not follow through with my mistakes! Get use of Booking and get a cheap hotel in New Jersey or somewhere along your way home. The last time, I stayed in a hotel in New Jersey and through booking, I stayed at a Holiday Inn hotel at a price of about $150. For gas, starting with a full tank it would cost about $100 there and back. The Yankees tickets costed about $100 for middle range seats. Therefore, depending on your activities, (shopping through Times Square, visiting Yankee Stadium, strolling through Central Park or visiting the most famous monuments like the Statue of Liberty perhaps) a full weekend get-away would cost between a range of $300-$500 which is very do-able.

Washington D.C

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Washington D.C. is one of the most historic cities in the country. Also, all of the monuments and Smithsonian museums are free! The National Zoo is also free, although you have to pay $25 for on-site parking. However, the zoo is about a 10-15 minute drive away from the Smithsonian museums. Since our hotel was about a mile away from the air and space museum, I invested time to walk around the entire time (it is very hard to find parking in this area). Some of my favorites are the Air and Space museum, the museum of Natural History, and the museum of American History. Also, I looked into the African American History museum. To prepare, plan to give yourselves a 2-hour frame for each museum. However, all of the museums close around 5:30 pm (open until about 7 pm during summer) so plan accordingly! There are also day and night tours available on Expedia, but I chose not to invest in these since the weather would not accommodate to the tours worth, although they can be quite affordable! Most of the tours however meet in different locations around the entire city outside of the Smithsonian collaboration so prepare in advance for transportation. There is also the metro and buses that take guests around the city for a minimum few dollars. There are multiple food places within walking distance with affordable, great food. On my 2-day trip, I arrived at my hotel around 8 am, and walked around those four museums mentioned above until 5 pm. Then my boyfriend and I spent a quiet-relaxing time that night because both of us were very tired. The next day we went to the zoo and then started the drive home around 11 am. This weekend get-away was also about a 6 hour drive from where I live straight through. For the whole entire trip, with hotel ($125), gas ($100), and food ($60-80), this entertaining weekend get-away costs about $300-400. Therefore this weekend get-away is very cheap for all of the enriching history, and beautifully-made monuments to see and there are many many more like Arlington Cemetery, Botanical Gardens, multiple art galleries, etc. I highly recommend this get-away at least once.

Tip: If you can spend the time, spend at least two-three full days in D.C. There are so many free opportunities to see with all of the museums and walking around 4 museums in one day is very tiring! I really wanted to see the monuments with lights on but I was way too tired to walk another 20 minutes to one monument after walking about 3-4 miles throughout the day. Also, the zoo is actually a lot smaller than expected. There are feedings throughout the day to see with specific animals, but going through the entire zoo took about an hour to an hour and a half at the very most. However, the pandas definitely made my day and my boyfriend also bought me a stuffed baby panda to take home!

These are just my get-away trips. There are so many more out there, but you just have to find them. Adventure Awaits!

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