Summer is just around the corner, and with it comes the fresh smell of freedom. Before you decide to work your entire summer away because the thought of traveling seems too expensive - give this list a look.
Why Fly When It's Only A Two Day Drive?
Now this idea is slightly dramatic, but there is some fact behind it. The name of the game for all these travel tips is to be perfectly willing to bum it for a week or so - this is about making memories, not having a full-blown luxurious vacation in the Bahamas. Which means, if you're willing to cram your three best friends into a car for 14 hours straight, nearly nowhere in the U.S. is off limits. For Spring Break, four of my closest friends piled into a Jeep Renegade for eighteen hours to make it from the midwest to Florida. The total travel cost per person for the entire trip? Forty dollars.
Do Your Research
There is absolutely no reason to waste money each night in a hotel. Check all the lodging websites you can and keep your eyes peeled for deals that could be going on at different times. Sites like Airbnb will offer ten percent off deals every now and again that can drastically cut the price of a house. Plus, splitting a place between four people slashes the price drastically for everyone. For five nights in a house on Spring Break split between four college kids? Sixty dollars a person.
Food
Now, this might be the one part of your budget you decide to spend a little more money on, after all, it IS a vacation. If you picked a touristy place then you don't want to pass up the local flavor. However, if you're just bumming it around the beach for a week then load up on some bread loaves and split the cost of different ingredients for sandwiches. Hit up the dollar store for simple ingredients and keep it casual for the week. For our trip, we split up food costs based on each person, but none of us spent over fifty dollars for the week.
The More The Merrier
The more people you invite, the more success you're likely to have on all fronts. More people means more people to take shifts driving, more people to split costs with, and most importantly - more friends to share in life long memories with forever. Vacations are all about the lasting impacts, and there's no reason to go broke trying to make the most of your summer.
Activities
When planning your vacation, check where you want to go and see which weeks in summer offer the most activities for the lowest cost. During Spring Break, the beach town I visited offered three different street fairs and carnivals. This gave us a place to take a break from the seawater and enjoy the local flavor of the town as well as explore different vendors and games. You don't have to blow your entire budget on one amusement park, each town or destination has it's own uniqueness to explore.
