We love to travel as a family. My husband and I believe that learning shouldn’t be confined to the classroom—so we try our best to schedule trips with the minis on weekends or when there are long school breaks.
We treat our family trips as opportunities to not just bond, but also to teach the minis things they don’t usually tackle in the classroom. We want them to be street smart, too!
“Another trip? Ang gastos niyo!” We often hear this statement when people find out that we went on another family trip. But the truth is you don’t have to spend too much on these trips! Here are some of our budget family travel trips that we learned after years of traveling together:
Budget Family Travel Tips: Traveling Without Breaking the Bank
TIP 1: Watch out for seat sales – or explore other, much cheaper, travel means.
I’m not so big on seat sales because my husband has a weird work schedule. Since seat sales have set travel periods, I can’t book right away because my husband needs to have his leave approved…and that’s usually a long process in their bureau. However, if you can, then book tickets during seat sales to get a really good deal on plane tickets!
Since airline seat sales are impossible for our set up, we’ve explored other means of travel that will save us big bucks. For instance, to save money on our last-minute trip to Boracay, we tried taking a round trip ship ride to Caticlan and back to Manila instead of booking plane tickets. That’s around P16,000 for four adults and two kids – which is about the same amount of just two round trip Manila-Caticlan plane tickets. We saved over half on our travel costs!
Some would say taking an 8-hour ship ride can be super boring for the kids. But when we tried it, it actually wasn’t bad at all. We were served delicious meals while on board and the minis got to enjoy live music while having snacks and drinks on the deck.
TIP 2: Look for hotel deals from apps like Traveloka.
Our family is crazy for hotels. If we can’t go on out of town trips, we usually book staycations within the city.
Again, people would think we’re magastos. Our secret? We book a hotel through Traveloka. They have huge discounts on hotels (and also flights!) so it’s a great place to scout for hotels if you’re going out-of-the-country, out-of-town, or just feel like taking a staycation. You don’t have to worry about credit card payments when you use the app because they have lots of other payment options, like through Dragonpay or via your bank’s online payment system.
But the best thing about Traveloka? What you see on their website or app, is what you’ll pay for – no hidden charges! (This is a biggie for me because I want to know how much our trips will really cost us.)
TIP 3: Prepare an itinerary and scout for discounts.
Since we travel with two little kids, I want to have a set itinerary when we travel. I don’t like going on a trip without a plan because it’s such a hassle to lug around two little ones because you have no idea what activity you’re going to do.
Before we go on trips, I research online so I can prepare an itinerary that best suits our family. We enjoy laidback trips so I try not to put too many activities within a day.
Once we have an itinerary, I do another research on the places we want to visit or activities we want to try. Sometimes, these tourist attractions offer discount coupons. I watch out for those so I can buy these coupons for our trip.
You see, there are A LOT of ways you can travel as a family without breaking the bank. Try these tips on your next family trip!