As you may have noticed there has been a distinct lack of posting here recently…. well I was on a frugal vacation and now I am back. Horray!

So I thought there could be no better subject to talk about than Inexpensive Vacation Ideas, especially as I am still in the holiday mood.

I went on vacation to Vermont with my girlfriend and visited some of her friends and family. We climbed a mountain, went canoing and put on a lot of weight!

So here goes.

1. Stay Local

Image source: http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Image:Metcalf_indian_summer_vermont.jpg

I live in Montreal but for my recent vacation I visited the beautiful state of Vermont. It’s only 2 hours away but feels like a world apart. Living in Quebec there also would have been plenty of great options here. With the rising price of gas and the knock on effect being rising flight prices it often pays to stay within reasonable driving distance…. You may just discover a slice of paradise that you can visit a little more often.

2. Visit Friends or Family

The older I get the more friends are spreading all over the place. This means more people to visit and less hotel bills. In Vermont we stayed with my Girlfriends family in a lovely house overlooking Burlington. It had a pool and beautiful sunsets…. Plus I felt at home and had no pressure.

Visiting friends also allows you to get quicker access to the good and bad things in an area. Locals know best! Hopefully I will be visiting New York and Boston, to stay with friends, before the year is out.

3. Eat and Drink Frugally

Image Source: http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/c/c2/Barbeque.jpg

Food and Drink are always a big expense on my vacations. It’s great to go to restaurants and I definitely went to plenty of restaurants whilst I was away but it pays to save here and there.

I love having BBQ’s. I have a great memory of being in France with friends. We went to the supermarket and purchased a whole range of food and beer. Then we went to a small out of the way beach and made a fire to BBQ our food. We watched the tide come in, the sun go down and enjoyed our food and drinks late into the night. This was all done at a fraction of the cost of a restaurant meal.

You can also pack sandwiches if you are going to spend a day wandering around town or eat your restaurant meal during the lunch specials time rather than in the evening.

4. Go somewhere with festivals

Montreal in the summer is a great place to visit during the summer. It’s full of free festivals and at there is absolutely tons to do even on a small budget.

Most cities and some smaller towns have at least a few free festivals a year so it’s worth planning ahead and arriving during this period. You can get a hell of a lot of entertainment without emptying your wallet.

5. Go on a Road Trip with Budget Transport

If you want to see a lot of places and like to rough it a little then you can plan quite an adventurous trip on budget transport. If you look into it you can come across service like Luck Star that offer trips from Boston to New York for as little as $1 or Allo Stop that get’s you from Montreal to Quebec City for $15.

There is so much more you can do to stretch your wallet but keep the vacation a vacation as it should be. I find it’s nice to be frugal but not let it rule everything whilst you are trying to relax and rid the stresses of everyday life.

Tags: cheap vacation ideas, hooliday budget ideas, saving money whilst on holiday, things to save money on vacation, ways to save on vacation

This entry was posted on Monday, September 15th, 2008 at 6:12 pm and is filed under General Articles, Saving Money & Finances. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.