Money for the Rest of Us

This is the second post of the series “15 Tips for Cheap Travel.” You can navigate the rest of the series by going to the 15 Tips for Cheap Travel Index.

Finding a cheap ticket is a lot like getting rich: It doesn’t just happen over night. The best way to get the cheapest ticket possible is to plan well in advance (more than a month if you’ll be flying), do some research, and buy at the right time.

In the first post of this series we talked about the decision making process in planning a trip and determining what’s fixed and what’s flexible. This post is going to be structured around: Is your mode of transportation flexible?
Mode of Transportation
There are a good number of ways to transport yourself– walking, biking, driving, flying, busing, training, boating, etc. I’m going to focus on four: Driving, Busing, Training, and Flying. If you can take all of these modes of transport to your vacation spot, get a cost estimate for each one. Also, be sure to consider the amount of time it will take to get to the destination.

Driving: This is a do-it-yourself approach. To figure out how much it will cost you to drive to a destination consider:

• the number of miles
• your car’s mileage/gallon
• the current cost of gas
• car maintenance
• cost of meals on the road
• cost of lodging if you will have to stay over night

For a quick look at what it will cost you for just the mileage be sure to check out AAA’s Fuel Cost Calculator. When doing a cost comparison for driving compared to other modes of transportation, be sure that you account for round trip and the cost per person (divide your estimate cost by the number of people in your party.) A few tips to cut down on driving costs:

• pack food and drink
• check your tire’s pressure
• stay with friends along the way
• make mix cd’s or bring books on tape (check them out from your library before the trip)
• use cruise control to drive the speed limit.

Bus: The bus is often a more cost effective method than driving if you are traveling by yourself or just with one other person. Unfortunately, there are fewer options for traveling around the US by bus than there are in other parts in the world. The primary US option is Greyhound. If you live on the East coast you may be aware of the infamous “Chinatown bus services“. (Including Vamoose, Apex, and Fung Wah.) I have plenty of friends who have ridden the buses and found them to be nice enough, though with the safety record of these companies it may be wiser to pay a few more dollars and ride Greyhound. Go to any of the websites to get price quotes.
Train: Like the bus system, there are few options for taking a train in the US. The primary service is Amtrak. If you don’t like to fly, taking a train is easier for long trips than the bus.

Plane: Luckily, we do have a huge number of options for airlines in the US. Because we have so many options (and the tips were getting lengthy), I devoted a separate post to Finding Cheap Plane Tickets.

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