Finding a Family Vacation Deal This Summer

I know the tough economy is impacting family travel plans this summer vacation season, but really can we find another term besides “Staycation” to use. I’m sick of hearing the term. It seems to be the marketing catch phrase this year from places hoping to entice families to spend a long weekend or day at any number of area hotels and resorts.

This doesn’t mean I don’t appreciate the underlying issue here. Like many people I’m looking at how to plan a fun family vacation or mini vacation with less this year. Though I have to admit I’ve been a travel bargain hunter for years. I find it sort of challenging to see what kind of a deal I can find for something totally amazing. So I’m going to share what I think is one of the easiest ways to say money on a family vacation—search out private rentals.

I know the term private rentals might sound like an expensive proposition. But in reality, it doesn’t have to be. I use a few websites to look up rentals including Vacation Rental By Owner www.vrbo.com and A1 Vacations www.a1vacations.com and even Craigslist.

            The benefit to finding a private rental which may be a cottage, condo or house (depending on how many people you have) is that you pay a nightly fee for the entire place, rather than a per person per night fee. And that nightly fee is often a lot less. Say you find someplace for $100 to $150 a night that sleeps 6 people, that’s a whole lot less than paying $79 to 99 per night per room for the whole group or family.

            There’s also the added bonus of having a kitchen and cooking area in a private rental. If you’re trying to save money on a family trip, you can plan to have breakfast and lunch in your rental and only eat out for dinner. Or you could plan to just cook at the rental entirely to save money you might spend on restaurants. You’d be paying for your weekly groceries anyway, so why not spend a little extra to cook up an extra special meal on vacation? You’re still going to spend a lot less than a restaurant tab.

            A word of warning on vacation rentals—do your homework. A few years ago I rented a three bedroom “cabin” on Newfound Lake for a family reunion. It was only about $800 per week for the rental. The pictures looked wonderful and showed a nice porch in one, a lake with a private beach in the other, and brand new interior. This was true.. .sort of. When we arrived we found that the “cabin” was actually an apartment over a garage behind the property owner’s house. It turned out they lived there full time and had very jumpy dogs and an ever present eye on the renters. So it wasn’t exactly a great spot, but then again, it taught me a lesson. I make sure to call the people, ask questions, such as whether the owners are on site or in the area. What’s the neighborhood like around the rental? For example, some condo rentals at resorts boast a pool and a hot tub as part of the property. In many cases these are a good distance from the condo or part of a communal recreational facility for several area resorts.

            Still, if you do your homework you can find some great deals. Especially this year when many families are not traveling, which means that private rentals are more available, and owners may be either willing to negotiate or lower their price to get some, instead of no, rental fee.

            We’ve just booked a four day rental at a condo in Bartlett in order to take Will on the first great New Hampshire vacation. (You know Storyland, Clark’s Trading Post and North Conway). If anyone has suggestions on how to save on ticket prices I’d love to hear them.