My Best Travel Tips For Saving Money (And Sanity)

From using Costco for THIS, to how to find the best local restaurants, here are my top tips for travel

So I’m not the world’s most frequent traveler nor do I ever find myself in far-flung places, but you know what I am? Thrifty AF! I love a discount, and I love researching trips AND saving money.

I got to thinking about this when my friends and I were out for lunch over the weekend and discussing summer travel plans. It’s right around the corner. Have I booked my own summer travel? Of course not!

Apparently the best luxury hotel deals can be found if you book a year (!?!) in advance. That’s not me and that will never be me, I’m last-minute-club all the way, but I’ve still found some other helpful hacks over the years.

Last month I was on my winter vacation with my family in the US (you can read about it here), which is the country we go to for a sun vacation almost every year.

If you’re a Canadian like I am, you’ll know we get punished by our low dollar conversion rate. When I was in Miami, $1 Canadian was only worth 0.73. So, it got expensive fast!

With that in mind, here are some of my tips for saving money, finding good places to eat and other random travel tips I’ve garnered over the decades.

Where to research flights

I use the site Matrix.itasoftware (it looks ancient but I promise it’s legit) or Google Flights to research flights, and usually I book through Expedia or the carrier directly. I don’t usually set up email price alerts because as per above, we’re usually traveling fairly last minute and I find it better to know the going rates in my head, and book accordingly.

When I use Flair Airlines, a low-budget carrier (yes I am that cheap), I use Expedia’s site as for some unsurprising reason the Flair site is buggy and Expedia is not.

Nobody asked but my fave (Canadian) airlines are in this order: West Jet, Porter, Air Transat, Flair and Air Canada. If I see a United flight and an Air Canada are the same price I’ll take the United flight (they are both in the Star Alliance so it will be the same plane) just to spite Air Canada. Yes, I’m that petty and if you really want to send me into a torrent of curses and where I may or may not fashion a voodoo doll and stick pins in it, let me get going about Air Canada.

You need a pad of paper and pen

When you’re starting to spiral down the rabbit hole of finding accommodations and matching it with good airfare and/or car rental, get a pad and paper and write things down. Do NOT use some sort of online spreadsheet or Google doc. Don’t do it! 

You will make your eyes go crazy flipping through tabs, copying and pasting and generally making yourself a frenzied mess, if you’re someone who likes to comparison shop. There is something about writing it down on paper that will help you process all the info and data points you’re slogging through.

It’s nice to have a go-to hotel chain

I’m all for unique accommodation experiences but sometimes you just need a familiar hotel that will have a washer and dryer room, on-site breakfast and a pool for your kids. Especially if you’re on a long road trip and will be overnighting somewhere.

I used to love luxury hotels (and frankly, I still do) but after I had a kid I started going to Hilton Garden Inns. They are pretty much an elevated Holiday Inn: they have pools, they have gyms, they are kid friendly. Double Trees are another popular choice, but I don’t like them as much even though they have free cookies.

Ask for money off long stays

For Airbnb, ask for money off if they are not offering a discount for staying over a week. Just email the hosts and ask nicely. I’d say we have about a 80% success rate getting a lower price for a long-ish stay. Although, just once we had a Airbnb host in San Diego flip his lid when we asked for a very normal amount of discount (maybe it was 15% or 20% for a 10 day stay?)

“How would you like it if I came to your business and asked for money off?” he fired off in ALL CAPS. My dude, I wouldn’t mind! That’s called doing business. People ask businesses for discounts for buying in bulk all the time. This is not a groundbreaking concept or abnormal practice on Airbnb. I do worry about people’s tolerance for slight frustration sometimes, but this is what you get when the Average Joe enters the hospitality business, I suppose.

Anyway, this pissy communication from him was by email so who cares? We deleted it and moved on. The next San Diego host we asked was more than happy to do a deal.

Don’t forget Costco for cars

This wasn’t the case the last time we rented a car, but often Costco’s car rental prices have been cheaper than using other sites and even directly through the car rental agency. They have a car rental portal on their website. Again: Get out that pad of paper and start writing down prices.

This is my BEST EVER tip: Use Reddit for restaurant recommendations from locals

This was the exact Reddit post that convinced us to try La Perlita in Palm Springs, California last year.

I hit up Reddit for restaurant recommendations all the time and it always works out. I typed in “Best Mexican Restaurant Palm Springs Reddit,” and I quickly found an amazing spot we all loved: La Perlita. Redditors who are locals will always recommend non-touristy, more affordable home-style food and you’ll know it’s good if lots of people are agreeing in the comments.

One year later, I did this again in Miami: “Best Cuban Food North Miami” and Little Havana came up and it was really good! This is also good research tactic if you like pizza but feel confused about where to go. Every city has pizza joints but it can be impossible to tell which are the decent ones.

Chicken Tamarindo at Little Havana on Biscayne Blvd in North Miami.

Use Uber Eats to SEE what the food looks like, even if you don’t use the app to order

I love getting takeout on vacation, but some family-owned restaurants don’t have a robust set of food photos on their own websites. However, if they’re on Uber Eats, they usually have a photo of each dish. I’ll pop into the Uber Eats app just to look at the dishes, then order pickup directly from the restaurant as I don’t like for them to get dinged with the app fees if it’s a mom-and-pop place.

BTW you can also do this while eating in the actual restaurant if you have no idea what the food is, just discreetly go on the Uber Eats app and they will have food photos. You’re welcome!

Sign up for your nearest grocery store’s loyalty card

If you’re traveling to Canada this is not really worth doing because you don’t directly get money off (I’m looking at you, Loblaw grocery chain), but if you’re traveling in the US you DO, and the grocery chains usually make it easy (and free) to get a rewards card. So do it, it’s painless and you’ll save money. Same with CVS and Walgreens. I got something like $8 off at Walgreens for spending $30 and activating a new card.

Pack the garment(s) you’ll be MISERABLE without in your carry on

If there is one item, garment, whatever, you’ll be in flippin abject misery if you don’t have with you on your trip (provided you’re flying), be sure to pack it in your carry-on. Because as we know, Murphy’s Law will get you every time and you’ll be sweatin’ to the oldies in your corduroys and a wool sweater in the Costa Rican jungle the one time they lost your bag you didn’t put a pair of shorts and a tee into your plane carry-on.

This misery-alleviating garment can vary by trip, sometimes for me this item has been a swimsuit; pyjamas, or a sun dress. It could be gym clothes. I don’t know your life, but I do know you’ll thank me later!

Alright my friends, that’s all for this week. Thanks for reading and we’ll catch you soon on the next newsletter!

I’m off to read about the top podcaster Andrew Huberman SCANDAL right now courtesy of New York magazine (UPDATE: He had 5 women on the go at the same time? WTH!)

(SECOND UPDATE: The 5 women became friends after getting played by him? This is wild.)

Warmly,

Helen