Discount Travel Secrets: Summer Travel Hacks

Hi Reader,

Last week I shared about how I'm visiting DC this summer on a budget of $575 (and I'll make sure to share the update after the trip).

This week, I'll be sharing how I'm taking a week-long road trip through New York on a budget of $1500.
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​New York Road Trip

• Transportation: $345 in gas & tolls

We'll be driving our own car, so there's no added rental car fee.

There is a toll road that costs about $35-$45 roundtrip and I looked at the alternate route to avoid the tolls, but it would add an extra hour on the way there and an extra hour and a half on the way back.

It would also add at least 50 additional miles of driving, which isn't terrible, but the time really added up.

Parking at all of our hotels is free.

We don't anticipate needing to spend money on any transportation once we're at each of our destinations.

As far as I know, everywhere we're going has free parking and the attractions we're visiting we're able to walk to.

For gas, we're expecting to spend about $250-$300 round trip.

To save on gas, we use the Gas Buddy app to find the lowest prices while we're on the road.

We also use the rewards programs at all of the gas stations to get the extra 5-10 cents off per gallon.

• Lodging: $531.17 for 5 nights

For the first hotel, we used our Hilton Friends & Family discount to book a stay.

This is a program where Team Members can add up to 10 friends & family members to their account to receive up to 50% on select hotel stays when availability permits.

We both have worked for Hilton at various times over the years and still know tons of people that work there, so that's how we're able to be in the program.

It's not a guaranteed, all the time type of discount, it's sporadic.

But when staying at places like Hampton Inn while on the road, those tend to be available pretty frequently, so it works in our favor a lot.

We booked a stay for $70.63 and that includes the taxes.

For the next 2 nights we'll be in the Lake Placid area for my brother's wedding and lodging there is notoriously expensive.

We started looking at our hotel options back in November and December of last year and found a place available at the Friends & Family rate.

Our stay is a total of $326.57 for 2 nights.

After the wedding, we start road tripping around New York a bit more.

We keep changing our plans all the time, but this is what we've settled for for now.

Just a few days ago we booked a boutique Hilton hotel in Syracuse on a Friday night through the Friends & Family rate and it's $133.97 for one night.

After that, we have one night in Rochester that we used 50,000 Hilton Honors points for that we've just accumulated over the past year, plus a little bit of the points were left overs from when we signed up for the Hilton credit card.

• Attractions: $201

We have a handful of tentative plans.

I'm not using any sort of hack to save on any of these since they're not very expensive.

But in general, I'd always check Viator first to see if their prices are any cheaper & then I'd check Groupon.

Watkins Glen State Park $20

Saratoga Race Museum $40

Saratoga Battlefield $0 (we already have a battlefields of the US self-guided audio driving tour bundle from past trips)

Olympic Museum $30

Baseball Hall of Fame $40

It's a Wonderful Life Museum $10

Maid of the Mist $60.50

• Dining: $425

Dining is really the only part of our budget that we know could fluctuate.

This is another area of traveling where you can check if there's any good deals on Groupon.

We have 3 meals that we'll be having on the road and we'll be using gift cards for those.

I have about $40 in Starbucks gift cards that I've gotten from taking surveys.

I also have about $40 left in Taco Bell gift cards.

One of our local news stations does these sponsorship deals where restaurants will sell $50 worth of gift cards for $25, so that's how I ended up with the Taco Bell gift card.

We have 2 dinners covered for the night before the wedding and the wedding itself.

That just leaves 6 other lunches & dinners that we'll have to pay for, which comes out to an average of $70 per meal.

I think 3-4 will be sit-down restaurants, so we'll definitely hit $70, but the others may be more counter service or diner style and definitely won't cost that much, so we've got a little bit of a buffer in there.

Breakfast is free at all of our hotels and we don't usually eat much for breakfast anyway.

That brings our grand total to $1,502.17

I'll probably get a couple souvenir Christmas ornaments for Lake Placid and Niagara Falls, so we might go over budget by $25, but if gas gets any cheaper between now & then & if we don't spend our whole dining budget, then we'll be good to go!

See you next week,

Eva and JP 💎

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