Five Simple Ways to Get the Best Value from Your Travel
What is your perfect vacation? Pristine, white sand beach with a book and a margarita? Historic landmarks and niche museums? Maybe you are thinking of a quiet cabin in the woods, or maybe you are thinking of a year-long tour of Europe (take me with you).
All those ideas sound good to me, and my mind is already thinking of ways to make the most out of these potential experiences, to get the best value out of them. That’s our keyword today for travel: “value.” It does not just concern money, though I will talk about the money side. Getting the best value from my trip concerns the experience, what I saw, how my heart feels when it’s time to go home. It’s this value that can make each adventure so memorable that you keep talking about it even as more equally amazing experiences happen.
How can this be achieved? Like many things, it’s deeply personal and subjective, but allow me to offer five things I consider when preparing to travel, covering both the monetary and the experiential.
1. Decide upfront what kind of trip you are taking.
When my wife and I add travel to the calendar, we’ve already determined its purpose: either rest or experience. For rest, we’re probably going to an Airbnb out in the middle of nowhere, and unless there’s a good hiking trail nearby, we’re not leaving that building. The phones are off. Work does not exist. We connect with each other and nature to restore our bodies and refresh our spirits.
Experience trips are the opposite. We’re booking a nice hotel (always with complimentary breakfast), but we do little more than sleep in our room. We’re spending the days exploring, eating, taking pictures, and generally being tourists. These trips call for a higher budget and more aggressive advance savings.
Sometimes these trips, particularly the experience trips, take on even more specific themes. In Kansas City, we wanted to experience local nightlife, particularly the famous jazz clubs. Last year, in Washington D.C., we took advantage of the Smithsonian’s free admission and went to as many museums as we could.
Knowing the goal of your trip informs the rest of your decisions and keeps your time and money on what matters to you.
2. Be Aware of the Convenience Fee
Here’s a money one. A good deal of what you might pay for when travelling are matters or convenience. Extra leg room, valet service, room service, parking (I think paying for parking is a rip-off 99% of the time). Travel-related businesses offer you dozens of conveniences labelled as amenities, and that’s where they really make their money.
You can get your best value out of a vacation by deciding what items of convenience are worth it to you and which are not. I will walk a long distance before I pay for parking, and Kansas City parking lots didn’t see a dime from us. However, when we went out to dinner and a jazz club, knowing we’d probably drink a little more than normal, we happily paid for Lyft rides for both convenience and safety. The point is not to see a sniveling car salesman behind every corner; it’s to know in advance what you care about spending on. Mercilessly cut out the conveniences that don’t matter to you, so you can spend more on the ones that do.
3. In big cities/hotspots, stay a little outside the city.
Another thought in the money and convenience vein. Hotels and Airbnb’s typically cost more closer to the center of a big city or near a popular attraction. If you’re looking to get a little more quality accommodation for your buck, look for hotels on the edge of or outside city limits. We were able to get a junior suite at a hotel about 20 minutes outside Kansas City proper for less than a normal room downtown. In D.C., we got a good deal at a really nice hotel in Arlington, Viriginia with complimentary shuttle service to a busy metro stop, which we used to get into the city.
I certainly don’t feel like the extra transit time detracts from the experience, in fact, if decent public transit is an option, Noel and I enjoy that as part of the experience. Maybe you want to be right on top of the action, and if so, that’s your value, take it. However, if you don’t mind an extra 20–30-minute commute, you may be able to afford slightly nicer accommodations.
4. Make an itinerary
Here comes the Type A, but now we’re getting back to that personal value. This mostly applies to experience trips. When Noel and I decide what attractions and activities we want to include, I make an Excel sheet to visualize activities, transportation, and the likes as time blocks, fitting them together like puzzle pieces. I like visuals and I’m extra; you don’t have to go as far as making a spreadsheet.
Even if you’re a fly-by-the-seat-of-your-pants traveler (more power to you), some level of itinerary helps in at least two ways. One, you can make sure you fit everything in that your heart is set on. Secondly, it helps to set your pacing. I know that a walking activity would be best followed by a less active one, and that almost every day requires a coffee or Dr. Pepper break in the afternoon. These little things keep Noel and I happy and enjoying ourselves.
Whatever kind of traveler you are, I highly recommend some level of itinerary to ensure your satisfaction and well-being along the way. Plan well, but don’t neglect your improv skills either (hello, fellow Type A’s). For all the planning in the world, sometimes museums close because they lose power in a freak storm. Legoland doesn’t let you in without a child present, which they didn’t think to tell you when you were buying two adult and no child tickets online. Be okay winging it, because you will have to at some point.
5. When choosing attractions/buying souvenirs, the only opinion that matters is yours.
This is the heart of the value argument. What makes a great trip for me might be different from what makes a great trip for you. Some people are aggressive about not doing anything popular, and there are certainly lots of traps out there for unsuspecting tourists. However, the popular sights are usually popular for a reason, and I know a lot that I want to see for that reason alone.
On the other hand, experiencing the culture and heart of a location, away from tourists, is important to me. When on vacation, my wife and I eat local, never at any place we have at home. We’ve taken a number of trips together, and we have at least one meal per trip that we still talk about to this day because of this personal rule.
The same goes for souvenirs. I don’t go for “City Name” t-shirts anymore, unless I really like a design. On the other hand, I do want a classic, white “I NY” shirt, because I think they’re iconic.
My internet opinion? Ignore the internet opinions. You know what you like. Travel and purchase accordingly.
If you haven’t already, visit Instagram to see some highlights from Kansas City and be sure to follow me to see what I’m up to. You can also let me know in the comments what kind of travel content you’d like to see in the future!