What You Need to be Doing Now to Plan for Summer Vacation
Budget vacations aren’t planned overnight – especially when you need to accommodate for kids and/or disabilities. Here’s how we plan for our as-close-to-free-as-possible vacations.
12 Months Out
Work on free flights. Apply for an airline or travel bonus credit card. Your biggest travel expenses are travel and lodging – and both of those can be fully covered through credit card rewards. I suggest Chase Sapphire Preferred because there’s a large sign-on bonus, no annual fee, and flexible spending (which means if you don’t need it all for airfare, you can still use it). Use this card for all spending for the first three months to meet the spending goal for the reward. It comes out to just over $700 towards travel, which will get you well on your way for airfare!
(If the idea of “credit-carding” is overwhelming, TRU offers a step-by-step course walking you through getting started and mastering the routine of free vacations. This is an affiliate link.)
11 Months Out
Create a budget. Really, this should be something always in mind. Even cheap vacations require some advanced consideration of where you’re going to spend your money. Consider: a latte here, or a gelato there? Look at where you’ve been spending your money (Mint.com can help with this). If you’re like us, there is no “extra” at the end of the month. Instead, look for where you can skip something, at least in the short term, so you can go on that Antelope Canyon tour that’s been sitting on your bucket list. If you need help with this one, you can read more here.
10 Months Out
Sign up for flight alerts. I don’t have a paid subscription, but I’m on the email list for Scott’s Cheap Flights and Matt’s Flights. If you have some ideas on where you want to go, you can also sign-up for fare alerts through Kayak or your favorite budget airfare site. At this point, your tracking ideas, inspiration, and pricing.
9 Months Out
Apply for a hotel-line credit card. Now that you’ve met your three-month spending goal for your airfare reward, it’s time to work on your hotel. I suggest the Marriott Bonvoy card because it covers so many hotels. The downside is an annual fee of $95, but they reward a free anniversary night to balance that cost.
Hilton Honors offers a card with no annual fee (so obviously no anniversary reward) and a solid sign-on bonus after meeting only a $1,000 spending goal in your first three months. Our bonus plus points from three months of spending was enough to cover five nights on our trip out west. This is another great starter-card.
**Each adult in your household can apply for the card to double or triple rewards. We don’t do this because we don’t spend enough to meet double spending goals, but it may be worth considering for your household! Look at what you charge monthly. If it’s well over $1,000, this is a great option for you!**
8 Months Out
Choose a destination and dates. If you really like to live on the wild side, you can save this part for last. As a family of five, I haven’t felt ready to risk it. I slightly regretted this when I found airfare at 1/3 the cost we’d booked under, but there are never guarantees! Hypothetically, under current trends, the earlier you book a flight, the cheaper (no more of this 42 days before on a Tuesday). Day of the week you book shouldn’t make a difference… as long as that day is way in advance! I’ve found I don’t have successful searches further out than 9 months, though. If you find a great deal on a location you want, go ahead and book with those points! If you’re not sure it’s the best idea, lock in the dates and location on your calendar and keep tracking prices.
6 Months Out
Map your route. This is where things start getting fun! You’re planning a great trip, after all! You don’t need to iron out all the details at this point, but you want to decide how much distance you’re covering each day so that you know where you’ll need to stay each night. When traveling with young kids, consider how much they can handle in a day (usually one main activity and some more laid back options) or how far they can travel before getting crabby (we try to drive over nap times).
Apply for another card. If your first cards didn’t cover 100% of your airfare or hotels, now is the time to add one. We went for a second Bonvoy card (spouse) so that we could combine points for more hotel nights.
5 Months Out
Book your hotels. Now that you have an outline of where you’re going, go ahead and cash in some points to book some rooms! If you don’t have enough points you can a) wait for rewards from a second card, b) look for discounts – AAA, Military, USAA, whatever you’ve got, and c) check out HotRate hotels in the area where you’re staying – the name of the hotel isn’t disclosed until booking (you can still sort by star ratings and such), but you can snag some amazing deals.
4 Months Out
Choose your adventures! So… you’ve got free airfare and free hotel rooms… why did you give up Starbucks for six months?!?
You spend a lot of money on vacation that you wouldn’t normally at home. From eating out to mini golf and arcades or fancy tours and museums – there can be a lot of expenses that aren’t covered by your rewards or food budget. It can be easy to go crazy here, or to miss something incredible because you ran out of money. The key is to figure it out beforehand. There were loads of museums, trains, tours, and attractions of interest on our trip out southwest, but Antelope Canyon has been on my list for a long time so that was our splurge!
You’ll also want to think about food. Depending on the location, you may want to try all the fancy eateries… or if you’re in the desert, cooking in your room may be a good budget option so you can splurge on something else. Figure out how much money you have, and exactly where you want to spend it.
**Often these adventures need reservations – now is the time to book them!**
3 Months Out
Research and plan as much or as little as you want. This will depend on your personality and preferred method of vacationing. Either way, do google/pinterest/instagram search where you’re going and see what you’re interested in. Whether you map out every minute or just bookmark some ideas for while you’re in the area is totally up to you. As a family with disabilities, we’ve found visitor’s bureaus to be priceless. Whether you call in advance or stop in when you arrive is up to you, but that seems to be the best way to get accessibility details for the attractions we’re interested in. (I don’t know why more people don’t just include that on their websites.)
2 Months Out
Make a list of what you’ll need. I guess this is pre-packing? Or getting your head around what’s to come so you don’t find yourself spending a ton on Amazon for two-day shipping because you leave in a week? Look up the typical weather for the week your traveling to your dream destination. You probably just need a bathing suit…
Last trip, I bought my non-school-age kids backpacks because they needed them for their personal item. I bought travel snacks specifically for the trip. I also had to work on getting a wheelchair because goodness knows ordering it through insurance six months in advance isn’t nearly enough. These are just examples of things that might come up! You don’t need to be packing yet, but you do need to start thinking about it.
1 Month Out
Time to start packing! We check one bag as a family and carry the rest in a back pack. I suggest each person’s back pack has at least one outfit… just in case that suitcase gets delayed. Don’t go crazy on extras – you don’t need to buy travel size of everything: just pack what you have in your checked bag.
Month of
Enjoy the trip of your dreams! Splurge on that activity you planned for, because you’ve saved for it and you can! Enjoy every moment with your family exploring new things together.
