How to Save Money on Vacation – Historic City Edition

Want to save money on vacation? Here’s how I was recently able to tour Saint Augustine on the low budget of $40 per person per day!

This post may contain affiliate links, which means I may earn a small commission at no extra cost to you. For more information, please see my disclosure here. Thank you for your support!

As I’ve mentioned before, I love living in Florida because I can travel year round within the state.

Since I travel quite a bit, my out of town relatives have designated me the resident tour guide.

Recently, I had a couple of my aunts and cousins fly in and they really wanted to visit St. Augustine.

This was not a trip well-planned in advance, but rather, a spur of the moment type of thing, so I was a little worried that I was gonna blow a bunch of money on this trip.

Thankfully, the damage was not terrible.

Here’s the breakdown of what I spent (all amounts have been rounded to the nearest dollar):

Hotel: $27

Attractions: $32

Meals: $50

Transportation: $51

Total Expenses: $160

I was able to have an awesome time with my family and I ended up spending only $160 for me and my son for the entire 2-day trip, which comes up to be $40 per person per day.

Here’s how we saved money on this vacation!

Hotel

Since it was 7 of us, we booked 2 rooms through my membership to the Wyndham Rewards Program.

This is an awesome program!

It’s free to sign up, and you can accumulate points with every stay that you can then redeem for free nights or discounts on future stays.

You have 4 years to use the points you earn, so you can benefit from the program even if you don’t travel often.

This program has worked out great for me over the years to save money on vacation!

The total cost was $120 for the two rooms, which comes out to $17 per person, or $34 for me and my son.

Through the rewards program, I got 1,200 points added back to my account, which represent a $7 discount.

Net of discounts, the hotel cost for me and my son was $27.

Recommendations:

As much as possible, try to find a good hotel rewards program that suits your needs and either gives you cash back or other types of rewards.

If you’re going to spend money on hotel accommodations, might as well get some of it back!

Also,

• If you don’t want to subscribe to a rewards program, book any hotel expenses on a credit card that gives you points or cash back
• Split the cost of the hotel with family or friends
• Try Airbnb instead of a traditional hotel

Lastly, stay outside of major metropolitan areas:

We stayed in Ormond Beach, which is about 40 minutes away from St. Augustine and saved a ton of money by doing so.

A comparable hotel in St. Augustine would have cost us at least twice as much!

Related Posts

12 Ways to Travel With the Family Without Going Broke

16 Ways to Save Loads of Money and Still Have Fun

Money Saving Secrets Theme Parks Don’t Want you to Know

Attractions

I would recommend planning out entertainment options in advance, not only to save money on vacation, but to organize the logistics of your trip.

Since this trip was not planned in advance, we missed out!

Check this out:

We wanted to visit the Old Florida Museum, but since we didn’t find out about the dates or times of operation, we didn’t realize they closed at 3:30 pm and we got there too late.

Had we planned this in advance, we would have known we needed to visit this location on the second day of the trip.

Here’s what we were able to do:

Castillo de San Marcos:

Did you know that seniors over 62 can purchase an annual Senior Pass for $20 that gives them entrance to all National Parks?

Not only that, but they can bring along up to 4 other adults with them at no additional charge!

Since someone in our party had this pass our total cost was zero.

Fountain of Youth:

The normal admission price is $15 per adult and $9 per child.

However, we got a coupon for a free child admission, so our total cost was $15.

This was a cool place to visit. It was very educational and there was a lot of wildlife.

This is one of the cool guys we met there!:

Colonial Quarter:

The normal admission price is $13 per adult and $7 per child.

Depending on the configuration of your entire group, you may benefit from an up to $3 off per person discount available at local restaurants and gift shops.

You may also get 2 adult tickets for the price of one when you purchase through Local Flavor.

We chose to use the per ticket discount and saved $5, so our total cost net of discounts was $15

As a side note, I normally spend about $30 on souvenirs for my son each trip, between stuffed animals and little trinkets.

Since I was being money-conscious on this trip, I explained to him that we weren’t gonna get a bunch of stuff.

Instead, I brought with me a Penny Passport I had gotten several months ago and that had been collecting dust in a drawer.

My son loved getting some pressed pennies as a reminder for our trip from the coin machines to add to his collection, and I got to save a ton of money.

Total souvenir cost for this trip: A whopping $2!

Recommendations:

As much as possible, plan entertainment options in advance so you can both budget for the attraction you’ll visit and make the most out of your vacation time.

Find the best option for you and your group through sites like Travelocity or Viator.

I actually use Viator a LOT to book activities when I travel.

I find really good discounts on there that help me save on vacation.

Sometimes even for activities I didn’t know existed! You can check it out here:

Don’t go crazy trying to do everything. While it’s tempting to try and do a ton of stuff while on vacation, this can get expensive – fast.

Instead, decide on a couple of things your family will truly enjoy and then spend the rest of the time visiting free attractions or just walking around the area – for free.

Personally, I really enjoyed taking in all the views and it didn’t cost me an extra penny.

Whenever it makes financial sense, get discount passes such as the senior pass I mentioned earlier for admission to national parks.

If you’re going to an attraction that you know you’ll visit again, it may make sense to get a seasonal or annual pass.

Check out coupon and discount sites like Viator before your visit.

Chances are, they have a discount you can use for the sites you’re planning to visit anyways.

Talk to the kids about souvenirs and other expenses.

Discuss beforehand what your spending limit will be so they can be mentally prepared if you need to tell them “no”.

Meals

When I’m on vacation, food is one of the biggest expenses, so I focus a lot of my efforts in this area to try to reduce the overall cost of the vacation.

In this particular vacation, we were celebrating Mother’s Day, so I spent a little more than I usually would per meal, but I still managed to stay at around $50 for me and my son for both days.

Here’s the breakdown:

Day 1:

Breakfast:

Zero – I always make sure to have a good hearty breakfast right before I hit the road.

Snacks:

Zero – I make it a point to pack a variety of snacks for the trip, including drinks, in a cooler.

Just so that it feels more like a vacation, I stock up on snacks that we wouldn’t normally eat, like gummy worms and chips.

Lunch:

We stopped at a service plaza on the Turnpike out of convenience and to save time, although food at the service plaza tends to be more expensive.

My son and I shared a large $9 rice bowl with extra protein.

We complimented it with some of the fruit snacks and drinks we had packed in our cooler.

Dinner:

For dinner, we went to the local Ale House.

I ordered a burger for $8, a kid’s meal for $5, and a side salad for $2. We didn’t pay for drinks because we both drank water (More on that below).

Total expense with tip: $18

Day 2

Breakfast:

Zero – Courtesy of the hotel’s free continental breakfast

Snacks:

Zero – We packed a TON and still had some leftover from the day before

Lunch:

We went to a nice restaurant called Casa Maya.

The food was delicious and the atmosphere was great!

I ordered a chicken quesadilla for $12, a kid’s meal for $6, and a side of rice and beans for $3.

Total expense with tip: $25

Dinner:

Zero – We had dinner once we got home

I put all three meals I paid for on a credit card that gives me 3% cash back on dining.

That saves me $2 out of my $52 expense!

Recommendations:

If you’re trying to choose a hotel, try to pick one that offers a free continental breakfast.

Not only will this save you time, but it could represent significant savings if you’re traveling with a large group.

Additionally, many hotels will allow you to grab a couple of fruits to go, which you can later use as a snack.

Pack as many snacks as you comfortably can, including drinks.

I assume the local St. Augustine residents don’t notice any odd taste in their water.

Let me tell you that for people that aren’t used to it, the water tastes terrible!

I tried ordering a soda at some point, but since they use tap water to make it, I just couldn’t stomach it.

The waiter was kind enough not to charge me for it.

So for this trip, the bottled water we brought from home was the way to go.

Speaking of water, avoid sodas and other drinks.

These are some of the most overpriced menu items! Stick to plain water or water with lemon if you’re trying to keep dining expenses to a minimum.

If possible, order smaller meals and share a side. You can also compliment with other items, such as fruits, you may already have.

On the other hand, you may order a larger portion of one meal, split it in two, and compliment it with a side salad or another side item.

Transportation

Between the car rental, gas, tolls and parking, transportation was our second largest expense this trip.

To keep it reasonable, we split the cost of all those expenses regardless of who was paying for what.

We kept track of all the shared expenses and figured out each person’s “quota” at the end of the trip.

We want to hear from you! What was your most recent road trip? Share in the comments below!

Recommendations:

Park in a central location and walk from there.

Otherwise, you’ll find yourself paying for parking in multiple spots, which can get costly.

Thankfully, there’s a lot of attractions in St. Augustine within close proximity to each other, so we used a parking garage and walked everywhere from there.

Pay for a daily parking rate instead of per hour, unless you do only plan to stay for a couple of hours.

Most times, it’s more cost effective to pay one flat rate.

It also takes the stress out of thinking about the parking meter.

Another way to save money on vacation is to split the cost.

Since this was a relatively long road trip, we decided to rent a van to fit our large family and split the total cost.

We got a van that had the exact number of seats we needed so we wouldn’t pay for unnecessary space.

Use discount rental sites. Since some of my family was flying in, we picked up the rental car at the airport when they arrived.

I’ve always had great a experience using AirportRentalCars.com and I can say I’ve always found the best prices through them.

Use GasBuddy to find the best prices on gas.

We often get used to using a particular gas station.

Whether because of their price or out of convenience, or maybe because we’re creatures of habit.

When you’re in an unfamiliar territory though, it’s difficult to know if you’re getting a good price for gas.

By using GasBuddy, you can make sure you’re getting the most bang for your buck.

Minimize the use of toll roads. Driving on the turnpike for most of the way would have cost us an additional $16 in tolls round trip.

So instead, we used the Turnpike sparingly and switched to I-95 when it made sense.

Do keep in mind that being stuck in traffic can cost you more in gas and time. I recommend using Waze to avoid traffic jams.

Using these strategies, our transportation cost per person came out to be $10 for gas, $1 for tolls, $13 for the van rental, and $1.50 for parking.

Total cost for me and my son: $51

Saving money on vacation isn’t as hard as it seems.

Whether you’re traveling to a small historic city, or a large metropolitan area, having a great time doesn’t have to break your wallet.

Implement these tips, keep your eyes open for opportunities to save money on your vacation, and you’ll be able to have a wonderful time without blowing your budget!

Before you go.. If you want to learn more about my super simple, super effective budgeting method, check out my Free Guide to Budgeting here! This is the system I use myself to save money every month.