My Two Favorite Money Saving Family Vacation Planning Tools
on May 11, 2017, Updated Jul 19, 2020
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Planning a family vacation this summer? My two favorite money saving family vacation planning tools will help you save money and have an unforgettable and amazing family vacation!
*This post is sponsored by HomeAway. All opinions are my own.*
Money Saving Family Vacation Planning Tools
We were ss lucky to be able to take our four children on a two week trip to Europe this past spring. The only reason we were able to go is because we found ways to make the trip affordable. Here are the top two tools that I used to make our trip possible.
Hopper App
One of my favorite money saving family vacation tools is the Hopper App – which helps you know when to fly and when to buy. The only reason we were able to take our family to Europe this past March is because we found an amazing price on airline tickets. And the only reason I found the amazing price on the airline tickets is because of the Hopper App. I installed this app on my phone and peruse it from time to time just for fun. When I looked at it after Christmas and realized how inexpensive it would be to travel to Europe in March, and we booked the tickets right away. Without this app, we would not have gone to Europe.
Vacation Rentals at HomeAway
Once we had affordable airline tickets, the next most important part of our travel planning was deciding where to stay. Traveling with four kids can be quite complicated and expensive since most hotels require two rooms or a large suite. To help keep the trip affordable, I chose a vacation rental apartment for our family in Paris from HomeAway. HomeAway is the world’s leading online vacation rental marketplace with more than 2 million unique places to stay. We were quite happy with the little vacation rental we booked there.
Our fun vacation rental (pictured above and below) is located right in the heart Paris. It’s actually two little studio apartments, one over the other. They were small, but they worked very well for our family because they’re close to Notre Dame and the Pompidou Center. We were able to walk to food, stores, metro, and a lot of places in the city. Since we also had a stocked kitchen, we were also able to save money by cooking as well!
The pictures above show the building our rental is located in, the outside door we had to walk through, and the stairwell we walked up. Parking was the biggest challenge, since we drove to Paris from Heidelberg, Germany, but there was parking offered through the rental and we did use it.
This summer, we’re planning a road trip out west. Along the way, we hope to spend some time in the Black Hills and Badlands of South Dakota. I’m already looking into vacation rental homes there too and have found a couple I like. This first one is in the Southern Black Hills.
And this one is a ridge-top home overlooking Box Canyon, also in the Black Hills. Vacation rental homes are handy because they sleep a lot of people and help you save money by cooking in the kitchen instead of eating out!
When you’re making your summer vacation, you’ll definitely want to head over to HomeAway!
Are you planning summer vacation with your family this year? What are your favorite money saving tools?
