Eight Tips to Reduce the Cost of Your Family Vacation

Family vacations are a staple of the summer months. Unfortunately, they are also a big drain on your savings. Here are seven tips that should help you enjoy your family time without breaking the bank.

#1 - Be flexible with your travel dates. Just because you have to be somewhere for your cousin's wedding on a certain day doesn't mean that you have to arrive only on the day before and leave immediately. It may save you literally hundreds of dollars in airfare to fly in on Thursday and leave the following Tuesday, for instance. And if you're traveling without a specific time and place to arrive you can easily book your vacation for the cheapest price rather than for specific dates.

#2 - Book transportation and hotels yourself, rather than using a travel agent or booking a tour. You can try priceline.com or similar services to book a hotel by submitting what you are willing to pay per night. Such sites will help you find a hotel that meets your specifications and will accept your proposed discount. This goes along with flexible travel dates, as hotels are often willing to take a much lower rate to rent a room on a Wednesday night than on a Saturday.

#3 Check for local discount airlines that fly to a hub from which you can catch a much cheaper flight on a bigger airline. Look on Orbitz, Travelocity, Expedia, and others of the dozens of booking sites on-line. Compare several of them to find the best rate possible. Also look for specials on the sites for larger carriers like Northwest, United, and Delta.

#4 Take a look at trains. While flying can be faster, it also has some major hassles. Taking the train may not be much cheaper for long-distance vacations but the trade-off is that riding the rails requires no driving, gas money, over-zealous security, or plane changing on your part. As an added bonus, you can move around freely as the miles pass. If your children are small or just restless, the reduced fussing and whining is worth a fair amount of money by itself.