How to Avoid the Hidden Costs of Travel

Published November 2nd, 2008

Having just returned from the trip of a lifetime to the Galapagos Islands of Ecuador, the return to reality and everyday life has been on my mind. While I don’t feel personally scared about what’s going on with the economy, it’s certainly something that’s always around, and affects everybody in some way or another. One of the first things everybody did when they got on the plane back to the U.S. was to read the complimentary newspaper and get caught up on what had happened back home while we were away swimming with the sea turtles by day, and sipping margaritas by night.

My husband and I were the youngest people on this cruisetour, and had the pleasure of spending the holiday with many people at, or near, retirement age. We were happy to be there, and enjoyed the company since many of the people that we work with, and our clients are of that age group. Needless to say, people were curious about the “young people” on the trip, and what the heck we did to get there. There was even a rumour going around that we were on our honeymoon! We thought this was very sweet

While we were there, I had the chance to reflect on just how lucky we are, and what it had taken to get there. I felt very proud to be there and not having gotten in to any debt to do so–and most of all that it had not interfered with our debt repayment plan from school. The trip itself of course took a lot of planning, and saving, but it was also important to deal with the other costs that go along with travel. For the first time in many years, we planned well enough, and were not slammed with a huge credit card bill for all of the other costs that go along with travel that we don’t think of, and often have to pay along the way. Everybody’s costs are different depending on their lifestyle, family, and where they live, but I have broken our hidden costs in to three categories for this trip.

Before we leave

Currency exchange

Waiting until the last minute to do this, or to do it at the airport or via a bank machine in another country can cost significantly more for the convenience. We had saved up half of our spending money a couple of months ahead of time, and exchanged it when the Canadian and U.S. dollars were almost at par. The other half we exchanged right before the trip through our bank, and were affected by the nosedive in our dollar–but not half as much as we could have been. I get a couple of cents better exchange because of my banking package, and taking the average of both transactions saved about $40 over if we had exchanged all of it at the last minute through a bank machine or at the airport.

Incidentals and over the counter medications

My husband and I always joke about the small $15 bottle of sunblock we had to buy on one of our previous visits to a small isolated tourist town! This happened during our student days when money was very tight, and had to come out of our food budget at the time. Lesson learned :) Things like underwater cameras, batteries, sunscreen, bug repellent, and even sea sickness patches for a cruise can be hard to come by depending on where you travel to, and can be much more expensive than buying on sale before you leave home. The worst thing that will happen by being prepared and buying these things ahead of time, is that you’ll have to return something you didn’t end up using when you come home! As a precaution, I bought a couple of boxes of sea sickness patches at Costco for $3 less per box than at Walmart, and they were happy to refund the unused boxes when I returned.

Plan groceries accordingly

We always do groceries the week before we go away. I know that this is a time when we are busy and will be more likely to eat out for convenience–especially the night before and day we leave. At least having some semi-convenience food at home will save money and is better for us. I also stock up on snacks, drinks, and stuff for sandwiches for us to take in the car with us while driving–this is much less expensive than resorting to a convenience store, fast food place, or gas station.

During the trip

Books

Like many busy people, we often only have time to read for fun when on vacation and the odd weekend. I’m too chicken to take a library book out of the country and risk forgetting it somewhere, and feel that it’s often not in the budget to buy new paperbacks for both of us for the trip–so we came up with a better plan: We buy a few books from our local used bookstore. They are often less than half-price of new books, and we can both read them without having to worry about leaving them on an airplane.

Tips, taxes, and fees

Do your homework and set aside money from your spending money for any airport or other fees or gratuities you know you’ll need to pay. Don’t even keep this with your spending money so there’s no temptation to use it. Make sure to keep $1 bills or coins for tips at the airport and hotel. It always pays to have some small bills for transactions you have to make (like a taxi) right after you land. If there are certain attractions you plan on visiting, find out how much they cost ahead of time, and if there are any discounts that might apply to you or your family.

Snacks and food

Snacks are a lifesaver–especially in the era of no food on domestic flights and airport restrictions. We buy individually sealed salty and sweet snacks like granola bars and Goldfish crackers and pack them both in our hand luggage and checked luggage, and make sure to have enough for the way home too! We smile and eat our granola bars on the domestic flights when all of the other hungry travelers pay $6 for a can of chips!

Research dining and meal options before you leave home. You can scout out restaurants in the area where you are staying, even check out menus and prices over the Internet before you ever leave home! Sometimes searching ahead online will even lead you to discounts and deals only available because you planned and booked ahead of time

After we return

Parking

It can make a big difference to figure out parking options and costs before leaving home. For example, we live fairly far from the airport, so usually use the economy Parkn’fly in Toronto, and can often manage to find a discount coupon for at least 25%. No such luck for this trip, it would have cost $130 including tax, so I looked into other options. With our drive 3.5 hours each way to drop our dogs off at my old clinic for boarding, the best option we found was a deal to stay overnight at the airport, and included 15 free days of parking with the stay and airport shuttle both ways for $115 including tax! This saved about $40 once we also factored in the gas we would have used to drive from our home to the airport–and we basically got to stay the night for free!

Food

Returning home hungry from a long trip only to find an empty fridge, and needing to go back to work and school right away sets us up for more unplanned spending on takeout and expensive convenience food grabbed hastily at the grocery store–so we prepare for this before we even leave to go on the trip. I buy or make food to have ready in the freezer, cupboard, or fridge for when we come back, because we often don’t have time to plan properly and go to the grocery store until the following weekend.

Well, hope these tips help to avoid and prepare for some of the unexpected and hidden costs that go along with leaving the daily routine and going on a vacation or other trip. Just using some of these tips have saved us over $400 on this vacation alone–and that’s definitely something to smile about!

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