In our family, the almighty budget usually determines where, how and when we vacation. I know that in time it’s going to get more and more expensive to travel with our three children (2-year-old twin boys and their 3-year-old big brother). Don’t wait until the kids are older, take advantage of these five ways to save money when traveling with babies, toddlers and young children!
Travel with young children need not be expensive (Photo credit: FamVeldman, Depositphotos.com)
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Get kid-friendly freebies.
Amusement parks, zoos, museums and other attractions typically welcome babies and toddlers at no charge. At Walt Disney World and other Disney parks, for example, kids under age 3 get in for free.
Additionally, most hotels allow kids to stay in your room without extra cost. Often cribs and play yards are free for use during your stay too, which could save on baggage fees if flying.
Many hotels welcome babies and children at no charge (Photo credit: macniak, Depositphotos.com)
Save on breakfast.
If breakfast is offered at your hotel, usually children under age 3 or 4 can eat for free with a paying adult. Some hotels offer included breakfast for the whole family, which means even more savings!
If a free or discounted hotel breakfast isn’t an option — book a hotel room with a kitchenette. Little kids don’t need a fancy omelet and they are perfectly happy with familiar, easy-to-prepare breakfast foods. My family packs cereal and granola bars and then we pick up some milk at a grocery store at our destination so that we can avoid paying for a restaurant meal.
Little kids often eat free at hotel restaurants (Photo credit: shalamov, Depositphotos.com)
Pick up brochures.
On our recent stay at a hotel in Amsterdam, we noticed a very large display of brochures for local attractions in the lobby. They had hundreds of pamphlets and little cards that offered anywhere from 10 to 20 percent off admission at places like the zoo, restaurants and theme parks. You might not think 10 percent is much, but every little bit helps.
Search the Web for family travel deals (Photo credit: monkeybusiness, Depositphotos.com)
Find online deals.
There are a plethora of travel deals to be found online! For city breaks, take a look at buying a CityPASS to bundle experiences for big savings. Search Groupon and LivingSocial for your destination, too, to see if you can save money on your trip. Aggregate travel websites like Travelocity provide an easy way to check pricing for multiple travel providers at one time. Through these types of travel sites, you can bundle your travel options by booking your flights, hotel and car all together to take advantage of a discount. Be sure, however, you avoid travel scams when booking a hotel online.
Use these tips to save money on travel with babies, toddlers and young children! (Photo credit: kosmos111, Depositphotos.com)
Ask for hotel discounts.
My family recently enjoyed a fantastic family trip to a Center Parc in France. While there, we discovered that if we stayed for five weekdays, we could get the weekend free! Email the hotel before your visit or simply ask at the front desk if you can extend your stay through the weekend at a discounted rate. The same goes for asking for an upgraded room. The worst they can say is no, so you have nothing to lose!
For additional tips, be sure to take a look at these 13 awesome tips for saving money while traveling with kids.
What tips do you have to save money when traveling with babies, toddlers and young children? Let us know in the comments below!
About Farrah Ritter, The Nomadic Travel Mama
Great tips! I also keep an eye on Groupon deals before I leave and Entertainment books. I bought my Entertainment book for $5 and got to use it the month before it expired. Perfect. The hotel some times offer deals too. I usually look through their welcome book and some times there are coupons or I’ll discover cool/kid friendly places nearby to visit. For our trip to Palm Desert, I read about a street fair I knew nothing about. We went at the last minute and it was the best street fair I have ever visit. We scored so many good deals there.
Great tip about the under 3’s or 4’s getting in free. Remember this for day tripping in your home town. before my son turned for I would by the yearly pass to our local zoo and used this as a morning or day trip regularly. For $75 I had unlimited access to the zoo.
KIDS LOVE THE ZOO.
This is also available for other places of activity eg. Scitech in Perth.
I would think that they have something like that Entertainment book over here- I need to find out! And yes! The Living Social/Groupon ones are great! We have those here and although sometimes I really try not to look at them, it’s difficult not to take a peek 🙂