Travel Archives - Page 27 of 28 - Making Sense Of Cents

Our Kauai Vacation Plans

March 23, 2012 BY Michelle Schroeder-Gardner - 42 Comments

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We leave tomorrow for our trip! I'm not going to lie, this was definitely an expensive trip (at least for us). I'm a crazy planner when it comes to vacations. I like to research reviews (like crazy, I will literally scroll through hundreds of them) and make sure that I'm not wasting any money or time while I'm on vacation.

We leave on Saturday night, get there on Sunday and we leave around 11pm on Friday. So we have almost 6 full days there. This is the longest vacation I have ever taken (except from when I was younger).

Hotel. We're staying at the Sheraton Kauai Resort. I looked at so many hotels. I heard that if you want more sun, then you should stay in the Poipu area because they get the least amount of rain and have pretty, swim-mable beaches. A lot of places were booked, but we got a good deal on our hotel. It's around $130 per night (I bid for it on Priceline) and the rooms usually start around $300. And it's a resort right on the beach.

Our total for the hotel will be around $750. Yes this is a lot. A lot more than I wanted to spend, but I didn't want to regret my hotel choice. We're there for 6 days/5 nights, so I guess that's not too bad. Hotels are just so expensive though! This amount just seems very high though, almost makes me sick!

Our flight. Our airfare expense is minimal, but we are going to try and get first class there and back. The flights look good and it seems like we will be able to.

Our flight leaves on Saturday night and we have around an 8 hour layover until our next flight to Kauai on Sunday morning. We'll arrive at around noon. So exciting! The layover is going to stink, but I have homework that I'm going to bring for that. Of course I have a test the day after I come back, so I have to study during my vacation at least a little bit.

Rental Car. I have literally been looking for a rental car 24/7. It's so hard to find a good deal. Since we are under 25, most places want to charge us a $27 per day fee (on top of the rental car costs of course) for being underage. That's way too much when you're renting a car for 6 days. We usually don't rent a car and we never have for a whole trip.

We need a rental car everyday for this vacation for a lot of reasons. It's impossible to see everything without one. It's also hard to eat anywhere besides at the hotel from what I hear. Everything is spread apart because the island isn't city-like. I tried bidding on a car rental on Priceline, but I kept getting rejected.

I would say I got a decent deal. With taxes, fees and the weekly rate, the total is $250. Other places I looked at wanted around $500 with everything included. Glad I kept looking! We are not paying for the extra insurance though, I'm just going to really hope that nothing happens.

Our activities. This is an extremely long list.

Hike Napali Coast (or at least just visit)
Makawehi Lithified Cliffs
Queen's Bath
Cliff jump at Shipwreck in Kauai (I really doubt I will do this, but it looks like fun)
Kayak somewhere (not sure)
Snorkel (lots of places to do this, we're pretty much just going to bring snorkeling stuff everywhere we go just in case)
And lay on the beach of course!

Have you ever been to Kauai? What do you recommend that we do?

Total estimated cost (before food/activities):

$1,000

We estimated that we would spend around $1,500 ALTOGETHER as I said in past posts, but I think we'll probably come a little higher than that. This will be our most expensive vacation. We am fully paying for this vacation with our side income though, so no worries.

There are a lot of ways that we want to save money while we're there also. I am guessing that activities will be nearly free. Everything on my list above is free except for renting a kayak which is $55 when I priced it. If we do decide to go on one of the snorkeling adventures, that will be around $120 each, and I just don't know if I want to spend that. Is it worth it? Seems like a lot of money.

Food will probably be around $400 altogether for the week, including drinks. I'm hoping we come way under this though. We can always put some alcohol and food in our fridge. Our hotel has a FREE mai tai happy hour and $2 bottle happy hour for around 4 hours each day. We'll definitely be drinking a lot during those times.

How much do your vacations cost?

Travel and Packing Tips

February 25, 2012 BY Michelle Schroeder-Gardner - 14 Comments

Disclosure: This post may contain affiliate links, meaning I get a commission if you decide to make a purchase through my links, at no cost to you. Please read my disclosure for more info.

Today I have a guest post from Becky over at House of Sykes! Enjoy. Be sure to check out her blog!

My husband and I are leaving next month to spend a week in Mexico. While daydreaming about our vacation ~~since we booked it~~ today, I started to compile a sample packing list for someone taking an all inclusive tropical vacation. Of course, the amount you pack is contingent on how many days you are staying, so adjust accordingly.

Here are a few of my suggestions (aside from obvious ones like a toothbrush and underoos):

3-4 bathing suits: you live a bathing suits during the day in the tropics. they're tiny and lightweight – perfect for carry on luggage.
Tervis tumblers: most all inclusive resorts will fill up your tumbler instead of the tiny plastic cups on the beach or by the pool. tumbler = more drinky drinky and no sweaty glass!
medicine: everything from Tylenol to Immodium and everything in between. be sure to also pack a small first aid kit.
electronics: some of you know that we LOVE to stay in touch with home while we're away, so we take the laptop and cell phones with us. this also includes the DSLR camera and a point and shoot. having so many electronics with us also helps back up the photos we've taken. we keep them on the SD card, laptop, I-pod and smart phone. if we lose something, we're sure to have the photos backed up somewhere!
snacks: we discovered on our last trip to Mexico that US Airways no longer provides complimentary snacks in flight. not to mention, food in the airport is crazy expensive. take your own snacks that are high in sugar – nabs, honey buns, granola, etc. to keep you energized while you're traveling.
pens, passports, travel documents: when flying internationally, you will need these items with you in flight. take your own pens so you don't have to borrow someone else's to fill out your customs forms. this prevents the spread of germs too. (did you see “Contagion”?)
3 dresses: you rarely eat with the same people each night, so no one will know that you're wearing the same dress to dinner on Saturday night that you wore on Wednesday night. pack jersey type material so if it gets bunched up during your travel, it won't wrinkle.
3 pairs of shoes: 2 pairs in the suitcase; 1 pair on your feet. come on ladies, you're on vacation, not a runway. there's no need to pack your entire wardrobe. you are on vacation to relax, not impress.
plastic bags: include a quart size freezer back for each carry on. include a plastic grocery bag to pack wet bathing suits for the journey home.

Hope these packing tips help if you are going on a vacation somewhere fun and hot!

Michelle's comment: Thinking about packing puts me in such a good mood! I'm a horrible packer though. If I'm gone for just 2 days, I will still bring 20 dresses. I actually counted last time, and when we went to Miami last August for 3 days, I brought 19 dresses (plus shorts).

How do you pack? What are your traveling “essentials”?

How much will my March vacation cost me

February 14, 2012 BY Michelle Schroeder-Gardner - 45 Comments

Disclosure: This post may contain affiliate links, meaning I get a commission if you decide to make a purchase through my links, at no cost to you. Please read my disclosure for more info.

The boy on our vacation from last year

Happy Valentine's Day!

I posted the other day about things I want to do on vacation, and I thought I'd try adding up the costs of my whole vacation. We still haven't decided if we want to go to Hawaii or the St. Thomas, but I've looked and they both generally have the same costs for food, water sports, hotels, and so on.

This vacation continues to keep on creeping up in cost. We've done some of the things on my water sports list, but I would really like to go on an all day kayak-hiking-snorkeling trip. We decided that this trip will also be around 5 to 6 days, which also increases the cost of the trip.

We already asked my sister to watch our house and our dogs, and she agreed just to stay at our house while we're gone. This will definitely save a lot of money and will make me feel better about where the dogs go and if our house is safe. We've separated the dogs before and had separate people watch them, but I always feel horrible for doing this. It's just too much for us to bring both dogs over to someone's house because then the dog sitter's would most likely have way too many pets. [Read more…]

What I want to do when on Vacation

February 11, 2012 BY Michelle Schroeder-Gardner - 11 Comments

Disclosure: This post may contain affiliate links, meaning I get a commission if you decide to make a purchase through my links, at no cost to you. Please read my disclosure for more info.

Since it's the weekend, I thought I would get into the ultimate Spring/Summer mode and just post a bunch of pictures of things that I would love to do on our March vacation.

We're still trying to decide on a hotel, and how cheap or nice (expensive) we want to go. I want to use Priceline for this trip, but have never used it. A lot of you recommend it. I have a question though, how long does it usually take to see if your bid is approved? Any tips for using Priceline?

Also I have another question. Usually on vacations, I just buy a cheap disposable waterproof camera, but this time I want a waterproof case for my actual camera. My actual camera right now is just a Nikon Coolpix (haven't gotten my DSLR yet). Does anyone recommend any housings? Do they tend to work well or no?

I did some MAJOR MAJOR cleaning last night. It was horrible. It is nice knowing that I scrubbed the kitchen down and now it's pretty much shining. Tonight I'm going out with my friends, and my younger sister is coming out (we're going to a bar where they let 18 & up in when there's a band playing). So this will be interesting because I've never gone out with her. I think it'll be fun!

Hope your weekend continues to be great!

Do you usually spend a lot or a little on hotel rooms?

January 24, 2012 BY Michelle Schroeder-Gardner - 38 Comments

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Condo-hotel we stayed at in Miami (the white 2 story) –
this picture is taken from the kayak

Backyard

San Juan

I've been looking and pricing a lot of hotels for the vacations that I'm taking with the BF and with my friends. There are so many options. I hate trying to choose a hotel, because I have definitely picked a lot of bad ones.

A question that I always ask myself is if I should be a little frugal with the hotel that I choose, of if I should splurge and treat it like a real vacation that I dream about.

I have scrimped on hotel rooms before in order for me to have more spending money on my vacation. The difference between a $100 hotel room and a $200 room add up quickly.

One thing that I should share is that I'm extremely germophobic, I've stayed at my fair share of 1 star hotels, and I can never sleep when I stay at these. I will have to sleep with a hood over my head, and pants, socks and everything else. Yes I do realize that all hotel rooms are most likely dirty because thousands of people have probably slept with the same blanket and mattress, but I'm more of a visual cleanliness person.

If it looks clean, then that's good enough for me. But if it looks dirty, then I will have nightmares forever (such as with the hairs and throw up as talked about below).

Choosing cheap hotel rooms have been mostly good for us though. For our Miami trip last year (the condo in the first picture), we used Airbnb for our room and got a great deal. I think around $125 a night for the room. Not the cheapest place we have ever stayed at, but it was across the street from the beach, in Miami Beach, had a canal in the backyard with a boat and kayak for us to use, and a jacuzzi (way too hot in Miami when we went, so we never hopped in).

Of course we could always go free and use Couchsurfing (as explained in my past post). I've never done this, and I don't expect to do this on any of my vacations in the near future, mainly because I like my privacy, especially on a vacation. Would you guys couch surf?

Last year, on one of our vacations, we stayed at an extremely dirty hotel. I wanted to throw up immediately when we walked in. We were extremely mad too, because the hotel was over $200 per night (which by the way was the cheapest thing we could find in the area). There was food on the wall (and some throw up!), the bed was made, but it was obvious that they were not washed because there was multiple hairs on the bed and pillows (and no I am not talking about the hairs on your head, I'm talking about the gross kind of hair).

Yes I know that a hotel is a place where you should only sleep, but I don't know if I want to do that this year. One hotel that we stayed at had a cement floor, cement ceiling and cement walls. The A/C was leaking and there were puddles everywhere. It was super gross but less than $50 a night. Although I didn't choose this place, we were on a small road trip and were really tired, and of course Justin Beiber was in town, so there were NO hotel rooms.

Anyways, when me and my friends go to Vegas for the bachelorette party, the hotel cost isn't really bothering us too much. That is mainly because of the amount of girls going. I think we might be up to 7 now, so splitting a room with that many girls won't be that expensive.

But for the vacations that me and the BF take, cost is definitely a factor, since I won't be splitting everything 7 ways. We definitely want to be comfortable and happy though, and not let extremely gross hairs on our blanket ruin our vacation. I definitely consider a good hotel room to be a part of the vacation.

So, what's the maximum that you would spend per night? Thoughts? Is a hotel only a place for you to sleep?

Also, I updated the blog today, what do you think? I like the simple, clean look.

I’m planning a Vegas Vacation for a Bachelorette party this summer!

January 11, 2012 BY Michelle Schroeder-Gardner - 27 Comments

Disclosure: This post may contain affiliate links, meaning I get a commission if you decide to make a purchase through my links, at no cost to you. Please read my disclosure for more info.

Hey everyone! I hope everyone is having a good week! I've mentioned this a couple of times (or at least I think),but I am a bridesmaid for one of my good friends. Her maid of honor is her much younger sister, so I'll be helping with a lot of the planning. I'm super excited!

The first thing I'm excited to plan?

VEGAS 2012 BABY!

Ok yes, we're not going until the summer time, and I definitely look forward to planning her wedding, but I want to go on a girls vacation in Vegas.

I've been to Vegas before a couple of times. I went with family when I was a teenager a couple of times and I also went with friends around a year ago. It was so much fun when I went with my friends. Seriously the best time ever.

There's around 6 of us going most likely. We are most likely going to try and get a suite somewhere so that we can all stay in the same room. Even if we can't get a big room, then we really don't care, as we will most likely never even be in the room.

One of my main gifts to my friend will be me paying for her hotel and airfare. I can most likely get her cheap first class tickets there and back for around $125 (through my dad's benefits) and I'm guessing that the hotel altogether for 3 nights/4 days will be around $600-$800 for all of us (and we all plan on splitting it).

So I'm looking at around $250 for her as my present And if I can't get tickets for her, then I've already price checked it and round trip will be around $400 (for coach seats)

My budget for this trip will be around $1,000 altogether, not including her present. I most likely won't spend that much though since I get free airfare and there will be 5-6 of us splitting a hotel room. But I know that alcohol will eat away at most of my budget. Last time we went though, we hardly paid for any drinks because club managers always gave us VIP passes for free cover and drinks all night long. It was pretty nice, but I don't think I'll count on that again (because of course I shouldn't always rely on free things and get my hopes up).

Our choices for hotels are:

Monte Carlo – we've stayed here last time and loved it. And it's cheaper than the other 3 choices. This is our #1 choice because we liked it before. Awesome pools, lazy river, on the strip, cheap.
MGM Grand – We were at the MGM Grand nearly every night when we went there last and really loved it. A tad more expensive than the Monte Carlo.
Bellagio – More expensive, but we would all love to stay here.
Caesars Palace – Also more expensive. But I think it'd be sooo much fun.

What other hotels do you recommend?

I'm not much of a sight seeing type of person. I'm fine with just relaxing by the pool and going out at night. And so are my friends, so I don't expect us to do much looking around and spending money on taxis or anything.

We plan to go to Thunder from Down Under (LOVED IT LAST TIME), maybe one day I'll have the guts to post my picture from that. Have you guys ever been to it? It's seriously the most hilarious thing on earth.

Some of my friends will be on a tight budget when we go just because of all of the other wedding related costs, so do any of you know of cheap things to do, ways to save money, or anything of the sort?

What else should I know for a bachelorette party in Vegas?

Do you use all of your vacation days every year?

December 6, 2011 BY Michelle Schroeder-Gardner - 28 Comments

Disclosure: This post may contain affiliate links, meaning I get a commission if you decide to make a purchase through my links, at no cost to you. Please read my disclosure for more info.

When I worked in retail, I wasn't offered vacation days, so if I wanted a day off, I wouldn't get paid (even though I was in management and worked there for over 5 years as a full-time manager, but that's just another depressing story). But now that I have a different job I get actual vacation days. I get 15 days a year (not including holidays so it's more than that of course) but last year I only used 12 days.

Why did I do this? After not having a vacation day for over 5 years, you'd think I would use them all. I think since I didn't have vacation days ever, I felt kind of bad for using all of my vacation days.

This year I plan on using all of my vacation days. I still have 4 left, and I'm using one day this Friday and the other 3 the rest of the month. It'll be nice!

I also came across this article from Yahoo that talks about how $34.3 billion worth of vacation days will go unused this year. Here are some interesting facts:

The average American worker earned 14 vacation days but will only take 12 of them
Most people didn't use all of their days because they said they couldn't afford a vacation
Too much stuff to do at work so most people can't even use their days
Many workers feel that if they took a day off, that they may be fired due to the economic situation
Most other countries use ALL of their vacation time.

“Workers in France earned 30 vacation days, on average, in 2011, and often used every single one of those days. The same goes for employees in Brazil and Spain. In the UK, workers get 25 days and they used all 25.”

Do you always use all of your days?

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