Travel Archives - Page 30 of 32 - Making Sense Of Cents

Oh Busy Saturday

Last Updated: May 24, 2013 BY Michelle Schroeder-Gardner - 18 Comments

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Lots to do today. Our flight leaves at around 7pm and arrives at LAX a little later. So of course that means that we’ll be spending the night at LAX. We would get a hotel but after we got to the hotel, we would only have around 3 hours before we would have to go back to LAX. So that would not be worth it.

I still have to pack (which will be a disaster), send the last dog off to their home for the next week (I’m incredibly sad to leave my dogs), and give keys to the person who will be watching our house. Hopefully I don’t forget anything!

Of course a Saturday would not be complete without my interesting search keywords:

Dog costumes (this seriously generated a lot of traffic to my blog. I am not sure why.)
Lizards
Friends Forever if you’re a girl
Expensive dates
My guy is upset
And for some reason “girl slapped me driving” is still bringing people to my blog. I do not know why.

Hope you make your weekend a great one!

Our Kauai Vacation Plans

Last Updated: May 1, 2018 BY Michelle Schroeder-Gardner - 41 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.

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?

Happy Sunday and most likely Hawaii for our Vacation

Last Updated: December 19, 2015 BY Michelle Schroeder-Gardner - 22 Comments

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Hey everyone! Sundays are always a sad day, the end of the weekend. Anyways, I have so much to do today.

My disgusting list:

Studying for my mid-term that I have tomorrow.
Watch an hour long lecture since we missed classed last week.
Homework, homework, homework.
Study for my HR mid-term.
Clean the house.
Go through my closet again.
Work on my beach bod (HA!)
And then of course go to sleep for work the next day.

We also have to decide where we’re going on vacation for sure. We’re still thinking Hawaii, but not sure which island. And we’ve heard that there have been flash floods lately, and we definitely don’t want to go if it’ll be raining. What does everyone think?

Anyone live in Hawaii? We’re going on either the 24th of 25th of March, let me know what we should do!

Have a good day!

Travel and Packing Tips

Last Updated: July 11, 2013 BY Michelle Schroeder-Gardner - 13 Comments

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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

Last Updated: December 7, 2014 BY Michelle Schroeder-Gardner - 43 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

Last Updated: December 19, 2015 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!

My Extra Monthly Income

Last Updated: June 26, 2015 BY Michelle Schroeder-Gardner - 44 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 is Wednesday, finally! Anyways, I thought I’d finally give you the details on my extra monthly income.

In my January Goals update, I said:

“Make an extra $500 this month. PASS. I made over $600 from blog income and surveys!”

After I posted that, I was literally flooded with e-mails from you guys!

I’ve told you guys in this post, my February Goals, and in my goal update post that I would tell you more information about my monthly income. I’m not going to lie, I have been pushing this off because I’m not too entirely sure what to say and I thought this post would be extremely boring. But then I reminded myself that before I was making this extra income, I LOVED (and I still do love) reading about others and how they made their extra income. It’s nice to find out about new opportunities that you may not have thought about. [Read more…]