Ways To Save On Holiday Travel – Christmas & Thanksgiving

Ways to cut holiday travel costs at the most expensive time of year.

On the heels of an expensive (and chaotic) summer travel season, pent-up travel demand remains strong for those unable to spend holidays with family since the pandemic. With travel budgets strained from inflation, supersized mortgages, and an uptick in interest rates, you may be pondering whether holiday travel is worth the cost. Another challenge is that unlike the summer travel season, which is spread out over two months, the tight holiday travel window has everyone traveling at the same time, which is why the busiest travel days of the year are during the holidays.

Despite the increase in the going rate, that isn't necessarily what you need to pay to travel this holiday season. That’s because “How you travel impacts cost more than the going rate”. In other words, travel offers a plethora of alternatives to choose from, be it your mode (or time) of transportation, where you stay, where you eat, or what you do while there.

All travel costs fall into one of five areas:

- Transportation (Air & Ground) Accommodations

- Roaming

- Food & Drink

- Spending on activities/excursions

A simple strategy that can save you hundreds (and sometimes thousands) on any given trip, is to simply do one (1) thing to save money in each of these five areas. Below are practical ways you can do this when planning holiday travel:

FLIGHTS

Christmas Flights: The best time to fly for flight deals during the Christmas holidays is to depart on the first morning flight on Christmas Day - as most kids are waking to open their gifts. You then want book your return flight late on New Year’s Eve so that you are either in the air or landing as the ball drops. For example, it is 45% cheaper to fly round trip from Denver to Kansas City on December 25 returning January 1 (36) than it is to fly the same route on December 23rd, returning on New Year’s day (88).

If you can work from home or are retired, another easy way to avoid inflated holiday airfares is to avoid the peak travel period altogether by departing no later than mid-December, and/or deferring your return until the second week of January.

Get FREE airport parking by spending the night before departure at a hotel listed on ParkSleepFly.com. Or, cut your airport parking costs by as much as 5/day by parking at nearby airport hotels taking their free shuttle bus to the airport – without staying the night. Browse listings at Way.com or AirportParkingReservations.com.

Getting from the airport to your destination: Every airport website has a ‘Transportation’ page showing all your transportation options including public transit, any direct rail options and shuttle buses. Some hotel shuttle buses are free and do not even ask you to confirm if you are a guest.

ACTIVITIES & EXCURSIONS

To find Christmas markets, holiday festivals and fireworks that many visitors may be unaware of, every city (and most smaller communities) have weekly or monthly local event newsletters that list free and inexpensive upcoming events. For example, if you will be spending Christmas in Chicago, do an online search of ‘Chicago event newsletters’ and sign up any that are of interest.

DRINKS

Get FREE Christmas cocktails (or eggnog with rum) by staying at hotels that offer free evening alcoholic drinks. The following chains host complimentary drinks every evening: Kimpton, Embassy Suites, Canopy by Hilton, Affinia NYC hotels, Far East Hospitality. For a comprehensive list with additional hotels that offer free evening drinks, read my acclaimed article ‘Hotels that offer FREE Alcoholic Drinks’.

DINING

If you will be treating family to a meal, take advantage of restaurant lunch specials (some go as late as 4pm) or happy hour discounts. During the holidays it is easier to eat out mid-day while school is out and many people off work. To find specials near you, simply do a quick online search using the words ‘best restaurant lunch specials in ‘city name’’ (i.e.: Best restaurant lunch specials in Boulder, CO.).

ACCOMMODATIONS

Thanksgiving is one of the most expensive weeks to travel in the United States. Ironically, you can find great travel deals online at this very time. Travel Tuesday is the day following Cyber Monday, and is a day where travel operators offer ‘Cyber Monday-esque’ deals. You can expect to see highly publicized deep discounts that travel operators offer in return for the publicity derived. The best Travel Tuesday deals tend to be on luxury accommodations where offers being limited in supply. The best deals in years past include 50% off at Atlantis, Bahamas, and 90% off a selection of hotels booked through the Expedia app. Keep an eye out for cruise deals as well as this segment continues is slow rebound.

ROAMING

Find FREE Wi-Fi nearby: using the ‘Wi-Fi Map’ app or at wifimap.io. It’s a comprehensive directory of free Wi-Fi hotspots that are identifiable as pins on a map. To find free Wi-Fi nearby when you are offline, simply download the map to your device.

TRAVEL BY CAR

Fuel: Gas Buddy is a free GPS enabled app that also shows current fuel prices by grade at nearby gas stations.

Car Rentals have been exorbitantly expensive due to cash starved rental companies selling off their fleets during the pandemic. Uber has since launched ‘Uber Rent’ where you can rent cars from Uber partners on the condition that you are an approved Uber driver. (It may be worth getting approved as an Uber driver for this reason alone).

If you rent a car: Pruvo.com (for hotels) and Autoslash.com (for car rentals) constantly search for better fares after you book, and alert you when they find lower fares for an identical itinerary, with an option to cancel your existing reservation, and rebook at the lower fare - at no charge.

Hoping this gets you home with change to spare on your Santa budget.

HAPPY HOLIDAYS!

Published By Russell Hannon Once feeling unable to afford to travel, Russell Hannon uses lean principles to travel at a fraction of the going rate. He's been covered by numerous media including CNBC, FOX, CBS, America Tonight, CTV, Women's World, Around the World Travel TV and nationally broadcast lifestyle and personal finance shows. He was a Budget Travel columnist with CBC, and is the 'Stop Dreaming Start Traveling: The Ultimate Guide to Traveling More & Spending Less'.

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