After a long winter, you and your family may be ready to have fun. Yet, summer can be one of the most expensive seasons because getting out and visiting attractions often costs some serious cash. However, it doesn’t have to if you utilize these 8 ways to save money on summer activities. Use these cash-saving tips to have fun-filled days that don’t empty your bank account.
8 Ways to Save Money on Summer Activities
Saving money often requires changing your behavior slightly, but don’t worry, you will still have fun.
Road Trips
Road trips this year will be pricier than normal thanks to inflation. The cost of gas is at near-record highs, and even fast food now costs more. However, you can utilize frugal strategies to keep your prices lower while having fun. Here are a few ideas:
Use a Gas App
In addition to saving on food, you can save on gas. Choose between many popular gas apps to save money on ever-rising gas prices.
Gas Buddy helps you find the lowest price of gas in your area.
Upside gives you up to 25 cents a gallon if you take a picture of your gas receipt and upload it. You can withdraw your money from PayPal when you reach $15. You can find upside here. Its worth downloading, setting it up and seeing if you can grab some cash.
Another good Cash Back gas app is Trunow.
You can also explore rewards programs through Shell and Speedway.
Rent a Car
If you want to save wear and tear on your vehicle, renting a car is a good option.
If you have a Costco membership, book your car rental through their travel feature online to get a discounted car rental price. Costco partners with several car rental agencies: Alamo, Avis, Budget, and Enterprise. You choose four locations where you’d like to pick up your vehicle and compare prices.
When you book through Costco, not only do you get a discount on the car rental, but you also get the additional driver fee waived, which can save $10 to $15 per day. Plus, you can reserve your vehicle and cancel your reservation for free.
Don’t underestimate your savings. We recently booked a minivan rental for 18 days for $1,018 through Costco. When I compared the price at the same rental location not using Costco, I was quoted $1,000 more!
Bring Your Food
When we travel, we always bring a cooler filled with bottled water and snacks. Buying a bottle of water at the gas station costs over $1. The bottled water from home costs about 10 cents, which is a huge savings, especially on a long road trip. We also bring homemade snacks such as muffins and trail mix. Throw in a few store-bought beef jerky sticks, and you have enough food to avoid stopping for expensive snacks.
If you want to save even more, you can either pack your meals to heat up in the hotel room or stop by the grocery store and pick up food that you can reheat in the hotel.
Sightseeing
Once you get to your destination, continue saving when sightseeing, which is one of the best parts of visiting a new location. However, sightseeing can get expensive quickly, especially if you’re traveling with a family. When we travel, we use two techniques to save money:
Go to Free Attractions
Many large American cities have free attractions. We found Washington, D.C. had the most free attractions. We went to the Lincoln Monument, Arlington National Cemetery, the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier, and more! For a list of free attractions in the nation’s capital, check out this list.
Boston and Philadelphia also have many free attractions. Go to as many free places and events as you can before you visit more expensive attractions.
Buy a GoCity Pass
GoCity Pass is available in several major United States cities:
- Boston
- Chicago
- Las Vegas
- Los Angeles
- Miami
- New Orleans
- New York
- Orlando
- Philadelphia
- San Antonio
- San Diego
- San Francisco
We first discovered GoCity passes when we visited Boston. What a money saver!
When you buy a GoCity pass, you have two options—choose the number of days (from 1 to 7) to use the pass, or choose the number of attractions to visit (from 2 to 5) in the next 60 days.
The five-day pass costs $127 for an adult and $95 for children 3 to 12 years old. For five days, you can use that pass for any of the many eligible attractions. The more you visit, the more you save.
A five-choice pass costs $99 for an adult and $74 for children 3 to 12 years old. You can choose from 20 different activities and attractions, so an adult will pay an average of $20 per activity with the CityGo pass, but many of them cost much more than that without the pass such as a sunset cruise for $43.64.
Local Attractions
If you’d prefer to stay closer to home, consider visiting local attractions. You can save money on admissions in a few different ways.
Get a Groupon
Subscribe to Groupon’s notifications so you can buy admission to local attractions at a discounted rate. Since you never know when local attractions will have a Groupon, give yourself a few months to get discounts for the places you want to visit. Many local businesses advertise on Groupon a couple of times a year.
Get a Coupon Book
Many cities have coupon books that you can buy for a flat rate of $10 to $20. You’ll find coupons for local restaurants as well as local attractions.
Library Passes
Don’t forget to also check with your local library. Some have museum passes. You check out the museum pass, and you can enter the museum for free!
Final Thoughts
Summer is an ideal time to get out and take a road trip or stay closer to home and explore local attractions. Use these 8 ways to save money on summer activities so you can have fun despite our current rate of inflation.
Read More
4 Ways We Save Money with Cross-Country Travel
Holiday Travel Any Time of the Year
Use These Apps to Save Money on Gas
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Melissa is a freelance writer and virtual assistant. She earned her Master’s from Southern Illinois University, and her Bachelor’s in English from the University of Michigan. When she’s not working, you can find her homeschooling her kids, reading a good book, or cooking.
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