Top 10 Money Saving Tips for Christmas - #6 Travel

December 17th, 2007 | Christmas, Money Saving, Top 10

Table of contents for Top Ten Money Saving Tips for Christmas

sleigh ornament - originally posted by liquid paper

I don’t think there are many people who relish the thought of having to travel long distances over the holiday period. The roads, stations and airports are all packed, and then there’s the risk of getting delayed due to bad weather. Just to really top off that cheery holiday feeling, lots of people also have to content with the extortionate cost of Christmas travel. Here are some of my top tips for cutting the cost of Christmas travel …

Plan Ahead

The general rule is, the further in advance you book, the cheaper it is going to be. It pays to get organised because the sooner you know your plans for Christmas and the sooner you get the tickets booked, the more you are going to save. This is equally true to train and airplane tickets.

Having said this, if your plans change at the last minute there are often some last minute bargains to be had. The key to finding these is to shop around. It is always worth looking at the online travel sites like Expedia and lastminute.com as well as talking to your travel agent. You never know when you’ll get lucky.

Go Public

Taking public transport is almost always going to be cheaper than driving, especially if you book in advance. There are some great deals to be had, and you can even turn it into a Christmas adventure for the kids or just for yourself. Not only are you going to save some money, but you are also going to be helping the environment.

A great example this is David over at My Two Dollars who has decided to take the train from Los Angeles to Chicago for the Christmas break.

Ship Ahead

I remember arriving at the airport in the Quito a few years ago ready to fly back to London for the holidays. I had spent almost a whole day packing, repacking, and packing one last time because I had so much stuff to bring home. In the end, even after all that packing, I was still well over the weight limit for my flight and I had to pay a small fortune in excess baggage fees as a result.

If you are flying for the holidays and even think you might be overweight it pays to ship some of you luggage in advance. It is far cheaper to do this than to have to pay for excess baggage at the airport. It will also give you a chance to shop around for the cheapest courier rather than be at the mercy of the airline on Christmas eve.

Carry On

This isn’t really a money saving tip, more a piece of advice, split you luggage and take all your essential items as carry on. Airlines are not the most reliable people anyway when it comes to luggage and the craziness of the holiday seasons just compounds the problem.

If you are travelling with more than one suitcase, split your clothes and those of your travel companions into different suitcases. That way if worse comes to worst you won’t be out spending money on essentials because your bags lost. Even if you are only taking one suitcase, it is always worth putting as many essentials as you can into your carry on. There is nothing worse than dashing round the shops just before the holidays trying to buy a toothbrush or underwear, trust me.

Best of the Rest;

One thing I am particularly keen on is highlighting posts from other bloggers that relate to my posts and that I believe are worthwhile additional reading. I plan on including these ‘Best of the Rest’ links is as many of my posts as a I can.