There are five figures of expense involved in this trip and if something happens that either cancels or cuts your trip short, you don’t want to lose that money. Travel insurance has been around for longer than you might think but it has taken more of a front seat in the high dollar world of insurance sales but like all insurance, it’s not as cut and dry as you think. Travel insurance doesn’t protect against loss without any complication. Oh, certainly not! We need to dive in to this and see what we need to know.

Airline Delays? Yup!

What happens if you’re going overseas for a certain event and because of some issue that you don’t even want to think about, your flight is delayed and you miss the event? Travel insurance will cover some of the expenses associated with that. Airlines will help you get rebooked but other than picking up a T-shirt, what good does the trip do you now?

If you have travel insurance, they will cover the costs associated with the delay. Well, at least some of them. Of course the obvious line to throw in right here is, make sure to read your policy or talk to the agent who sold you the policy so you aren’t flying (or not flying) blind.

Activity Related Injuries? Yup!

So you were swimming with the dolphins in some lagoon and something far less friendly than flipper bit you. Didn’t seem like a big deal but it got infected, you swelled up like a big red balloon and it actually became something pretty serious. Travel insurance covers that too although they will probably expect that your health insurance take on some of the cost. Either way, you’ll have coverage and although the dolphin excursion didn’t turn out quite the way you had hoped, the medical bills are covered.

Rental Car Damage Protection? Buy it!

Often at an extra charge, your travel insurance policy will offer rental car damage protection. You were looking at the sights and the next sight you saw was an all too close up look at a tree. The car was totaled. If you use your auto insurance your premium will go up. That supplemental coverage with your travel insurance may be well worth the extra cost although you might compare it to the cost of coverage through the rental company.

The further away from home you travel the more you need travel insurance. It’s a relatively small expense for added peace of mind that comes with going on a high dollar trip. (Don’t get too close to the back of those elephants!)

Is Travel Insurance Worth It? from personal finance blog Bargaineering.com.

The days of receiving a special bereavement rate from the airlines are gone. The profit margin for a seat on an aircraft along with the personnel expenses that come with verifying the passing of your loved one make this perk no longer cost effective.

Although you probably aren’t going to come out with a discount to brag about, there are ways to keep from spending more of a fortune than you should have.

By “Last Minute” You Mean…

If you got the call an hour ago to be on a plane today, there’s not much you can do. You can only hope that an airline ticket to wherever you’re going isn’t twice the cost of planning ahead. Get online right away and see what comes up but other than calling the airlines and sometimes paying fees to speak to somebody, you’re largely out of luck.

If you can wait 24 hours, that gives you the flexibility of booking an early morning or late night flight or one that has multiple layovers. You could even drive to an airport further away in order to get a better rate. (watch the gas costs)

Last Minute, Non-Emergency

If this describes you, head to twitter and subscribe to the last minute travel feeds that are available. Many sites tweet their “deal of the century” rates as well as other discount rates that come from the airlines desperate to get those last few seats filled. Of course, don’t forget the old go-to sites like Expedia, travelzoo, and others.

The Lesser Knowns

Don’t normally fly on those strange airlines that look like they have two planes that may fall out of the sky? Now may be the time. The FAA has the same safety regulations for all planes so you can be confident that even if you go the generic equivalent of an airline, you’re safe. Regional airlines may be eager to fill their last minute seat vacancies at an even cheaper price. Just like their larger competitors, you probably won’t get a great deal but even the standard fare may be cheaper than the big airlines.

Fly Alone

The stress of the emergency is bad enough but if you have to book travel for your whole family, that adds to the expense and greatly decreases your chances of finding a flight at a reasonable price. If possible, leave the kids at home and if they need to be there, wait a few days.

Sometimes tending to an emergency means forgetting about frugality or even good financial decisions but for those who can spare a day or two and take the time to shop around even a little, emergency travel expenses don’t have to blow out your monthly budget. A little bit of flexibility can mean big savings.

(Photo: pagedooley)

Here’s How to Save on Last Minute Travel from personal finance blog Bargaineering.com.

Airfare Watchdog

Airfare Watchdog is an awesome way to monitor the prices of flights in your area.  I have bought a ticket through their site once, but I have also simply used the information it throws my way to pick the best times to patrol all of the other sites to get the best deal.  I love the fact that it is easy to use.

If you’d like to keep an eye out for the best prices on plane tickets to or from a certain place, simply sign up for email notifications.  Airfare Watchdog will then email you when specials occur for the trip you set it up to monitor.  For example, I was looking for a cheap ticket to Chicago to go to the Financial Blogger Conference at the end of September.   I signed up for email notifications in March for any good deals from Houston to Chicago and jumped on a $215 ticket that they notified me about a few weeks later.

Travelocity

I have used Travelocity to book our latest vacation package to Las Vegas.  Their system is really easy to use.  Simply type in where you want to go, where you are leaving from, the dates you plan to travel, and what you are looking for.  I usually try to find airfare and hotel bundles to save money.  Most recently, I used Travelocity to get us 2 roundtrip tickets to Las Vegas along with 4 nights at the Golden Nugget for $800.  Based on all of the other plane tickets I could find this year, that was a great deal.

Expedia

I also check Expedia for bundle deals since their prices compete with Travelocity.  They are just as easy to use but their prices can differ up to a couple of hundred dollars for two people on any given day.  Based on what I have seen, Expedia is usually more expensive than some other travel sites, but sometimes they seem to get amazing specials that are worth taking a look at.  For our vacation 4 years ago, I was able to get 2 roundtrip tickets to Las Vegas along with 4 nights at the Four Queens for $600.

Southwest Vacations

When we lived on the other side of town, Southwest Vacations was my go-to site whenever a plane was going to be involved.  Now they still have great deals, but Travelocity beats them out once in a while.  The big selling point about Southwest Vacations is that if you want to use Southwest, it is the only way to get a packaged deal.  Southwest does not sell their tickets through other online sites like other airlines do.  Using Southwest Vacations 6 years ago, I was able to get 2 roundtrip tickets to Las Vegas for our honeymoon along with 3 nights at the Stratosphere for $525.

On a side note, I have found that Tuesday is the absolute best day to get the cheapest deals out of any of these online travel sites.  It seems that they refresh their rates on Tuesday mornings.  When I looked up the package to Las Vegas this year on Sunday, I couldn’t find 2 tickets and 4 nights at the Golden Nugget for less than $1100, but I was able to book it for $800 two days later on that Tuesday.

Do you use the same travel sites?  What site would you highly recommend?

Best Travel Deal Websites – Which Ones Work For You? from personal finance blog Bargaineering.com.

After running the numbers, I found that if I were traveling alone, it would be cheaper to fly to Phoenix and rent a car than it would be to drive to my grandfather’s house, staying a night on the road each way. However, add in my son’s plane ticket, and it became a little cheaper to drive. Hooray! I love a good road trip.

Deciding Whether to Fly, Drive or Hitchhike

With summer vacation upon us, it is a great time to travel. If you are looking to save money, though, you will need to consider your options. What is cheaper often depends on how many people are going on the vacation, and what you plan to do for accommodations. I decided to consider traveling from Los Angeles to New York City — another fun trip. Here are some of the things to take into account as you plan your cross-country adventure:

Driving: The biggest expense with driving cross-country is the gas — especially now, with gas prices on the rise. You can use the AAA Fuel Cost Calculator to estimate what you will pay on your trip. I used my Saturn wagon as a model to find that gas would cost $969.60 for a round trip drive. I can already tell that flying would be cheaper if I went alone. (In my Prius, it would cost only $387.84. So I’d really take the Prius. But if you have a family minivan, you are more likely to spend closer to $900 – $1,000.)

As for hotels, it depends on how many nights you want to spend. If you figure an average speed of 60 miles per hour, it will take just over 46 hours to drive the 2,763 miles between LA and NYC. I would expect to stay at least three nights, possibly four, each way, depending on what I wanted to see. Checking on a discount travel site, it appears that I will likely spend about $60 a night, totaling between $360 and $480 for lodging.

My total, without accounting for meals, attraction admissions and other costs, could be as much as $1,449.60 (if I stay four nights going and four nights coming back; $867.84 if I took the Prius). And that doesn’t count staying in a hotel. Although, honestly, if I were going to drive to NYC, we’d actually stay at my husband’s parents’ house in the Catskills for free and take the train to the city for a couple of days, and probably take another to Boston for a couple more days. It’d be more fun that way. When going on a road trip, it’s a good idea to look for camping spots and plan your trip to stay with relatives. We could save another night’s lodging by planning our route through Ohio, where my uncle lives.

Flying: If I fly out by myself, and stay from a Tuesday to a Thursday, and stay in a hotel the whole time, I can do it for $986 — provided I am willing to fly into (and stay in) Newark, NJ. There are other packages for up to $1,400 as well. I assume I’m not renting a car because I absolutely refuse to drive in New York City. Who needs to? The subway and other forms of public transport are more than adequate, and reasonably priced.

However, once my family comes along, things change. For three of us, it would cost more than $2,700. And that doesn’t include food and attractions.

Hitchhiking: I wouldn’t do this with my family. But, last time I hitchhiked, years and years ago, I offered to help pay for gas and a meal for the driver. It worked out. If I were hitching across the U.S., I could probably do it for less than $700, assuming I paid for some hotels, food and offered to provide a little help for drivers. A really enterprising person could probably hitchhike from LA to NYC for much less.

What do you think? What is likely to be cheaper for you in terms of travel?

(Photo: smemon)

Summer Travel: What’s the Cheapest Way to Go? from personal finance blog Bargaineering.com.

Of course, like so many other things in life, you can save a little money if you do some planning. If you have a general idea of your route, and what you would like to do, you can create a plan that will cost a little less than you might think. Here are some general ideas for saving money on your next road trip:

Look for Discounts

The first thing you should do is look for discounts. If you will be going through a major city, CityPASS is a great option. You can save money on a number of different attractions in different cities with the help of a city pass — and you get to skip ticket lines in some cases. (This worked well for me on a trip to New York City a few years ago.) Check to see if nearby museums have free admission days when you are passing through. You can also call different hotels; some of them have discounts to attractions as part of your check in package.

You can also look for special promos and discounts for your hotels, food and other amenities. Check with discount gift card sites and daily deal sites like Groupon and Living Social to see if you can get a cheap gift card or discount on something you will use. If you are a frequent traveler, belonging to a rewards program can save you money in the long run.

Accommodations

There is no reason to stay at hotels the entire time you are on your road trip. If you have good friends or relatives along the route, plan to stay with them. As long as you are willing to let your friends and family stay with you when they are passing through, this can work out really well. If your family is into camping, you can also sleep outdoors (if the weather cooperates). Look for campsites along your route, and you can save money by paying a small fee, rather than a bigger hotel rate.

Another way to save money is to establish a base if you plan to be in the same area for an extended period. Pick a hotel that offers rooms with kitchenettes, and then set up shop. You can drive to that location, and then take day trips radiating out from this point. My parents did this when we went to Florida one year. A weekly rate on a condo was better than a week’s worth of nights in hotels. We did have to travel two hours one way to reach one of our destinations, but it was an overall savings.

Food

Of course, you need something to eat. Saving money on food is a matter of planning ahead. The last two times my husband, son and I traveled cross country, we enlisted the help of one of those 5-day coolers. Pack it up with condiments, deli meat, salad stuff and beverages. Replenish the ice at hotels or grocery stores. In fact, we stopped at grocery stores along the way to get fresh produce and other items for the cooler.  We could make sandwiches and salads for lunch, and then eat out for dinner. When camping, we package foil dinners ahead of time for storage in the cooler and use on the road.

If you are staying in a hotel with a microwave or kitchenette, you can even cook your own dinners. We’ve done this a few times, preferring to eat out for lunch (which is less expensive), and taking care of dinner on our own at the hotel.

What do you do to save money on your road trips?

How to Save Money on Road Trips from personal finance blog Bargaineering.com.

Unfortunately, some spring break ideas tend to be rather expensive. Do you really want to spend $1,000 on your spring break? Plus, air travel is expensive during spring break season, and sometimes hotels charge more, too. If you take a few minutes to find your creativity and your inner frugality, though, you might find that spring break doesn’t have to be that expensive after all.

1. Plan a Staycation

Do you really have to go across the country to have a good spring break? Plan a staycation. College students can look up the local attractions. Many college students don’t pay much attention to what is happening locally; their focus is often on university events. Widen your gaze a bit, and see what there is locally. I was surprised to find that my college town sported a variety of community events and local activities, as well as great history sites.

As a family, you can use this week to explore your local town. Plan a different activity for each day. Find out what events are happening nearby. Many cities have special museum days, as well as free history sites. You can go for a picnic in the park, or ride your bikes. There are plenty of things to do with a staycation.

If you are set on spending a night or two somewhere, there is no need to go very far. Pick a town that is only a few hours away, and book a hotel there for a night or two. Do some exploring of a location in not too far. It’ll save you on gas, while getting you out of town.

2. Camping

Spring break is a great time to go camping, especially if you live somewhere that is somewhat warm, or if you can drive to somewhere a little warmer in a day or so. When I lived in Southern Utah, spring break was a great time to go camping. Temperatures were comfortable for hiking and other outdoor activities, and the nights didn’t get too cold. A possibility in cold climes is camping in the snow. Make sure you know what you are doing, though.

Families can vary it up a bit by camping in the back yard, or even camping in the living room (if it’s too cold). The truly adventurous, with older kids, can actually go snow camping. Camping is relatively inexpensive, and provides a chance to enjoy nature.

3. Alternative Spring Break

If you like to help others, you can do what is known as an alternative spring break. You do have to pay for the experience, and sometimes it starts to get a little pricey, but many universities have alternative spring break clubs. You do fund raising throughout the year so that you don’t have to pay as much out of your own pocket, and then you travel somewhere to perform service. The alternative spring break club at my undergrad build a school in Mexico.

Even if you don’t do an “official” alternative spring break, it is possible to have a good service experience during this time. Get together with friends, and then find out about a need in your community. Help with Habitat for Humanity, the local women’s shelter, a food bank or soup kitchen, or find someone in your neighborhood who needs help with a project. Service is a great way to spend your spring break.

3 Cheap Ideas for Spring Break from personal finance blog Bargaineering.com.

True, I was at a disadvantage: I didn’t have a credit card, and I didn’t have a debit card. (This was a looong time ago.) Traveler’s cheques were the way to go when traveling overseas. However, some of the basics of protecting your money never change. It is especially important to be careful of your money if you know you will be traveling to a place in upheaval. Plus, you never know if the country you are in might suddenly become unpredictable, as what happened in Egypt recently.

Before you head out of the country, consider these tips for protecting your money:

Use Credit Cards

Credit cards are almost universal these days. Take a credit card that is accepted in a wide variety of places. These cards should be used for large purchases (hotel rooms, car rentals, tickets, etc.). Credit cards come with fraud protection, so if your card is lost or stolen, your liability is limited. It’s a good idea to bring at least one other card along with you, as a backup. Your back up card, and a paper with the phone numbers and account information for the cards you are bringing, should be kept in a separate and secure place. A hotel safe or locker is a possible choice.

Keep Cash in Different Places

You probably will need cash for some purchases, since not every vendor will take a credit card — especially if you stray off the beaten path. Don’t keep all your cash in one place, though. Leave some of it in a secure place off your person, and keep some of it separate on person. You can use money belts worn under the clothes to protect some of it, and keep some in a wallet or purse. There are other hiding places that are popular for cash, including socks and bras.

Know Where Your Debit Card Is

If you want access to cash, you can use a debit card. Keep track of it, and report it immediately if it is lost or stolen. Before you go, think about where you are likely to withdraw cash from an ATM. Find out where the ATMs are located, and use those. Be on the alert for false ATMs set up by scam artists in areas frequented by tourists. When in doubt, use a bank ATM (even if the fee is a little higher).

Also, be aware of the differences between ATMs in the U.S. and in other countries. Password and PIN entry may be different; before you go, you may need to choose a PIN that is compliant with the machines in another country.

Clean Out Your Wallet or Purse

Take as little as possible. Take only the identifying information that you need. Limit the number of debit and credit cards you bring to three or four (total). Don’t keep account numbers, Social Security cards and other sensitive information in your wallet or purse. Travel light, and have an inventory — kept separately — of what you are bringing. Do a check at the end of each day to make sure you still have everything.

Let Others Know What You Are Doing

Before you leave, let your card issuers and your bank know that you are traveling overseas. Make copies of your important documents (including your passport). Write down the phone numbers of the banks (account numbers not necessary) in question, and make copies of your itinerary. Give a copy to a trusted family member or friend to keep for you, and keep another copy for yourself. Just make sure it is kept in a secure place.

If you are careful with your money, making preparations, it should be quite safe as you travel, and you can enjoy your vacation.

Do you have any other money tips for traveling overseas?

How to Protect Your Money While Traveling from personal finance blog Bargaineering.com.

At the very least, it’s five years overdue, because my friends and I have been doing this for at least that long. In fact, it was the topic of discussion one day at Meals on Wheels and when one of the other volunteers remarked that they had been renting vacation homes for decades.

1. It’s cheaper. It’s exceptionally cheap when you go during the off-season, usually almost 50% off the peak rates. The vacation homes are usually very large so when you finally calculate the cost per person, it’s quite affordable.
2. It’s negotiable. Hotels are not very good at negotiation, unless you’re a savvy customer or use something like Priceline, the price is whatever you can get through a travel search site. Demand for vacation homes, especially in this recession, is down and you can use it to your advantage.
3. You have kitchens and grills to cook yourself. Most hotels, unless it’s suites, won’t have any type of kitchen or even a microwave. You can continue to save money on your vacation if you take advantage of the kitchen and the grills usually made available in vacation homes.
4. A pool of your own! If you’re in a vacation home usually frequented in the summer, chances are it has a pool that you can use all to yourself.
5. Plenty of communal space. If you want to play board games or yard games, it’s pretty much impossible in a hotel. With your own vacation home, you have living rooms and other communal spaces you can take advantage of.
6. Parking aplenty. If you go to a hotel in a resorty area, usually you can park one or two cars a room in the hotel parking lot. With a vacation home, no one is monitoring so you can pack in as many as you want.
7. Free Wi-Fi. The last home we stayed in had free Wi-fi, which was a great perk. While paying $9 a day at a hotel isn’t horrible, I don’t plan on being tethered to a computer so $9 to check my email is a bit much (I know there are lots of hotels with free Wi-Fi, but many still charge!).
8. More likely to be pet friendly. A vacation home is more likely to be pet-friendly, which means you can save on kenneling costs. Hotels? Forget about it, you have no chance.

It is not without negatives though. First, you’ll usually have to rent the vacation home or condo for an entire week, even if you’re only staying for a long weekend. My recommendation is that you split the cost evenly across the number of people, rather than the number of days people are staying.

Second, you’ll need a lot of people to fill the beds in a house to make it worthwhile. When we went to the Outer Banks, there were close to fifteen beds. We had enough people and the cost of the home was ridiculously cheap, but if you don’t know enough people then it may not be worth it.

Despite the two negatives, which are potential deal-breakers, renting a vacation home beats a hotel in my book.

(Photo: tony_wan_kenobi)

7 Reasons to Skip Hotels & Rent Vacation Homes from personal finance blog Bargaineering.com.

1. Free Transportation to and from the Airport: When you stay at a resort, Disney will shuttle you to and from the airport on their Disney’s Magical Express Transportation service. They will also wait for your checked-in luggage and deliver it to your room several hours later, which is great if you’re getting in the morning and want to take advantage of the time to visit the park.
2. Extra Magic Hours: If you stay at a Disney resort, you’re to participate in Extra Magic Hours, which is when the park is opened early or later just for resort guests (the park that has the magic hours will change each day). During our last trip, we took full advantage of the Extra Magic Hours because the traffic in the park dies down considerably. We were able to get on the most popular rides with only five and ten minute waits, sometimes with no wait. We rode the Buzz Lightyear ride at Magic Kingdom three or four times in a row without waiting.
3. Free Transportation to and from the Parks: Free buses every 20 minutes to and from the parks, coupled with the free transportation to and from the airport, means you never need a rental car. It also means you don’t have to pay for parking each day at the park, which is even more savings.
4. Take Breaks During The Day: It’s a lot easier to jump on a shuttle back to your room if you want to take a break during the day. Towards the end of our trip, we would take an hour or so naps or breaks in the late afternoon before dinner, it’s a lot of walking in Disney!
5. Souvenirs Delivered To Your Room: If you buy anything, you can show them your room card and it will be delivered to your room. We didn’t take advantage of this but it’s nice not to have to carry something around all day!
6. Participate in the Meal Plan: I discussed my thoughts on the Disney Dining Meal Plan but if you like the convenience of the plans, you can only get it if you are staying at a Disney resort.

One more bit of advice, if you are celebrating something, like a birthday or an anniversary (or just celebrating life!), ask for a button from your front desk or from the information services desk at any park. They’ll give you a small pin you can wear. We got a Happy Anniversary pin and practically every Disney employee wished us a Happy Anniversary or asked us how many years, it was a fun little highlight to the weekend. It also acts as a conversation starter whenever you’re waiting in lines or on the bus.

So, the next time you visit, consider a Disney resort because you’ll be surprised how good the deals are nowadays.

(Photo: gold41)

Six Reasons Why Disney Resorts Rock from personal finance blog Bargaineering.com.

Overall, we were pleased with the Dining Plan and felt that it was a great deal. There was only one downside, it was too much food!

How the Disney Dining Plan Works:

Each person is given a certain number of “entitlements” each day for one of three categories. The three food categories are:

• Snacks: By definition, snacks are things that are single serve and under $4 a piece. There are a few exceptions (caramel apples coated in chocolate are considered snacks by the computer but cost around $4.19) but the general rule is that anything that is a single serving and under $4 can be spent as a snack.
• Quick Service Meals: There are no dollar amount rules but if you serve yourself and find your own table, it’s quick service. With quick service meals you get an entrée, a non-alcoholic beverage, and a dessert. In the cases where dessert isn’t served, such as at breakfast, you can get two drinks.
• Table Service Meals: Again, no dollar amount rule but if you have table service then it’s using one of your table service “entitlements.” It includes your entrée, a dessert, and a non-alcoholic beverage.

There are five dining packages, but only three are truly just about meals:

• Quick-Service Dining – $29.99 per person per day, includes one snack and two quick service meals.
• Dining (Standard) – $39.99 per person per day, includes one snack, one quick service, and one table service meal.
• Deluxe Dining – $71.99 per person per day, includes three table service meals and two snacks per person.

There is a Premium Dining Plan and Platinum Dining plan but they start getting crazy. The premium includes refillable drink mugs, tickets to a Cirque du Soleil show (La Nouba), etc. The Platinum includes fireworks cruises, in-room babysitting, spa treatments, etc. By the way, the Premium costs $159 per person per day and the Platinum costs $209 per person per day!

How We Fared

Having gone to Disney before, we knew we enjoyed eating at several places already – Marrakesh, the Moroccan restaurant at Epcot, and Biergärten, the German buffet at Epcot. We discovered another new favorite on this trip, Kona Café in the Polynesian Resort, that we probably wouldn’t have tried without the meal plan (maybe we would’ve, who knows!?).

Since we knew we were going to eat out every meal and we weren’t going the frugal route, the dining plan seemed to make sense. On the whole we “spent” approximately $551.86 across the five days, or $55.19 per person per day. Considering the package cost us only $39.99 per person per day, we came out ahead about $15 each per day. In theory, we thus saved $151.96 by going with the package.

But wait… there’s a huge caveat – We got more food than we could handle! Having the dining plan changed how we would’ve normally ordered food. The most notable change was in desserts. I never order dessert because I don’t have a big sweet tooth! If anything, my wife and I share a dessert. Never in my life have I ordered dessert for five meals straight, which we did on the meal plan because it was included. I also almost never order soda with dinner because I’m concerned the caffeine would affect my sleep. Cut out one soda and one dessert and you’re already talking $7-8 a day, cutting half our savings! We probably wouldn’t have bought chips or dessert with our lunches either, another $5-6 in savings at lunch, thus negating almost all of our savings! (in the case of lunch, we would ask for bottled water or give the dessert to some kid who wasn’t hyper enough)

Want another caveat? We were left with two snacks we had to use at the end of the trip – we bought some fudge and a caramel nut apple to take home. That’s $8 we probably wouldn’t have spent if we didn’t have to.

Your savings are really in those “extras” – the side of chips, the desserts at dinner, a soda with every meal, etc. I normally don’t get those and my wife normally doesn’t either, so had we behaved “normally,” we probably would’ve saved more by not getting the plan.

Best Values

The best snack, in terms of value and maybe nutrition, in any park has to be the pretzel – which ranges in price from $4.04 to $4.20. I was surprised to see different prices, sometimes within the same park, but they do vary (though I don’t think the pretzel size changes). We would routinely split a pretzel as a snack during the day. Another good snack, though not particularly healthy, is a candied apple – the caramel and nuts coated apple at about $4.24.

The best quick service meal, hands down, is the #1 Combo Rib & Chicken at Cosmic Ray’s in Magic Kingdom. After you add in a soda and a desert (they won’t give you bottled water there!), the price for that meal rockets to a stunning $21.37, nearly twice the average price of any other quick service meal. It’s definitely enough food for two, but since we were both on the meal plan, it made no sense to “save” because we would have to spend it later anyway.

Best Hacks

Ask for bottled water instead of dessert: I don’t know many people who eat dessert with lunch but I do know a lot of people who would enjoy a nice bottle of ice cold water as they wandered around a theme park in the heat of Florida. Some places will let you do it, some won’t, it never hurts to ask!

Skip breakfast: In terms of value, breakfast is clearly the least valuable of all the quick service meals. My wife and I usually opted to share a pretzel for breakfast and just wait it out until our lunch.

Try to get substitutions: It’s not always clear what counts as what, so if you are in doubt ask. In one case, the attendant didn’t know if a caramel nut apple counted as a snack until she tried it in the machine and it worked. Be courteous and you never know!

Don’t try to maximize value all the time: Remember, the goal of a meal is to be fed and to be happy – not to maximize the dollar amount of what you’re getting for your entitlement! Nowhere is this more true than at a buffet, don’t stuff yourself so full that you’re sick and can’t ride Buzz Lightyear at Magic Kingdom afterwards. Eat until you’re satisfied, then go out and ride some rides so you’re happy and satisfied. How much you dented the restaurant’s bottom line won’t matter!

Snacks convert well into souvenirs: We left with a candied apple and a square of fudge, but you can always get popcorn balls or some other neat Disney snack souvenir you can give a friend when you get home.

Overall Impressions:

Looking back, we probably won’t get the dining plan again though we were by no means displeased with our experience. I felt the whole experience was a wash financially, though we did discover a really awesome restaurant we didn’t know about before. I don’t know how the experience would’ve skewed had we had kids, whose plans are $8.99, $10.99, and $20.99, but that’s something to worry about down the road.

(Photo: ckramer)

Our Disney Dining Plan Experience from personal finance blog Bargaineering.com.

Here are some hot deals from weeks past:

• Rome: 6 Night s& Air for $599 through Sceptre Tours
• Bahamas Beachfront Getaway incl. Air for $259 through Bookit
• Las Vegas 4-Diamond Hotel on The Strip for $79.99 through Mandalay Bay Resort and Casino

A few weeks ago there was some $300 deal for an all inclusive four-night, three day trip to Dublin, Ireland (airfare included). We definitely thought about that one but opted instead to use the vacation days for a trip to Disney.

Quick Travel Tip: Subscribe to Travelzoo’s Top 20 Deals List from personal finance blog Bargaineering.com.

If you live elsewhere, don’t fret. There are over 2,460 landmarks in the United States. New York takes top honors with a 256 according to Wikipedia, with Delaware bringing up the rear with five. In Maryland, there are 71 and we’ve only gone to one of them – the Bollman Truss Railroad Bridge (by accident too). You could go to one landmark each weekend and be busy until the end of next year!

Check out your state and find a piece of America’s history to explore this weekend!

(Photo by Dean.Franklin)

Low Cost Weekend Ideas: Visit National Landmarks from personal finance blog Bargaineering.com.

Last minute deals are so great because they represent revenue that would otherwise be lost to the company offering it. The cruise ship will set sail with a full complement of crew and supplies regardless of the actual passenger count and an empty cabin represents a lot of lost revenue so selling it at a discount to the rack price is something they’re very much willing to do. It’s why hotels and airlines sometimes have last minute fares and discounts, an empty room or seat is lost revenue.

The flip side is the risk involved in waiting. If you really want to go on a cruise, say for your honeymoon, then you probably don’t want to risk waiting for a last minute deal because a last minute deal may never come. For example, we booked our honeymoon flights for Hawaii several months in advance when the deal looked good to us (it’ll run a little under $700 a piece from Baltimore to Honolulu, which seemed like a good price for the time we’re going); we weren’t willing to see if there was going to be a fare sale a month beforehand.

So, if you have a little flexibility, consider waiting until the “last minute,” roll the dice, and maybe you’ll go on a vacation you never expected – say to Iceland to ride some tiny horses and fight in the snow (I had a few friends do that, they have a blast). Many of the travel sites have “last minute” sections or you can always scour deal sites like Travelzoo for great last minute bargains (I’m a fan of their Top 20 deals too).

Last Minute Vacations: Risk With Rewards from personal finance blog Bargaineering.com.

One word of warning, sometimes the airline’s site won’t have the same price. It might be that the search engine has a special deal of some sort with the travel provider (or it could be something else, who knows) but this trick doesn’t always work. I’ve also found that this trick doesn’t work as often with hotels and car rentals, there doesn’t seem to be as clean of a $5 markup.

Lastly, all those search engines won’t have two important budget carriers in their results – Southwest and AirTran (and maybe a few other smaller outfits). To get those flights you’ll have to go through the site’s own website (though some of their partners will appear in the results, such as ATA, a partner of Southwest’s).

Save $5 On Airline Tickets on Travel Search Engines from personal finance blog Bargaineering.com.

I’ve included after the jump a link to each of the department or division or office of tourism for your convenience.

Low Cost Weekend Ideas: Visit Your State Tourism Website from personal finance blog Bargaineering.com.