Yes, the vacation that I am taking is to San Diego!
One of my good friends is a doctor, and her medical conference is in San Diego this year. Her husband is unable to attend, and she didn’t want to go alone, so she asked 3 of us gals if we wanted to go with her. So it is a girls only vacation (smack in the middle of Fleet Week- shucks-all those little sailor dudes running around) to the sunny west coast!
OK, to be honest, this vacation is obviously going to COST money. It isn’t by any means a necessary expense, but it will be fun! On the scale of frugality this falls under very minorly frugal. But since I decided to go, I will of course try to be as frugal as possible about it while still having a good time.
The first and most frugal thing about it is that we won’t have to pay for a room since Doc will be paying for it. That was an expense she had to bear whether we attended or not.
Then we had to get there. Internet research was key at this point. We checked Orbitz, Travelocity, and the various airline websites. We compared going out of Binghamton to Syracuse, Ithaca (both approx 1 hr north) and Scranton (approx 1 hour south). We did those same searches changing the arrival and departure dates around. This all took about 45 minutes. Finally we were able to find round trip tickets from Syracuse NY for $270, which is dirt cheap as far as these things go.
Travel in and around the city was a big issue. At first I recommended using public transportation-most major metro areas have fairly good systems. One of the other ladies had heard from a friend that in San Diego you really needed a rental car. I looked up the San Diego transportation system, but really couldn’t tell if it was convenient or not. Suddenly I had a brain storm! I called the conference hotel and asked to speak to the concierge. She was extremely helpful-able to tell me what attractions were easily accessible from the trolley, which ones could be walked to from the hotel, and which ones would require a taxi or rental car. She was even able to tell me the average cost for the taxi rides to the various destinations! She also clued me in to the hotel’s parking fees and which rental car places were closest. Armed with this information we were able to decide that most of the attractions we wanted to see could either be reached by trolley, or with a taxi ride that cost less than the price of a rental car.
On a side note-she never did ask me for any proof that I would be staying at the hotel. If you are traveling and are planning on staying at the budget motor inn, or some such place that doesn’t have that sort of service, you may still be able to call the concierge at a larger hotel and ask for this sort of info! Another good bet, if that strikes you as unethical, is the tourist information center.
Next we considered food. We know we will wind up eating out quite a bit-after all, it is a vacation. Since we are staying in the same hotel as the conference, there will be a certain amount of food available for free, and there is a coffee pot in the room. We elected to request a fridge in our room-this will incur a small additional fee, but allows us to buy milk etc when we arrive to have breakfasts in the room. None of us usually eat a large breakfast, so the types of things we can eat in the room will serve us very well and be much cheaper. Who wants to pay $4 for a bowl of cereal in a restaurant? Having the fridge will also mean that we will be able to bring any doggy bags back to the room and snack on the leftovers later, and purchase and store water and sodas to take out with us on our travels around town.
Normally I would recommend on a vacation using lunch for your big sit down meal-since it is usually cheaper, and then going for something smaller and cheaper at dinner (like street cart food or fast food type stuff-note to self, must try fish taco) or even eating it in your room, but in this case Doc will be in the conference all day, so dinner out will be with her and most likely be a nicer meal. C’est la vie!
Finally are the attractions themselves. Luckily for the frugally minded, many of the attractions are the walking around browsing sorts of things (like Seaport Village etc). As long as I don’t somehow fall into a store induced trance and start buying things, those sorts of areas should be pretty frugal, except for lunch. I considered buying a copy of the 07 Entertainment Book for San Diego-after all, they get marked down to something like $10 when they are almost ready to expire. And they expire in Nov. But after browsing online, I wasn’t sure if I’d really wind up using it much-we all have varied interests, so it’s hard to predict now exactly what we’ll wind up doing.
There are some bigger ticket attractions that we will be spending money to see-the San Diego Zoo of course, and possibly Sea World or Legoland. I plan on having Yankee Bill check his Triple A club membership to see if they offer any discounts on those things. I’ll also check my USAA (insurance/financial company that caters to the military) and our retiree/veterans benefits. Who knows, there may be a discount ticket available.
What other ideas do you all have for saving money on vacation, or even just “not to miss” attractions in San Diego?
{ 8 comments… read them below or add one }
Oh, I love San Diego, city of my birth! If the weather cooperates I’d recommend a trip across the Coronado Bay Bridge to the Coronado beach or Silver Strand Beach. I believe Silver Strand is a state park and as such has a fee, maybe just to park, though. You can also browse thru the old Hotel Del Coronado. Maybe check out Old Town San Diego, also, a pretty cool historical district
I went to college in San Diego. I would love to go back to visit someday.
I agree with Anita that you have to go to Coronado. Pacific Beach is kind of fun. There’s the Wild Animal Park in Escondido, but that might be a bit far.
On vacation a lot of times I pick up those little booklets in the lobby of fast food restaurants. They frequently have coupons for hotels, restaurants, and local attractions.
Good luck!! You can pick up travel coupons in the front enterance of any Denny’s. They also sell Entertainment books for that city at Banks. They have great deals like buy one get one free to the attractions and for food ect… The 2007 one should be 50%off and it would pay for itself during your trip. You should re-consider getting it. Cost-co usually has the attraction packages for sale at a discount for that area!! Have fun and don’t forget all of you triple AAA discounts. Annette You may want to pick up the local paper for more coupons and ect…
I have worked at numerous physician conventions, including one on “Hotel Circle” in San Diego. Sometimes a hotel has a van (or vans) that will provide transportation for a convention guest to destinations that aren’t too far away. A couple of co-workers and I were able to get a ride to and picked up from Old San Diego one evening via this service, for the price of a generous tip. Also, when I was there (fall 2002) I went on a trolley tour that offered the option to get off at many places of interest along the route (including the beautiful Coronado Island), spend some time, and then catch a later tour trolley. I did this the first day I was there (before the convention where I was working started) and found it very worthwhile because it provided transportation to many places of interest for the price of one tour. It also helped me assess where I would want to return if I had more time. The earlier in the day you could start this tour the better, so you could spend the most time at the most places before the time when the trolleys stop running. -Mac
Sex & The City “Fleet Week” episode:
Samantha: “Oh, SEAMEN!”
Miranda: “When I turn around, there had better be sailors there!”
I’d skip Legoland if I were you. It is really a park for small children. My six year old and I love it so much we bought memberships, but a group of adult women with no children, probably wouldn’t appreciate it as much as we do! Not to mention the admission plus parking is rather expensive.
Great travel planning tips, especially calling the hotel and getting all that great info. Have a great trip, San Diego is nice this time of year!
I absolutely love San Diego. Things that we have seen free or cheaply are Old Town, La Jolla, Balboa Park and Mission Beach. When we ate in Old Town we split Nachos at Freddies and there was way too much food for two people!
Also, Costo where we live (Utah) frequently has San Diego citypasses that are tickets to SeaWorld, The Wild Animal Park and The San Diego Zoo for a much discounted price. I have been to all three and even though they are a little pricey, I felt they are worth it! Especially Sea World!!
We have also really enjoyed visiting the Tide Pools. They are fabulous.
I have heard that they offer segway tours of downtown. They are probably not cheap, but we are still going to look into them the next time we go.
Hope this is helpful! Annie