I am far from an expert on traveling because the last vacation that I went on that I had to plan for a place to stay, what to eat and the like was our honeymoon almost 6 years ago. And our last big vacation was 4 years ago but my husband's family planned all of that.
So now here we are planning to go to the beach with my brother in law and sister in law and niece and I have learned a few things since we started discussing and planning. We are on a tight budget so we have had to plan accordingly. We started planning this trip months ago so we could pay for our condo by the deadline instead of having to come up with a ton of money in a short amount of time.
As far as detailed packing goes, my SIL and I sat down and made a list of things that we wanted to eat for meals while there and snacks we wanted and drinks we would like. We will be eating out a few times but not a ton. So we made a list of nonperishable items that we could buy ahead of time that we could pack to save us from a HUGE grocery bill once we arrived. Each time we go to the grocery store we try to pick up a few things from the list and put in our large plastic totes. My local grocery store has been running some great buy one get one free sales so I have been taking advantage of that. Buy one for the house and one to take to the beach is free. Buying a little bit here and there will cut down on our final grocery bill once we are there.
We are saving money on our condo because we are going on the "off season" (after Labor Day). We are also able to take advantage of sales on beach towels and sand toys for our girls since the summer season is coming to a close.
As for traveling with a toddler, well this is my first time to do it. I traveled a ton with Amelia when she was an infant and packed entirely too much for her... This time I plan to take a lot less for her. I have already packed a sleeve of diapers from one of the boxes I bought recently and I packed a new package of wipes to take with us. I will take a couple of pair of pajamas for her and myself and several outfits for each of us but plan to wash clothes and wear things more than once while we are there. That way Amelia and I can pack in one suit case and save cargo space.
We are taking two vehicles a truck and an SUV. We plan to leave the back half of the cargo section of the SUV open for diaper changes because who wants to do a diaper change on a dirty changing table at a rest stop? Not me!
As of right now our plan is to leave in the wee hours of the morning so the girls will sleep a good bit of the way down there. For the time they are awake we will have toys and snacks to keep them occupied. We are only 5ish hours from the beach we are going to so they should sleep the entire way though.
And what is a beach trip without photos on the beach? Instead of hiring a photographer to take pictures of us I am taking my camera and will take photos of my BIL, SIL and niece and then have them take photos of us. I also have a tripod to take a group shot to remember our first big vacation! I love the self timer, but a few years ago a good friend of mine bought me a remote for my camera and we use it now, it saves me from setting the camera then pressing the button and running to get in the shot. By doing the photos ourselves we save TONS of money and can get copies of the photos faster. Win for all of us!!!
The last big thing is we are taking our wagon. It is one of the plastic Radio Flyer wagons that has the seats that fold down. We will buckle the girls in to the seats and stick our beach bags between them so that they don't have to walk and we don't have to carry them to the beach. The condo we are staying in is not right on the beach, the complex is all on the beach side of the road but we will have to cross a parking lot to get there from our building. We believe this will be more convenient and keep everyone happy when going to and from the beach.
Our number one goal in planning so much ahead of time is so we can enjoy ourselves when we get down there. We don't want to worry about having to do a HUGE grocery shopping trip when we get there. We want to get there, put our stuff in the condo, change into our swim suits and hit the beach!
I know that not everyone can buy so much ahead of time because of space to pack things. We would have to take two cars anyways since there are 6 of us going so we knew we would have the space to buy now and pack it.
Doing all of this may seem so odd to some people but we aren't fantastic at setting money aside for specific purposes, so this works for us. We have been setting money aside for going out to dinner and gas and groceries when we get there but buying as much as we can when we are shopping for our families has lightened the load on setting money aside for food.
Do you have any tips for traveling with a toddler? How about traveling on a budget? We would love to hear your ideas!
Have fun!!!
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