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Actually, I've gotten the $15/day rate with Hertz at several locations, including Phoenix. You just have to catch it at the right time. Though I'd love to do a Jeep rental in Sedona.
If you stay east coast, Spirit Airlines offers Boston to West Palm Beach starting at $137 round trip (pack light, Spirit charges for baggage). Budget hotels (think: Super8) can be booked for $80-90 / night. You won't have an ocean view at that price but it'll still be warm. Unfortunately rental car is a bit pricier, at $55 / day for an economy car. Food is, again, dependent on your preferences. For a 5 day trip (best rates on flights were Feb 22-26), you'd be looking somewhere around $1,160.
As for the Sedona estimate above, I used my own number for rental car estimate, but IIRC I revved during the off-season, at weekend rates. Plugging the info into Hertz.com, it looks like the cheapest you can get for those dates is $33 / day (though other rental companies may be cheaper, I've just always had good experience with Hertz). That brings the AZ estimate up to $1,135.
So, either trip would be close to $1,000. Pretty similar on price. Your preference on dining could change the price pretty drastically.
Best option, in my opinion, for budget vacation is cruises. Rooms in cruises are like airplane seats. An empty room is being moved for free. Close to the departure dates, you can get killer deals, because the cruise makes most of its money on shore excursions, and on-board casinos and bars. Even booking out is cheap, if you go with an interior room.
For example, you could fly round trip from Boston to LAX for $337. Leave Monday, fly back on a Friday night red eye. A 4 day Baja Mexico cruise (leaves L.A. Monday evening, returns Friday morning) can be booked for as low as $149 per person. Closer departure dates (for example, Feb 2nd) are as low as $112 per person, but airfare will cost more so it's a wash. Cruises are all inclusive, so food is included in the cost. Just avoid the touristy package "deals" to save money. That's $486 per person, and the only thing you have to worry about is going from the airport to the ship!
There are 4-night cruises to the Bahamas from Miami if you're going to go that route (as low as $189 per person for inside cabin). Boston-Miami flights are only $250 nonstop.
Thank you! Very interesting!
I had considered cruises as well, but never researched departures from ports other than Boston ... I really don't like Boston much ...
My family and I have gone on enough cruises, we have essentially VIP treatment with Carnival (basically, perks for repeat customers). It's actually pretty nice -- we get to skip the long lines to get on the boat, and get to be in the first groups off the boat during shore days.
One of the best deals we got on a cruise was when booking last minute. We had a German exchange student staying with us, and wanted to find something to do for Spring Break. Mom was in charge of comparing costs of various vacation ideas (Florida, DC, NYC, Chicago, etc -- we lived in KY at the time, and everything was within a day's drive).
She wound up on Carnival's website, and saw everything booked. Called the 1-800 number, and asked if there were any openings on ANY ship leaving that weekend. As luck would have it, there were two interior staterooms available on a ship leaving New Orleans on the following Sunday (she was calling on a Friday). We got home, mom said "Pack your bags, we're heading to New Orleans to catch a cruise". Packed and on the road within an hour. 6 day Carribean cruise, for like $100 per person.
A lot of people disregard cruises, but honestly it's a pretty relaxed way to vacation. And perfect if you have small kids. Carnival offers daycare-like programs for kids of different age groups (I'm sure other cruise lines offer similar, I just don't have experience). You leave your kids with the staff, and you're free to go do whatever. Your kids can't get lost -- it's a boat. As for packing -- swim suit, t-shirts, sunscreen... Not much else needed, unless you want to go to the fancy dinners and events. Days at sea are spent swimming, lounging, eating, going to any number of the shows / events / parties, or hitting up the casino. Days on shore are spent doing whatever it is you feel like doing. Plenty of packaged tours to go on, or you could just hail a cab and head to a park or a beach.
Location: RI, MA, VT, WI, IL, CA, IN (that one sucked), KY
41,936 posts, read 36,962,945 times
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Quote:
Originally Posted by cb at sea
I have NO DESIRE to vacation alone...just wouldn't be fun at all.
I can't think of much nicer than vacationing alone!
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