I just planned our family's trip to the Dominican Republic. Our family of 5 will be flying to the Dominican Republic in September. I planned the trip so that all we will be paying for the plane tickets are taxes and fees. As for the hotel, we will be staying at a 5 star, all inclusive hotel, that provides free kids club. For those of you who are not familiar with kids club (as I was not until I had my own children), some hotels offers supervised childcare for young children and a camp like program for the older kids. So, for under $3000, we will have unlimited food and drinks at a 5 star hotel, childcare, nightly entertainment, and maid service.
STRATEGY:
I incorporated a multi-level strategy to plan this trip. The first step was to choose the right destination spot.
DESTINATION SPOT
Originally I was planning to arrange a trip to the Fiji islands. However, as the temperament of my youngest child began to manifest itself (he is now 2) I realized that such a long plane ride without any breaks would be very challenging for everyone. Also, I was originally going to use our timeshare and try to save on lodgings but the thought of cooking and cleaning, and being the primary care taker for the kids all day, seemed less like a vacation the more I thought about it.
I scrapped my Fiji idea and started over. I began by jotting down my priorities: (1) a single airplane ride cannot exceed 5 hours; (2) must have some supervised childcare; (3) must have some program our 2 elementary school-aged sons can do.
Then, I thought about food. Although I was okay about cooking a handful of meals during our vacation, I really loathed the idea of having to cook 3 meals a day for the entire trip. I also did not want to have to go grocery shopping without a car. In the alternative, eating out every meal was too cost prohibitive for a family of 5. Considering that I was intending to fly to whatever destination spot, I wanted to be able to enjoy the destination and instead of doing chores all day. Thus, that became my priority number (4) - some or all of the meals must be included.
Having set my first four priorities as the north star of my planning I could generally rule in or rule out various destination spots. I knew many hotels included breakfast with their stay but not many of them (that I knew of) included childcare. For those places that included childcare, breakfast only option was few and far between, and many of them were in the United States. The rest were in "resort" destinations like the Caribbeans, Jamaica, etc.
Interestingly, the resorts in the United States were much more expensive than the resorts in the exotic locations without offering as many of the amenities. So, based on my four priorities, the best option was to select an all-inclusive at one of the "exotic" locations.
All-inclusive can be very expensive. I say it "can" be but it is not always the case. Luckily, these resorts are on a tourist cycle and have seasons. So, if you go during their off-season, you will find that their prices are sometimes more than 50-70% less than during their regular or peak season. I learned this when I was planning my wedding. We decided on a September wedding because I could ensure a wonderful honeymoon at a fraction of the cost. Also, the wedding chapels, restaurants, and all vendors were more willing to negotiate and I could get better deals for the wedding itself. (If people are interested, I can blog about that and share my tips as well. I had an amazing wedding and an amazing reception at a fraction of the cost.)
Just like in everything, that first line you draw is the most important. Where you draw that first line will determine whether you will save A LOT or a little. For me, I love traveling during the off-peak season. There are less lines, the people at the locales are friendlier and less stressed, you have less people trying to sell to you, it is just better. I try to plan a trip just at the beginning or the very end of the off-season because there is a reason why the season is an "off season" many times. In the case of the Carribeans, September is the beginning of their Hurricane season. If you are worried about losing your money, there is insurance for that. If there is a Hurricane, you get your money back. Now, if there happens to be a big hurricane while you are there... that is why we go in the beginning of the off-season or at the very end.
Now that I knew what areas I was looking and what type of amenities were a must for me, it was just about comparing the resorts and prices. I also did not want to go to a country I had already been so Jamaica and Costa Rica were out. I have always been curious about the Dominican Republic. Since I was taking my children along and taking them out of school (and doing independent study), I wanted to make this experience an educational one as well. (This too is a separate topic. I am slowly putting together a curriculum specific to the trip we are taking to the Dominican Republic which will include - geography, environmental studies, political history, local history, social studies, world history, currency study, etc.)
I created another page called "VACATION PLANNING STRATEGIES" and it is a simple, and short, list. I am using the blog part to flesh out how I implement my strategy.
My next post will be about stacking additional discounts to reduce the price of the hotel/resorts.
No comments:
Post a Comment