We’ve done multiple family trips with our two little ones (including to Melbourne and Perth in Australia, Jeju in South Korea, Hanoi in Vietnam, Kyushu in Japan, and Phuket in Thailand) without busting the bank. In this article, I share how to travel on a budget with family, with some simple principles you can apply in your trip planning.
Choose the right destination
The choice of destination affects the airfare, accommodation costs and daily expenses at your destination, which can add up quickly. If you’re redeeming air miles for plane tickets, tickets for popular destinations will be hard to score, especially for a family trip that would require multiple tickets.
Consider close alternatives to popular destinations. For example, instead of Tokyo or Osaka, we chose to fly to Fukuoka and explore Kyushu instead. This allowed us to redeem air miles for our plane tickets (3x business class saver tickets) with only a few months’ notice, unlike Tokyo which would have required us to book a whole year in advance. Accommodation in less touristy areas also tends to be cheaper, as with the cost of food.
If you’re up for a beach holiday or enjoy a good adventure, Singapore has multiple direct flights to destinations all over Southeast Asia, where you can stretch your dollar. We thoroughly enjoyed our time in Hanoi, Vietnam, and the relatively low cost of food meant we could eat as much of the delicious Vietnamese cuisine as we wanted!
Fly on budget airlines
Search for flights on budget carriers. Budget airlines are simply flights without the additional creature comforts of full-service carriers, and should not be viewed as “hardship” carriers. If you think about it, unless you’re flying in a premium cabin like business class, there is not too big of a difference to a parent on a full-service flight versus a budget flight. You probably will still have your hands full with your kids, they would rather sit on you than on their own seat, you wouldn’t want to give screen time (or you’d let them use a personal device you’ve curated), and you’d bring your own snacks, blankets and activities.
If you take the flight from Singapore to Perth for example, both Scoot and Singapore Airlines operate on the Boeing 787 dreamliner. Comparing Scoot’s standard seat to a standard Economy seat on Singapore Airlines, both offer an 18-inch seat width and a 6-inch seat recline. Singapore Airlines has 1-2 inches more legroom. Apart from the seats, a full-service carrier would provide meals, unlimited drinks, pillows, blankets, and in-flight entertainment, and prices include a generous checked bag allowance. For us, the extra cost is usually not worthwhile, as we travel light and can bring our own snacks and entertainment on board. With kids, airlines usually don’t bat an eyelid even if you bring up a whole cooler of their favourite foods and drinks.
Plan your own itinerary
While it’s easy to join a pre-planned tour, nothing beats creating your own bespoke itinerary to suit your family’s needs and preferences. When travelling with kids, you’ll likely want to take into account their “cranky hours” and nap times. For example, on a road trip, you might plan for long drives to happen after lunch so that the kids can get their nap in the car on the way to your next destination. Planning your own itinerary with kids also allows you to leave out the activities that don’t suit you.
For our own trips, we like to plan one or two activities in the morning, and end the day by about 4pm to leave lots of buffer space. We’ll mark out some nearby things to do in case we have extra time and energy, otherwise we’re usually headed back to our accommodation to rest and prepare for dinner.
Make use of online deals by booking tickets to attractions you know you definitely want to visit in advance. There are often travel deals available to foreign tourists when you book online, and having tickets in advance usually means skipping the queue at the ticket booth!
Resist the urge to “complete” every attraction on every list out there. List down all the places you hope to visit, then prioritise one per day and cross out the rest. There is no need to do all the things! We like to prioritise spending time in nature. It also helps that parks are usually free or very cheap!
Use an appropriate mode of transport
Do your research to find out what are the transport options in your destination country, how widely available they are and how they are priced. For example, in Jeju and in Kyushu, we determined that the best way to get around was by a rental car, as it wouldn’t have been possible to visit the places we wanted to without our own transport. On the other hand, in Hanoi, we decided to stay in a hotel near to the Old Quarter, so that we could spend our days there exploring on foot and by taxi, which was readily available and reasonably priced.
Do consider whether you’ll have to handle your own bags, and if you’d have to make transfers on your journey. For example, in Tokyo, the airport limousine bus may be a more suitable option than the train, as you’ll have an assured seat, your baggage will be handled by the driver, and you may get dropped off right at the doorstep of your hotel!
To travel from Hanoi to Ninh Binh, we opted to take the train instead of a private charter vehicle. We read that road conditions weren’t great, and the private charter was more expensive than a ticket in the VIP train carriage, where we were provided with beds, and freshly changed pillows and blankets!
Stay in homes instead of standard hotels
When we travel, we use Airbnb to find apartments or homes with two bedrooms and a kitchen area. This allows us to mimic the sleeping arrangements at home, where the kids sleep in one room, and adults in another, and provides us space to play, unwind, cook, and more.
In Margaret River in Western Australia, we enjoyed daily BBQ dinners on our front porch where the kids could play in the driveway while we prepared dinner. After the kids went to bed in their own room, we could take our time to clean up and prepare for the next day, and unwind by the fireplace.
Where possible, and where we are self-driving, we opt for homes that have private driveways. This enables us to drive up to the front door, making it safe and easy to unload the kids and our items from the car into the living area.
We also ask hosts to provide a cot, high chair and other child-friendly amenities they may have, which lightens our load of items to pack. What is commonly available differs from country to country, depending on cultural norms. For example, in Jeju, it was very common to have a baby bathtub and child sized bath slippers, but not at all common to have a Western style cot!
A kitchen area in the accommodation makes it easy for us to prepare breakfasts, snacks and other meals on our own. We usually hit up a supermarket shortly after arrival to stock up on essentials such as water, milk, bread, fruit and dry snacks. Having a fridge allows us to stock up on fresh produce. On our way to Margaret River, we stopped by Bunbury Farmers Market and got ourselves a fridge-full of produce for our week in the bush!
Don’t eat at restaurants all the time
Food costs can really add up, especially when you’re in a country where eating out is not a daily affair for locals. In Southeast Asia, it’s pretty easy to get a cheap meal at any time of day. In Western countries however, this can be a lot more difficult when restaurants only open during meal service hours, and street food or food courts are hard to come by. Eating in restaurants for every meal is a sure way to bust a travel budget quickly! We prefer to plan for a few good meals, and save on the rest by eating at cheaper establishments or cooking our own food.
On our trip to Kyushu, the ryokan we stayed in provided a buffet breakfast and dinner. We were usually very full from breakfast, and chose to eat simple lunches including some that we put together with food from the combini (convenience store)! On our trip to Melbourne, we enjoyed many picnic lunches at beaches, parks and even in the Werribee Zoo. If you’re not keen to prepare from scratch, Aussie supermarkets have plenty of ready-to-go picnic options such as meat and cheese platters that are still much cheaper than buying food from a cafe.
Mealtimes are also important to us as a family, and although we are foodies we still prioritise having a pleasant time together over going for the “best” food available. Sometimes, this means cooking a simple pasta meal at our accommodation instead of eating out!
Make memories that money can’t buy
Money can buy plane tickets and nice food, but it can’t buy memories. A family trip where multiple flawed individuals spend an extended time together in a new place is bound to cause some tension here and there. That doesn’t mean the trip was a washout. On the contrary, it is these moments that strengthen us as a family. These are the times that we get to problem-solve together. Where our kids get to watch us handle stressful situations and navigate unfamiliar waters. Where we get to marvel at God’s world together.
At the heart of it, it’s the relationships that matter most. Our relationship with our family members, with people whom we meet on our travels, and with the destinations themselves. They help us see more clearly our place in this big big world.
Free Family Trip Packing Guide
To help families eliminate the headache of packing for travel, I’ve put together a comprehensive guide to packing for family travel. Join my mailing list to get your FREE copy today!
