Save money by traveling in a group

Traveling solo has it’s advantages of going around and about at your own pace and schedule. But whether you live in hotels or hostels (for private rooms), it doesn’t come cheap. If you prefer staying in a private room at a hostel, then you will still have to pay for two or more people, depending on the room you’re booking. But if you travel as a group, preferably more than 10, then you can save a lot of money plus have the social opportunity to bond with family or friends. Here’s how you can save money by these simple tips:

Accommodation
With sky-rocketing prices of hotels around the world, going for a budget hostel is an ideal way to save money. And these days, most of the hostels are recognized and rated by various websites like TripAdvisor and HostelWorld. So you will know what you’re getting into in terms of cleanliness, location and staff-friendliness. Arguably, hostel rooms are smaller than hotels, with very basic amenities and most likely shared bathrooms. If you’re traveling in a group then you can book one of the 8-bed or 10-bed rooms, which makes them ‘private’ to your group and cost less than half of what you’d pay for a private room.

If you do choose to live in a hotel, then renting a large room, an apartment or perhaps a cabin (if available) is a great option for a large group. That has an advantage of having a kitchen to prepare meals and save more on restaurants. Websites like AirBnB or VRBO.com can be a good starting point.

Sight-seeing
Museums, gardens, trains and even airlines offer group discounts for more than ten people. So make sure to check with the respective agencies or companies and avail of those group rates. If they don’t mention on their websites or at the kiosks, then ask someone.

Visit the local tourist information centers as these places can be a cornucopia of information for places that offer group rates, and for finding cheap and reliable accommodation too. They may offer free passes as well for a large size group!

Carpooling
If you’re in a group and renting cars or driving your own vehicles on vacations, especially on trips locally in U.S., then two or three cars utilized on the vacation, which means lots of miles on lots of cars or lots of rental agreements. If you are with a sizeable group that packs reasonably, you can easily reduce that count by one or two cars, saving everyone money on gas and rentals.

There are also additional savings that come from having a smaller vehicle count on vacation. A great example of this is entry into national parks and monuments. At many national parks, you pay per vehicle for entry if you’re not camping. In other words, the cost of driving a car with one passenger into a park is the same as driving a minivan with six passengers into a park, thus reducing the cost per person entering the park.

Social
A lot of websites like CasaHop allow you to find airlines or accommodation based on your social media like Facebook and Foursquare. This can be one way to gather up online and form a group!

Remember, the worst that can happen is that you don’t qualify for a group rate and end up having to pay the same rate as before. All this tactic can do is save you money.