In today’s current environment there is no doubt that airfares will continue to rise before the settle back down. As consumers and lovers of travel we have always loved the bargains the down economy brought to us, and as the economy improves and we head back to the skies, it is more important than ever to know how and where we find the best deal.

A recently released Federal Aviation Administration report, reiterates this perfect storm, sighting that the combination of crowded planes and shrinking capacity will continue to lift fares this year and maybe into 2013. The experts also state that higher fuel prices are further increasing prices. Airfares in 2011 increased 17%, according to Farecompare.com, and so far in 2012 they are already up 4%.

Not only will we need to adjust our expectations when it comes to the airfare sale, but we will need to decide when a deal is good enough to purchase. A good starting place is always the web on sites like Airfarewatchdog.com. In years past  you could find airfare to Europe for $400 Round-trip, you will now be lucky to find them in the $800 range. For those who are frequent followers of Have Kids – Will Travel and who have read our book, we avoid these fares altogether, opting for $45 round trip airfare to Europe which are still available with the right information.

Keep in mind that not all is lost for those who still need to pay for their airfare. There are still great deals available you just have to be more diligent in how you find them. Even with this new dichotomy, we as travelers can use several strategies to insure we are getting the best bottom line price:

Buy package deals


Just like our trip to China, often when you combine your different elements of travel you can save hundreds. Even combining part of your needs like hotel and airfare, you can often pay less than buying each component separately. Even simply combining a rental car with your airfare can often lower the cost more than the airfare alone, even if you don’t need the car rental. I have seen a combo air-car rental for Hawaii priced over $100 less than the airfare alone. Use the car or not use the car, either way you still save money.

Set price alerts

With the number of travel sites and search engines, there really aren’t any “Secret” deals. However the best deals are what as known as the quick-ending opportunities, which at best only last a few hours. In order to catch these deals, and they are incredible at times, you need to sign up for bulletins or alerts from specific sites like, Airfarewatchdog, Bing Travel, and other sites that we talk about in our book. Often however, the alerts come a day late and a dollar short. Don’t stop looking even when you've purchased your ticket. Many sites and airlines now provide you with the “best-price” guarantee so knowing these prices can save you even after the sale is made.

Time you book

As we’ve stated in our book, there are times when it is cheaper to book airfare and that is usually on Tuesday afternoon. This is when there are the maximum number of seats on sale and available. Also check on the airlines own websites after midnight in the time zone of the airlines headquarters. Keep in mind, prices also seem to rise 7 and 14 days before departure, so book your flight at a minimum of three weeks out and with the limited inventory, you may want to consider three months out.

Check other airports

An airline sale will often create a fare at one airport considerably cheaper than another. It might be worth the extra drive or even flight to another airport. A flight we checked on from Salt Lake City to Dallas was $150 cheaper out of Boise, Idaho. A cheap $39 Southwest flight or a 4 hour drive saved over $100 per ticket. This even works for overseas flights. Finding a airfare on sale to Paris for $700 and connecting with a local discount airline line like Ryan Air for $45 will save you hundreds on a $1200 flight to Venice or Rome, and who wouldn’t like to a few days in Paris as an added bonus.

Be even more flexible

This is the most important tip these days. It is shown that when you travel on a Tuesday, Wednesday or Saturday you will usually get cheaper airfare. Also, use flexible date options when using search engines like Kayak, Google Flights or FareCompare as well as the airline sites themselves. This will aid you in finding the best combination of flights at the lowest cost.  Remember to check several sites and remember many search engines sites don’t include low-cost carriers such as Southwest and JetBlue

When you travel, especially during the peak travel season you should always expect hiccups, changes, delays and even frustrations. We arrived at the airport two hours before our flight, which for us is incredible. You can imagine that with four kids we typically arrive at the last minute, running through the security and sitting down just as they closed the doors.  So this time we were pretty proud of ourselves. That is until we handed our passports and itinerary to the ticketing agent and he gave me that look. I have flown enough to know that look, either something was wrong or we were in for an adventure. Actually, no matter what it is the best thing to do is remain calm and just let them explore the options, which is just what we did. 

We soon found that our flight to Atlanta was delayed by over two hours. This definitely put a kink into our one-hour layover in Atlanta connection to Prague. While Curt, our agent was trying to figure out a better solution, Delta emailed me twice and called me three times letting me know something I was now well aware of. They had automatically re-routed us from Salt Lake to Los Angeles to Amsterdam to Paris and finally to Prague. Not the best solution in my mind. So we waited while Curt typed away like a teenager texting after drinking three cans of Cola and he came up with a much better solution, a non-stop flight to Paris and then a short flight to Prague. However, because this flight was so full, he couldn’t provide us with seat assignments. Hummmmmmm, new problem, new adventure. In addition, the new flight wasn’t until later in the afternoon, but to our surprise Curt provided us with $60 in food vouchers, which took care of our lunch and was a wonderful surprise. 

We finally got to our gate only to find out that coach was totally full. The only seats were the new Economy Comfort seats Delta sells for an additional $60.00 each, but they do have more legroom and recline twice as far as typical coach seating. To our delight, and because those were the only seats available we were all upgraded at no charge. 

In the end, the lesson learned was; Relax, count on a few delays. Also remember that the frustrations often turn out to be blessings. First, we were wondering what to do about lunch as there was no meal service on our original flight from Salt Lake to Atlanta and we had such a short layover. In this case we had a complementary lunch on Delta. Second, we were upgraded to better seating and a much more palatable itinerary. Yes we have had to spend a few unexpected hours in the airport but we received over $400 in compensation and had fun playing card games with the kids. 

Keep this in mind the next time you run into either a hiccup, change or delay on a future flight. Your outcome will largely be dictated by how you react to the adventure ahead of you. Tomorrow we will be in one of the most beautiful cities in the world and our adventure will not begin, it will just continue. 

For most families, school is over and summer has begun. Memorial Day traditionally is the start of summer, unless you live in our neighborhood where we woke up to snow on the 30th. So where does this summer take you? Most importantly, are you using the tips and suggestion you have learned from "Have Kids - Will Travel"?

For our family this summer will be a busy one. In just a few weeks we will be flying off to Prague, then Vienna and finally Italy where we will visit Venice, Florence and the Amalfi Coast. We have spent a lot of time planning this trip, but this is key to providing the best trip at the lowest possible price. We have realized a few things this time around; With the exchange rate and fuel prices up, they effect nearly every aspect of a trip and if not planned for they can cut into the budget a bit more. These are the unexpected costs that you just have to put an educated guess to. In the end, I believe it will only change our final cost by a few hundreds dollars, but still a cost that is always in flux. 

We came across a new website where we got our flights from Prague to Milan. They even beat out our old favorites, Ryan Air and Easy Jet. www.edreams.net searches all of the discount airlines across Europe and came up with a $47 airfare on an airline where we didn't have to worry as much about our checked bags, if we choose not to carry on. 

So far we have our airfare booked and paid for. All hotels and rental cars paid for and so with that, we are just under $2000.00 and we are left with food and fun. My guess is that we will come in somewhere close to $3000.00 for all 6 of us. Because we are moving around so much on this trip we are paying for a few more nights of hotel than we normally would. We created hospitality exchanges where we could and used our Marriott points for many, but there are a few places we just needed a clean comfortable bed and had to pay for them. 

If you are still looking for a bargin for this years family vacation, there is still room to join us on our China Humanitarian trip September 27th through October 6th. For more details and costs go to: www.havekids-willtravel.com/humanitarian-trips.html You can't beat this price anywhere for what it includes. 

If you're still in the planning process for this summer here are a few tips.

1) Based on the trends, travel is up. Start looking for airfare early. Use miles when and where you can, but begin the process as early as possible. With fuel prices high, demand high and inventory low the price can only go up.

2) check for airfare late at night. Around midnight seems to be best. Business travelers tend to book during the day and inventory is moving quickly. Late at night can save you hundreds of dollars on a flight. 

3) Clear your internet cookies. If you search but don't book, the search engine will remember your search and they will only let you see higher fares if you search again. Go to your internet browser and clear your internet cookies. 

4) Look at nearby airports. An example of this was a flight from Salt Lake City to Dallas for $450.00 on Delta. The Delta flight from Boise was only $290.00 saving $150.00 per ticket. The return flight stopped in SLC where you could just walk off with your luggage and not complete the flight to Boise. You will need a cheap Southwest ticket from SLC to Boise one way for just under $50 to start off your trip but you still saved $100.00 per ticket. A family of 6 can save $600.00 and a larger family can save more. 

5) Look for home exchanges and hospitality exchanges and save thousands on your accommodations alone. www.homespunhospitality.com 

Have a wonderful summer holiday and please let us know what you did to save on your family vacation, email us at havekidswilltravel@sisna.com 

A dream my wife and I always had was to traverse the waterways of Venice on a Gondola with real Italian who slowly navigated our way, serenading us as we sit back into each others arms, taking in the beauty of the architecture, sites and sounds of Italy. A few years back we fulfilled this dream. Sitting for a brief moment in time, with the breathless reality that we were free from the cares of the world until the silence was broken from directly behind us… “Are we there yet?”  Yes our third son was getting a bit impatient with the lack of speed our wonderful ride was providing. The other four children seemed to be somewhat content with the pace, but we have one son, as I'm sure every family does who's tempo is a bit more, well, that of a speedboat which would kind of take the romance out of the whole experience.

Yes we took our four children, plus one extra on our perfect romantic vacation to Italy, and it wasn’t the first time nor would it be the last. See, my wife and I have a passion for travel and though a second honeymoon would be nice, the most important thing we can do for our children is to share our passion for exploration with our children.

Our family began traveling overseas when our youngest daughter was three. Actually she had her fourth birthday on that trip. You might well wonder how much of a trip like this would sink in or if she would even understand much of what we were trying to do. Our hope however, was that in some small way she would begin to see her world as something just a bit bigger than the sandbox she typically enjoyed during the summer months. Our other children were nine, eleven and thirteen respectively.

Traveling with children isn’t always easy, but if done with a purpose it is extremely rewarding. Our little four year old exceeded our wildest dreams and even now at fourteen she still remembers vividly her first trip to France and England. Just ask her about her birthday cake at the hotel in the shadow of the chateau where Leonardo Di Vinci lived and is now buried or when we finally got to England and she could finally, somewhat, understand everyone. There is so much she can still recall and so many incredible memories made, that we hope will last a lifetime.

So why travel with your children? You may have a different answer than we do. For some it might be to just get away to just say, “been there, done that”. To others it might be for the adventure itself or to explore new cultures and ideas. To us, it has been a vital part of our children’s education. Now, after ten years, it has become a way of life, but most importantly it has been an education. The Greek, “exegesis” means to “draw out of”. When we travel, especially with our children we try to use this principle as our main purpose to our adventure. Often our trips have taken a year to plan and prepare for. They first start off by studying the area, the cultures both past and present. Understanding some of the language and the historical notes that have made a difference in how we do things today. It is kind of like the, sling it against the wall to see what sticks approach at first. Seeing what interests each child and when you find it, start digging deeper and then, together study it out. This is when the fun begins and the trip is set.

One of our more recent trips was, as mentioned above, Italy.  Others have included France, Germany, Switzerland, Honduras, Belize and Mexico, all multiple times, England, Canada, Spain, the Caribbean and nearly every state in the US. We have done all this with our children in tow and with the express purpose to educate and immerse them into the world around them. Our trip to Italy was probably by far my personal favorite because it was then that we really started to discover how best to travel with purpose and direction. Now before I go on, I want those who are thinking, “well that’s nice but an average family could never afford to do vacations like this”, to get those notions out of their heads. We once thought this too until we discovered reality is what you make it. Most of these trips to Europe were with seven of us and were for a duration of three weeks and cost less than $3000.00, for everyone and everything including air. Most of our trips in the US were kept around $200.00 per person total including places like Hawaii. No, we didn’t sleep in the parks or even hostels. In fact we have slept in Marriott’s, Castles and in Italy we made a 600-year-old restored farmhouse, just outside of Florence in the Tuscan hills our base camp. The best part is that any family, any size on any income can travel the world this way, you just have to know the secrets and take the time and effort to plan… with your family!

The benefits however are worth any cost, the fact that we have been able to do this at minimal expense is just icing on the cake. As our children have grown they have developed a greater understanding of the world, the problems facing their generation and have been able to, for the most part they kept “unplugged” from the distractions facing most kids their age. Travel brings a greater sense of self with a better understanding and compassion for others less fortunate. It provides a greater gratitude for even the small things they have and opens their world to opportunities and erases perceived barriers others wish to portray.

I believe it is a direct correlation to the travels they have experienced that has been responsible for their being accepted at the ages of 15 and 16 to their University studies with full academic scholarships, for their love of the arts and their acceptance of cultures and differences in others. For these reasons and a host of others, travel in our opinion is {place picture 4 here} essential in these difficult times for this next generation.

So the next time you think about a wonderful getaway as a couple with children turn that thought into traveling with your children and immerse your family into this incredible, wonderful world. 

Recently we worked with a family trying to get to Dallas for a family reunion. Because of the short time period, they weren't able to implement some our ideas for eliminating their airfare but we did find ways to reduce their costs considerably. 
The biggest problem they faced was that they had 12 people traveling and would need airfare plus at a minimum, 3 hotel rooms. The costs for this trip were getting out of hand and many of the options were also limited because 10 of them were flying out of Salt Lake City and 2 were out of Boise Idaho. They thought they would all just fly out of Salt Lake, but Salt Lake City is a very busy airport with limited options which creates the perfect senario for higher airfare. 
We started to look around at options other than Salt Lake. A 6 hour drive to the south provided cheaper airfare out of Las Vegas, but not enough to justify a 6 hour car ride, only then to hop on a plane for several more hours, so we continued to search. Mean while additional pressures, fuel prices and summer travel getting more busy, were rapidly sending what was a somewhat acceptable airfare to a completely out of control and out of reach airfare. 
Finally we saw airfare out of Boise which was not only reasonable but also had a unique twist to it as well. The flight from Boise to Dallas was not only $290.00 RT compared to $434.00 from Salt Lake, but it stopped off in Salt Lake City on the way to and returning from Dallas. 
So taking advantage of the lower fare, the family called the airline and asked.... What if we miss the flight from Boise to Salt Lake City, could we continue on if we got to Salt Lake City in time? (which is where they live) Initially the airline seemed to be ok with this, but finally said no because of it being the first leg of the trip. So being creative again, they found cheap one way tickets on Southwest Airlines to Boise, about $50 one way. Even with this they saved nearly $1000.00 on the airfare. 
They only needed a oneway ticket to Boise as their return flight also changes planes in Salt Lake. If they carry on their bags from Dallas to Salt Lake they just need to depart and not take the last part of their flight. You may be able to ask if you check your bags that they only go to your "new" destination, but don't assume, always ask well in advance. 
If your ok with the risks and you have done your homework ahead of time, this is another way to save hundreds of dollars on flights. In addition the family used our tip of arranging a home exchange and eliminated their hotel costs completely. Over all savings on this trip are right around $5000.00. Not bad for some creative thinking. 

We have begun to work out our accommodations for our Prague. We will be in Prague 3 nights and have decided to stay in a beautiful apartment perfectly located near old town and near Charles Bridge. It is reported this is the house where Mozart stayed when he was in Prague and where he wrote the opera Don Giovanni. This is a great place for less than a hotel which sleeps 6, has a kitchen an wifi included in the $95 a night price. That is cheaper than a hostel. (Hostel - $20/night per person times 5) We have also booked our hotel in Vienna. We decided on the Marriott Courtyard. We will stay three nights and the total cost? $0.00. nada, nothing. I love the tips in Have Kids - Will Travel, http://www.havekids-willtravel.com/ on how to get free hotel nights. We are in the final stages for our accommodations in Italy, but it will include a hospitality stay in the Amalfi Coast.

Can families really travel the world?

We hope as you read our blogs you will get a sense of how absolutely possible it is for families to travel the world. We have been traveling like this with our family for over 10 years now and the difference it has made in our children's lives is incredible. Our favorite quote is from St. Augustine - "The world is a book and those who do not travel read only one page." It truly is our goal to help families realize how affordable travel can be if you know the right travel secrets and are willing to invest a little bit of time. 

We would like to take you along, by words now, on our next family vacation and explore Prague, Vienna, Milan and the Amalfi Coast of Italy. Right now we are in the middle of planning so check back for the changes we make as we book the trip of a lifetime for the cost of going camping. 

Why Prague? How do we get there?

First of all, I'm the reason we are going to Prague. My wife and kids have pretty much dictated our past vacations to destinations they wanted to go. Our oldest daughter has always been fascinated with France. So much so that her minor in college is French and I believe she has been there every summer since she was 13. Second, why not Prague? It is one of the most beautiful cities in the world. Untouched by the wars that ravished Europe and full of so much history, it would take years to take it all in. Un fortunately we have only a few days this time around. My hope is that we get enough of a taste to lure us back many time as other countries have. 

As our children get older it becomes more and more difficult to schedule these family trips. Both of our sons will have to miss this adventure. One will be beginning his MBA at the University and the other is in North Carolina for the next 2 years. So our oldest, married daughter quickly let us know that her and her husband would gladly fill in for them. So there will be five of us traveling. Since there are no gas stations or roads for that matter from the U.S. to Prague, we opted for the quicker more conformist mode of transportation, the airplane. After a few hours with the airline figuring which route would be the best we booked our flight in to Prague and out of Milan Italy for only $98 round trip for each of us. Ok..... wait you are saying.... Did he just make a huge typo? let me spell it out so there is no confusion... ninety-eight dollars and zero cents. Total. Air, taxes, fees. 

Now up to this point you were probably thinking this was going to be a cute family blog on how some rich family flew to some exotic European vacation and how jealous you would be as you lived vicariously through their words. Well, I think I have your attention. We don't travel like a normal family and the thing is, anyone can travel this way too, if you know the secrets. These aren't some weird join some time-share or travel club that you will never use type of secrets. They are time tested, every day, any trip kind of secrets you can use too. Now the point of this blog isn't to go through all the nuts and bolts of how we do this, because that would be way too boring and not everyone is going to do it the same way each time. There are many different ways to get airfare like we mentioned and one might work better for you than for someone else. So the best place I can send you to read all about how this is done is to visit our website, http://www.havekids-willtravel.com. there you will be able to get a copy of our book and read how you too can travel like a King for the price of Disneyland or less. You can also attend one of our one day seminars if you want us to walk you through each step of the process, http://www.learntotravelcheap.com. 

But I digress for a moment, I'm sure that price was just too good to be true and I had to let you know where you can get flights like that too. 

Currently this is where we sit with our trip... Airfare, done. Still looking for a place to stay and as always starting to plan out the adventures. This we do know. My wife found out that Vienna is only 3 hours from Prague and has always wanted to go, so we will spend 4 days in Prague and 3 days in Vienna. We are looking for the best and least expensive mode of transportation now along with accommodations. In our next blog we will fill you in on how those are coming along. We hope you are enjoying this, your mouth is watering and you want to go with us. - May all your travels be Free -