The last 9 days have been very interesting for Suzie Homemaker, I have been in Florida. Coming from Wisconsin this has been a welcome relief. We only ended up with 8 days, though. The weather was terrible and had our first day’s flight canceled. One day later we were in Florida soaking up the sun. We went to Gainesville Florida. We had 3 days to tour Gainesville and enjoy the nice upper 70’s weather. Now I know you are saying this is a blog about saving money, so here are some ways we saved on this trip.
First, you need a way to save on airline flights. Use your frequent flyer miles you have saved up and get you tickets for free or at a discount. Fly economy, not first class or business class, this is a waste of money. Plan your vacations well in advance to get better deals. Grab a bite to eat before hitting the airports. Food at the airports are so expensive and really not that healthy. We packed little bags of nuts which are allowed to have in your carry- on luggage. When packing luggage do not take so much that you have to check a bag, this is an added expensive that can cost you a lot of money. We each took one small bag and one carry on. Everything fit in the overhead compartment, and did not cost us any extra money.
Day 2 or our trip we stayed in Gainesville. Again check if you have any banked up hotel stays available. We used 3 of them on this trip, which made our hotels free. Since we didn’t drive down here we had to find ways visit attractions. Taxies were out of the question, they were way too expensive. On this vacation, we tried our first Uber ride. The Uber-Company tracks your phone and gives you the name of your driver and driver’s license number and time of arrival. This was such a nice experience and a lot cheaper than a taxi.
When in Gainesville, I recommend seeing the Natural History Museum. This Museum was free but we sprang for the extra $7.oo dollars a person and visited the beautiful Butterfly Gardens. This was well worth the extra money. We spent over 3 hours going through this museum. Don’t miss this museum if you ever find yourself driving through Gainesville. This is a must see Museum.
The next 4 days we were at a retreat called Luther Springs in Hawthorn Florida. We were attending the first Camp Money Mustache in Florida. My husband was one of many speakers there. This retreat is a religious camp with beautiful rooms. When we had time we walked the hiking trails, canoeing did archery, and if you liked there was even a pool available. The whole experience was breath taking. If you ever get the chance to stay here all your food is included.
Day 7 we were back in Gainesville at a different hotel. We decided we wanted to see the Kanapaha Botanical Gardens. We were only 2 miles away so we decided to walk there. It only took us 45 minutes to walk there. They had several waterfalls, and beautiful rose gardens, spice gardens, Azalea/ Camellia gardens, rock gardens, Bamboo gardens, and several sink holes. You can spend hours walking through these beautiful gardens for $7.00 dollars a person. We ended up walking about 7 miles that day round trip. This was a nice way to end our vacation. We enjoyed the nice warm weather and got a little tan as a bonus. Gainesville is a nice town with a lot of things to see and do.
Day 8, time to go back to Wisconsin and home to the kids. This one vacation we will not forget. Planning ahead of time can save you a lot of money when you take vacations. This vacation was cheap because we had airlines miles banked, hotels banked and our stay and food at the retreat were free because my husband was one of the speakers. So all we had to pay for was our two attractions and a little bit of food on the way. When we get home our children will be waiting at the airport to take us home. What a great way to end our vacation. I hope you enjoyed some of my tips for cheap travel from Suzie Homemaker.
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