We have returned from our annual Cajun Family Vacation, and this year we learned a few valuable things about planning. Here we give you (with some help from my wife) some helpful vacation tips.
- We bought our La Ronde Season passes in April, and it ended up costing less than a Single Day’s pass. This was a Gold pass too, so free parking made it a great deal. Same is true for Canada’s wonderland.
- The Toronto CityPass is another great bargain if you want to go to the Aquarium, The Science Centre, Up the CN Tower, the zoo and some other stuff that my son didn’t want to attend.
- Always have a Plan B on vacation as well. Thanks to my son getting a bad strep throat infection we ended up not doing a lot of what we had planned to do.
- Never a bad idea to investigate medical facilities around where you are staying. We found a walk-in medical clinic and got my son some antibiotics. Always bring your health cards and medical/drug plan information with you as well (free antibiotics). It could end up saving you a lot of money and headaches (if you are inside Canada). Travel insurance would be a good idea if you are out of the country.
- If your hotel room has an issue, like a raucous party that goes on until say, 4:30 AM outside your door, remember to call the desk to ask for help instead of hoping for the best. When you check out mention it again, and most hotels will rebate you some of your nightly rate. I tend to be quite polite and compliment the hotel in this situation (and ask “… why do people do that?”). Worked for us, twice this summer.
- We like to stay at hotels that provides a fridge and microwave in the room to help save money (it also helps ease our son’s anxiety to have familiar food from home). We have even been known to travel with our own toaster.
These are a few simple tips. There are plenty more out there. See which ones work for you.
