How to Plan a Weekend Trip out West

I’ve heard just about every excuse in the book folks. “It’s too expensive,” “I don’t have the time off,” “Who will take care of my animals?” “I don’t want to go by myself,” “What if something bad happens and I’m stuck there?”

Humans are naturally fearful people. We hate change (just take a look at all the outrage at every new iPhone update), we love comfort, and we love feeling safe. We like the idea of traveling, but then say “No, that could never be me.”

Wrong.

You can. You will. You must go, and I’m here to help you get there. I’m going to give you a quick summary of one of my Out-West trips just so you can get an idea of the costs involved and the overall price of the trip.

Let’s start with the flight, where people have the most trouble. One of the biggest mistakes by first-time travelers is to immediately book the absolute cheapest flight on a website like Expedia, Kayak, or another price-comparison website. These are good places to start, but I would ALWAYS recommend booking through the company’s own website, for a number of reasons. 1) You can rack up miles on your frequent flyer account faster (and usually with better points) than if you book via Expedia or another third-party site. 2) Cancellation/Transfer of flights are FAR easier if you book directly, so use third party website to get your bearings of the prices, but when it comes time to book, book directly. It is not always financially wise to book flights far in advance. I usually will book a flight either a week or two before I go, but set price alerts on certain flights a month or two in advance. Flight prices aren’t that much different from gasoline prices: they fluctuate almost daily. So keep a watch on them, then book. Don’t just watch the airport closest to your home. I live in Augusta GA, and fly out of Atlanta almost every week, even though the Augusta airport is 10 minutes from my apartment. It can sometimes be far more cost effective to drive an hour or two to a distant airport, so check those too. I personally fly both Delta and Frontier airlines frequently and am members of both, so don’t limit yourself to just one airline! I’ve usually paid around $160 for a roundtrip flight from ATL to PHX.

What about renting a car? Car rentals are usually painless and can be found at almost every single airport. Often times you can bundle the flight and car to make the cost far cheaper than booking separately. Your airline usually has a preferred partner to book with. Personally: I like Avis because of the ease and speed of which you can rent. Skip all the extras they try to sell you and you can get a nice vehicle for under $25 a day, sometimes cheaper.

I know I am probably going to sound crazy, but bear with me: you don’t need a nice hotel to have a phenomenal time. I’ve paid as little as $39 a night for a room and I was very happy with it. To be honest, I don’t sleep in hotel rooms often. If I can, I try to camp. There are SO many places to camp out West (and on the East Coast) it’s almost ridiculous to rent a hotel room, unless you just HAVE to have a bed, or you have no camping gear. For myself, I love being in nature the entire time I am in a place. I try to immerse myself in where I am, and camping is a great way to do that. I understand it’s not the most comfortable way to travel, I really do, but it’s just a weekend, and nobody knows you or will ever remember what you look like, so stop worrying and do it. Borrow gear from a friend if you don’t have any and go. Not only will it save you a couple hundred bucks, but you’ll be able to see things and do things you wouldn’t or couldn’t have done, if you would’ve stayed in a hotel (waking up to the sunrise, meeting other people, campfire stories, etc.). If you must stay in a hotel, go cheap or don’t go at all. A good room shouldn’t run you more than $80/night, but I usually can find one for around $60 if I look hard enough.

So let’s recap some numbers: $160(flight) + $75(3-day car) + $120(hotel, if needed) = $355 total

If you skip the hotel and camp that number will be down to only $235 (taxes and fees included). Of course you need food, but if you bring that with you, you could cut that expense too! If you travel with someone (or a group), you can cut expenses per person to easily around $200.

There are so many weekend trips that can be done cheaply. Flights along the East Coast are dirt cheap (flight from ATL to Miami runs under $100 round trip) and can be a GREAT way to start travelling and get some trips under your belt before going on longer trips out West.

Get outside. Go see the country you call home. I promise you that it will be worth it.