Expenses can be boiled down to four things on a trip, usually:
1) Lodging 2) Food 3) Goodies/trinkets 4) Travel/fuel (mass transit vs. driving vs. etc.)
We've found that if you call months in advance and book a decent amount of days (GenCon was a serious vacation for us) you can get a rate for a longer stay that's roughly around the same cost as a short stay booked closer to the event.
Caveat: That WAS *cough* several years ago */cough* so things may have changed since then. There's stuff like Orbitz and shit now that wasn't available then - you could check through some of those sites and see what the sites have on offer, then see if the hotel/lodging you like will offer a comparable rate for booking direct (and they don't have to pay the site any booking fees, which they might like.)
Food, we ate cheap back then. Won't be so cheap now. Plan accordingly for what you can and cannot eat.
Can't do much about the cost of #4 - but check out trains/bus fares, see if they're cheaper than mapping out cost of gas for driving. Flying can work, but honestly? I don't trust TSA people any further than I can throw them, so I don't recommend flying.
This summer gas may climb to $5/gallon. Be prepared.
1) Lodging
2) Food
3) Goodies/trinkets
4) Travel/fuel (mass transit vs. driving vs. etc.)
We've found that if you call months in advance and book a decent amount of days (GenCon was a serious vacation for us) you can get a rate for a longer stay that's roughly around the same cost as a short stay booked closer to the event.
Caveat: That WAS *cough* several years ago */cough* so things may have changed since then. There's stuff like Orbitz and shit now that wasn't available then - you could check through some of those sites and see what the sites have on offer, then see if the hotel/lodging you like will offer a comparable rate for booking direct (and they don't have to pay the site any booking fees, which they might like.)
Food, we ate cheap back then. Won't be so cheap now. Plan accordingly for what you can and cannot eat.
Can't do much about the cost of #4 - but check out trains/bus fares, see if they're cheaper than mapping out cost of gas for driving. Flying can work, but honestly? I don't trust TSA people any further than I can throw them, so I don't recommend flying.
This summer gas may climb to $5/gallon. Be prepared.
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