HisHersMoney

We joined a group of friends in the Poconos Mountains for a trip of the New Years holiday. We were lucky enough to be able to stay at a friend’s family cabin and not have to pay for a hotel so that really helped minimize the out of pocket expenses. We spent four full days up there and went skiing two of the days.

We budgeted $500 for the trip. This was to include gas, food, skiing, etc. So, how did we end up? $474!

Skiing for two people Day 1: $80

Skiing for two people Day 2: $90

Our portion of the food bill: $130

Gas: about $50

Misc food and drinks after skiing: about $100

Bottle of liqueur: $24

This really was a great trip for us. A couple days of skiing, New Years with a bunch of friends (there was seven of us total) and under $250 each!

In our previous post I talked about our December ski trip to Steamboat. Well I’ve gone and booked a second trip in January. Him will be at a training class for work so it will just be me going. A friend of mine from Chicago is going to try to come out for a few days so that will be great! I have spent a lot of time out there so I do have a few friends to pal around with while I’m out there so I won’t be hanging by myself.

I found a great deal on the airfare $200 form Washington DC to Steamboat which is a great price! I’m currently hunting around for a deal on lift tickets and I need to go ahead and book my hotel before the cheaper rooms are sold out. I’m looking at around $600 for 8 nights which isn’t bad at all. If my friend makes it out there she will kick in some towards the nights she’s there which will help out a little bit.

I plan on putting that new ski jacket I previously wrote about to good use!

I am a huge ski fan and my favorite place to ski is Steamboat Colorado. We were trying to plan a trip in Jan / Feb time frame but were have a tough time finding the right dates that worked for both of us. THen we saw online that the resort was offering free lift tickets from THanksgiving to CHristmas when you booked your lodging through them.

We did some research and found a good deal on airfare $270 each from the Washington DC area right into Steamboat an found an ok hotel room for a week for about $500 so we went ahead and book a week in December. Including ground transportation and everything we came in at under $1200 for both of us for a week. The only additional expenses we will have are food, drink and ski rentals for Him. Luckily we have been saving into a vacation account at INGDirect so we will just transfer the money and book it!

Him has never been to Steamboat before so I hope he likes it!

We stayed at the Sandals Royal Caribbean in Montego Bay, Jamaica and it was really nice. The rooms were excellent and came with a jetted tub (which we didn’t utilize), four poster beds and a balcony that looked right out over the ocean. A few little things that we appreciated with the rooms is that there was a little mini fridge in the room with bottled water and a variety of sodas in it which where included in the all inclusive and they replenished them every day. Also, the staff came and serviced your room twice a day. First in the morning for the standard daily service and then again while you were at dinner to pick up and turn down the beds. Since everyone came back to their rooms to shower from being at the pool and ocean all the day to prepare for dinner it was nice that they went in and straightened everything up.

The staff was absolutely wonderful and really made our stay super enjoyable. They did a great job in getting people involved in the activities and just making the days and nights fun. It was great to basically see the same people everyday working around the property and they do an amazing job of actually remembering everyone’s names.

The only thing we can’t really rave about was the dining. Breakfast we ordered in to our room each morning which was great. Coffee, fruit, omelets, any breakfast thing you could really want. Lunch we usually grabbed from the beach side grill and it was fine. Burgers, chicken sandwiches, chicken caesar wraps, etc. Nothing fancy but it was fine.

Dinner was the one thing we wished was just a little better. FOr one thing, I would have like some air conditioning. Later on at night it cooled off and was plenty cool outside but at dinner time it was usually just a little on the warm side. The rooms all had air conditioning in them but the dining rooms didn’t. The food was … ok…. Nothing great, but you could usually find something to eat that was ok.

So, all in all, as I sit at home drinking a Jamaican rum and coke, writing this post I can say we had a great time. We met some great people, a couple of which we exchanged email addresses with, and look back on it as a great trip. We would definitely consider going back to that or another Sandals Jamaica property.

So as you may have read previously in this space, Hers and I will be heading to Jamaica in less than two weeks for a much-needed vacation. Neither of us has been there before and we are very much looking forward to. In order to be able to relax more we decided to go the all-inclusive route and will be staying at Sandals.

The price is most definitely not cheap. However, if we do it right and do not go adding on extras once we are there then I think it is reasonable. We get 3 meals a day and all drinks included while at the resort. Our plan is to mostly just relax on the beach or by the pool for the majority of our time there. This is not one of those vacations where we have a strict schedule of things to see. We just want to sit and enjoy each others’ company.

Now about those extras. Sandals offers everything from guided island tours, horseback riding, dinner ON the beach, and in-room massages. These are all great and obviously we would love to do them all. However, that is where most people make the mistake. They think “We’re on vacation, we should enjoy ourselves and do whatever we want!” The problem is that usually this is where they will pull out the plastic to pay for it as these were unplanned expenses on the trip. If you have things that you absolutely MUST do while on vacation make sure to budget for those expenses so that the month after you get back there is not a huge charge on your credit card that you can’t remember what it was for.

Once we return from our trip I’ll share with everybody how well we were able to limit our expenses.