Exceeding expectations and keeping costs low in Fort Lauderdale

The stars were in perfect alignment to allow Colin and I the opportunity to enjoy a beautiful 4-day weekend in Ft. Lauderdale this past weekend.  Colin's conference was scheduled to end at the same time my flight was scheduled to arrive, which came a day after I submitted a substantial grant application for the state of North Carolina.

As we always do when we travel without Darwin, we bid for a hotel on Priceline a few weeks leading up to our trip.  I knew that my chances of getting a low price were better as we got closer to the day of arrival, so I didn't stress when we hadn't won a bid a week before my scheduled arrival.  Sure enough, 4-5 days before our trip, my $72 bid was accepted by the four star Hyatt Pier 66. While I did select "beach front" properties, the Hyatt is located about a mile from the beach, so I was slightly disappointed that it was not right on the beach.  I also got very nervous when I read some of the most recent negative hotel reviews, even though the hotel was listed as 4 stars.  The only review that came back consistent was that the pool was really nice.

With low expectations, we checked in. The woman at the front desk was very nice and changed our room reservation from 2 double beds to 1 king (Priceline only asks for the number of people and you can't control the room assignment unless you work with the front desk staff).  She also asked of our preference for proximity to the pool.  When we asked for nice, quiet room, she said we would enjoy our room on the intercoastal waterway, which was also very close to the pool.

Our room was not at all disappointing and the hotel far exceeded my expectations (which, as I said, were pretty low).  I didn't take any pictures of the room, because it was pretty standard for most hotels (king size bed with lots of pillows, tv, dresser, refrigerator, closet, large bathroom). There wasn't any extraordinary furniture worth blogging about.  One of the things I enjoyed the most about the hotel was the balcony.  The boats on the intercoastal were so large, we both dreamed of a day when we could own and use one ourselves!

A relaxing breakfast our first morning

The best part of the hotel was, in fact, the pool.  There were technically 3 pools - a small jacuzzi that could easily fit 8-10 people, a large "S" shaped pool ranging from 3-6' deep, and a smaller "t" shaped pool.  We spent most of our time at the largest pool, which had a waterfall near the deeper end.  The hotel was clearly not crowded, so we did relax at the pool more than we usually do on a beach vacation. I couldn't help but be relaxed while laying in the shade and took a rather long snooze after a filling lunch one afternoon.  We didn't use the jacuzzi because the water was too warm for June in Florida.  But, we did enjoy some night swimming to cool ourselves down before bed one evening.

 Relaxing by the pool

There's the waterfall!

Ending the day with a dip in the nicely lit pool

I would say our hotel was a bargain!  Although it wasn't on the beach, they did provide a complimentary shuttle to and from the beach every hour.  There was no complimentary breakfast, be we prefer our healthier options to most continental breakfasts anyway.  Parking was the major hotel expense, since they charged $21/day.  Our first reaction was to find a place to park near the hotel overnight, but that proved too challenging. Thankfully, we got a great deal on our rental car (also on Priceline) for $26 for 2 days.  Adding $21 for 1 night that we parked in the hotel wasn't too bad.

To break down our expenses, we paid $255 for my flight (Colin's was paid for by work, and I missed an opportunity to get a sub $200 fare), $251 for the hotel (using a Priceline bid of $72/nt + taxes), $26 for a rental car for 2 days, and $21 to park 1 night.  The grand total (minus food and adventures - which will be detailed in another post) came out to $553 for a 4 day/3 night vacation. We are pretty good at keeping food costs low by mixing up buying food in a grocery store and going out too eat.  This is when it's helpful to have a car or be within walking distance of a grocery store.  The estimate of our food costs is $150 for the 10 total meals, which included four meals and a dessert in a restaurant and 4 grocery store meals.  Two of our meals included leftovers we kept in the refrigerator and these were the only meals that were duplicated.  The most outrageous food cost we incurred was the $12 for 1 small and 1 large ice cream from Marble Slab and I will be the first to admit it was not even good!!

Other than the ice cream, I'd say we were able to enjoy a wonderful vacation at minimal cost.  Stay tuned for the next post about exploring the area!

How do you save money when you travel?

Spontaneous Road Trip Preparations April 20-21

About a week before Easter, we realized Colin was going to have a day off for Good Friday.  With family in town and Colin traveling for a bachelor party, we didn't really have a chance to think about what we might do with a three day weekend until two days before the holiday.  We started the process by thinking of where we could go with just three days and three nights.  Colin has been slightly obsessed with Jacksonville, FL, so we decided that would be one of the destinations for our trip.  Since we both had to work a full day on Thursday, we thought about a destination between Raleigh and Jacksonville and immediately decided on Savannah, Georgia for the first leg of the trip.  We have both been to Charleston, SC and have both really wanted to make a trip to Savannah on numerous occasions, but never did.

There was obviously little time to plan, but on Wednesday evening, after checking hotel rates on Kayak, we decided to try and use the bidding feature on Priceline to find a better deal on a hotel in Savannah.  After selecting our preferences (3.5 stars, historic district or riverfront in Savannah) we bid $65 for the night and our bid was accepted!  The hotel we got, the Hilton Savannah de Soto, was priced at $150 for the same nights on Kayak!

As soon as we bid, Colin remembered an online forum where people share their bids.  For those of you that have never used Priceline, if your bid is not accepted, you can't just go and bid higher for 24 hours.  You can however, change details about the bid (like number of stars or exact location).  We thought we were lucky with our bid on the Savannah hotel, because a lower bid may not have been accepted.  Based on the forum posts, it didn't look like we could have gotten a better deal than we did.

We also went to the library on Wednesday and checked out some travel books on Savannah, Georgia, and Florida and I e-mailed a friend who was familiar with the Jacksonville area.  His recommendation was to go camping at Cumberland Island National Seashore, off the coast of southern Georgia.  I spent Wednesday evening and part of the day on Thursday trying to make reservations for the ferry and campground on the island.  I managed to get us on a ferry for Saturday morning to come back the same day because I was told the campground was full.  But, the woman told me to bring our camping stuff because sometimes there ended up being room on the day of the trip.

So, as soon as we got off of work on Thursday, we grabbed our city bags and camping bags, our travel books, cell phones, laptop and chargers and got in the car headed to Savannah.  We had lodging booked for the night and a ferry ride planned to Cumberland Island on Saturday - and that was all.

 Above: My clothes for a 3 day trip without concrete plans

Below: Colin's clothes for a 3 day trip without concrete plans

 Below: Water bottles, cell phones, cell phone car charger, mp3 players are the essentials for any long trip.  Only thing missing is our dinner and snacks.

Have you ever taken a spontaneous trip?
If so, how does it compare to other trips you've taken?

Stay tuned for details about how we made out!