☀️Our family decided to head out west this year over spring break. We visited a place I had never been: San Diego! We wanted some warmer weather, a beach, and to take in the zoo and Sea World.
✈️Flights
We booked flights on our favorite airline, Southwest of course. I have a companion pass, so my husband traveled with us for just $11.20, the cost of his taxes/fees. So, I just had to pay for my daughter and I. Our roundtrip tickets on points came out to 57,000 SW points. We saved about $1,400 using our points.
🏨Hotel
There are several good choices in San Diego. Many people talk about the Grand Hyatt Manchester, but this is located in downtown San Diego. We chose Hyatt Regency Mission Bay. It is less than 5 minutes from Sea World and on the water. It also is very kid-friendly with water slides at the pool. This was a category 3 Hyatt hotel upon booking, so I only paid 60,000 points for a 5-night stay. As of the end of March, this hotel is now a category 4, but regular nights are still just 15,000 points a night. Using points saved us over $1,600 just on room costs. With my Hyatt status, I also got an upgraded room, comped breakfast everyday (this would have cost us $100+ per day), and a welcome gift of a charcuterie board, sparkling cider, and a S’Mores kit.
🦭Activity Tickets
Last year I signed up for the Capital One shopping portal and there was an elevated bonus if you signed up and referred within a certain time frame. Well, I signed up and referred my husband and friend and got credit on the CO shopping portal that could be used for gift cards. I ended up choosing to use part of my credit on Groupon gift cards. With this Groupon credit, I purchased the GoCityPass for each of us. This covered the cost of our tickets to the San Diego Zoo and Belmont Park. I also purchased our tickets to Sea World around Black Friday and got a great deal on Undercover Tourist.
🚗Transportation
We opted to rent a car since we were able to get a good deal on a car rental through Costco. When my husband first started looking, costs were between $500-600, but he kept watching, and we ended up paying just $378 for Sunday-Friday. Parking fees are waived at the hotel with my Hyatt status, so this made sense for us.
✅Planning ahead came in super handy for all of these ways we were able to save money! When you strategically plan ahead for your vacations, you can keep an eye out for deals and hop on them when they become available!
