We’re less likely to stay at a big chain hotel, but even they will have discounts for the asking, whether it’s because of membership, points program or the like. I have received some very nice (free) upgrades just by being friendly and asking nicely.

Don’t forget that your workmates, friends from political and professional organizations, members of your congregation or PTA, your FB friends and your pastor may all be able to connect you with residents of the city you’ll visit. Talk up your trip & ask around.

Best hotel choice will have a microwave & fridge in the room & free breakfasts downstairs. For $10 more on the room rate, you save much more than that on 2 meals a day & snacks.

Another thing we do, if we want to splurge on eating out, is to eat breakfast or lunch or even afternoon tea (when available) at a restaurant as those are generally much less expensive options than dinner. For instance, we wanted to dine at the historic Ahwahnee during our visit to Yosemite, but were put off by the high dinner prices. It turned out that we could get much of the same wonderful fare at lunch time (and have the dining room pretty much to ourselves as it was the “off” season) for less than half of the dinner prices.

A tip that got left out here is using supermarkets. When I was a kid, if we were traveling, at least one meal a day was a loaf of bread, a salami, a jar of pickles, and a bottle of mustard.

When my family was in Finland last summer, and kosher salami wasn’t available, we went for good bread, cream cheese, and lox for at least one out of every 4 meals.

We actually went traveling for 3 weeks and ate two meals in restaurants… but that has more to do with keeping Kosher than with frugality. We probably would have had a pizza or something if we’d had the option.

(And if my brothers-in-law are reading this, which they do, I don’t mean either of you. My BILs alway invite US to dinner when they visit and never automatically assume we’re going to put them up or even hint that we should. The fact that they don’t assume everyone else exists to subsidize their travel means they are always welcome and often do get treated to dinner.

But I’ve stayed at both the campgrounds you mentioned and have to say that of all the places we stayed during out month-long road trip out west, camping in the National Parks was always the most memorable.

I couldn’t tell you the names of any of the hotels we stayed in or even which cities but I can remember the parks and the things we did while we were in the area. Camping makes memories…hotels, don’t. At least not in my mind. Your mileage may vary.

Keep in mind that some of the most expensive cities can also end up being very cost-effective. For example, many of the hotels in DC and the inner ring suburbs are high priced, but most of the museums and sites are completely free.

I loved my vacation because I love hiking, camping and other outdoor activities, but I wouldn’t recommend trying to camp just to save money on an otherwise city-focused trip.