Affordable St. George, Utah 4.4.12

Before this year, apparently I am one of very few people who had never heard of St. George. Everyone I talked to was telling me how beautiful it was and they look forward to going back some day. For all the time I lived in Arizona, I have never been to New Mexico and this was really my first time in Utah if you don’t count being inside the airport in Salt Lake City, which I don’t. Our way of getting there took us to 5 different states in a day (starting in Portland, Oregon, layover in Long Beach, California, landed in Las Vegas, Nevada, drove through a few miles of Arizona and then arrived in Utah), so we were well-traveled before we even made it to St. George in the afternoon. The city is adorable. Somewhat historic, but still modern. It had a small-town feel, but was fairly large, considering. Not too big though, because I could still find my way to and from the mall (and all the stuff around it) without my GPS.

There are not a lot of things to do in St. George, which sometimes makes it hard to find affordable activities to entertain yourself, but as there were 8 of us (4 adults, 3 children and a baby) who are fairly easily amused, we found things to do that didn’t cost much more than the tank of gas we were burning to get around.

Bryce Canyon National Park and Zion National Park – Within an hour’s drive (unless a mudslide washes out the road and you have to drive around the mountain) are two different national parks. The kids wanted to go hiking at Bryce Canyon, so that was our choice – as the parks are in different directions – and we all piled into the van to do just that. Unfortunately, due to that afore mentioned mudslide, we ended up taking a detour that made our 45 minute drive into more like 3 hours, but we saw some gorgeous scenery on the way, like people skiing and a frozen lake. It costs just $25 per private vehicle to get into either park and then anything else you do is free: hiking, picture taking, checking out the visitor’s center (including the movie that runs at various times throughout the day and the museum), picnicking. You name it. Bring some layers to dress in, because even though you’re in the desert, it can get chilly up there.

Rosenbruch Wildlife Museum – If you and your kids love animals, this place is pretty cool. Full of popular and even rare creatures found throughout the world, this museum gets you up and personal with them and entry comes with an audio tour that tells you about all of the animals on display. The morbid part, which you can choose to ignore, is that the majority of the animals were “collected” by the Rosenbruch family and used to fill the museum. They use modern taxidermy methods and anything they weren’t able to collect on their safaris and found it would be incomplete without have been created instead, so a few things (ahem! I’m talking to you Nile crocodile) don’t look as real…or completely fake. If this is bothersome to you, it might be best to skip, but I found it to be pretty fascinating and learned a lot from our visit. Admission is $8/$4 and Mondays are family days where there are kids’ activities from 4pm to 8pm and families receive a 10% discount on admission. Saturdays are for kids. Kids get in for $4 and are given a passport and enjoy a safari guide as well as other fun themed activities that are different each week and run from 12pm-2pm. You can drop your child(ren) off or stay to watch them have fun.

Tai Pan Trading (for budget shopping) – Do you love shopping for interesting things? Do you often wander around Cost Plus World Market for an hour or more? This place is awesome and very similar, but at a fraction of the price. Find dishes and homewares and flowers and vases and specialty foods and décor and so much more. If I had needed a cake plate or giant basket or art for my house, I could have gotten it all here. I walked away with a $4 salt and peppermill set, as I couldn’t reasonably fit anything else I wanted into my luggage, like a rainbow-colored chandelier for $159(!) or a set of large glass tulip candlesticks ($24 each!) or a giant turkey platter (just $14!). They don’t ship and I’m reasonably sure nothing there is made in St. George, but it’s a fun way to spend an hour or two.

Zion Outlets (for MORE budget shopping) – While not huge like other outlet malls, the Zion Outlets have some great shops to choose from, including one I had never heard of called Down East Outfitters. A funky juniors clothing store with crazy cheap prices and adorable pieces. Another cool store that is great for kids, too, is called Del Sol. It is full of color-changing merchandise, including keychains, sunglasses, t-shirts and even nail polish that changes color in the sun. And, of course, you can’t leave without getting an oversized chocolate or caramel apple from Rocky Mountain Chocolate Company.

Iceberg Drive Inn – Yes, that is spelled correctly and no, it’s probably not the best retro diner anywhere, but what I do know is that for fast food prices, you can chill in this great little 50’s diner and enjoy a cheeseburger, fries and a monster milkshake made with fresh ingredients – my banana milkshake had real slices of banana in it – or a delicious pastrami burger or these big a** onion rings! Kids meals are similar to regular menu items, just smaller and cheaper, and they come with a kid’s cone. My friend and I both ordered meals with “mini” milkshakes and they were bigger than any regular beverage I get. Meals with the milkshake run around $7 and without for $5-6 on average.

Silver Reef Ghost Town – Seven miles outside of St. George is the town of Leeds and Silver Reef Ghost Town. Silver Reef is the only place in the U.S. where silver was found in sandstone. While none of the websites I came across would tell me the museum and gallery were open every day except Tuesday and Wednesday, so when we showed up on Tuesday morning, we weren’t able to get in the small building to see the museum. In fact, they say that anytime is the best time to visit. If you’re thinking of visiting, make sure to call the Leeds visitor center first. We did learn some interesting facts from the signs around the town and took a bunch of fun pictures and also visited the old Pioneer graveyards. All of it was absolutely free, too. I suppose we actually saved money by not having access to the gift shop where we might have wanted to buy something.

Movie theaters – We followed up lunch with a movie one afternoon and were surprised by the low prices. Not just for admission, but for concessions, too. The local chain is by Westates and I was able to get an “extra large” soda for just $4 at Stadium 8. Considering I pay more than that at our second run theater here in Portland, I found it very budget friendly.

Have you been to St. George? What are your money-saving activities there?

Giveaway: $100 Vacation Credit from BookIt

Summer is coming and wouldn't any help towards a vacation be fantastic? Well, right now I'm giving away a $100 vacation credit for BookIt.com. Use it off the total of a 7-day vacation and get away for less. BookIt has amazing packages to all your favorite places. Wouldn't a beach trip be great right about now? Well, "You Know What To Do". That's right, Book It!

BookIt can save you big on your vacations, even if you don't win. Purchase as a package and add activities to save even more. In fact, they have the best discounts on Disney tickets I've ever seen, which is fantastic for us budget travelers. Make sure to check them out the next time you are planning a trip.

This giveaway is open to U.S. residents age 18 and over. Winner will be chosen on April 15th and credit code sent to the email entered with. Good luck!

This could be you!

If you can't wait to find out if you've won this prize to start planning your summer getaway, then consider downloading a copy of my eBook Secrets to Summer Savings which is packed full of money-saving tips and a few extras to help you plan an awesome and affordable summer vacation. For less than three dollars, you can save hundreds.

Don't forget to also check out Shereen Travels Cheap UK. If you're planning a trip to the United Kingdom or live there and looking for budget trips around your "neighborhood". Find some things to see and do that are not typically touristy.

The Benefits of Flying JetBlue 3.28.12

FYI: I wrote this post before the incident with Flight 191, but I still stick with the opinions I've given, as I think that pilot having a mental breakdown could have easily have been on any airline.

This last month we took a wonderfully relaxing trip to St. George – of course, you’ll think I’m lying when you read that we were vacationing with a family of 6, but it’s true – and it was our first time flying JetBlue. I was pretty excited that we got a better deal on them than even on Southwest or Spirit (both were charging some crazy prices to Vegas), because I have heard good things. Before, I could never get their website to work if there were no seats available to where I wanted to fly on the days I wanted to fly. This doesn’t’ seem to be the case anymore and you can also find them on airline aggregators now (like Travelocity and Orbitz), which makes it way easier to book an available seat.

Even though it’s been around for a while and people have been using it coast-to-coast for great prices for years, I thought it would be interesting to do a post for those that don’t need to fly across the country and want to save money going somewhere closer to home. Because it’s technically a discount airline the routes are limited on JetBlue. They have a whopping 7 hubs in the U.S.: Boston (BOS), Fort Lauderdale Hollywood International (FLL), Long Beach (LGB), New York (JFK), Oakland (OAK), Orlando (MCO) and Washington Dulles (IAD). This may make some creative flight patterns and fly you totally out of the way in order to get to and from your final destination. If it saves you money though, there are a lot of pluses to flying JetBlue.

• First bag flies free. In this day and age when airlines charge an arm and a leg for everything, it’s nice to know someone isn’t trying to steal everything you own. On JetBlue, your first checked bag is always free. You don’t have to use it, but it’s there. I like it as insurance that if I buy too much, I can use it on the way home. (That’s $15-35 saved!)
• Flights are never overbooked. Remember when we talked about overbooked flights and how you can get bumped and screwed over (even if you do get compensated) because you got to the gate 5 minutes later than you wanted or your got stuck in traffic or security took forever? Well, JetBlue doesn’t oversell seats, so you will never be without one.
• They are partnered with some of the best airlines in the business. It’s true. Now you can also fly on Aer Lingus, Lufthansa, CapeAir, American, South African, Emirates, El Al, LAN, Virgin Atlantic, Iceland Air, Qatar Airways, TAM, Jet Airways, Singapore Airlines, Hawaiian, Japan Airlines and Korean Air. It’s a whole network of savings, plus you can gain mileage points for any of these airlines by flying with any of the others. I flew JetBlue and earned American AAdvantage miles.

• Awesome customer service. Okay, it may have just been my experience, but everyone I dealt with was super nice and courteous (and helpful!). From the ticket agents to the ground crew to the flight attendants. Top notch.
• Free DirecTV on all flights. Again, JetBlue doesn’t try to pinch every penny they can from you. Every seat has its own TV monitor (albeit small) and you can watch anything on 36 channels of DirecTV. I had the Europa Fútbol League on mine so I could watch soccer and also learn some Spanish in between playing a game on my handheld.
• Free Sirius XM radio on all flights. Not into TV, but want to listen to some tunes other than those you brought (or forgot)? JetBlue gives you the choice of over 100 music channels. If you didn’t bring a set of earphones? Don’t worry. They will sell you some nice ones for just $2 (either from the fancy do-it-yourself bin at the gate or after takeoff on the

• Unlimited free snacks and beverages. Again, you don’t get stuck with a tiny cup mostly full of ice and a bag containing 3 salted pretzels. On JetBlue, if you want 9 Diet Cokes and 3 bags of cookies, you’ll get it. They’re cool like that.
• Convenient mobile app. Want to book all your flights from your phone? JetBlue has a new-fangled fancy app that will let you do just that.
• Free snooze kit for overnight flights. Flying overnight and don’t’ want to look like a complete wreck, follow these tips and then take advantage of JetBlue’s snooze kit that contains a snazzy eyeshade and earplugs and wake up to a hot towel and coffee, spring water or orange juice (or all three, because you can).

• Finally, an airline with a sense of humor. Usually, I find airlines try to be fun, but miss the mark. JetBlue does it successfully, from their cute sayings on their planes (i.e., You and Me and a Plane Named Blue, Fancy Meeting Blue Here and Major Blue) to their adorably retro and clever adverts to the humorous staff (“We are now boarding all rows, 1-25. If you are in row 26, you are not on this flight.”). Flying should be fun, and they do their best to make it so. “You Above All” is a wonderful slogan that they seem to do well.

• No first class cabin. Don’t you hate it when you have to walk by all those smug first-classers and you maybe intentionally don’t carry your bag as close to you as possible and possibly you hit a few of them on the way through you your crappy seat that is one quarter of the price and one quarter of the luxury? I do. I have two wishes: 1 – The first class passengers get to board last. Have their glass of complimentary beer, wine or champagne in a fancy VIP area while us “cheap” people get on. 2 – The boarding door isn’t right up front, so I don’t have to walk through first class and be bitter before I’m even in the air. One or both of these options would be preferable to me.                                                                                                                                                     JetBlue doesn’t believe in segregation. The only difference between good seats and better seats is the amount of legroom. You can pay a premium (depending on the flight, but averaging around $30 each way) to sit in the Even More Space seats. On all flights, rows 1-5 and 10 and 11 are EMS seats. Your legs don’t cramp up from not being able to stretch out and, while it’s not super lounge-y, it’s great for tall people or those that need a little extra space. I was lucky enough to sit in row 1 for no extra charge and was pretty pleased with my seat. Just think, you already saved that much by not having to pay to check a bag!

Are you a fan of flying JetBlue?