5 Dos and Don'ts of Car Rentals

Most of the time when we travel, we rent a car, but it depends on where we go. Some destinations are easier to get around by car, like Orlando or Los Angeles, and some places are not or it's just more convenient to use public transportation. Of course, there are those destinations we've rented a car in and either wished we hadn't or did a little more research before we went, like Ecuador. 

It's always smart to know how things work in the city you'll be traveling in. Security and roads without signs aside, here are my top 5 Dos and Don'ts of renting a car.

Do

1. Keep Looking Until the Last Minute because rates can fluctuate wildly. Most of the time you make a reservation and don't have to give a credit card or pay ahead, even with some aggregators such as Hotwire, so it just makes sense to watch for price drops all the way up until the day before you leave. There's no penalty for cancelling and rebooking, so do it if you can save a buck...or $100. It's been known to happen and keep an eye out for promo codes.
2. Reserve the Smallest Car Possible. I almost always book a compact or economy car. There are only two of us and they are comfortable enough. The smaller the car, the cheaper the rates and the less you'll have to pay to fill up at the gas station. A bonus is that the smallest cars usually sell out first, so you get upgraded for free to the next car size available. Note, if you change your mind once you get to the rental counter, you can always upgrade on your own, but you can't downgrade, so pick the smallest size you are comfortable with. Three of my last four rentals were upgraded, since my flight came in in the evening and all the economy cars were gone. Bummer for me, right?
3. Look at All Rental Locations. The airport isn't the only place you can rent a car and sometimes looking offsite can be more affordable. If the hassle is worth it for the price difference, that might make less of a dent in your budget. In fact, the government imposes fees on rental companies at the airport, so those are passed on to the customer. Sometimes it's significant. Sometimes it's just a few cents a day.
4. Check the Weekly Rates. If you'll be traveling for 5 or 6 days, it can sometimes be beneficial to check weekly rates on rental cars, because they come with a price break that may just be cheaper than paying for separate days.  Make sure to check the fine print and see if you will be penalized for bringing the car back early. Most of the time you won't be, but some rental companies have caught on and want to squeeze as much money out of you as possible.
5. Use Ebates for Extra Savings. Ebates gives you cash back on things you're doing everyday, including going on vacation. Sign up for free, then click through them to get to our favorite travel merchants, including a whole list of car rental companies, to get cash back and even current promo codes to save even more.

Don't

1. Take the Prepaid Gas Option. While every once in a great while this is actually a deal, 99.99% of the time it is a total rip-off. Unless I'm in Europe, I should never have to pay $8+ for a gallon of gas. The rate is usually posted and, though it sounds really convenient, it's just another way for them to extract every last cent from your wallet or, more specifically, your credit card. The same principal goes for their GPS system. If you have your own or usually use your phone, bring it with you and save $15 or more per day. If your personal GPS gets stolen, it'll be a lot cheaper to replace.
2. Get the Insurance. If you have a car with insurance at home, it's highly possible you are covered in rental cars. If not, the credit card you are using to rent the car probably protects you. make sure to check all possibilities that you already use before adding an extra $16+ per day to your rental. There's no sense in paying more when you really don't have to, even when that "only bring back the steering wheel" thing sounds awesome. It's designed to.
3. Forget to Sign Up for the Rewards Program. It's free, it's easy and all your rentals give you points towards things like upgrades and free days. Those sounds like fantastic things, but the reason I really do it is for the increased savings. Members get access to special promos and discounts.
4. Rent With Your Debit Card if possible. If you do, the rental company often takes your rental total and a deposit when you pick up your car, leaving you with hundreds of dollars less in your bank account that you probably counted on using on your trip. If you only have a credit card for car rentals, it will still be more convenient than not having one at all.
5. Rent a Car for Your Whole Trip if You Don't Need To. Sometimes you only want a car for certain things. If you have several places you plan to drive to, then plan to do those things on consecutive days, so you only have to rent a car for those days instead of all of them. It seems like common sense, but many people never think about doing it that way and waste money they didn't have to.

Renting a car is not often all that fun, but I enjoy driving other places that aren't at home. Learn the ins and outs of renting before you get to the counter, that way you don't end up being that person who asks 900 questions and making everyone behind you want to run you over with their car. Somehow, I always get stuck behind the three people who've maybe never rented anything before and am reminded of being at the post office and the bank. If you can fill out all your info before you get to your destination, which is an option on some sites, especially if you've rented from them in the past, do so and you'll be in and out as quickly as you can sign the forms and get to the garage. you'll be on your way faster and everyone will be less stressed out. 

What are your tips for renting a car, in general or more affordably? 

Get 300 bonus SB when you sign up for Swagbucks in November!

All throughout November you can earn large bonuses when sign up as my referral on Swagbucks. Swagbucks is a rewards site where you earn points (called SB) for things you're probably doing online already, like searching the web, watching videos, shopping, discovering deals, and taking surveys. Then you take those points and exchange them for gift cards to places like Amazon, Target, or PayPal cash. 

When you sign up through me this month, you can earn a 300 SB bonus! Here's how: 

1. Sign up using this link 

2. Earn 300 SB total before December 1st, 2018. You'll get a 300 SB bonus for it! 

3. That's it. It's super easy, and Swagbucks is for real. I use it myself, and I've earned almost 90,000 SB since signing up, and I use it for Amazon gift cards to buy party supplies and gifts, so I can save more for my vacations!

What would you use your SB for? 


Disclaimer: This post contains affiliate links that will result in compensation in the form of SB should you sign up through my link. 

Art and Museums In Philadelphia - Part 1

Last month Eric and I went to Philadelphia to immerse ourselves in our country's history. I was lucky enough to get the chance to work with Visit Philly to get ourselves to all of the city's awesome landmark attractions. I want to start by talking about all the amazing art in Philly.

Philadelphia is home to some of my bucketlist travel items and, of course, those things were on the top of my itinerary. Let's talk about the one place I've been wanting to visit for probably two decades. The Mütter Museum.

I am such a sucker for medical mysteries, weird medical things and how the human body is so different when it comes to different people. Unfortunately, I was not able to take any photos inside the actual exhibit part of the Mütter Museum, because there are still people on display that have living relatives that come to visit them and it is for their privacy. I did ask one of the security guards how many people got busted for trying to take pictures everyday and was told that at 11am, they already caught two. I'm not a rule breaker, even for my blog, so I'll just explain some of the awesome stuff they had.

The Mütter Giant, as he's called, can't be contained in one photo.

The Mütter Museum is part of the College of Physicians of Philadelphia has the tallest human skeleton displayed in North America in their museum. He's 7' 6" and is displayed with one of the smallest female skeletons, a woman who had dwarfism and was a prostitute, who then got pregnant and couldn't naturally deliver her baby. Doctors tried to save her by sacrificing the baby, but didn't succeed, so both died. It makes me so happy for our medical strides, because I'm sure this was not a rare occurrence in the past.

The museum also has a cast of Chang and Eng, conjoined twins who were made famous by Robert Ripley (of Ripley's Believe It Or Not!) and were their own manager when they worked in the circus. The liver that they shared is on display (as well as one of their chairs) that was saved when the hospital (before it became a museum) did the the autopsy. Seeing this, I wonder if they were born 100 years later, if they couldn't have been separated and led their own lives.

Look at these ear bones! (I was allowed to take pics of these in the lobby.)

There is a whole wall of skulls from people who died in a variety of ways, this crazy enlarged colon, things people have swallowed, extremities with gangrene, tumors and so much more. I was fascinated and horrified and then fascinated again. You can view how medical practices have changed so much over the years and it's brilliant. We also happened to visit on World Polio Day, which seemed very fitting.  There are rotating exhibits, so even if you've been before, there will be something you haven't seen, and I doubt you'll not be able to find something you missed on your previous visit(s).

There are so many museums in the city, but the largest and most prominent is the Philadelphia Museum of Art. Inside you'll find several floors of labyrinthine rooms.

Not only can you run up the Rocky steps (there are so many), but on the last Wednesday of the month, they have pay what you want after 5pm. It's the only day it's open late. If you love all kinds of art, this is the place for you, but give yourself 3 or more hours. We visited the featured exhibit, which was women's fashion throughout history (can you tell the difference between the 80s and the 50s or the 70s and 90s). In some cases, the accessories totally made it work.

There is so much art to see, plus on the night we visited they were also having Oktoberfest in the lobby and a trick-or-treat scavenger hunt for kids, so there were tons of littles in costumes, which was almost as fun as the art. You'll find room after room full of artwork of all sorts, from paintings to sculptures to glasswork. Make certain to wear your walking shoes, if only for the thousand steps you'll need to navigate just to get to the front door. 

You'll find modern art, contemporary, impressionism, surrealism, and everything else you can think of. From Diego Rivera to Picasso to Monet to Manet, there's almost no great artist left out. But I'll leave you with my favorite piece done in bronze by Cecioni, which I entitled "Me when I meet a puppy." I have no idea what's happening in this piece, but I found it hysterical. I'm not sure if everyone's happy or no one is happy but it made me happy, and I feel like that's what I want out of art. 

This angle is deceiving. There are these steps (probably 5 sets of 20) and then another set at the top past a courtyard.

As I said, you can run up the many, many, many steps and do your Rocky pose, or you can drag yourself up the stairs, wonder how you've only made it halfway up, and debate rolling back down to find an elevator. We encouraged each other to the top, saying that if the two year old we passed could make it up 10 steps that were half her height, we could make it the rest of the way up.

You can also get your pic taken with a statue of Sylvester Stallone as Rocky at the bottom of the steps in the front of the museum. Every time we passed by, there was a long line, but as we were leaving the museum in the evening, there weren't any people waiting (not shocking, since it was dark out), so I made Eric take my picture. I'm sorry I didn't do a "Yo Adrian!" pose. This is all I could muster.

This isn't the end of Philadelphia's art, but I feel like it's enough for one part of a post and I'll continue with it in the next post. I could easily have filled two posts with just finds from the PMOA. It's much more fun to explore for yourself though. 

Where is your favorite museum?

Disclaimer: Visit Philly gave me a VIP attraction pass in order to visit these museums at no cost, but all opinions are 100% my own.