0:01

My name is John Cullen and I want to tell

0:03

you a story. It's a

0:05

story about a scandal, broken

0:07

relationships, gossip, rumors, money, corporate

0:10

rivalry, and curling. It's the

0:12

story of Broomgate, how a

0:15

single broom, yes, a broom,

0:17

turned friends into foes and

0:19

almost killed the 500-year-old sport

0:22

of curling. It was a

0:24

year I'd like to forget. Broomgate.

0:27

Available now. Frequency

0:31

Podcast Network. Stories that

0:34

matter, podcasts that resonate. I

0:37

don't know about you, but sometimes

0:39

when I'm dreaming of a

0:41

getaway, I go and check

0:43

the prices on the flights. Not

0:46

because I'm going to book anything right then

0:48

and there, just to dream

0:50

of it. And

0:53

then the prices wake me right back

0:55

up. We're heading into

0:57

summer now. School's out, some jobs are

0:59

slowing down, and this is a time

1:01

when lots of us want to

1:03

think about taking a break, having

1:05

an adventure, seeing something new. And

1:09

then we look at our bank balances or credit

1:11

statements and we think, well, stay-cations.

1:14

They're fun too, right? But look,

1:18

you probably don't need as much money as

1:20

you think you do to

1:22

get out and explore. That's

1:25

this week on In This Economy.

1:28

Enjoy. Clark,

1:31

will you listen to me? Let's just

1:33

find a hotel. I'll call my parents. Why is

1:35

some money we can fly home and forget this

1:37

entire vacation ever had? That's

1:40

Beverly DiAngelo, as the put-upon

1:42

Ellen Griswold in the 1980s

1:44

classic National Lampoon's

1:46

Vacation, in which the Griswold

1:49

family runs out of cash

1:51

on a disastrous road trip. I'm

1:58

Jordan Heath-Rawlings, and you are looking for a new story. listening

2:00

to in this economy where we

2:02

help you understand the systems that

2:04

create your money problems, from grocery

2:06

bills to the cost of flights,

2:08

and everything in

2:11

between. Then, we

2:13

try to help you figure out a way

2:16

to just do it anyway. Summer

2:20

is right around the corner and a lot of

2:22

us are dreaming of a holiday. But

2:24

post-pandemic, it feels like everything, the cost

2:27

of hotels, the cost of flights, even

2:29

just the cost of gas or food

2:31

on a road trip, has

2:33

skyrocketed. So how

2:36

can you avoid ending up like the

2:38

Griswolds, but still have

2:40

a fun and meaningful family vacation

2:42

in this economy? Natalie

2:49

Preti is a writer and a

2:51

TV personality. She not only specializes

2:53

in travel, she is a seasoned

2:55

traveler herself, whether that's solo or

2:58

with a family, and she

3:00

is full of tips, whether

3:02

your summer travel dreams involve

3:04

planes or trains or automobiles.

3:07

Before we get into the serious stuff,

3:11

Natalie, where's the last vacation you went

3:13

on? Well, you know what? I just got back

3:15

from a press trip where I

3:17

did St. Thomas Carnival,

3:19

which I don't know if you've

3:22

done Carnival, but it is absolutely

3:24

amazing. Each Caribbean island has

3:26

their own version of Carnival, and of

3:28

course we have North America's biggest one

3:31

in Toronto in August. But

3:33

yeah, it was so much fun. It was

3:35

hot, it was beautiful, we

3:37

had lots of costumes on,

3:40

some amazing artists, soca artists,

3:42

reggae artists. It was great.

3:44

Absolutely fantastic. Yeah, it was great. And you didn't have

3:46

to pay for that trip because this is work to

3:48

you. That was

3:50

work. Yes, that was work. As

3:53

we come out of the pandemic, what

3:57

kind of changes have we seen to...

4:00

travel particularly to the

4:02

cost of it. Okay,

4:05

so as we know it has gone up, right?

4:08

So we have inflation and even

4:11

when we look at the cost

4:13

of a ticket itself, there have

4:15

been more taxes added on, especially

4:17

in Canada. So tourism taxes, airport

4:19

fees, we have some of the highest airport

4:22

fees in the world when

4:24

it comes to people flying in,

4:26

especially to Pearson, service charges, international

4:28

service charges, and then just

4:31

supply and demand. You know, we

4:33

don't have the staff,

4:35

we don't have the pilots, we don't

4:37

have people working in the airport security.

4:39

You know, we lost so many workers

4:41

in the pandemic and we just haven't

4:43

gotten them back yet. And of course

4:45

with Boeing, you know, the issues that

4:47

they're having then, people are, you know,

4:49

not wanting to fly Boeing, so airlines

4:52

have to raise their prices to make

4:54

up for the people not going on

4:56

the plane. So there's just so many

4:58

different things, fuel as well. And I

5:00

actually read this fast, which I thought

5:02

was really cool. The International Civil Aviation

5:04

Organization estimates that by 2026, the

5:06

aviation industry is going to require

5:09

480,000 new techs and 350,000 new

5:11

pilots. Does that because of demand?

5:13

That's because

5:19

of demand, yeah, because we lost so

5:21

many people as well, right? A lot

5:23

of people took retirement at that time

5:25

that maybe had 10 more years left.

5:27

So it's getting back up to where

5:30

we were and then of course surpassing

5:32

that. So we shouldn't be expecting

5:34

prices to come down anytime soon, I

5:37

guess. Absolutely not,

5:39

unfortunately. Can

5:43

you give us a sense, and I

5:45

know obviously this varies depending on where

5:47

you're traveling and where you're flying in

5:49

and out of, but when

5:52

you add up all the cost increases

5:54

from fuel to taxes or whatever, how

5:57

would you compare the cost of travel?

5:59

traveling now to pre-pandemic? Like are people

6:01

who haven't taken a vacation since that

6:03

time, are they looking at a 10%

6:07

more, 20%, 30% ballpark it for us? I

6:12

felt, I think in Canada

6:14

they're saying about 7.8%. It's

6:18

continued to go up, so it's not ridiculous.

6:22

We did, right after the pandemic, there were

6:24

a lot of people traveling, right? Everyone was

6:26

doing that revenge travel trend where

6:29

they were just saying, I was stuck

6:31

inside, I'm going wherever, whenever. So we

6:33

saw that there were a lot

6:36

more people traveling. That's slowing down now. So

6:38

in terms of pricing, things are

6:40

all starting to even out a

6:42

little bit and it's not too, too bad. It's

6:45

still expensive. And it of course

6:48

depends on the time of year, depends where you're going. Certain

6:51

destinations have increased their taxes just

6:54

to decrease the amount of people

6:56

coming. Italy, Venice, you know,

6:58

has their tourist tax, but within Canada

7:00

they're saying about But

7:04

then traveling within Canada has always been

7:06

expensive. We're going to

7:08

talk about a whole bunch of different

7:10

ways to travel or even just to

7:12

take a vacation in the course of

7:14

this conversation. Since we started with air

7:16

travel, how

7:18

do you get around some of those air

7:22

travel specific taxes and

7:25

expenses? What do you do

7:27

when you take your own vacations? So you

7:29

have to be flexible with your dates wherever

7:32

possible. You know, traveling like

7:34

a Tuesday to a Tuesday as opposed to

7:36

a Saturday to a Saturday, you can see

7:38

a big change in prices. Also

7:42

if you book in incognito

7:44

mode or private browsing, that

7:47

is very helpful because no airlines

7:50

have cookies and you go look for that

7:53

price that you saw yesterday on

7:55

a certain site and it's now

7:57

gone up 10%. So you

7:59

know, I highly,

8:02

highly recommend using private motor incognito

8:04

mode. Booking ahead is

8:07

a huge one. So 60 days out

8:09

for international is what they recommend and

8:11

28 domestically. But

8:15

also when it comes to

8:17

those taxes, we specifically mentioned

8:19

Toronto having high airport taxes,

8:22

looking at smaller airports. So

8:24

I just discovered

8:26

the other day talking to someone that

8:28

Jersey City has its own airport. Atlantic

8:30

City has its own small airport. Now

8:32

at these airports, the taxes are going

8:34

to be less just because they

8:37

don't have that traffic. So,

8:39

you know, just looking at

8:41

smaller places like that and

8:43

using an alert service. So I

8:45

know Google flight was a famous one. Kayak

8:48

is my personal favorite. You can put the alerts

8:50

and it will say whether to buy or whether

8:53

to hold out or to just

8:55

wait, which I like. Sky

8:57

Scanner just added a button that does this as

9:00

well. So you can save all your past searches

9:02

and it will send you alerts as well.

9:05

So I highly, highly recommend putting

9:07

one of those on, researching from different computers,

9:09

you know, ask a friend or a family

9:11

member to check with the prices from their

9:13

computer. Lots of things like that.

9:15

And fortunately, it's a little bit trickier,

9:17

but it can be done. Right.

9:20

And what do you do? Being flexible on dates

9:23

is obviously a great one. Yeah. And

9:26

we're releasing this episode right before summer

9:28

vacation when a lot of people who

9:31

have school age children

9:33

can't be flexible on dates.

9:35

Yeah. How do you beat

9:38

the kind of A, price chaos,

9:40

but B, even just general travel chaos of

9:42

trying to travel in those periods with kids?

9:44

And maybe in the summer, it's not crazy

9:47

bad because you have eight weeks or nine

9:49

weeks to play with, but come

9:52

the Christmas holidays, the March break that

9:54

kids get, like those are the options,

9:56

right? Right. And

9:58

those are unfortunate. going to

10:01

be expensive. You know, you're flying over

10:03

the weeks around Christmas and

10:06

some hotels, especially down south, will

10:08

go up a hundred percent.

10:10

Those flights and accommodation, those

10:13

package deals, they're

10:15

gonna double. They know they've got you. Yeah,

10:17

exactly. They say you have these dates.

10:20

So being flexible and then even then,

10:23

you know, I traveled this February around,

10:25

I wanted to go somewhere with my

10:27

children around March break and even the

10:29

week after March break was really expensive

10:32

because you have to think about, you

10:34

know, other countries, when are their breaks.

10:37

Private schools, I think, had two weeks

10:39

off. If you can't avoid those

10:41

or even just switch your dates, like I

10:44

said, the Tuesday to Tuesday as opposed to

10:46

Saturday to Saturday. That will definitely

10:48

give you some more bonus. But

10:50

also, I always say to check

10:52

the hotels website or the resorts

10:54

website. If you book through the

10:56

resorts website, you can often get

10:59

better deals than those package holidays

11:01

because they will have deals that

11:03

you can only get online. So

11:05

let's say your four days and

11:07

your fifth night is free or

11:09

children's day for free or we're

11:12

offering 30%. So I always say if there's

11:14

a particular resort you know you want to

11:16

go to, have a look on their

11:19

website before you look through the package

11:21

deals. If you're not

11:23

doing one of those getaway resort

11:25

vacations and you

11:27

don't have the kind of money where

11:30

you're gonna be able to, you know, fly

11:32

to Italy or somewhere in Europe, what

11:35

do you recommend people

11:37

do to get

11:40

that sense of immersing yourself

11:42

in another culture without breaking

11:45

the bank? Well, train travel

11:47

is huge at the moment for

11:49

so many reasons because it is

11:52

more affordable and it is

11:54

better for the environment and train

11:56

travel itself is becoming more

11:58

glamorized again. or once again, I

12:01

should say. So you were seeing a lot of

12:03

chefs offering dining experiences

12:06

on the Rocky Mountaineer, for

12:08

instance, or even like Amtrak train

12:11

stations have their own dining

12:13

experiences. They're becoming hotbeds for immersion

12:15

in their cities as well. So

12:17

train travel is a fantastic

12:19

idea. And then you of

12:21

course can get to somewhere else. So let's

12:24

say you're coming from Toronto up to Ottawa

12:26

or Toronto to Quebec City with a via

12:28

or something, there are fantastic deals, some

12:31

great options, and you're still getting to

12:33

go on a vacation and

12:35

have a new exciting experience. Where

12:38

are the biggest ripoffs for

12:40

traveling? Eating in

12:42

the airport. It's

12:45

a, the airport is the wild

12:48

west. I know you're paying

12:50

$12 for a personal sized

12:52

bag of chips, which is

12:54

just complete madness. So I

12:57

would say eating and drinking

12:59

at the airport, if you can

13:01

avoid it, then absolutely do that.

13:03

What about outside the airport though? Outside

13:05

of the airport, anywhere

13:07

that is super touristy. So let's say

13:10

you are able to, let's say you're

13:12

in Italy, for instance, and

13:14

you want to avoid the main areas along

13:16

the river in Florence, for instance. Around

13:19

there, there's going to be a lot

13:21

of tourist traps. The food probably won't

13:23

be that great. You're better off wandering

13:25

a little bit to find something to

13:27

eat, or if possible, and I know

13:29

a lot of people do this, and

13:31

I love to do this as well,

13:34

go with a vacation rental

13:36

so you are making a few meals

13:39

at home. Even just a small room

13:41

that has a toaster and a kettle. Right.

13:45

And then you can make your own

13:47

toast in the morning so that saves

13:49

you meal on your breakfast. Have

13:52

this cup of tea, have your coffee in the morning.

13:54

Those are fantastic. So you could still stay in

13:56

the hotel and just have those little amenities on

13:58

the sides. My

14:09

name is John Cullen and I want to tell

14:11

you a story. It's a

14:13

story about a scandal, broken

14:16

relationships, gossip, rumors, money, corporate

14:18

rivalry, and curling. It's

14:21

the story of Broomgate, how a

14:24

single broom, yes, a broom, turned

14:26

friends into foes and almost killed

14:28

the 500-year-old sport of curling. It

14:30

was a year I'd like to

14:32

forget. Broomgate,

14:35

available now. As

14:40

I was prepping for this interview, I sort of

14:42

asked a whole bunch of people, like, what do

14:45

they think about traveling on a budget? How would

14:47

they do it? And one thing that came up

14:49

a couple of times, including through our producers, is

14:51

swapping homes.

14:53

Have you ever tried that? Are you familiar

14:56

with the concepts list? Like, not quite an

14:58

Airbnb, but I guess there

15:00

are apparently ways you can arrange just

15:03

like a straight-up home swap. Can you explain a little bit

15:05

about how that works? Yeah. So

15:08

it's actually funny because I did

15:10

another interview specifically on home swapping

15:13

later this week. So your

15:15

timing is perfect. Yeah. So

15:17

there are just companies that do that

15:20

called like Home Exchange, depending on your

15:22

budget. You pay a membership fee for

15:24

the year, and there are a few

15:26

options. So you can either do a

15:29

straight-up swap, like, I don't know if you remember

15:31

the movie The Holiday, the Christmas movie

15:33

with Kate Winslet and Jude

15:36

Law, Cameron Diaz, Jack Black. Anyway,

15:39

two women, I believe, do a home

15:41

swap, and then they have their home

15:43

romantic stories surrounding those. But

15:45

you can do a straight-up home swap, or you

15:47

can look at what's available. So let's say I

15:49

joined it, and I'm going to be away from

15:51

my home for June. So we could

15:54

look at it and say, oh, Natalie's away for

15:56

the month of June. I'd like to stay in

15:58

that house, which then it becomes more... vacation

16:00

rental. It's very interesting.

16:03

It's exciting because a lot more people

16:05

are looking for, like you

16:07

said, ways to try

16:09

out new destinations and really

16:11

immerse themselves. And you know, you're going to,

16:13

if you're staying in someone's home, you're really

16:15

getting to understand what it's like day

16:18

to day there. In terms of not

16:20

flying to exotic places or spending

16:23

a lot of money even on

16:25

transportation, what

16:27

about road trips in Canada? And what

16:30

do you recommend people do if they're

16:32

planning on trying that for a vacation?

16:35

Road trips are fantastic.

16:38

I think they're a great way to

16:40

involve the whole family. So I

16:42

say, you know, even get out one of those

16:45

old paper maps. Do you remember those?

16:48

Oh, yeah. They still make those? Oh,

16:51

they still make them, yes. And

16:53

you know, it really involves your kids in the

16:55

planning. That's going to get them excited about where

16:57

they're going as opposed to that are we there

16:59

yet? Are we there yet? So you know, what

17:01

sort of things am I going to see along

17:03

the way? Maybe we're going

17:05

to stop in these smaller towns. So

17:07

let's look at changing our route so

17:10

that we are exploring something that the kids want

17:12

to see. Maybe there's, I don't know,

17:14

a llama farm somewhere or they

17:17

want to go through this town and try this

17:19

restaurant. So you really make the trip part of

17:21

the whole journey and making the kids part

17:23

of it gives them some ownership in the

17:25

trip itself. But prepare yourself as

17:28

well. You know, you will be stuck in the

17:30

car for a long time. You

17:32

know, so they have podcasts that are quizzes,

17:34

for instance, you know, that'll be like a

17:37

family fun quiz. Oh, that's

17:39

neat. Yeah, it's great. It's a

17:41

way to get everyone involved. We

17:43

have kids podcasts that tell stories,

17:45

we have favorites as well. And we all,

17:48

you know, listen to stories as

17:50

we go. We'll make a playlist together. So you

17:53

want to look at what the kids want to listen

17:55

to as well, throw in what you want to listen

17:57

to, then you don't have to deal with, you know,

17:59

as parents. I know we can often feel

18:01

like DJ's or at least I do, you

18:03

know, taking requests all day. You know, we've

18:05

created a playlist all together and that's what

18:07

we're going to listen to on our trip.

18:10

So I definitely think that they're

18:12

a fantastic way to get the whole

18:14

family together and to really connect

18:16

to everyone. Um, and

18:18

then everyone feels really good about the journey from

18:21

beginning to end. What are some of the

18:23

things you should, uh, be aware of

18:25

when it comes to hidden or surprise

18:27

costs along the way? Um,

18:30

with road trips. Yeah. Um,

18:33

well in terms of, you

18:36

know, even if something as simple as buying gas,

18:39

you know, the on routes along

18:41

the side of the highway, when you just pull off,

18:43

the gas is going to be more expensive there. You

18:46

might have to detour, you know, a little bit,

18:48

10 minutes, even 10, five, 10 minutes off the

18:50

highway and you'll find a better

18:53

price for gas. Again,

18:55

food, definitely don't buy

18:57

food at those, the on routes there.

18:59

It's astronomical. Again,

19:02

airport pricing, I call it. And,

19:04

and looking at, um, planning your meals

19:06

out as well, planning where you're going

19:08

to eat, you know, maybe you, um,

19:11

you stay, again, you stay in a,

19:13

uh, vacation rental or

19:16

you stay in a hotel that

19:18

has some amenities. Um, so you

19:20

can make your own breakfast in the morning or

19:22

you book a hotel that maybe

19:24

has breakfast included and there

19:27

you've already saved yourself a meal snacks.

19:29

I am the most prepared,

19:32

like prepared snackers.

19:34

Um, I like to

19:36

have everything and I keep them hidden around the car.

19:38

So we don't eat everything in about 15 minutes, which

19:40

would totally happen. Uh, so

19:42

yeah, so making sure you are prepared

19:44

and of course, safety, right? Um,

19:47

you have a, something goes wrong

19:49

with the car. Make sure that

19:51

you are prepared with your, um,

19:54

insurance. You know who to call.

19:56

If it's completely unexpected, you know, you could

19:58

end up in a. in a pickled tow

20:01

truck can be a lot of money. Um,

20:03

so you just really want to have a plan

20:05

B all the time. One other

20:07

thing that came up that I have

20:10

to ask you about, tell me the best

20:12

way to use your travel points. Um,

20:14

you must have some hacks and tips

20:16

or certain points that are worth it

20:18

and certain points that are not, how

20:20

do you navigate travel points? So

20:23

I have a card that I have been

20:25

using for a very long time and I

20:27

really like it. Uh, so,

20:30

um, so I use the

20:32

TD infinite travel. There

20:35

are so many to go with. I

20:37

mean, overall, based on all the

20:39

research that I've done, the American

20:41

express cobalt, uh, has some of the

20:44

highest earnings and you can get like

20:46

five points on your dining, on your

20:48

groceries, flexible ways to, to spend

20:51

your points as well. Um,

20:53

in terms of airline cards, the

20:55

best one is the TD aeroplane

20:58

visa. The only thing with

21:00

aeroplane is it can be a little

21:02

bit tricky to figure out how to

21:04

maximize your spending with them, um, how

21:06

to maximize the use of those points,

21:09

but it's a great card when it comes to rewards.

21:12

And what I really like about this card, uh,

21:14

they have a hundred dollar Nexus fee

21:16

rebate every two years. So I

21:19

have a Nexus it's, you know, it's fantastic

21:21

card. I love it. It makes traveling to

21:24

and from the States so much easier. And

21:26

you know, you get the rebate on that as well. And

21:29

if you're looking for a, you know, a no

21:31

fee travel card, uh, the

21:33

American express green card is

21:35

a great one. It really depends on

21:38

where you're traveling the most often. I know

21:40

my sister has the Marriott bond way American

21:42

express. And she

21:45

loves it because she travels a lot for

21:47

work and she always stays in

21:49

a Marriott. And that's where she

21:51

would see the majority of her budget

21:53

go is the hotels. So she

21:56

can really maximize on,

21:58

you know, discounted stays. upgrades,

22:01

because she's there. You know,

22:03

many times throughout the month, she's

22:06

able to really maximize that, that

22:08

the Bond Boy points. The

22:11

Aeroplan, I mean, I also really

22:13

like Aeroplan. They have great

22:15

things. They have their own deals with certain,

22:17

certain stores. So I know Uber,

22:20

Starbucks, you can get points with,

22:22

but also even small things like

22:26

free Wi-Fi is, a

22:29

thousand points, I think, or something like that.

22:31

So even if you have a small increment,

22:33

there's still ways that you can use them

22:35

as you travel. So I,

22:37

and of course, in Canada, we

22:39

have so few airlines that,

22:42

that aeroplane, you know, I end up

22:45

flying Air Canada or one

22:47

of the Star Alliance, you

22:49

know, which is like a United British Airways,

22:52

those airlines anyway, and I can

22:54

use them on, on those airlines

22:56

as well. It's really depends how

22:58

you spend your travel dollars. Are you

23:01

flying? I mean, the one I have,

23:03

the TD travel infinite, I

23:05

really like because I can use

23:07

it on Expedia for TD. So I

23:09

can save money on renting a car and it's

23:11

a point to a dollar. So it's, it's

23:14

fantastic. And I get at least one

23:17

flight and hotel a year on it.

23:19

So yeah, it's just using it for,

23:21

you know, whatever you think you can

23:23

use it for most and also using

23:25

that card for your everyday purchases. That's

23:28

one thing I say as well. If you have a travel

23:30

card, use it for your groceries, use it for

23:32

your gas, use it for whatever you can, pay it off at

23:34

the end of the month, you know, so it's not like you

23:37

are gathering loads of debt, but

23:39

then you are really turning all of your

23:41

everyday purchases into points

23:44

that you can use. Last question, and

23:46

it's a bit of a detailed one, because I want

23:48

to understand your process. So far, I've been asking you

23:50

for a whole lot of tips and various ways. The

23:53

last thing I'd love for you to do is

23:57

for somebody traveling on a budget, or let's

23:59

say you, your, yourself have

24:01

a budget. Walk me

24:03

through your process of planning your vacation

24:06

to get the most for your

24:08

money. Hmm. Okay.

24:10

Well, I will look at... First of all, I

24:12

think about where I want to go. Do

24:15

I have the kids with me or not? So let's

24:17

say it's my family, family of five. I

24:20

would go to kayak. I would look at the flight. I'd

24:22

set an alert. I would

24:24

also look at how many points I

24:26

have on my Expedia for 2D and

24:28

where that can get me, how much

24:30

that can get me. I

24:34

will play around with dates. Looking

24:37

at a lot of sites will now show

24:39

me the most expensive dates and the cheapest

24:41

dates. Now all of this I have done

24:43

in incognito mode because I don't want

24:47

it to be tracked. My

24:50

biggest pet peeve is when I've

24:52

forgotten to do that. What

24:55

I have put in is now

24:57

10 times the price. So

25:00

definitely, definitely incognito

25:02

mode. And then I will probably

25:06

check it over the next week. Have

25:08

a look at the

25:10

deal on a bunch of different websites. I

25:13

will usually call the hotel as well

25:15

and say, this is what

25:17

I'm looking at. Are there

25:19

any deals coming up? And

25:22

usually when you call the hotel, they

25:24

will throw in something, throw in an

25:26

upgrade or we'll tell you we've got

25:28

this sale coming up in a few

25:30

days. Depending on the time of

25:32

year, if I know a Black Friday is coming

25:34

up or there's going to be a sale, I'll

25:36

hold off for that. And

25:39

then I will usually press the

25:41

buy button on a Tuesday because

25:43

we know that flights tend to

25:46

be a little bit cheaper for

25:48

buying on a Tuesday. Now I

25:50

don't know the science

25:52

behind this, but

25:55

I've heard it from a few people and a

25:57

few travel agents as well say, let's wait. to

26:00

stay in a bucket. So

26:03

I press the press the buy button, but

26:05

I'll usually take about a week

26:07

to just you know, suss things out,

26:09

write down some options,

26:13

play around, make some phone

26:15

calls, and even ask some travel agent

26:17

friends. You know, it doesn't hurt to pick

26:19

up the phone, which I know we

26:21

all hate doing, but to pick up the phone

26:24

and say or even shoot someone an email and

26:26

say, Hey, I was looking at this, what type

26:28

of prices are you seeing on that? And

26:30

again, you know, even if you

26:32

are in Conquito mode, it doesn't hurt to

26:35

check it out from someone else, from

26:37

someone else's computer, just

26:39

to make sure that you are not, you know, getting

26:42

a completely different number. And

26:44

then I book it. If I've decided that somewhere

26:46

that I want to go, I don't usually sit

26:49

on it for for too long, you know, as,

26:51

as I said, 60 days out is what

26:53

they recommend to get the best prices for international.

26:56

And you know, it used to be and I

26:58

remember traveling as a kid, I

27:00

remember my parents saying, you know, if you

27:02

book it, you know, really close to the

27:04

to the travel date, the prices go down

27:06

once completely flipped now. So once

27:08

I've made a decision, I do

27:10

a little bit of searching and then

27:13

I and then I press buy because

27:16

I also think that if

27:19

I've decided we're going somewhere we're going. And

27:22

you know, I want that experience as well. And

27:24

I or I need that break or I need

27:26

that time away. And

27:28

that's usually, you know, my

27:31

priority. And then of course, get the kids

27:33

bags ready, make sure they've got enough food

27:35

and snacks. That's not going to cost

27:37

me, you know, a ball in

27:39

the airport when I want to go, but I have to go,

27:41

you know, buy them something

27:44

because they're hungry. Yeah, just all

27:46

the little things that I can that

27:48

I can think about. But I think

27:50

you also and one thing you know

27:52

that I will I will balance is

27:54

the convenience of travel and the budget.

27:56

I think you can't forget convenience as

27:58

well because going. to an airport

28:01

can be stressful, right? Traveling with kids

28:03

can be stressful. They have a lot

28:05

of stuff. So, you know,

28:07

what, what things can you

28:10

do that are going to mitigate

28:13

the inconvenience of traveling with kids? So,

28:15

you know, if it's going to cost

28:17

me an extra 10 bucks to have

28:20

diapers shipped to where I'm going,

28:22

as opposed to putting a week's

28:25

versus diapers in a suitcase, that'll

28:27

probably have to check anyway, I

28:29

would do that. If it comes to

28:31

renting some baby gear for staying at a

28:33

rental property or something and renting it while

28:35

I'm down there, which is maybe going to

28:37

cost me an extra 50 bucks

28:40

for the week, I would rather

28:42

do that, you know, just to avoid the

28:45

inconvenience of carrying all the

28:47

baby gear through the airport and

28:49

the baby. And the baby. Don't

28:51

forget the baby. Don't forget the baby.

28:54

Yeah. That's the best travel advice we've

28:56

got. Don't

28:58

forget the baby. Natalie, thank

29:00

you so much for this. It's been a pleasure.

29:02

And hopefully, people have listened to

29:04

this and can save a few bucks and still

29:06

get out there this summer. My pleasure. Thanks for

29:08

having me. Natalie

29:12

Prettie is a writer and a broadcaster.

29:14

She specializes in travel and thanks so

29:16

much to her for sharing that intel

29:19

with us. I will definitely

29:21

be booking my flights in incognito mode from

29:23

now on. Do

29:26

you have a money problem or even

29:28

a question about some weird aspect of

29:30

the economy and how it really works

29:32

these days? We want to hear from

29:34

you. You can email

29:36

us at hello at itepod.ca or you

29:38

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29:40

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29:42

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29:50

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29:55

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29:57

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30:15

host and executive producer, Jordan Heath Rawlings.

30:17

This episode was written and produced by

30:19

Marshall Whitsid, Alison Brouverman, and Stephanie Phillips.

30:22

The sound design was done by Robin

30:24

Edgar. Mary Jubrin is our digital editor.

30:26

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30:28

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30:35

for listening. We'll talk soon on In

30:37

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