1.  Drink what's Free – They do offer pop/soda cards, but they are expensive and the only way to get your moneys worth is to drink a lot and then it just becomes unhealthy.

2.  Don't eat a the restaurants that charge – There are more than enough "free of charge" restaurants to choose from why would you even consider paying for a meal?  If you do want to pay for a meal do it while in port and try some of the local flavor instead.  That's why you are on vacation right??

This was a bean dip fondue in Honduras

3.  Choose the Free activities – There are plenty of things to do on the boat.  Plenty of shows to see and game shows to watch, don't pay for your entertainment.  Walk past the casino, you can do that anywhere.

4.  Don't feel like you need to have an excursion at every port – Big, big money maker here.  We met up with a couple a few years back and they had booked something at all but one port.  By the time they were at the last one they were happy they could do their own thing and not have another excursion.  They almost felt like they had missed out on a few ports because they were whisked away to an activity instead of enjoying the culture.

A private island I found online before we went. We walked over to the boat ferry. We did not book it ahead of time.

5.  If you do want to do an excursion try and book it through the company instead of the ship.  You can save up to $10-$20 a person just booking it yourself.

6.  Grab your drinks while in port – Ships charge lots of money for alcoholic drinks and they charge a 15% (although it could be higher now) tip right on there, and give you an additional tip line.  Really??  We like to stop at a local place and try one of the local beers or drinks.  Tons cheaper and you get to do something more authentic.

Drinking a local beer in Roatan

7.  If you want drinks on the ship try and bring some of your own.  It's risky, sometimes they go through and sometimes they don't.  But if you can get your own on the boat it will save you tons.

8.  Once off the ship, walk a little ways – If you get a block or 2 away from port the taxis start to get significantly cheaper.  Acapulco was a huge price difference.  We went to see the cliff divers. We paid  $2 and the couple next to us grabbed a taxi right at port and paid $17.

9.  Buy local – You are cruising so you can see different cities in different countries or areas.  Don't buy the silver on the boat, instead walk the city streets and pick up something from the locals.  It will be a fraction of the price.

Some of the Many Shops in Cozumel

10.  Don't tell your kids the card is attached to an account – They make it so easy to spend money on a cruise.  Your room key will also get you drinks.  As a matter of fact our last cruise didn't accept cash or credit cards, room keys only.  Either don't tell your kids or make sure they know they are responsible for anything charged.

There are so many more ways to save, but this is just some of the basics.  For us it becomes a game. You want my money and I try and see how little I give you.  We don't have regrets about things we haven't purchased, instead we love the new things we tried and the adventures we have found, at a fraction of the price.

Finally last summer I met up with a friend and we stopped in Hood River.  We had the the most amazing meal and I decided the next time we came through we would stop as a family and enjoy.  And we did!!  That was the stop that made me want to come back for a weekend.

So here we are 3 months later enjoying Hood River.  Before we even entered the town we enjoyed hours of hiking and sightseeing and photography.  Not that I am good at photography, but I just wanted to remember it all.  The day was beautiful and we managed all 3 meals outside in the sun.

The weather the second day was bad and we sat inside Doppio Coffee shop, reading and relaxing.  I had found this place online, before we even got here.  When we went out the first day I forgot to take my list of coffee shops to try and that didn't seem to matter, we ended up here anyways.

The bed and breakfast was good.  I am not a bed and breakfast person, but no complaints.  I was hoping for a little protein for breakfast, but the homemade scones did not disappoint.  The room, although small, suited it's purpose on that sunny day.

It seems that there is always something to do in Hood River.  This day was no exception.  As we began to walk around we noticed that the roads were blocked off.  After asking around we realized that there would be a Crit bike race.  This sounded intriguing, so we began to look for a place to sit and watch.  We knew the race was going to start right around lunch time, so we started walking the 1k course to find a place to sit.  We stumbled upon Double Mountain Brewery, which was also on my lists of places to try.  We walked in and the owner/manager (not sure which) told us to go into the other room, where a garage door was wide open and tables were pushed up to the edge.

Double Mountain Brewery is great.  The pizzas were amazing, and the beer was even better.  The thing I really love about beer and breweries is you can sample until you find one you like, then they pour you a big glass knowing you are happy.  This place was no different.  I sampled 3 kinds.  She told me I HAD to try all 3, so I did.  And just like they hoped, I was completely happy and ready for more!!

As the rain began to come down, we sat there, fully covered, yet outside, with the best view of the race.  How do we know it was the best view?  The whole time people walked by the said "wow, you have the best seats here."  We smiled, sipped our beer and hoped they would keep moving, as to not block our great view.

Between the hiking, the breweries, and the bike race we just got a taste of what Hood River has to offer the outdoorsy person.  It is after all the windsurfing capital of the world.  Along with all kinds of other water sports, the close mountain for ski or boarding, and mountain biking there is never a dull moment in Hood River.

The grounds at the Columbia Gorge Hotel are beyond romantic, as they are the settings to many weddings.  From the pictures you can see why.  What I never knew is hidden on the hillside is this beautiful waterfall.  The bridge gives you a view from above.  Worth the stop to just look if you have time.

One of our gifts from the Hotel was a wine tour.  They had 6 places that we could to a tasting.  We didn't make it to all of them, but the drive was so pretty and the grounds of the Wineries we did stop at were  beautiful and surreal. Definitely a place I could hang out at and drink a glass of wine.

We ended our romantic day with an incredible find.  The Stonehedge Garden Restaurant.  I found this online with high recommendations. (go to the website and click on events and you can print a coupon for 10% off) What we experienced far out exceeded our expectations.  The road that leads up is a gravel road, with plenty of potholes, and it's next to a rock quarry.  You kind of think you are not heading anywhere even remotely romantic.  You follow this road to the top where a beautiful home and gardens await.

Walking around before you dine is a must.  The only disappointment in this stop was that it was not warm enough to sit outside, but our waitress took care of us and sat us at the window overlooking the gardens.  Wow!!

The food was amazing.  They offered 4 specials on top of the well rounded menu.  We noticed that there was a signature dessert that needed to be ordered ahead.  We asked and were told it was a must.  Bread pudding without raisins topped with Creme Brulee, topped with a rum sauce that is then lit on fire, brought to your table them topped with a caramel sauce.  Spectacular!!

The day could not have been any better.  It was a leisurely day taking in all Hood River had to offer for the Romantics.

Even though there is lots of truth to this, there is more, but we are going to focus on the eating, because I like to eat.

When my niece first got here the weather was horrible.  I just wasn't sure what to do, but we checked the weather one last time before we decided what to do.  The forecast was Rain turning to Showers.  Now if you aren't from Portland that doesn't mean anything to you, but for us locals that means, it's not going to be a constant down pour, you will get breaks.

With that info we made our way to the Pearl District for a little shopping and some food.  My all time favorite place to eat in the Pearl is 50 Plates, but closely following is Paragon.  The thing I like about 50 plates is they have lots of little plates and some big plates to choose from.  It's just a great way to try lots of things, and they do have lots of things worth trying.

I knew before I even got there I was going to be ordering the Ahi Tuna Wrap.  When my niece looked at the menu she too decided to get the Ahi Tuna Wrap.  When we were ordering the gal told us it was quite large and one would probably be enough for the 2 of us, so we added Patrick Fries and a Roscoe.

Ahhh, the Roscoe.  A fried chicken breast sandwiched between 2 waffles topped with coffee maple syrup, and right before you take your bite you top it with a spicy mustard sauce.  The Roscoe is a festival of flavors happening in your mouth.  It is pure joy!!  I was so excited when my niece gave the thumbs up to this unique piece of heaven on a plate.

The best part about this whole dining experience at 50 plates is we were both stuffed and the cost???  $16

From there we made our way over to NW 23rd to do some shopping.  We stayed towards the North end which is a sprawling mecca of eccentric shops.  There are shops upstairs, down stairs and on the street.  There are cheap shops, shops that are quite expensive and all those are sprinkled in between tons of eateries.  NW 23rd is a fun place to hang out.  The closer you get towards Burnside the more common the shops become like, Pottery Barn and William Sonoma.

From there we made our way up past Nob Hill and drove past  Washington Park and Pitttock Mansion.  It's fun how, in Portland, you can be in the hustle and bustle of it all and in an instant you are surrounded by nature.  That is what makes Portland so amazing.

Our first stop of the last day was not a new discovery, but when you live in Oregon you have to make a stop at least once when in California.

That's right, we made our token stop at In-n-Out.  I got my burger and fries, while my friend watched me eat. I am a foodie, but hey, it's In-N-Out.

Ok, once we got that out of our system, or me out of my system, we continued on with our walking and eating fest.  We decided we wanted to do the Point Loma lighthouse hike.  I can't remember how we found it and why we wanted to check it out.  We actually had other plans and kind of stumbled upon it I think.

But before we went we decided we needed a coffee.  We started looking for coffee shops and we found Con Pane Bakery.  We went in and I was disappointed to find that they didn't have my white chocolate mocha.  They did have homemade butterscotch.  I don't like butterscotch, but she insisted that I try it. It was so good.  I ordered it and drank it with no regrets.  As we were waiting in line (yes, this place was packed and the line was long) we saw a cinnamon roll that we decided we NEEDED to share.

You can see the homemade butterscotch drizzled across the top.  This was almost better than zinc.  I wouldn't get the cinnamon roll again.  It was good, but not super gooey and that's what makes for a good cinnamon roll.

Finally full of caffeine and ready for our last hour of our day before my flight.  We headed to Point Loma Lighthouse.

We did have to pay an entrance fee, that was around $5, per car.  We parked up close to the lighthouse and looked around.  It's so cool because you are on this peninsula and you can see water all the way around.  So beautiful.  We noticed people down by the water and had seen the road on our way up, so we made our way down.

You could do a really long hike if you wanted or you could just wander around the beach too.  Since I was dressed and ready for a plane ride we chose not to hike.  The amazing thing was were just minutes from the airport, but you felt like you were out far away from everything.  There were not many people there, which made it nice.  We were sad that we hadn't discovered this sooner, as neither one of us were ready to go.  We decided on our way out we would most definitely come back to this place.  My friend even said she was going to bring her family on a Staycation day.

]]> http://vacationthrills.com/2010/03/02/more-cheap-san-diego/feed/ 0 http://vacationthrills.com/2010/03/01/san-diego-on-the-cheap/ http://vacationthrills.com/2010/03/01/san-diego-on-the-cheap/#comments Tue, 02 Mar 2010 03:59:28 +0000 Amy http://vacationthrills.com/?p=192 My best friend moved to San Diego over a year ago, so I make trips down to see her on occassion.  Our trips really just end up being eating our way through all of San Diego.  But we have also found some great hikes, walks and of course EATS.

More on San Diego on the Cheap

Now I have to find some good eats.  Oh, I forgot to mention on the Pioneer Center for Performing Arts you will see a link to Wild River Grille Dinner Offer.  Check that out.

Our room was fine.  There are pictures on the web that make it look much more luxurious that it really was.  But it was fine for us.  We chose the most inexpensive room you could purchase and we were very pleased.  We had a view out of our room that was spectacular.

There are 3 pools at the El Cid.  We didn't find the 3rd pool until 2 days in.  We were pretty sure there was a hot tub, and we knew it was in the 3rd pool, but we couldn't locate it.  The nice thing is many people can't locate it so it was very quite.  There was always a seat to be had at this pool.  Plus there were some amazing rocks with waterfalls that you could climb up and and jump off of.  And we did that often.

This was all inclusive and that meant all our meals and all drinks.  We went expecting the food to be marginal and that is about what it was.  I consider myself a foodie.  I like good food and I like gourmet food and I really enjoy cooking.  But when I choose all inclusives I lower my expectations and I realize that this is vacation and I don't have to cook or shop or think about it, so it's all good to me.  The other positive thing about food that is good instead of fabulous is that you never overeat.

There were quite a few places that we were able to eat at.  We did most of our breakfasts at La Cascada.  It was a sit down and we found what we liked there, and it had the best coffee.  We went to El Patio one day, the service was not so good and they didn't have coffee, but ran across the street to get some, so it was a long time coming and when it was gone it was gone.  There is always the buffet.  It was fine.  I went to the very back and got an omelet both times.

For lunch we did the outdoor buffet by the beach.  It was easy and again pretty good.  We ate all kinds of tacos most days.  They often were grilling food right there and that was always good.  There was also a snack place in the bar area that had hamburgers, hot dogs and quesadilla.

Dinner wasn't so good.  We went to La Cascada a few times.  I think it was the best.  The Italian restaurant was not good both times we went, and we tried El Patio once and didn't like the selection their either.  I will say it again though, we found things we could eat that we fill us up and we always had the dinner buffet that we could go to just in case we were still hungry.  But because of the selections, we never over ate.  That's a good thing.

So my final opinion would be this.  If you are looking for sunshine and a fun get away at an affordable price I would recommend this place.  We did have an awesome vacation.  If you can afford more there are definitely better places to choose from.  We probably won't go back simply because I am not a huge fan of Mazatlan.

So we are staying at El Cid Castilla Beach.  Here are a list of the restaurants that we have to choose from

Club de Playa. Snack bar at the pool offering lunch and refreshing drinks. Active atmosphere with entertainment staff. Swim-up bar. Open from 10am to 6pm.

El Alcazar. A casual but elegant A la Carte gourmet restaurant with a fantastic view to the lighted swimming pool area, offering International cuisine and a wide variety of wines. Some dishes and desserts are cooked at your table. 24-hour advance reservations required. Open 7 to 11pm. Dark Mondays.

La Alahambra. Casual buffet restaurant for lunch with a fantastic ocean view, offering a different theme buffet every day. Large salad and sandwich station. Open 12-4pm

La Cascada. An exquisite fair for Mexican food lovers in a very Mexican atmosphere and décor, serving A la Carte fine cuisine. 24-hour advance reservations required. Open 7 to 11pm. Dark Wednesdays.

La Pergola Theater. A food lovers heaven, with one of the largest buffets in Mexico, offering breakfast in the morning and theme dinner entertainment at night with a different menu and show nightly. Open 7 to 11am and 7 to 10pm.

Lobby Bar. Casual sports bar with live music some days of the week. Open 3-11pm.

So like any all inclusive or cruise we have ever done I always go with the attitude of "I don't have to cook it" and if for some reason it's not all the good, I won't complain about it and let it ruin my trip instead I will think about all the weight I won't gain from pigging out.

Alright, off to keep exploring…..

$1

Games- Look for 'Dollar Daze' signs at game locations throughout the Park. We have more than 15 games for you to test your skill for just one (1) dollar bill.

$2

Sliced Chocolate Cake or Chocolate Pudding Parfait Cup*- Carowinds Cafe and Nicktoons Cafe

Mini Golf*- RFD (Near the entrance of Boomerang Bay)

$3

Pizza Slice*- Carowinds Cafe and Papa Luigi's Pizza

20oz. Fountain Sodas-  Available at all Food and Beverage Locations

$4

Waffle Cones- CF Ice Cream, Paradise Treats, Plaza Funnel Cakes and South Gate Funnel Cakes

Personalized Dog Tags*- Wacky World Store (Located in RFD)

$5

Thunder Raceway Go Carts*- Located in the Thrill Zone

2008 Carowinds Limited Edition T-Shirt*- Available in Premiers and Thrill Seekers

* Price before tax