Summer vacation, minus the sticker shock

My mother’s relatives are having a family reunion in Puerto Rico next month. Being a typical procrastinator, I waited until the last minute, assuming my husband and I would have no problem getting a cheap fare and hotel room during the Caribbean’s typical off-season.

Boy, was I wrong.

The cheapest airfare I could find online was $750 per person. And no beachfront hotel in San Juan had a room below $130, a far cry from summers past when resorts offered double-digit rates in July and August, with a free piña colada thrown in. Now I have to consider the possibility of camping out at my grandfather’s house, where the guest room has one of those lumpy sofa beds with a bar that runs right across my back.

Either that, or spend the summer in my current residence of Fresno, located right in the heart of the triple-digit furnace of California’s Central Valley. These are my two vacation options right now.

And you other aspiring summer vacationers, who didn’t plan in advance and are now discouraged by the rising cost of gas, airfares and hotel rooms, you may feel your pickings are slim, too.

Randy Petersen, founder of the airfare bargain-finding website WebFlyer.com, does not beg to differ. “If you were really serious about summer travel, you should have started in January,” he said.

'Stuck in the middle'
You can still get a reservation, but higher fuel surcharges (adding an extra $250 to $300 for a trip to Europe) and reduced numbers of flights means you’ll be paying more for a mediocre seat. “You definitely won’t have a row all to yourself, and single travelers, you’ll be stuck in the middle,” said Petersen.

The same bad news goes for hotels, across the U.S. as well in the former summer-snoozer areas of Mexico and the Caribbean. Why? Family reunions are a big reason, says Petersen. “They’re going beyond the typical places like Las Vegas and Orlando.”

Post-September 11 travel patterns are another factor, he adds. “A lot of people still feel uneasy traveling outside the U.S. But to them, the Caribbean is just a little farther south than Florida, and they remember it as a safe, easy place to go. Same with Mexico. So even though high-end hotels there still drop their rates, the rest don’t discount because they have good traffic.”

I mull over putting the Puerto Rico trip on my credit card so I can avoid the bed of torture in my grandfather’s guest room, but Diane McCurdy, a financial planner based in Bakersfield, Calif., warned against it.

“You shouldn’t go into debt just for a summer vacation,“ she says. “Running it up on credit cards means the relaxation you gained during your vacation will immediately evaporate after you return, making you even that more stressed.”

So what to do for people like me in our near-stranded situations? We deserve a place in the sun too; we just need to find more creative ways to afford it. Below are a few ways you can take that vacation, near or far, without spending more than you should — but still having a summer blast.

Purchase a package deal
Get around sky-high prices with a vacation package that includes a hotel or rental car with your flights. “Typically, you’ll save more on a bundle of air plus hotel than purchasing them separately,” says Petersen.

You can find these bundled bargains at Site59.com which specializes in last-minute getaways, as well as at more standard reservation-booking sites like Expedia  and Travelocity, which offer good deals. Frommer’s Budget Travel magazine also updates its “Best Deals” Web site daily.

When I searched for a four-night hotel stay in mid-July at the ritzy beach town of La Jolla north of San Diego, plus round-trip airfare from Fresno to San Diego, Expedia quoted me a package deal of $418. The fare for the same flights on United Airlines’ Web site cost $406 per person, without the hotel.

You don't even have to use all the elements of a package, says Petersen. “For a cheaper alternative to last-minute airfare, just look for an inexpensive package and don’t use the land part.”

MORE FROM PERSONAL FINANCE

Personal finance Section Front

Answer Desk: Jobless benefits explained 4 financial life-changing events How to ignore grocery stores’ covert marketing Best of both worlds? Combined pension/401k Amid panic, uncertainty, they retired anyway Easing job losses point to wobbly recovery You can handle debt issues better than agencies Long-term jobless face frayed safety net Answer Desk: GDP growth overstates case Calculating the best and worst rental markets Personal finance Section Front   Add Personal finance headlines to your news reader: