Fuel Prices and the Great American Vacation

Other posts by MudslideMama

Now that summer’s officially over – my kids were annoyed by my obvious glee while shopping for school supplies – it’s time that we traditionally settle in for a stretch of homebody behavior. The Traveling Mamas each had our own favorite trips this summer, as did, hopefully, a lot of Americans. Vacations are important to revive the spirit and create family memories, after all.

Is the sun setting on family air travel vacations? (Flip Barrientos)What with soaring gas prices and the increasingly unpleasant aspects of air travel making traveling with children more expensive (and more of a pain in the you-know-what), it’s not clear that so many of us did take those vacations, though.

The Times-Tribune reports that the summer vacation season was weak, with declines that correspond declines seen the rest of this past year. The article quotes Ela Voluck, a AAA spokesperson, as saying that “people are realizing that the end of cheap gasoline in the United States is over, and their habits and lifestyles will have to adapt.” The article goes on to reiterate what a lot of us already know: The popularity of road trips correlates negatively with fuel prices specifically, and the economy overall. Now, Hurricane Katrina really affected gas prices, and I’d bet Gustav and Ike may have as well. The US Energy Information Administration is predicting that crude oil prices will return to $120 a barrel in 2009

This is still NOT cheap, and Voluck may be right – as a country, we indeed need to get used to fuel Route 66 Gas Station (Amanda M.)prices being high. Naturally, the price of crude isn’t a stand-alone result of world oil supplies. It affects the prices of food, of electricity, and nearly every other home-related bill I can think of. The travel and tourism industry is watching with a wary eye, of course; vacation destination resorts and hotels have their own food, electricity (etc) bills as well. Hotels offer rebates and travel packages – these are usually found right on their websites. Hopefully, this will offset the higher “rack rate” prices we’ll see as a consequence of higher fuel costs. But who knows? Hotels have to turn a profit, like any industry, so management will have to raise prices. And of course, when people feel an economic pinch, vacations are one of the first things to go.

Is this the end of the Great American Vacation? Oh man, I sure hope not. A week to unwind from the stresses of work and the daily grind is more therapeutic than you may think, and seeing more of the world around us enriches our lives. There are plenty of ways to save money during troubled economic times. My once-daily Starbucks habit is already a thing of the past. But cutting out travel with my family? Hopefully, never. The memories family vacations create are just too important.

DesertMama and MudslideMama Families Meet on Vacation (Jeff Blair)

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September 9, 2008 | Filed Under Budget Travel, Family Travel, Flying High, Luxury Travel, The Cookie Jar, Travel News 

Comments

4 Responses to “Fuel Prices and the Great American Vacation”

  1. DesertMama says:
    September 9, 2008 at

    I LOVE that last photo. I’m ready for another Great American Vacation. Miss you!

  2. Mara says:
    September 9, 2008 at

    Great post. Boy do I love this website! I know I haven’t been commenting much lately, but I hope you don’t miss the love.

    As I wrote recently, we realized that our family trip to Vermont could have easily been replaced with a big screen TV. Know what? I have no regrets. Not a one.

    And this family of four travels in a small car that gets good gas mileage. Don’t let those that tell you that you “must” have gear win! You can pack in like sardines and have a great trip.

  3. CajunMama says:
    September 10, 2008 at

    Mara – My little RedBugg has taken many a road trip with my family. The great gas mileage more than makes up for less room while driving.

  4. Michael says:
    September 12, 2008 at

    Hey mamas. I’m actually taking a road trip with some friends in a couple weeks. I’ll be sure to let you know how it went. We’re going from Boston to Maine to Toronto to Niagara Falls to NYC.

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