Tips to get more travel for your money

The LA Times travel section recently published an online article of Tips to make your budget go farther for less. These are all great travel tips, and are worth checking out no matter what... but what if you know where you want to go and are attempting to apply these tips to your destination? We hope that destination is Asheville, and if so...

Here are four great tips from the article, made relevant to Asheville (Western NC) travel, as well as stays with Carolina Mornings:

Look for coupons and promo codes.
Utilize the Chamber of Commerce/Visitor's Center to achieve this tip. ExploreAsheville has online coupons available for local attractions, businesses, and accommodations. There's also a page for area specials and packages. Carolina Mornings offers our own packages and property specials, as well as our Mountain Discovery Pass which includes free passes to area attractions.

Don't focus solely on airfare.
If you live in the Southeast, think about traveling closer to home by coming to Asheville. You can still get a great vacation away, without having go too far or for as long.
If you live elsewhere in the country and plan to visit Asheville, look to cut costs in other areas of travel. Vacation rentals are nearly always a better 'bang for your buck' than hotels, especially if you are traveling with others and can split the cost of a house rather than booking several hotel rooms.

Timing is everything.
Consider dates that are outside of peak seasons. In Asheville, our peak times are summer, October, and holidays. While it is true that at a lot of accommodations you'll find cheaper rates in the off-season, our Carolina Mornings properties typically keep the same rates all year long. However, in our off-seasons the nightly minimums are shorter and you have a great chance of getting a good property special - like a gas rebate or discounted nights.
Plus, traveling outside of the summer months you'll have fewer visitors to contend with, and much clearer skies (our mountains are often obscured in the summer by smog).

Eat, drink and be merry, but don't blow your budget.
Remember that 'bang for your buck' I mentioned earlier? One reason for this is that vacation rentals give you the option to eat in during your stay. Grocery shopping and cooking at 'home' is a great way to cut down on costs and still eat well.
Then you can splurge on a few great meals at Asheville's many tasty restaurants. Another great thing about Asheville is that most restaurant food prices remain reasonably priced, and the food is still great!