Saving Money on a Special Weekend Trip
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July 9, 2019
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November 27, 2019
The plane landed. We then proceeded to secure our one suitcase from baggage claim. But this next step of our trip was different. You see, every time that we had previously arrived in Denver to visit our son and daughter in law, they were there to pick us up at the airport. But not this time. Instead we located the Denver Airport Train & Light rail, otherwise known as the A Line. We then purchased 2 tickets to Denver Union Station from the ticket machine on the platform for $10.50 for each of us.
The train had a few stops and approximately forty minutes later we arrived at Union Station, a beautiful building with several shops and places to eat. But there was no time to meander. We walked through, exited the other side and found ourselves in a large farmer’s market. Again, no time to roam about to check out the offerings.
Joe used an app to obtain a share ride and we were driven to our hotel where we would be spending the night. The hotel had a great view of mountains in the distance, but we had no time to enjoy them. We deposited our suitcase, freshened up a bit, returned to the lobby and ordered another share ride.
Now this is the best part of the story! This share ride was taking us to the Rose Medical Center. Why, might you ask, was going to a hospital the best part of the trip? Well, it is because we were on our way to meet our new grandson! What a blessing! And that is why our son and daughter-in-law could not pick us up as usual. They were learning how to be parents as he had just been born the day before.
Now to back up. We have plans to visit the new family for a week later on. But as the scheduled birth date was approaching, we decided that we couldn’t wait a month before meeting our new grandson and planned this quick weekend trip.
So, Joe made the plane and hotel reservations and rented a car. He told me the car rental was $250 for our 2 days, plus gas, plus a $50 hotel parking fee for one night. So, we were set! The plane reservations were made and the car was rented.
Then a few days later, a photo of a train on Instagram made me recall that Denver has an airport to downtown rail system. When I reminded Joe of this we decided to cancel the car rental. Instead we paid $42 round trip for the train and $112 for 8 share ride trips during our stay. This saved us a substantial amount on transportation costs while in Denver for not even 2 full days. That savings can be added to our grandson’s piggy bank!
Remember to always investigate all options for travel, domestic or foreign, to determine ways to save money.
Traveling on our agenda to meet our new grandson was worth every penny spent and every penny saved.
Start planning your trip. It’s never too early and it’s never too late.
4 Comments
Way to go, Rosita! I love the way you break down every single cost, providing darned helpful information. You have a very organized mind! :):) … And by the way, what a pretty train station. Wish we had something like that in our little town. But then I guess that’s what vacations are for! I will look forward to your future blog posts.
~ Suzana Barton
Thank you so much, Suzana for reading and commenting on my post! Routines and habits are great for some things, but this taught me the lesson to be even more aware of thinking about and exploring all options when making travel plans. And it was really fun riding the train there. We want to take a train trip from home to somewhere one of these days as we have never done that here in the States. Prior to the Denver ride just to get us to and from the airport, we have taken 2 train rides. One was a ride in Colorado just for a scenic ride with lunch provided. It was nice. But the best was the Napa Valley Wine Moonlight ride. It was in an old restored beautiful train on a night with a full moon. The train headed out during daylight and traveled through the Napa wine country with pretty scenery as we were served a wonderful meal!! And one of the nicest most professional waiters we have ever had! Then on the trip back to our starting point it was nighttime with a full moon. We were in a car with a domed see through top and it was beautiful. So nice and romantic! So now we want to experience an Amtrak trip! The train travel we have done in Europe has been so wonderful and efficient and relatively inexpensive. Thanks again for reading and I plan on writing more on this trip coming up, so stay tuned!!
Oh, I love this. Such a great lead in to your delightful news. And I love that you used the rail system instead of the hire car and saved money, better used on his piggy bank. That’s so cute! And very enterprising on Joe’s part. I hope you’re having the most wonderful time with the newest member of your family.. Congratulations to you all at this very special time. Enjoy!
Hi Miriam. Thank you so much for reading and commenting on my first blog post. You will always hold the honor of being my first responder! And thank you for your positive feedback. The fact that you are a writer makes it even more meaningful to me. I can tell you that many people have told me for years that there is nothing like being a grandparent. They were certainly right! Joe and I now have 3 grandchildren and love them so much!