MAKING CENTS
The dollar may be weak, but with these 23 expert moneysaving secrets, a holiday to the US needn’t be off the table, writes
Road trip using an RV share app
Car rental prices experienced a massive spike during the pandemic and are generally still high, but a spate of new companies now offer RV shares; think of it like Airbnb for motorhomes, allowing you to safely hire a suitable camper direct from its owner. Outdoorsy lists vehicles from just US$50 ($81) per night (the average is US$229 per night, which is still well below, say, the cost of putting a family up in a hotel), including 24/7 roadside assistance and insurance. Book at outdoorsy.com.
Find free museum days
There are some excellent free museums in the US, such as the Getty Center in Los Angeles or, notably, the glut of federally funded institutions in Washington DC, home to most of the Smithsonian’s 19 museums. Those that aren’t typically free can charge upward of US$35 for entry — but some also offer free or pay-whatyou-wish on certain days. New York City’s Guggenheim, for example, is pay-what-youwish every Saturday between 4pm and 6pm, and the De Young in San Francisco is free the first Tuesday of every month. Check local museum listings.
Camp for free on public land
Camping is always a cheap and adventurous option, with a reserved campsite usually costing up to US$60 a night. If you’re looking to save even more, however, federal government land is largely free for you to pitch a tent on, especially spaces managed by the US Forest Service and Bureau of Land Management. The downside? You’re less likely to have amenities, but that just puts you closer to the nature you’ve come to enjoy. Ogle views from the campsite on top of the 300m cliffs above the San Juan River Canyon, Utah, or get a glimpse of the Northern Lights from your tent while pitched in Chena Hot Springs in Alaska. Park rangers are your most reliable resource once on the ground, but you can also research ahead of time on apps like AllTrails and Campnado.
Game nationwide Restaurant Weeks
At New York City’s most recent Restaurant Week (actually four weeks long), more than 600 restaurants offered meals for US$30, $45, and $60 for two and three-course lunch and dinner menus across the city, making dinner at some of the city’s usually alarmingly priced restaurants suddenly feasible. While the inaugural Restaurant Week was in 1992, similar events now take place across the nation, some twice a year and many weeks long, and if you time it right — and book early — you can finedine for a fraction of the price. Try Dine Out Boston, Chicago Restaurant Week, Portland (Oregon) Dining Month, the month-long Flavor Palm Beach, or California Restaurant Month. A database of restaurant weeks is listed at findrestaurantweeks.com.
See the sights with CityPASS
If you tend to go big on sightseeing, costs can add up fast. CityPASS sells discounted ticket packages to top tourist attractions in New York City, Chicago, Orlando and various others. Costs and inclusions vary, so it’s worth making sure the attractions offered are on your must-visit list — and you have the stamina to make the most of it — but you can accrue savings of around 40 per cent on admission. Other destinations offer an equivalent, such as New Mexico’s CulturePass, which allows one visit to each state museum and historic site statewide for US$30. Visit citypass.com for more information.
Line up those dive-bar boilermakers
What the diner is to eating, so the dive bar is to drinking; an all-American institution. The best dive bars are dark unglamorous dens, oozing character and packed with relics from another era — both the clientele and the decor. Much like the pub — and just as divergent in quality — dive bars have been closing down around the US in place of upscale, uniform (read: dull) drinking establishments: but a good dive bar is worth its salt (eg. Mac’s Club Deuce in Miami, where happy hour begins at 8am). They all offer the ubiquitous beer-and-shot combo, otherwise known as a boilermaker, and typically taken as a shot, followed by a beer chaser.
Eat at a diner
There is perhaps no greater emblem of Americana than the diner. It’s where workingclass communities come for a good, cheap meal at any time of day and bottomless coffee. New Jersey is the diner capital of the US — home to more than 600 — but every state has their gems, from Mississippi’s Ajax Diner, famed for its buttermilk cornbread, to Charlie Parker’s Diner in Illinois, where your pancakes are on the house if you can finish the 16-inch stack. Consider it a budget-friendly front-row seat of unfiltered American culture.
Cross the country with the USA Rail Pass
Train travel is not cheap in general in the US, but there’s one hack that lets you avoid the dreaded Greyhound to cross the country overland — and it’s cheaper than car hire. Amtrak’s USA Rail Pass costs US$499 and offers up to 10 segments of travel within a 30-day period. Hop on and off the train at more than 500 destinations, including along some epic stretches of rail. The Sunset Limited route travels from New Orleans to Los Angeles passing breathtaking bayous and crossing the Rio Grande, while the California Zephyr climbs through the heart of the Rockies and into the snow-capped Sierra Nevada. Book at amtrak.com.
Visit Oklahoma — or other less obvious destinations
According to a recent survey by Priceline, two of the top three cheapest destinations to travel in the US are in Oklahoma. One is Oklahoma City, which offers a glimpse of Western cowboy culture and a cute arts scene — including the quirky collaborative Factory Obscura — with hotels averaging just US$89 per night. Tulsa is the other, with its average daily hotel rate of $94 a night, Art Deco architecture, award-winning food (try the many stalls at Mother Road Market), and an important history — the recently opened Greenwood Rising is dedicated to educating on the Tulsa Race Massacre, a vital stop for any visitors who want to better understand America. Visit travelok.com for more information.
Tour Land Art destinations
The US is known for its endless expanses of wildly varied terrain, which for the great land artists of the 20th century offered one massive canvas. This movement — a response to the commodification of art by creating unsellable pieces — was part of the fledgling environmental awareness, depositing epic site-specific pieces around the country. Most are free to visit, such as Robert Smithson’s 450m-long Spiral Jetty in Utah, made of mud, salt, crystal and rock, and often submerged by the tide; or Nancy Holt’s Sun Tunnels, also in Utah, which aligns with the
sunrise and sunset. Dia Art Foundation maintains a number of land art sites, so it’s well worth consulting diaart.org.
Pull up to the drive-in
Once on the verge of extinction, with just 318 drive-in theatres left in the US, the iconic 1950s experience has experienced something of a renaissance. It began before the pandemic, but social distancing accelerated it, and the holdouts and newcomers now offer updated twists on the classic experience, like the Harvest Moon DriveIn in Illinois, which is powered by wind turbines, or Four Brothers in Amenia, New York, which opened in 2014 and offers a sleepover cinema experience in a vintage Airstream. They’re also affordable, charging around US$20 per car.
Dine on the dollar slice in New York City
The dollar slice deserves its own entry, because it’s fuelled the city’s population since 1905 when an employee at Lombardi’s in Little Italy (still open today) had the ingenious idea of selling a slice for 5¢. A regular slice now costs around $3 on average, much to New Yorkers’ chagrin, but a few 99¢ slice spots still exist. Either way, it’s a steal for a piece of pie (as the Americans call it) as big as your head and dripping with cheese. Fold it in half to eat it like a true New Yorker.
Walk the great trails
The US is home to a true wish-list of great trails. The Pacific Crest Trail, made famous in Cheryl Strayed’s memoir, Wild, runs from the border of Mexico to the border of Canada, and takes in every terrain between, from the starched Mojave Desert to the volcano-capped Cascade Mountains in Washington. Walking the entire thing takes up to six months, so for a more manageable experience, it’s best to pick a section which interests you. The long-distance permit is free