106. Recession-Proof Your Next Vacation With These Luxury Travel Tips

Economic times are uncertain and you're probably wondering how to continue to travel in style. In this episode, I'll share smart strategies for timing, destinations, travel insurance, and more....to make your next luxury travel plans recession-proof!

Connect with Michele on IG: @jetsettingwithmichele or on Facebook: www.facebook.com/groups/MMTinsiders

Contact Michele to plan your next vacation: www.makinmemoriestravel.co/contact

This episode was produced by The Podcast Teacher: www.ThePodcastTeacher.com. 

Transcript

Hello, jetsetters. Welcome to another episode of jetsetting with me. Today is going to be five solid vacation hacks that you can use to keep your travel plans on smooth sailing regardless of the state of the economy. And I wanna say this right at the very beginning before you turn me off. This is not a political podcast. Irrespective of any political views that you may have on what is causing economic anxiety, there's just no denying that our global economy, our world economy, has seen some upheaval in recent months. And here are some vacation tips that can keep your travel plans on the track, so to speak, on the train track. Okay.

So the first one, and this is really the most important, is talk to me about the right time to book and discount monitoring. I am never gonna lead you astray and tell you to book now or if I really mean, let's take a look at it again a month from now. Booking early is normally the way to go because you get your best access to the best availability at the best pricing the further in advance you book for cruises, tours, and hotels, and experience. But if you sense that the economy is on shaky grounds, and maybe a recession could be looming, we may need to tweak that strategy, and I am always gonna be the first to tell you that. If there's reduced demand, prices can drop closer to your travel date. If your dates are flexible, we can look at traveling off season, That those prices will definitely drop closer in to your travel dates, such as Caribbean during late spring, or Europe in the early fall, the shoulder seasons. We also want to look at how we respond to certain new economic conditions for our suppliers. For example, I've talked a lot about the new Epic Universe opening.

Well, Disney has responded to that with lots of summer specials, trying to, quote, unquote, convince people to come there instead of going to experience the new park over the summer. So lots of specials down there. And I highlighted all of those Disney specials in a recent Sunday Musings, which is my email newsletter. So if you missed out on seeing that, then please do go to the show notes and get on my email list. That way, you won't miss anything more. Also, like a Virgin Voyages has a new ship launching. So they are highlighting brilliant ladies itineraries, and there are some really good pricing around that. So that's why Talking To Me is your best monitor pricing app.

So sure, Google Flights can help, but once you decide that you're gonna plan your vacation with me, I am gonna routinely monitor your price fluctuations. I automatically rebook those for you, and you save money while you're still sleeping. That's a win win. Another hack to talk about is to track the currency and the exchange rates. So we would want to choose destinations with a strong currency advantage. What that means is we wanna go to places right now, if talking about The United States travelers, sorry, my Canadian friends to the north, where the local currency is weaker than the US dollar. So that means we get more bang for our buck with the conversion to the local currency, and we don't have to sacrifice the quality of the trip. So places right now that have that, for example, there's more, Mexico, Hungary, and Thailand.

So let's talk about Mexico all inclusives and Hungary and slow travel in the next point, the next bullet point, because those are also ways to recession proof your vacation. Thailand, of course, is super popular, so it's a great time to go, not only because of the strong US dollar to the local economy, but because they are preparing for tourists because of all the forced White Lotus explosion of tourism. So they're really happy to welcome us, and there's some great experiences there. But I digress. We're talking about choosing places with a weaker currency to the US dollar or a strong US dollar. Of course, that means domestic travel is always in season, and I've already mentioned Orlando is a great destination. But US national parks, their entry rates are the same as they were in 2018. They have not been raised since.

Places like Hawaii and California that are still suffering from natural disasters will also help with specials. But even if you can't travel when a particular currency tends to be weaker or you already have plans to leave The US, convert your currency in advance at the bank. You will always get the most advantageous currency exchange rates at your local bank, and you need to do this well in advance because they may need to order the currency. Or you're gonna be stuck converting at an ATM or at the airport where you will not get great exchange rates once you're in country. And I've talked previously, episode 96, where I talked about all the travel apps that you can use, about apps like Wyze and XE, and those will alert you to changes in exchange rates, and they help track that currency fluctuation over time. I love XE. It's I have it on my folder in my apps. It's for travel apps.

And I talk about more of those apps as I just mentioned in episode 96. So you can go there to hear more about XE. Another way to recession proof your vacation, point number three, is consider all inclusive or package deals. Things like all inclusive resorts, cruises, tour packages, guided tours, things like that. The reason is they are bundled. Even Walt Disney World and Universal have travel packages that bundle your tickets and your hotel and your dining, and, therefore, you get a break when you bundle all of that. Very simple why? They want you, once they have you, to stay on their property. That goes for all the all inclusives, all of the cruises that want you to book your excursions with them.

They bundle these things to make it more likely that you will do that. And it means, though, that you can confidently budget without having to worry about any unexpected expenses. For example, again, I'm going back to the Disney dining plan. You know that you have prepaid for your dining, and you don't have to worry about what if you suddenly want to have a nice meal. You don't have to worry about excursions, because you've already basically prepaid for your park tickets. And when you do the dining plan, tipping is included at a certain rate. So all of those things, tipping is also included on cruises. And in all inclusives, it's already baked into the pricing.

So, again, you can budget very confidently, and you don't have to worry about those unexpected expenses. It also helps you embrace a slower travel. And when you stay in one place for a more extended period of time, you get price breaks. So if you do a cruise, a river cruise, an all inclusive, or any kind of hotel and ticket package, the longer you stay, the cheaper it is per day. So, again, slow travel, staying in one place is another reason to consider those all inclusive and package deals. And because so much is already included, you can enjoy a fantastic experience. You don't necessarily need to add anything extra. I have taken cruises before without adding any shore excursions.

I stayed on the ship while the ship was in port. I napped. I read my book. I went to the gym. I sat by the pool. All included in my original cruise fare, nothing extra. On some lines, like Virgin Voyages and Oceania, you've heard me say a hundred times that even basic beverages are included. I don't need to have a separate drinks package for that.

But on Royal Caribbean, if I purchase the beverage package, I get my own mutt refillable mug. It's awesome. I paid for it at the outset. I budgeted for it, and it's quote, unquote included. Nothing's ever free, remember. It's just included. In episode one zero three, I mentioned a sandals experience that you only have to take enough cash to tip the driver in each direction, getting to and from the airport and the resort. Everything else, including certain alcoholic beverages, they're included.

Everything. Unless you need run out of sunscreen, in which case you should borrow from your neighbor. But anyway okay. Number four, and this is maybe the most important one, is aside from talking to me first, of course, is to purchase comprehensive travel insurance. Think of it as a safety net. It protects you if your plans shift due to illness, unexpected circumstances, including financial change. With the right insurance, you can get refunds or reschedule without losing your investment. It's the ultimate peace of mind.

And I wanna tell you this while I was preparing the outline for this podcast. I got a travel alert that a tour operator provider in The UK announced today that well, yesterday, April 24, that it was closing its business. And people who are already traveling with that supplier will get home. But any other future trips are canceled. And if you don't have travel insurance, you are just s o l if you have booked with a supplier, which is another reason that travel insurance and, again, going back to number one, talking to me is so important because it's not just your financial situation that could make a vacation shaky. It is your supplier and the people who are providing the services to you, their financial situation that you also want to make sure that you are working with vetted and preferred and suppliers that I have access to. And I will always send you a quote for your travel insurance, but I am not a licensed insurance agent. It is illegal for me to actually tell you which insurance to buy.

I can provide you the quote. But I don't know you, and I don't know your family's medical histories. Hello, HIPAA. So I implore you, please beg you, do not just check off the box. Read the policy and the quote. And if necessary, ask me for a contact that you can talk to to find out if you are getting the right coverage. For example, maybe you need something with a preexisting condition. Maybe you need something that covers mental health.

All of these things are imperative that you talk to the right person, and I will put you in touch with that person, But you have to tell me that you need that. I can do a lot to help you with your trip, but, ultimately, you have to make the decision on what is the best travel insurance that you need for your situation. Finally, and this one, I almost didn't include, but I am including it because it is something I do. I always, always, always play chicken with airlines. I'm always, like, six weeks, a month, eight weeks. What is the absolute right time to purchase? And, yes, I use Google Flights, and I watch all of the airlines, But they're usually the very first to experience the effects of the economy, and that's just because of the fluctuation of the price of their fuel. Just again, today, as I was preparing that, I outlined for this podcast, American Airlines pulled all of its financial guidance for the rest of 2025. Southwest and Delta had already done that.

All three airlines have now cited a weakening sales among economy class leisure travelers in order to predict the rest of their year. So they're coming off a very strong 2024 in terms of travel, and they've seen a decline since January of twenty twenty five in domestic purchase, airline purchase travel. And so they have said, we're not giving you people any more reason to doubt us, and I'm talking very complicated stock market stuff analysis. Wrong place. Wrong podcast for that. But, anyway, so if you were sensing the airline tickets are going to be the part of your vacation that is putting your vacation out of reach for you, affordability wise or budget wise, consider other alternatives. You can maybe consider driving. Maybe you wanna go to Europe, but you only take a repositioning cruise in order to just fly back one way or the opposite.

You can fly there and take a reposition cruise home. Or maybe the Alaska Railroad is the best way to get you from Anchorage to Denali instead of trying to add a tour package onto your cruise. But those are all things we can talk about, but if flying is really your best and only option, see about using airline miles. So I get daily emails from the points guys, TPG for short. I've talked about them on this podcast before. There's also this cottage industry of mileage specialist people. I'm calling them influencers. Mileage specialist influencers on Instagram who alert you to every new credit card special, ways to transfer your mileage from one brand to another.

This is not my expertise by any means, nor am I encouraging you to go into more debt. I'm just giving you some things that I do when I play chicken with the airlines, and it backfires on me. I will definitely transfer some of my hotel points into airline award points instead. Yes. They lose value when I transfer them, but I have learned from the points guys that I can do that. So let me just recap those five things, and, really, they all come back to the very first one. Talk to me and let me help you book the right thing at the right time with discount monitoring. But be sure that you are tracking currency and exchange rates, considering all inclusives, like river cruising, cruising, hotel and ticket packages.

I already mentioned all inclusives, but the actual all inclusive. In Mexico, for example, purchase comprehensive travel insurance and consider potentially booking your airlines with miles. Until then, until next week, JET Centers, I hope you have happy and recession proof travel.