I love planning trips just as much as I love going on them! So if you’ve ever complained that you don’t have enough money to take a trip…here are some inspiring ideas and ways you can make it happen and LIVE your life! Here’s my number one rule…”Don’t take no for an answer”–there’s always another way, a cheaper way, another alternative and my other favorite saying… “so you’re saying there’s a chance”! This comes from the Dumb and Dumber movie…where one guy says there’s a 1 in a million chance, and the other guy gets SUPER excited, and says “SO YOU’RE SAYING THERE’S A CHANCE!!”

My sister went to Belize last year and I fell in love with her amazing photos…of course it’s hard not to when she’s an amazing photographer! Before this I didn’t even know about Belize or where it was or what there was to do there. Then earlier this summer, I got my weekly Travelzoo email with their top 20 travel specials for the week. There was one for BELIZE…beach front cabanas on a living social deal for $600 for 6 nights. I quickly researched and found out it’s on the Caribbean side of South America, english speaking, central time zone, mayan ruins, amazing snorkeling, jungle, etc.

I was also excited that the resort offers free kayaks, snorkel gear, and bikes for their guests to borrow. Also across the street you can rent golf carts and drive to the nearby villages and explore. Also there are mini fridges in the rooms to help save on going out to eat.

Mayan Ruins

There are 3 of us couples that traveled to Costa Rica together last year, and we were all planning on another trip together. Everyone was excited about Belize, so we booked and found a 10% off Living Social promo code and saved another $50. Another rule on Living Social is if you buy and then 3 of your friends buy you get yours free. This includes travel as well! You just have to make sure your friends purchase off your link.

Costa Rica Trip

Now to find airfare. I got on www.kayak.com (my favorite) and searched flights and set up a price alert. You can choose to get daily or weekly alert. I chose daily. After 3 months, the flights still haven’t come down below $860/ticket! I was randomly searching for activities to do in Belize and came across a blog post that talked about flying into Cancun and taking a bus or driving down to Belize to save $. I hurried and searched my options to fly into Cancun from SLC, UT. $455!!! Then I mapquested to see how far the drive was…7.5hrs to our accommodations (not ideal, but not too bad to save $900/couple!).

Bonus–nonstop flight into Cancun is only 4.5 hrs compared to the 8 hr duration flight into Belize. Plus flying into Belize we were going to have to drive 2.5 hrs south anyways to our accommodations. So really all in all it’s only 1.5 hr longer in travel time to fly into Cancun. Rental car prices were about the same. So we decided this was a great option. FYI–only 2 rental car companies let you take their cars over the Mexican border into Belize.

I then googled to see how safe it is to drive from Cancun into Belize, I found a few blog posts and things on trip advisor where everyone said it was fine as long as you traveled during the day. They also explained the border crossing process and what to expect. So our plan is to fly nonstop into Cancun arriving about 3:30pm, get our rental car and drive 2 hours south to Tulum and stay the night at a hotel ($55/couple). The next morning we want to check out the Mayan ruins in Tulum and drive the remaining 5.5hrs to Hopkins, Belize while we explore the country side.

Heber and I both have a Chase Sapphire Preferred card for sky miles. I received 45,000 bonus miles just for signing up and spending $3,000 in the first 3 months. When you book travel through their site you get 20% off (Normally a $455 flight requires 45,500 miles). Because I booked through the Chase site, my flight only required 36,500 miles! We were able to book both of our flights on sky miles! Which means we paid $0! Then we also had enough miles left over to book our rental car for Hawaii in December (we are taking the kids to Oahu)…saving us $215!

Chase Sapphire also gives you the option of applying your miles to your statement balance or opting for cash back (changing soon). I just received an application in the mail for 70,000 bonus miles if I sign up and get a business credit card. Catch is I have to spend $5,000 in 1st 3 months. I’m planning on getting the cash back ($700) to pay for most of our Oahu Condo in December. That way we will only be paying $140 for the condo and $0 for the rental car! Granted our flights cost $2,100 ($440/roundtrip ticket on Allegiant Air out of LAX), but all in all for a family of 5 it’s a great price!

Run down on what I got for Belize

6 nights accommodations for two–$480

2 roundtrip flights from SLC to CUN–$0

1 week Rental Car–$242 for our part

Hotel in Tulum–$55

$772 total plus activities and food.