Budget Tips for the Caribbean

Hey there fellow travelers, Mark here with Wolters World and today we're in the Dominican Republic here in the Caribbean, and today what I want to talk about is how you can make your money go farther when you come here to the Caribbean, and I think one of the things you need to realize is when people come to the Caribbean, they think, I've got to go to an all-inclusive resort, I've got to stay at an all-inclusive resort, that's the only way to do things. Well honestly, budget-wise, all-inclusive resorts might not be your best bet, because if you're not going to drink a lot, you're not going to eat a lot, it might not be worth it to pay that price premium to stay in those places. Now if you're going to drink and eat like crazy and just lay around, then yes, it could be a better bet, but honestly, you should do your research and see if it's really worth it. I know for us, we were in Jamaica and we actually didn't- we got an all-inclusive, but we got the one that did not include the food and drink, so therefore we just had the resort space and then we went out into the city and went and ate that way, and that made it much more economical for us. So do your research beforehand on those all-inclusives you're going to go to, because sometimes that's one budget thing you don't realize can really blow up your budget, okay? Now, another thing I think is important is when you're packing to come here, you can save yourself a lot of money if you bring your snorkel, your goggles, your water shoes, your sunblock, your bug spray, bringing those things can save you a ton, because you're going to need your water shoes, your bug spray, your sunblock, your hat, you're going to need that when you come here. And yes, you can buy all those things here, it's not a problem, but if you're looking to get your 50, your Coppertone 50 sunblock, that's like $12.50 at Walgreens back home, it could be $30, $40 here in the Dominican Republic or Jamaica. So sometimes just budget-wise, it might be good to just have that stuff and bring it with you to save money that way, because getting those things at your resorts, they can be a bit high, okay? Now, another thing you can look at doing in order to help your budget is really be open to the days you fly to the Caribbean, because if you're flying on a weekend, the prices are really high, because you're coming here to the Dominican Republic on the weekends. People fly from the U.S. just to spend the weekend here, and that drives up those prices for Friday flights, Saturday flights, going back home on Sunday flights. Look at alternate dates. If you can go, maybe go Tuesday to Tuesday, and that could save you quite a bit of money on the flights, because flying to the Caribbean is sometimes the same price or more than doing a flight from the U.S. to Europe, okay? So that can be a really big impact on your budget. Now, I know I kind of mentioned this earlier when I was talking about the all-inclusives, but honestly, another way you can save money is just eating where the locals eat, because if you're going to Belize, if you're going to Turks and Caicos, if you're going places, if you see where the locals are going and eat where they eat, it's going to be a lot more affordable, because the locals don't make, you know, European salaries or North American salaries. You know, they're making Caribbean salaries, which are significantly lower, so they can afford to go to those restaurants where the tourists go, but they still want to eat good local food. So if you see where the locals are going and go eat with them, you can save a lot of money. That's how we really got a lot of bang for a buck in Jamaica and Turks and Caicos when we were there, because that really helped the money go a lot farther, okay? Another budget thing you don't really think of when it's coming here is don't forget to bring cash, because when you're here, you're going to tip a lot. The thing is, I'd say bring cash, but bring lots of singles and lots of fives, because when you want to tip people, a dollar here, five dollars there, it's fine, but all you have are 20s. That can get a little expensive tipping, right? So have those singles, whether you're tipping the Busboy, you're tipping the Bellhopper, you're tipping your bartenders, even an all-inclusive. Putting an extra dollar here or there does make a difference to help things out and maybe make your drink a little bit stronger, let's say, because you're going to take out money, okay? ATMs are all over the Caribbean. I mean, most of the time, they're going to be in the banks, so you look for the ones in the banks. Your resorts will probably have them in the resorts as well, but one thing I want to tell you is if you're going to be taking out money, that's going to have fees. You're going to lose money there. Also, the exchange rate is not going to be in your favor. So I've seen it where actually some of the exchange rates, they're offering the conversions where like, we're talking like 20% different than the actual official exchange rate. So already having those dollars with you when you come here can make a big difference. If you have those singles, you have those fives, where you can tip people and make things a lot easier. So you're saving money on your tipping because you're not over tipping with 10s and 20s because you don't have those smaller bills. You have those smaller bills already with you, okay? But what are some more budget tips? Let's go to Aruba to continue on. Now the next thing I want to talk about is renting a car versus doing tours. Now when you come to the Caribbean, there's all kinds of tours you can do, right? You can go out to, you'll see the, the Iguana Island in Turks and Caicos. You can go snorkeling in lots of places. You can go diving. You can go on hikes. You can go on Jeep tours. There's all kinds of tours you can do. The thing is, if it's one person, then probably the tour might be cheaper than renting a car. But for some of them, like here in Aruba, we have four of us. So it was, hmm, we could rent a car for $65 plus insurance a day. So that was like 80 bucks a day, right? We could do that and drive all around the island or we could do the Jeep tour at $60 per person, hmm, $240 for the tour or 85 bucks to rent a car and do it on our own. And so that's another way you can save money, okay? Now the thing is though, you have to compare the prices, you know, is it going to be cheaper to rent the car? Also another thing with renting the car, you might want to look at our next tip for you and that is weighing renting a car, using taxis or drivers, or if you want to use public transportation. Now I know everybody always says for budget options, do public transportation. It's going to be the cheapest option. Yeah, a lot of times it is. But the thing is, it's not every Caribbean island has a bus system to take you around, okay? So you might have to use drivers. You might need to rent a car. What I say to you is, look at where you're staying. Does it pay off to have your own car? Do you need to have your own car? Or maybe you only need your own car for a couple of days. So for example, here in Aruba, they have buses that go everywhere, so public transportation was fine. And we only rented a car for a couple of days to go out and explore the island. So instead of seven days of renting a car, we only had two. And that saved us a lot of money. I know we're going to the Cayman Islands pretty soon, right? And the thing is, Cayman Islands, there's buses that go around, we can do that, but we want to explore, you know, all the islands. So we need to rent a car, but I don't need it for seven days. We're going to rent it for one or two days, go explore those two days, the islands. The other days, we're just sitting on beaches like this and enjoying that. So you got to think about that when you're kind of weighing your options. That's why sometimes taking the taxi in from the airport to your hotel or your accommodation and just doing that is cheaper than renting a car because you're like, wait, you're not going to use the car the first two or three days because you're on the beach. Maybe it is better to take the taxi and it actually saves you money in the long run. So you kind of have to think about that, especially your family with four, because you can get four people in the car with a taxi driver. That is something to think about. And that's why sometimes what we do is ask your resort if they have a free shuttle, because the thing is the free shuttle is great because it's free, but some of them have shuttles and then they'll charge you, you know, $30 per person. Well, if it's $30 per person and it's only $40 for a taxi, why don't I find someone else that's going to the airport and try to get together and we can save money and go straight there by ourselves. So something to think about. Now, if you do have a car or you may be just using the bus, another way you can save money when you're here is use the supermarkets. Look, we're on islands, okay? So everything is going to be expensive here, whether it is food, accommodation, normal toiletries, things like that. It's going to be higher prices. So know that. All right. But if you're here, maybe you don't need to go eat at the restaurant every single time. Maybe you have an apartment that has a kitchenette and you can, you know, have cook your lunch there, make sandwiches or make your breakfast, hit up the local supermarket. It's going to be a lot cheaper to buy food there and make it your hotel or your apartment than it is, you know, going out to eat. And the thing is, I know a lot of people like I'm on vacation, I don't want to cook. That's fine. Just get some prepared stuff. Get some snacks. Because even if you're just buying your Doritos and stuff like that out in the supermarkets and bringing it back, that can save you 10 or 15 bucks here and there just on snacks. Okay? So you want to think about those things. And the thing is, though, don't expect the supermarkets to be super cheap. They're going to be probably more expensive than back home because again, we're on islands, but it will be cheaper than getting stuff at the, you know, the store, at the recl- or inclusive resort, like, oh my goodness, the prices are a lot higher at the resort than they are off resort. And the thing is, if you also, if you have cash, it gives you a chance to negotiate. That's my next tip when you're here. Negotiate and look for deals. Now, when you go to stores in the Caribbean, you're not really negotiating too much. You're probably not. There's a price tag you just pay. You go to the supermarket, you pay the price there. But if you're going to the markets or you're looking to get, you know, some islands, if you're going to be getting, you know, activities on the water, they might say one price, you're supposed to negotiate a bit. So just have some negotiation skills ready to go. And the thing is, don't get upset with the negotiations. That's how business is done sometimes here, okay? But you just have to know when you can negotiate and when you can't negotiate. And another thing is with the negotiation, I kind of look at it also is look for some deals. Because sometimes resorts might give you deals like, oh, if you sign up for a week, we'll give you an extra day. If you sign up for our higher level room, we'll give you free breakfast and that can like add up. I mean, we ended up getting free breakfast here at the place we're staying at. And that saved us quite a bit of money because it's $22 for anyone 13 and over to eat. So that's three over 13 plus Liam who's free. So that's $66 for breakfast. Oh my goodness. But now they gave us that little deal. It's free. Man, that that's $66 in my pocket. Every day we're eating. We're on a fifth day of breakfast. Hey, I'm saving a plane ticket right there. So do look for those deals. Now, another thing I think is important in terms of looking at helping save your budget when you're coming to Caribbean really comes down into looking at what island you're going to go to because some islands, I mean, all the islands are pricey. I'm going to say that, but some are more pricey than other ones. Like if you're going to Turks and Caicos, that is just a more pricey overall than if you're going to a place like Jamaica or Puerto Rico or something like that. So do your research into the island you want to go to because you might see is now that was a little bit more pricey. Is there one similar to it that I could go to? That's not going to be as pricey. So do your research on that and it could be like, look, we're going to the Cayman Islands. It is one of the more expensive ones, but where we're going to stay there, we've got seven mile beach right there. There's shopping right next to it. There's a mini bus stop right outside, so I don't need to rent a car. So it's a little bit more money for my rental. But the thing is, I'm saving money and not having to go to the other places and pay for a rental car. So it kind of, you know, adds up or adds down, I guess you'd say. So do do your research on which islands will be right for you because some are better for divers, some are better for family, some are better for snorkel, some are better for history. So you want to kind of think about that in terms of what you want to do. Okay. And then, of course, to finish off, you have your usual budget helpers when you are traveling, right? You look for, like I talked about the deals I said before, but for lunchtime special and things like that. Another one I'd say is look at when you're going to come. If you're going to come here during, you know, from Christmas to New Year's and around then it's going to be a lot higher priced if you come in early December, right? So you want to make sure you can look at your timeframes when you can go to avoid the really peak peak peak times because that can make it a bit more expensive, obviously. And when we actually used is look at various days when you can fly in. No, I know you'll think it's vacation time. I'm leaving Saturday morning. We're coming back Sunday night. Well, yeah, you gets the most bang for your buck in terms of your timeframe. But one thing you have to realize is those plane tickets on those days might be significantly higher. We flew in on a Thursday and we're leaving on a Tuesday and just doing that saved us $300 per ticket. So for the four of us, that's $1,200 we saved by not going Saturday to Saturday, but instead of going Tuesday to Thursday. So think about that when you're looking for your dates, if you're looking to save a little money because it will add up over time. And that's why I wanted to give you these budget tips because I want people to visit the Caribbean. It's a fantastic place to go for all ages. It is really fun, but it is really pricey. So I hope this helps you understand a few tips to help you save some money on your next Caribbean vacation. If you want to learn more, we've got the Don'ts to Caribbean, Aruba, Turks and Caicos, Jamaica, all kinds of places on our website at waltersworld.com. Anyway, I want to say thank you to all our subscribers, all of our members, and all of our patrons on Patreon for helping make honest travel videos like this all over the world. We'll say bye from Aruba, bye.