Planning a family vacation is exciting. But when you start adding up the cost of flights, hotels, food, excursions, and other travel-related expenses, it’s easy to become overwhelmed.
Planning a debt-free family trip isn’t always easy — especially if you’re traveling with a large crowd. But the right financial tools can make it easier to focus on the fun instead of worrying about ending your vacation with a giant credit card bill.
Below are some real-life tips on how my family combines a high-yield savings account (HYSA) with travel rewards credit cards to budget for vacations and stretch our travel funds further. We use points, miles, and savings to make the most of our family trips. Here’s how you can do the same.
Taking a big trip with my family of five can be an expensive undertaking. So, months in advance, I start saving. And I use a high-yield savings account to maximize my earning potential.
A recent example of this strategy happened when my family planned a summer vacation to Orlando, Florida. As big theme park fans, we were excited to visit the new Universal Epic Universe theme park (recently opened in May 2025 with themed lands like Super Nintendo World, How to Train Your Dragon, and a new Wizarding World area).
We also took in classic theme park favorites like Universal Studios Florida, Universal Islands of Adventure, SeaWorld Orlando, and Aquatica Orlando — adding plenty of exciting roller coasters, water adventures, and character meet-and-greets for our teens and preschooler.
As you can imagine, any trip that included five theme park days required a lot of financial preparation. Here’s how I planned ahead.
I picked a high-yield savings account with a competitive interest rate so the money I saved earned the most interest possible.
I figured out how much money I needed to save for the trip, divided the amount by the number of months until we planned to travel, and treated that number like a monthly expense in our budget.
I scheduled automatic transfers into my HYSA to keep me on track with my vacation savings goals.
By the time our trip rolled around, I had set aside enough money to cover travel expenses such as tickets, meals, and souvenirs. The cash reserve made it much easier to say yes to extra experiences as well, like Power-Up Bands at Super Nintendo World, a few too many Butterbeers, breakfast with Elmo and Friends at SeaWorld, and a mobility scooter rental that saved the day for a family member with a knee injury. (Pro tip: Renting a mobility device from an outside provider like Buena Vista Rentals can be much more affordable than expensive daily rentals from theme parks.)
Read more: Vacation savings accounts: Are they worth it for families?
While our HYSA covered daily costs, we still needed a way to afford the big expenses, such as flights and hotels, without going into vacation debt or dipping into other savings (like our emergency fund). That’s where travel credit cards came into play.
As a travel rewards enthusiast, I try to make the most of my everyday purchases with a rewards credit card that earns points I can later redeem toward travel-related purchases. I also value credit cards that offer travel-friendly perks such as travel credits, hotel and rental car status, airport lounge access, and more.
Another smart strategy I sometimes use — especially when a high-cost trip is on the horizon — is to apply for a new rewards credit card with a sign-up bonus. With a welcome offer, I can earn bonus points or miles after meeting a minimum spend requirement. And that gives me the ability to redeem more rewards for airfare, hotel stays, rental cars, and other travel expenses.
For our recent family theme park vacation, I already had plenty of Chase Ultimate Rewards® points banked from everyday purchases like groceries, gas, kids’ sports, and a few recent home repairs. But if I’d been choosing a new travel credit card, I would have focused on credit cards with the best sign-up bonus offers. For example:
Redeeming your credit card rewards for maximum value does take a bit of strategy. But I find the effort worthwhile because it has helped me save thousands of dollars in travel expenses over time.
On our recent theme park family vacation, we used credit card rewards to cover both hotel costs and flights for incredible savings. For lodging in particular, I was able to transfer Chase Ultimate Rewards points to a Chase travel partner — Hyatt — at a one-to-one ratio.
From there, I booked eight nights at the beautiful Hyatt Regency Grand Cypress Resort in Orlando for 15,000 points per night. The cash price of the resort stay would have cost $2,529. But I redeemed my points at a little over $0.02 each — a solid redemption value — and saved our family a ton of money in the process. The resort had everything we needed for a relaxing stay: multiple pools, water sports, on-site dining, a shuttle to nearby parks, and comfortable rooms with nightly fireworks views.
Combining a high-yield savings account with travel rewards credit cards is a long-standing technique that our family uses to make vacation expenses both affordable and manageable. This approach provides a nice balance, allowing us to enjoy the benefits of travel rewards while budgeting for additional expenses our points and miles might not easily cover.
The high-yield savings account makes it easy to set clear financial goals for vacation savings and make progress each month. And the high interest rate our HYSA offers helps us grow the vacation money we stash away at a faster rate.
Meanwhile, our travel credit cards help us unlock high-value reward redemptions that stretch our budget even further. On this recent trip and many others, this combination has helped our family create wonderful memories — and zero vacation credit card debt — again and again.
If you want to try combining an HYSA and travel rewards credit card to plan for your own family vacation, here are some tips that might help:
Compare offers. Whether you’re shopping for the best HYSA or the right travel credit card to fit your needs, it’s smart to compare offers from multiple banks and credit card companies.
Plan ahead. Give yourself as much time as possible to earn rewards, save money, and shop around for travel deals.
Automate savings. Use automatic transfers to your HYSA to stay on track with your vacation savings goals (even if they’re small). It’s fine to add extra deposits when you can.
Pay off your credit card. Whether you’re trying to earn rewards for your trip or spending during vacation, it’s important to pay off your full credit card balance each month. Creating credit card debt will offset the value of any rewards you earn, and it could damage your credit score if your credit utilization ratio increases.
Family travel doesn’t have to end with a giant pile of credit card debt at the end of your trip. By combining a high-yield savings account and smart travel rewards credit card choices, our family can enjoy the perks of travel while still staying on budget. If you’re looking for smarter ways to save for your next family trip, this strategy might be worth trying.
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