Orange County Register

The recession is definitely impacting many people’s vacation plans. But small-business owners are coming up with some creative solutions and alternatives and still getting a little time away.

Some of their ideas may work for you:

LOW COST ALTERNATIVES

Getting away is the object, so some people are substituting lower-cost trips for their original plans.

“We were planning to go to Europe but lost money in the stock market and the dollar losing value plus the costs in Europe made us decide to…go to the national parks and visit friends and relatives up north,” says Marie Toma, owner of Human Advantage, an Orange County human resources consultancy.

“I just returned from a four-day fishing trip on the Colorado River. The family vacation … may be Yosemite in the fall,” says Bob Richardson of RWR Marketing & Graphic Design in Huntington Beach. “Whatever we decide, it will be fairly close, drivable and done on a shoestring budget.”

Marjorie Ball, owner of Marge’s Tours/Worldview Travel in Mission Viejo, travels for a living but still takes vacations. “I stay with family and friends as much as possible, rent cheaper cars and help buy groceries so we can eat in.”

CREDIT CARD POINTS AND MORE

Rachel Owens of Succession Strategies in Santa Ana, was able to watch her son play in the Division III College World Series in Appleton, Wisc. “We only went because we could turn in miles etc. from our American Express and credit cards.”

Melinda  Herndon of Scuba.com, an Irvine-based e-commerce site,  is able to write off much of her travel because “luckily for us, work is vacation. (Also) we changed some expenses over to credit cards with good travel benefits. The best is Starwood Preferred Guest, which lets you pay for air with all carriers and Starwood brand hotels with points earned. There are still taxes to pay, but it really helps with the expenses.”

LESS TIME MORE OFTEN

Some people not only cut back spending, they dice up their time away.

“We had a trip planned to Spain,” says Debbie Gilster, owner of the Center for Productivity, a Laguna Niguel business advisor. “We’ll throw the golf clubs into the car and drive to Temecula or Palm Springs for the weekend.”

BARGAINS GALORE

Still others point out that the recession has driven resorts, airlines and others to offer unbelievable vacation bargains.

Susan Johnson of Susan’s Healthy Gourmet in Irvine just took a week’s cruise getting $1,000 off the price by taking a less expensive “but still very nice” room.

Paul Benson of New Directions Unlimited in Placentia will travel to New Zealand in September. “The 50% reduced airfare and 20% discount on the tour package were attractive. And (the exchange rate) was two New Zealand dollars for every U.S. dollar at the time we made the reservation.”

“I got some great deals in Las Vegas in May and had a great time for only a few hundred dollars,” says Nazar Al-Jamie of AJ Electric in Tustin.

Other recent bargains from the OCRegister.com Deals Blog….

• 10% off at the Gap on Tuesdays
• El Pollo Loco 2-for-1 chicken slider
• Subways in Mission Viejo 2-for-1 deal
• Free Carnevele Saturday at Venice Beach
• Free visit to historic Rancho Los Alamitos
• Cheap summer airfares to Europe
• Check out this Middle-Eastern store in “Little Gaza”
• Here’s a birthday gift–for your cat

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