Travel Frugally to Denver

CCRM fees are big. And non-negotiable too. (I did ask them if they had “recession pricing and payment plan”, to which the Business Office said “no” to.)

So every penny counts when planning for the multiple trips to Denver.

This is the expense breakdown of our 1 day work-up last December:

• Airplane ticket - 700 (United)
• Hotel - 100+ (Staybridge)
• Car rental/Gas/GPS - 65 (Thrifty Compact)
• Toll fees - 15
• Food - 20 (hotel had hot breakfast and we were not able to have lunch)

TOTAL ~ $900

For the Egg Retrieval, we hope we just need to stay for 10 days. Here is the breakdown of the expenses

• Airplane ticket - 550 (Southwest)
• Hotel - 560 (Hyatt Place Denver South)
• Car rental - 175 (Thrifty Full Size)
• Gas - 50
• Toll Fees - 30
• Food ~ 500 (hotel has continental breakfast)

TOTAL ~ $1900

With the 1 day trip ($900) vs the 10 day trip ($1900) difference being ~$1000, it means that on the average the latter trip is costing us ~$110 dollars for the hotel, car rental/gas/toll fees and food. Compare that with $100+/day just for the hotel on the former trip! Now that is what I call frugalicious!

How did I do this? Read on… Here are some key learnings I had with these trips:
1. Denver Intl Airport (DEN) is about 30 minutes away from the Lone Tree/Littleton area. The nearby Centennial Airport is an airport for private or chartered jets. (I tried to insist with the Staybridge customer personnel that since they have a shuttle within the mile radius that they should be able to pick me up from DEN. Wrong!)

2. Fastest way from DEN to Lone Tree/Littleton area is using the toll road 470. There are 3 toll gates about 8 miles apart and you have to pay $7.75 total, one way. Thrifty Rental Cars (not sure if the others have this too) offers a prepaid $8.25 for 24 hours worth of toll fees. So if you are in for the 1 day work-up, see if this works for you.

UPDATE 1:  I just tried the non-toll route from DEN to Lone Tree/Littleton via the 25/225/70/Pena Road.  Not bad even during rush hour in the Aurora area. Anyhow, at least now, I know of  the route that will not charge me toll fees!

UPDATE 2: DH just brought with him the mails from home and one of them is from Thrifty rental. Apparently the last time we rented back in Dec, we passed the toll gates without paying.  That costed me $25 penalty fee and $0.75 for the toll fee.

3. The nearest commercial area to CCRM is called the Park Meadows or Denver Tech South. This is where both Staybridge and Hyatt Place Denver South are. Hyatt is much nicer and is more centrally located.

4. Using Hotwire.com, I was able to get Hyatt at more than 60% discount! I got it for $49/night versus the published rate of $169-259. Had I not use Hotwire, I could have been paying $1000+ for either Staybridge or Hyatt. That is more than $500 savings. Woo hoo!!!

5. Using Hotwire.com’s “Watch This Trip”, I was able to monitor when the Thrifty.com full size car dropped from $33/day to $13/day! And of course, I grabbed it and that is about $200 savings.

So all in all, the 10 day trip could have easily cost us $2600 or about ~$200/day instead of $110/day!

I thought these might be helpful to all you gals going to Denver. Tell me if they were helpful.

Or better yet, if you discovered other ways in saving up while travelling to Denver for your CCRM procedures, do share!

Disclosure: I am affiliated with the links above, so I get a (very) small amount if you click on them and get their services. My reviews are based on my experience though and not just for the sake of getting the small amount - it aint worth risk.