About a year and a half ago, writer Dick Pollak and his wife Diane Walsh, a pianist, decided to sublet their Upper West Side apartment and travel around the world. But first, Walsh had scheduled performances in California and Iowa—with a break in between.

“We had some time to kill in California,” Pollak, 78, explained. So in March of 2011, the couple signed up for a Road Scholar program called “Magical Monterey.”

According to Pollak’s travel blog (You’re Only Old Once), the Monterey trip included “about two dozen other graying travelers.” While staying at Hidden Valley, an arts center in Carmel Valley, Pollak and his fellow Road Scholars attended a winemaking lecture, musical performances, dance-inspired exercise classes, a Monterey Bay Aquarium field trip and a scenic bus trip along 17-Mile Drive, among other activities. “It was a positive experience,” Pollak said.

Founded in 1975, the Boston-based nonprofit travel organization changed its name from Elderhostel to Road Scholar a little over two years ago. “There was this misperception of what the programs were like,” explained Despina Gakopoulos, a spokesperson for the organization. The word “hostel” gave people the mistaken impression that they’d be staying in sparse or dorm-like accommodations, she said. And not everyone wants to be associated with the word “elder,” she added.

Originally, the organization offered programs on college and university campuses. While many Road Scholar trips continue to be associated with educational institutions, others are not. So while some participants (like Pollak and his wife) may find themselves bunking in a dorm, those on other trips may stay at a hotel or inn.

Every Road Scholar trip has an educational focus. “We use local experts and instructors as opposed to a tour guide, so you really learn in depth about whatever topic or area you’re studying or visiting,” Gakopoulos said.

In 2011, more than 100,000 people attended Road Scholar programs around the globe, Gakopoulos said. The organization offers about 6,500 programs in 50 U.S. states and 150 countries. In the past, the age requirement for all programs used to be 55 and over. Road Scholar, however no longer has an age requirement for its programs.

Road Scholar’s U.S.-based programs average about $150 a day, while its international programs are about $288 a day (excluding airfare).

“Being a nonprofit, we try to keep the cost down as much as we can,” Gakopoulos said. The price of a program typically includes accommodations, lectures, activities, most meals (unless noted), taxes, gratuities and transportation within the program, as well as a travel assistance and insurance plan, she said.

For those who may perceive a Road Scholar program as financially out of reach, the nonprofit offers needs-based scholarships of up to $800 for its U.S. based programs, Gakopoulos said. Most U.S. programs tend to be about six days in length, while international ones are roughly 13 days.

Internationally, programs in Costa Rica, Italy, France and the United Kingdom tend to attract a lot of people, Gakopoulos said. More recently, Road Scholar started offering programs in Cuba, which have been “phenomenally popular,” she said. “We were granted a [people-to-people] license to operate programs there last year that was renewed again this year,” she explained. One eight-night trip named “Cuba Today: People and Society” includes an intercultural exchange at a middle-class family home.

The Road Scholar website categorizes its programs by location as well as by interest. And every program has an activity level rating ranging from physically easy to challenging, Gakopoulos said. “So people can choose what makes the most sense for them,” she added.

But it’s not just the educational activities that make Road Scholar Trips unique, Gakopoulos said. It is the sense of community created among people sharing the same interests, she added.
When asked what he enjoyed most about the Monterey trip, Pollak spoke of a spirited conversation at dinner with a table of birders. “They proved to be a quite interesting and very varied group from all over the country, and we had quite a jolly time,” he said. “As I recall, we didn’t talk much about birds.”

Although Pollak and his wife typically “don’t do organized groups,” he said they would be open to going on another Road Scholar trip in the future. “The only negative was the rain—that’s hardly Road Scholar’s fault,” said Pollak.

Tutoring, babysitting, even vacationing—There are more ways to contain the cost of an nyc childhood than one might think

By Hillary Chura 

You don’t need to move to the suburbs to save money. (In fact, that usually doesn’t work, but more on that later.) In my experience, there are ways to reduce the cost of almost any good or service you and your family enjoy as part of living in the city—it just takes a little creativity and moxie. I’ll get you going with some of my favorite money-saving tips for New York families, but once you start noodling it over, about I’m sure you’ll come up with some of your own.

Travel 

New York is the country’s top tourist destination, so the next time you start planning a family trip, consider a home swap. For about $10 a month, websites like HomeExchange and Intervac can connect you with members in places you’d like to visit. You stay in their home (usually complete with washer/dryer, kitchen, lawn and sometimes even a pool and car) while they stay in yours. No additional money changes hands. Tip: some co-ops don’t allow swaps, so be sure to check with your building beforehand.

Neighborhood Goods and Services

The big lesson here is to look farther afield. Take storage, for example. If you live in Manhattan, you’re likely to find it cheaper (and just as safe) to use a reputable storage facility in Queens or the Bronx. The same lesson works for birthday cakes, children’s clothing, car washes, dental work, groceries, manicures, kitchen cabinets and almost anything else you’re looking to save money on. Also, never assume that prices within your neighborhood are uniform. I recently was stunned to discover I could pay $19 for a pound of wild-caught salmon at Fairway, $30 at Agata or $40 at the local fishmonger—all within a mile of one another. And don’t even get me started on price differentials in overnight parking! You never know.

Child Labor

Nowhere is it written that you need a 30-year-old CPR-certified, tax-paying professional for a babysitter. Especially if your children are somewhat self-sufficient, consider asking a responsible and smart younger teenager to watch the kids on date night. They can stick a frozen pizza in the oven, help the kids with their homework and be infinitely more entertaining and energetic than an adult who’s babysitting after a full day in the office. Expect to pay $8 to $10 an hour—did I just hear you gasp?—about half of what high school seniors, college students and professional sitters charge. If you’re queasy about leaving a 15-year-old in charge, remember who watched you on those Love Boat-Fantasy Island Saturday nights when your parents were out!

Teacher Tutors

This is New York, so even academic rock stars will need a private tutor at least once before they go on the grand college tour or start applying for financial aid. If you can’t or don’t want to spend $150 an hour for established tutoring services, try connecting with one of your child’s former teachers (a good one, of course) or ask friends for recommendations. Many full-time instructors are already tutoring on the side, and guess what? They’re usually really good at it—they’re teachers! (Plus, they’re often familiar with the specific tests your child will be taking.) Since you’re enlisting just their expertise with no middleman, expect to pay one-third to one-half of what established tutoring agencies bill.

Camps 

Think outside the tent. Some of the more affordable day camps are sponsored by nonprofits like the Brooklyn Arts Exchange, the Van Cortlandt House Museum, Mount Vernon Hotel Museum & Garden, YMCAs and other local community centers, New York Botanical Garden and Greenwich House. Likewise, many neighborhood churches offer week-long half-day programs where kids do crafts, sing and play outside, with some Old and New Testament stories sprinkled in. A week-long program rarely tops $80 per child, and many churches offer discounts for siblings. Though technically not a nonprofit, the Parks Department itself offers a $500/summer program via a lottery.

Student Practitioners

If you or your child needs a service like a haircut, dental work, ADHD or speech therapy or even a family portrait photography session, make a call to a local professional school. To get the practice they need, student apprentices will knead your muscles, snip your locks, address your lisp or drill your cavities under the watch of a veteran at a cost of next to nothing. You can also call the school’s placement offices and ask about how to hire recent graduates. Believe it or not, I did this to find my most recent (OK, only) home decorator. She was young, but kept me from making some headache-inducing mistakes.

Outsource Parenting

If you can make it happen, ship the kids to the grands in a cheaper ZIP code for a week or two of intergenerational bonding over this summer. Even if you enroll the kids in camp, living expenses go down radically when you’re almost anywhere but here. And if you can’t accompany your kids on the drop-off or pick-up trip, consider the fact that you generally pay only an extra $50 to $100 for an unaccompanied minor (aged 5 to 11) to fly solo on nonstop flights.

Negotiate

New York is full of mom-and-pop businesses, and just about everyone, from dentists to the proprietors of kids’ activity and enrichment centers, may lower their bills if you ask. One friend with three kids tried this for summer camp and was so stunned at the discount offered by the camp that he told the owner he didn’t expect that much of a break. Given the economy, even big businesses like hospitals may offer after-the-fact rebates if you receive a bill that’s higher than you expected.

School Auctions

To raise money, many local schools now feature some of the items from their annual benefit on their websites prior to the actual benefit. These are great ways to find big breaks on local children’s classes and birthday parties, among other things. And you don’t have to buy a ticket, dress up or go somewhere to participate; they just want your money. Also check out biddingforgood.com, an online auction clearinghouse where schools, foundations, religious organizations and other charities across the country auction off summer camps, trips, memberships, jewelry, sports tickets and other donations all year round. This spring, I snagged a local museum membership, baseball class, professional consulting, dolphin watching and chess camp for less than half the price I had paid in the past.

In case you’re pondering a move to the land of lawn care and shopping malls to cut costs, you may want to reassess. Assuming you move close enough to the city to keep your day job, chances are your monthly outlay is likely to remain similar to whatever it was in the city, if not more. Soon enough, you’ll wonder where it all goes at the end of the month (much as you probably do now) thanks to paying for niceties like lawn care, garbage collection, snow removal, commuting, heating and cooling, lighting for an extra 2,000 square feet, a car (or two), insurance and higher real estate taxes. On the positive side, with your extra hour (at least) of commuting each day, you’ll have the plenty of time to figure it out.

Hillary Chura is a freelance writer, longtime business reporter and New York City mom of two. Look for her work on newyorkfamily.com, where she’ll soon be starting a blog about, yes, parenting money savers. 

Photo courtesy of Wiki Commons

Car-less travelers who want a cheap ride out of the city know they can count on a plethora of Chinatown buses, which pick up riders curbside and deposit them in various cities along the coast. They may be disappointed to learn this might not be the case for much longer.

In light of recent deadly crashes, federal officials have shut down twenty-six of these Chinatown bus companies, the New York Times reports. The pool of inspectors for these bus companies is small, and the hope is this action will discourage other similar, low-budget companies from trying to get away with the same legal evasions, the article explains. These evasions are facilitated by the companies’ lack of an official “home base,” making investigations into safety regulations difficult. Recent investigations, however, reveal safety violations among these companies run rampant.

The Chinatown buses’ nearly 1,800-a-day passengers include everyone from students on a budget to casino-goers hoping to make a deal. One of the companies, Apex Bus, touts its low prices on its barebones company website. Roundtrip from Manhattan to Richmond, Virginia is a steal at $30.

Many officials hail this crackdown as a lifesaving measure, but how are riders responding, particularly those left to fend for themselves on the curb?

At the intersection of Canal and Allen Street, where these bus companies have their offices and stops, many people were standing around today with their suitcases, looking perplexed. Some bus stop buildings are open for business while others, like Apex, have their grates partially pulled down. A handwritten sign out front of Apex lists several trains as “not running.”

One frustrated traveler was trying to visit family in Philadelphia. He said the Apex website was up and running and indicated the last bus would be leaving at five. When he showed up at the “bus stop,” there were just a lot of people waiting without explanation.

“They’re only letting people in that building based on nationality,” he said, indicating the Apex building. When pressed further, he explained only Chinese people were being allowed into the building. “I have ridden this bus several times, there and back, now people are saying the government shut it down. They’re saying it’s not safe. I guess I’m going home today,” he said. “Suddenly this all looks bogus,” another added.

Hopeful riders explained Apex runs as a cash transaction, and they would likely not trust the website with their money. They expected to pay in person at the stop, agreeing Apex is preferable to a service like Greyhound, which charges significantly more and is not accommodating in where it drops riders off. Apex is known for driving into more “obscure neighborhoods.”

There is a transportation bill pending in Congress, according to the New York Times article, with one goal being to implement a letter grade system similar to that currently being used with restaurants in the city. The Philadelphia-bound rider said the buses were only occasionally dirty in the past, but often had wifi access. He said they were never as bad as a New York City subway train.

“A grade would not necessarily make a difference to me, I’ve never had trouble in the past,” he said. “It’s important that the driver be safe though, that’s my life on the line.”

Several people waiting for other bus lines, in front of open buildings, declined to comment on the situation.

As of today the Apex Bus website is still accepting online ticket purchases, despite being shut down, though it redirects users to an external site.

Although I come pretty close, I am not quite as myopic. In the past 15 years, I have left the island to spend quality summer time in Montauk, visit various family members who live in Jersey, ventured into the “outta” boroughs and popped upstate and into Connecticut. In 2006, I even cruised to the Caribbean for nine days.

However, my mode of transportation when I escaped the city has been car, jitney, boat or train. That’s right, I haven’t been on a plane in a decade-and-a-half. So a few weeks ago when my husband, Neil, thought we all should head to Florida to watch my son’s baseball team play in a three-day tournament, I felt like an earth-bound angel who just got her wings back.

They had been clipped in 1995 when Luke was born. Before that, I worked for an ad agency with a client in beautiful downtown Cincinnati. At least once a week I got up at 4 a.m. to catch the 6 a.m. Delta flight out of LaGuardia, then came home on the 6 p.m. flight (unless the meeting went long and I had to take the 8:30 p.m.).

Once I became a stay-at-home mom and freelancer with local clients, my business travel days were over. Obviously from the aforementioned travelogue, the spots to which I journeyed for pleasure did not require me to be “wheels up.”

Flying to Orlando was a virgin flight for both of my children. I, however, was more concerned for myself than for them, a first for me since becoming a mother. I was back in saddle, so to speak, and wanted to enjoy.

We showed up at JFK at dawn—and the joint was jumpin’. Like Anna Kendrick in Up in the Air, I wheeled my luggage through the airport looking around like a stranger in a strange land. It is because of a scene from that movie that I got a new suitcase for the trip. I had had the same one since my honeymoon more than two decades ago. It had wheels, yes, but no retractable handle. There was this strap that allowed me to pull it along. I would go two feet and the bag would flop over. Neil always ended up carrying it for me.

My new one looks state of the art. It is also huge. Neil referred to it as “the rolling steamer truck.” He is still a frequent business flyer and assumed the role of George Clooney. Aside from mocking my valise, he directed me to the proper lines and told me to remove my shoes (I was wearing my daughter’s neon orange socks—hey, it was early) before going through the metal detector. I marveled at the shops (I heart NY on everything) and eateries (Dunkin’ Donuts) in the Jet Blue terminal. You’d think I’d never seen a television before when I settled into my seat on the plane.

The departure and return trips were equally as good, but as always, I was glad to be home. I admit I miss being up in the air, but when I’m down on the ground there is no place I’d rather be than New York City.

–
Lorraine Duffy Merkl’s debut novel, Fat Chick, from The Vineyard Press, is available at amazon.com and barnesandnoble.com.