Built by one parent for other parents.
SaveToRoam is a solo project. No VC, no growth team, no roadmap committee — just one person trying to make family trip planning honest about what it costs and how to save for it.
I’m Matt — Australian, parent, founder of SaveToRoam. I built this because every other “trip planner” either ignored the money side of family travel or buried it inside a spreadsheet. Neither matched how my own family actually planned holidays: picking somewhere we could afford, working backwards from the departure date, and saving a realistic amount each week.
That mental model — total trip cost minus what you’ve saved and paid, divided by weeks until you go — is the whole product. The rest is helping families avoid the two failure modes I kept hitting myself: under-saving (running out of money mid-trip) and over-saving (sacrificing this year for a trip the kids won’t remember).
Why the cost guides
The 60+ destination cost guides on the journal exist because I needed them. Every “how much does Bali cost for a family of four” search returned a thin affiliate roundup with no actual numbers. So I wrote the guide I wanted, then did it again for Japan, then Italy, then 60 more destinations. Each one is researched in AUD, sized for a family of four, and updated when the underlying costs move.
They’re not perfect. Currency moves, peak-season prices spike, and what an “average family trip” looks like varies wildly. Treat the numbers as a realistic baseline, then personalise them inside SaveToRoam against your own dates and preferences.
How SaveToRoam makes money
One $4.99/month or $39.99/year Pro subscription. No ads, no affiliate kickbacks on the cost guides, no selling your data. Every new signup gets 14 days of Pro on us, no card required — after that, the free tier is genuinely useful (one trip, full weekly savings target with auto re-pace, 5 AI cost estimates a day). Pro is for families running multiple trips or who want the AI Trip Builder, hotel search, sharing, or the document vault. Full breakdown on the pricing page.
Get in touch
Found a number that’s wrong, a destination you want covered, or a feature you’d pay for? The fastest way to reach me is the contact page. I read everything personally and reply to almost everything.