Travel doesn’t have to be so costly. It’s as expensive as you let it be.
The actual cost of travel is not the issue. It’s not a plan. You sign up when it makes sense, choose any place that looks appealing on the map and then ask yourself why you’re paying double the price of what you thought you were getting when the vacation’s half over.
These 15 tips for budget travel will help you do just that. There are some practical, clear tips on how to save on travel, accommodation, food and the extra costs that sneak up on most travellers without them realizing.
Well, what is budget travel anyway?
It is not to imply poor beds and poor food. When you have a tight budget, you must spend wisely. When it comes to a particular trip, you safeguard what matters most and you prevent spending cash on items that don’t help the trip.
Some travelers don’t mind about their sleeping place if the place is worth it. Some people eat food from the streets all week long, in order to afford a single taste that they’ll remember for years. Both approaches work.
It’s not about spending as little as possible. It is permissible to spend the minimum amount of time possible. This is the difference between people who feel deprived on a budget and those who don’t who wonder why everyone else spent more when they were just as happy.
Tip 1: Set a Real Budget Before You Book Anything
This is the thing that most travellers miss, and why budgets are blown. If there’s no plan, you fill in the space with whatever is available at the last minute, and at-the-last-minute is almost always the most costly.
Before you look, break down all of the expenses you expect to incur during your trip into four categories: accommodation, food, activities, and transportation. With a preliminary idea of each figure, you can make some savvy cuts without speculating.
How to split up your travel budget the right way?
Pick the category that is important for this particular trip and safeguard it. Cut the others around it out. For food and culture – a trek? That isn’t going to be ruined by a budget guesthouse or by the use of public transport. Going somewhere for a particular experience or place? Cut costs on food and save on accommodation.
A solid starting framework for most trips:
- Transportation (flights + local): 35 to 40% of your total budget
- Accommodation: 25 to 30%
- Food: 20 to 25%
- Activities and experiences: 10 to 15%
Always overestimate your total by 15-20%. There’s always something unexpected that happens on each trip. A small cushion is one negative expense doesn’t cause the entire budget to go astray.
Tip 2: Be Flexible With Your Dates and You’ll Pay Less
Airline prices are on demand. If you book a date without looking around and you end up paying a premium, you probably could have done a better deal by booking for a day or two further away.
What should you do to book flights in advance?
These booking windows consistently offer the best prices:
- Domestic flights: 1 to 3 months in advance
- International flights: 2 to 6 months in advance
Whole week fares are lower, especially on Tuesdays and Wednesdays, when not as many people are vying for those seats. Your early morning and late night rides to and from work are typically more affordable as well.
It also means that fares are typically much lower and there are far fewer people travelling during shoulder seasons.
Tip 3: Use Price Alert Tools So You Never Miss a Deal
Looking at prices individually every couple of days is not likely to get you the best deals. Price Alerts do the watching for you.
Google Flights is the best place to start. The date grid displays all prices for an entire month at a time, and you can configure alerts to send you an e-mail when a fare changes. Skyscanner includes budget airlines that other sites do not. Going (formerly called Scott’s Cheap Flights) specializes in mistake fares and flash sales, particularly for international travel from the USA.
For any serious trip, set up alarms on at least 2 of these. A good fare will go away in 24 hours, so notifications do matter.
Check the HotDeals website to see if there are any offers prior to making any reservations. Discount codes are also commonplace on travel booking websites, as they frequently release them on a regular basis to bring down the final price. It takes two minutes – but is worth it each and every time.
Tip 4: Fly Into Alternative Airports
The larger the airport, the more expensive it will be to land at, and the more expensive your ticket will be, since those expenses are directly transferred to you by the airline. Many cities have more than one airport and often the flight cost to a smaller nearby airport is significantly less, even with the added ground transportation.
Google Flights and Skyscanner both allow you to search for a city, not an airport, which means alternatives appear automatically. Any meaningful savings and if the secondary airport offers decent transport – it’s almost always worth it!
Tip 5: Where to Get Cheap Hotel Rooms with Comfort?
Accommodation is the second largest expense for a traveller and of course many travellers end up overspending on this. Finding the cheapest hotel on which you can stay is not the best idea. The same price range can be found at hostels, guesthouses and budget hotels, which may be better value, particularly in parts of the West away from the big cities.
Most people wouldn’t expect modern hostels to be what they imagine. Many have private rooms as well as dorms, comfortable shared areas and central locations which can save you the daily commute.
Guesthouses are typically owned by the locals, making them a better option in price and ambiance than chain hotels, and they are less likely to tack on resort fees or destination charges that can creep up on your bill.
House-sitting networks can result in almost no cost for accommodation for longer stays. You take care of a property and get a place to live for free—it’s amazing how well it works.
Always read reviews before booking. Focus on the actual experience that guests had, rather than the star rating. A slightly lower rating and good reviews for cleanliness and location will work out better for you than a higher rating and complaints of hidden fees.
When booking from smaller guesthouses, drop them a message asking them to let you know what their best price is, and they’ll do so free of charge and sometimes, you’ll get better rates.
Tip 6: Be aware of the not-so-obvious expenses that can ruin a travel budget
Flight was low cost. The hotel looked all right. Then the bill came in and there was no balance. This is one of the most frequent budget travel experiences, but it’s nearly 100% preventable if you know what to watch out for.
What are the Travel Costs You Should Be Aware of?
Nothing attracts more travelers than baggage fees. Budget airlines sell an advertised low base fare, plus additional fees for bags, often carry-ons. Don’t assume anything about the baggage policy, inquire first.
Most hotel websites don’t show resort fees and destination charges until you reach the final page on which you make your booking. They don’t come in small sizes, and they aren’t optional.
City tax on tourism is normal in most of Europe and many Asian countries. However, small but should be taken into consideration in the set-up from the beginning.
The price of an airport transfer is very difficult to guess. The inexpensive hotel 40 minutes from the airport may be more expensive than the slightly more expensive one in the city center in taxis.
You can rack up a lot of ATM charges and foreign transaction fees if you pay overseas several times a day. Tip 12 will explain how to correct this.
Tip 7: How to eat well without eating too much food?
Trying it at every meal at a touristy restaurant quickly empties a wallet. Not so interesting to eat, either.
Follow the locals. If a place has a menu in 6 languages and the pictures on each page, the price is an indicator of foot traffic, not quality. Move a few streets away from the main tourist area and the same quality of food can be had for 50% of the price.
Buying breakfast and snacks at the local market is a good way to save money on food every day without eliminating the need for eating out. It is also good for lunch as many restaurants have more affordable prices for foods at midday.
Tip 8: Travelling- How to Find Free Things to Do?
It’s hard not to pass up on paid tours and activities, especially for a travel budget. Most major cities offer free walking tours with local guides who work on a tip at the end basis.
Real local information and real context for free. One of the best first day experiences out of place.
There are many world-class museums with free admission on a specific day or time. Please see if it is safe to approach before arriving. If you’re travelling to several attractions, you can also save money on the cost of visiting them with a city tourism card that includes the cost of transport along with the entry to the attractions. The parks, beaches, hiking trails and public markets are free, and can be the highlight of a trip. And If you are solo traveler and traveling to USA, you should not miss beaches like Maui, Hawai, Miami, Florida and Cannon Beach, Oregon.
Tip 9: Travel in Shoulder Season, Not Peak Season
Peak season is costly because everyone wants to be there at the same time. The prices are higher, the lodging is more expensive, and the experience of being there is poorer due to the crowds.
The street is usually better in shoulder seasons just before or just after the high season. The shoulder season in Europe is generally April – May and September – October. The prices and tourist volume are lower and less during the dry season peak in Southeast Asia, which runs from December through February.
Look up shoulder window in your destination. But the price difference from peak season may make the entire budget makeover. For a Safe Summer Vacation Read this guide.
Tip 10: Travel With Carry-On Only
There are recurring costs that you can avoid – checked baggage fees. Budget airlines tend to charge extra for checked luggage, and that expense quickly eats into an already reasonably priced airline ticket. Traveling carry-on only takes away that expense and accelerates all your airport experiences on the way.
Travels of two weeks or so are quite possible. Prepare for the weather, opt for quick dry material and accept a quick wash while traveling. Before packing, verify the size restrictions for carry-on luggage with your particular airline as the budget companies tend to have more stringent limits as compared to the full-service companies.
Tip 11: Avoid paying roaming charges by using eSIM.
One of the least anticipated travel expenses and easiest to save is data roaming. An eSIM is a virtual SIM that lets you access local network coverage at your destination without inserting a new SIM card or incurring your home carrier’s international charges. You purchase data plans prior to departure, switch them on on arrival and pay a small percentage of roaming rates for the same period.
Some popular providers include Airalo, Holafly and Maya. Most of these smartphones from the last 3-4 years are eSIM enabled. Verify settings prior to travel.
Tip 12: Take advantage of a No-Fee Travel Card and cash out of local ATMs.
Typical bank cards impose foreign transaction charges and currency conversion markup for any transactions made outside of their country. The individual charge is small but over a two week journey it becomes a significant amount.
This is eliminated with a travel-friendly debit card. All three Wise, Charles Schwab and Revolut are designed to be used internationally. They offer real exchange rates, and either waive or refund ATM fees up to a monthly maximum.
How to manage your cash overseas?
Take advantage of local bank ATMS at your destination instead of the ATMs in the airport currency exchange counters. Airport kiosks have high margins. If a terminal is available to offer you charging in home currency rather than local currency, always go for local currency. This rate is nearly always inferior to the one that your card would get automatically.
Tip 13: Know When to Splurge and When to Cut
Not every travel expense should be lumped together. There are some expenses that enhance the experience. Others are just the default option. The secret to keeping a budget trip from being a compromise is knowing the difference.
Before you spend any money, ask yourself if it’s necessary to the trip or is it just convenient. The value of a guest house, which is centrally located, so that you only have an hour or so to commute every day is a real one. If the restaurant is the first one that shows up on the map, then it is likely that it does not.
Worth spending more on:
- Accommodation location and safety
- One or two meaningful local experiences
- Travel insurance
- Reliable local transport
- Food that reflects the destination
Usually fine to cut:
- Brand names and star ratings
- Souvenir shopping
- Short-haul in-flight upgrades
- Organised tours when local guides exist
- Hotel breakfasts and minibar items
Tip 14: Track Your Spending While You’re on the Trip
The second half of the job is a budget plan. The other half is understanding where you’re at when you’re spending.
People that spend more than they should usually don’t realize it until they get home. It’s a simple, 5-minute-a-day drill to ensure that you’re in order.
Both TravelSpend and Trail Wallet are designed for this purpose. You record expenses as they happen, place a limit on spending per day and automatically stay informed about your situation. If you prefer something simpler, you can use a notes application or spreadsheet.
When you’re in the middle of the journey and find that you are overspending in one category, choose one category and cut back on it for 2-3 days. Prepare some meals, avoid paying for a program, ride the bus or subway rather than take a taxi. The daily average is typically restored after a short period of more restrictive spending, but that doesn’t have to impact the rest of the trip.
Tip 15: Travel Insurance Is a Budget Tool, Not an Optional Extra
Most budget travelers do not buy insurance, as it seems like an extra expense. No, it is rather the other way around. It’s the one thing that guards all the other savings you have made.
An accident while abroad, a missed flight or a theft and loss of phone and passport can cost a lot more than the trip itself. If they don’t have any of those issues, it doesn’t matter if their saving is on one of the other factors.
The following are some of the things you should be looking for in budget travel insurance.
Consider three coverages: medical, trip cancellation and personal items. Medical is the most important. There is a huge variation in costs between countries, and an even larger difference between coverage in and out of a country, with some countries making a simple hospital visit truly cost of living expensive.
Check out Squaremouth or InsureMyTrip for comparisons of policies. It’s important to read the exclusions as well as the inclusions. A policy with large exclusions isn’t a cheap policy.
Get started on your next trip the right way!
It is not all about the compromises of a low budget. It’s about using less of the money that isn’t important so you can have more of the money that is important.
Use the four category budget, add price alerts to Google flights and Skyscanner and do a quick search on HotDeals before booking anything at all. These are the three steps that will get you ahead of most travelers before you pack your suitcases. The rest is a matter of planning and having the confidence that’s gained from knowing where your money is going.
