Are you searching for ways to travel on a budget? Planning a trip within a limited budget can be a daunting task, but worry not!
We have years of experience in planning our own budget-friendly trips, and we’re here to help you out. In this comprehensive guide, we’ll share 20 easy and effective tips that can help you save up to 50% on your travels.
Our philosophy revolves around smart savings rather than cutting corners excessively. We aim to provide cost-effective solutions that won’t compromise your travel experience.
Whether you prefer simple money-saving tips or are willing to put in a little extra effort for greater savings, this article has got you covered. Get ready to embark on affordable adventures without breaking the bank. Happy reading!
Table of Contents
1. Travel on a Budget: Book your flights months in advance
You could write entire books about how flight prices change and still not exhaust the topic. However, the rule that is worth using is to buy tickets a few months before departure.
Usually 2-4 months before departure, the price is the best. In this way, we can save up to 50% of the ticket price (usually around 20-30%).
As a rule, postponing the purchase of a plane ticket to the last minute will not reduce its price. However, remember not to buy tickets too early, i.e. more than 6 months before the planned departure.
2. Book flights in private mode
Online services analyze what you are looking for and sometimes may use different practices to raise the price and encourage you to buy.
When looking for flight or hotel deals, it’s worth checking if you can find better deals in private mode.
Another option is to connect via VPN in such a way that the service thinks you are connecting from another country, where prices may be much lower.
3. Travel on a Budget: Use car price comparison websites
When looking for the best car rental deals, be sure to use price comparison websites. First of all, you will have all the offers in one place.
Secondly, comparison websites often have more favorable prices and promotions, thanks to which the cost of renting a car will be lower than on the rental website.
Remember to include insurance costs and the amount of the deposit in the comparison! We usually use Rentalcars.
4. Rent a motorhome
Traveling by motorhome in the United States has been very popular for years. You will easily find there car parks adapted to the so-called RV.
Motorhomes have also become popular in Europe in recent years. This is an option that allows you to save a lot, mainly for families or traveling in a group. By renting a motorhome (e.g. through Cruise America) you will save on expensive accommodation and meals that you can prepare yourself.
Unfortunately, the great interest has translated into an increase in rental prices, so be sure to check if it will not be better for you to buy a motorhome at the beginning of your holiday and sell it at the end of your stay.
5. Travel on a Budget: Stay overnight with the locals
A great way to save money and meet new people at the same time is to stay overnight in their homes. Residents offer rooms for rent on Airbnb, booking, or completely free on coachsurfing.
We have never been disappointed in such places. The most pleasant memories are our stay in Kochi in Kerala, where we stayed with an extremely smiling and hospitable Priya, in a climatic, family guesthouse.
The room was very comfortable and Priya served us a delicious homemade breakfast on the terrace in the morning. In addition, she told us what to visit and even shared with us her life story and photos from the wedding!
We highly recommend you to use this type of accommodation, because there is probably no better way to feel the atmosphere of a given place by staying with the locals.
6. Rent an apartment when you go for a longer period
When renting for a few days, you will not feel much difference between an apartment and a hotel. However, if you intend to spend more than two weeks in one place, it is definitely worth looking for an apartment.
Renting an apartment for the whole month will be at least 50% cheaper than a hotel, and you will have more space at your disposal. It is best to book holiday apartments via Airbnb or booking.com.
7. Travel on a Budget: Choose accommodation with a buffet
Hotels offering a breakfast buffet or half board will usually save you on food costs. You can eat as much as you want and thus reduce the need to eat in restaurants.
In the extreme version, you can fill yourself up in the morning, take some fruit with you and hold off on the next big meal until the evening. You have to answer the question yourself whether this solution suits you or not.
One thing is for sure – it certainly allows you to optimize costs. When using buffets, remember not to waste food. Put only as much food on your plate as you plan to eat!
8. Reach Genius level on booking.com
The booking.com offers the Genius program for registered users.
Thanks to it, you receive additional bonuses, such as secret offers, 10% discount on accommodation, free room upgrade or welcome drink.
Genius is based on the number of bookings made, so you can reach Genius much faster by booking several different hotels for your stay instead of just one.
9. Travel on a Budget: Eat where the locals eat
Street food is very popular in Asia. Look around where the locals eat – in such a place it will be cheap, tasty and there is a good chance that you will meet nice people.
Bangkok is undoubtedly a mecca of street food. This is where we ate the best curry on the street after standing in a long line with the locals for only $1!
10. Choose the dish of the day in restaurants
Restaurants often offer dish of the day. Most often it is a cost-effective off-card option. Thanks to it, you will save about 20-30% of the price of the meal.
An additional advantage is the fact that it is usually a very interesting dish, unavailable every day, and additionally made of fresh ingredients, often straight from the market.
11. Travel on a Budget: Avoid package tours
During our first trip to Thailand, we used many organized tours. Today we know that by organizing them on our own, we could save a lot, and at the same time adapt them to our needs and pace.
For example, a trip to the Floating Market and Erawan Waterfall cost an astronomical 2,000 baht per person. In turn, we organized the trip to Ayutthaya ourselves, we remember it much better and it cost us much cheaper.
Of course, there are cases when organizing a trip on your own does not make sense, but this is rather the exception that proves the rule.
12. Enjoy free attractions
Tickets for tourist attractions are usually quite expensive. However, it is worth not only focusing on paid attractions, but also discovering the free ones. In this case, free does not mean worse.
A walk through the streets of the city, a visit to the park, trekking in the forest, or admiring the view from the hill costs nothing, and often it will be much more interesting than visiting the monument together with a crowd of other tourists.
13. Travel on a Budget: Travel locally
One of the biggest costs of traveling to distant places is undoubtedly the cost of transport. You can eliminate them by traveling… locally. Going to the other end of the world, we admire the exotic, while the inhabitants of these places would be happy to visit our country.
Open up to areas close to your home and travel much cheaper this way. Within a radius of about 25 kilometers from where you live, a bicycle is enough for sightseeing. If you want to save on accommodation, you can comfortably go by car for a day trip to a place about 100 km from home. Y
ou will be surprised how many interesting places you had no idea about! In this way, we discovered many previously underestimated corners of Poland, such as Warmia or Lower Silesia.
14. Don’t exchange money at the airport
The exchange rate at the airport is definitely less favorable than in the city. The difference can be as much as 5-10%. If you’re going on a 3-week vacation, when you exchange money outside the airport, it could mean a day of free!
It pays to exchange only a small amount of money at the airport (e.g. for a maximum of 2-3 days), so that you have any cash at the beginning of your stay until you exchange the rest of the money in a place with a favorable exchange rate.
15. Travel on a Budget: Buy a local SIM card
Roaming costs make using your phone abroad practically unprofitable, not to mention data packages. The solution is to buy a local SIM card. The best way to exchange money is to do it in the city, not at the airport.
If you have a dual SIM phone, you can have both cards installed. When you only have room for one card in the phone, you can exchange your card for a local one during the holidays (your phone number will then be unreachable!) or use a travel wifi router.
In this case, all participants of the tour will be able to use the wifi connection.
16. Use Revolut
One of the convenient ways to make cheap card payments abroad is to use currency cards or the Revolut application. Such solutions reduce currency conversion costs, which can be as high as several percent for each transaction.
Be sure to check what the limits or restrictions are. In the case of Revolut, there is, for example, a limit on free withdrawals from ATMs, and payments on weekends are settled at a slightly worse exchange rate than during the week.
17. Travel on a Budget: Travel in the off-season
High season prices are usually around 30% to 50% higher than off season. By visiting popular places at other times of the year, you can save a lot and avoid the crowds.
For example, go to Palolem in Goa in November instead of January, plan your Tuscany roadtrip in spring instead of summer, go to Indonesia in early June instead of August, and plan your trip to the US West Coast in September instead of July.
Remember to check the weather conditions in a given place during the planned trip. For example, although it is cheaper, it is not necessarily worth going to the tropics during the monsoon season.
18. Remember to negotiate
This rule applies especially in Asia and Arab countries. The price quoted in a shop or taxi is an invitation to haggle, not a final price.
Moreover, in many countries you can assume that it is rude to skip negotiations! Start negotiations with 30-50% of the price quoted by the seller and slowly look for a golden mean. To achieve the effect, you need to play a little theater more than once. Show with body language that the price is too high.
If necessary, even show that you are resigning and leaving the store – often this way the seller will agree to your price. Haggling will be much easier if you buy a few pieces of a given item or search half the store and still can’t find, for example, the perfect pattern on a T-shirt.
Then you can say that this pattern is almost what you’re looking for, but it’s still not perfect, so you want to get it cheaper. Even if you are the most experienced negotiator, you can be sure that sellers will make money on you anyway.
We usually approach haggling with a certain distance. We don’t negotiate to squeeze every rupee or baht possible. We treat it as an opportunity to make contact and we always make sure that both parties end the transaction with a smile.
19. Travel on a Budget: Choose destinations off the beaten track
As a rule, less touristy destinations will be cheaper (which does not mean worse) than those besieged by tourists. When going to Bali, instead of spending time on the beach in the south of the island, go north or trekking to the Batur volcano.
Instead of Langkawi in Malaysia, choose the definitely less popular among tourists paradise island of Pulau Kapas. In the US, visit the Willamette Valley in Oregon instead of the Napa Valley in California.
In such places, you will save not only on accommodation and meals, but also on other attractions, and at the same time it may turn out that you will have the place practically to yourself.
20. Use the Work & Travel program or work remotely
One of the ways to explore the world cheaply is the Work & Travel program, available mainly to students, and the increasingly popular remote work.
In both cases, you can use your time outside of work to travel around the area. As you are permanently residing abroad, you do not have to incur transport costs.
In addition, being on the Work & Travel program in a high-wage country, you can earn more than in your home country, while remote work combined with a cheap location (e.g. Southeast Asia) allows you to earn much more than the current cost of living.
Conclusions
I hope my tips will help you save money on your next trips. If you liked this guide, I will be glad if you share it with your friends.
However, if you have your own way to reduce travel costs, be sure to share it in the comments below!