It’s not a secret that traveling can be an expensive luxury. Whether it’s for a week, a month or a year, ensuring you’ve budgeted enough to cover your trip can prove to be more than a little challenging. Unfortunately, often the most desirable travel locations are also the most expensive, whether that’s at home or abroad. There are three main expenses you’ll experience when traveling – transportation, food and accommodation – and unfortunately the three are essentially unavoidable, so figuring out the best was to balance your funds is a major consideration for any traveler. We recently wrote about our favorite new free travel apps of 2015. Additionally, here are some hints and tips and clever ways to help you to travel on a budget.
Traveling off-season has a whole host of perks. From the cost of flights to the price of accommodation, you’re likely to find that the cost of things drops significantly when travelling outside of the more popular months of travel. Money aside, if you hate battling the crowds while you’re away, then off-peak travel often means the hustle and bustle of visiting tourists has dispersed somewhat, leaving you to enjoy your holiday in peace.
As is the case with any well laid plan, research is imperative to ensure every detail is considered, and this is especially the case when traveling abroad. If the area you’re planning to visit is notoriously expensive, such as Napa Valley or New York City, then looking into cheaper places may be better for a thrifty trip. Also, if you’re not pressed for time, you could save tons of money by traveling by bus instead of flying. GoTicket is new platform to search for bus and train tickets between over than 90,000 routes in US.
While traveling, it can be easy to get caught up in the excitement of travel and forget that you’re trying to do it on a shoestring budget – understandable when you consider all the inspiring places and people you may encounter. Unfortunately, unless you are careful with your travel budget, it can dry up pretty quickly, especially when spending unnecessary money on things when they could be bought or done more cheaply.
Food is one such issue, and although it is important to experience the local culture and sample their wonderful cuisines, this doesn’t mean you must eat out for every meal. If you are hostelling this is easy to combat, as use of the kitchen facilities tends to be included within the cost of your stay, and so scouring the local markets for fresh local produce and enjoying your chosen country’s street food scene will allow you to save money very easily. I have always preferred to rent an apartment on HouseTrip so I can have a full kitchen to prepare breakfast or lunch.
These are just three ways for you to enjoy an amazing vacation for less. There are plenty of notoriously expensive destinations all around the world which are desirable places to visit, but so long as you’re willing to balance out the costs in other clever ways, they certainly should not be missed! For more money-saving tips, check out Tips for Booking Last-Minute First Class Flights.
How do you manage to stay within budget while traveling? Tell us about it! Leave a comment below.
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