As much as we look forward to our holidays, they can often be an expensive investment due to the plane tickets, spending money and accessories we need to buy in preparation. It’s not unusual to spend a lot of time working and building up extra funds just to pay for our holiday, and we can often end up reducing the quality of our holiday because of budget constraints. For instance, we might need to downgrade our hotel, we might not have enough spending money and we might end up missing a lot of fun events due to our limitations.
But in this article, we’ll be talking about ways to travel on a budget and shave money off of your holiday costs. You’ll be able to enjoy travelling no matter where you go, and with these penny-stretching tips, you’ll get the most out of your holidays and make wonderful memories regardless of how much you can spend. So without further ado, here are three tips that will let you shave a considerable amount of money off your next holiday.
Look for cheaper holiday flights and bookings
With so many travel agents and airlines operating these days, there’s always fierce competition among different companies to try and offer holidaymakers the best deal. That’s why it’s essential to shop around and consider multiple options instead of simply sticking to a single travel agent or a single airline. There are times when flights with multiple stops are cheaper, and you might find budget holidays on websites like DontPayFull.com when they’re trying to fill up the last few spots on a plane or attract attention to certain hotels. When booking a holiday, always try to remember that there’s probably a cheaper deal out there somewhere, and that last-minute flights can sometimes be ultimately cheaper than booking several months in advance.
If you do book several months in advance, however, here are a couple of tips to help you get the best deals. First, hide your search history. No, you shouldn’t be paranoid that a friend might see where you’re flying to, but you should be paranoid about advertisers using your search information as a way to feed you “deals” from their companies. The best way to do this is to search for your flights using an incognito browser. It won’t save your search or browsing history, however, so remember to bookmark pages you think are relevant. Next, you should always try to identify the cheapest day to fly. If you’re going to book several months in advance then chances are you haven’t yet taken your holiday dates at work, so be lenient with your flight dates and look at least a week or two from your planned date to see if there are cheaper deals. Finally, if you fly regularly with a certain airline, then don’t forget to sign up for a loyalty scheme with them so you can save miles and use them for various bonuses.
Walk the road less travelled
When you plan a holiday, chances are you have a specific destination on your mind. Perhaps it’s somewhere popular like France, Spain, Italy and so forth. And when you think of those locations, the places you have in mind are Paris, Madrid and Rome. However, they usually cost a fortune in both travel costs and other expenses because they’re such popular destinations. There are loads of tourist traps, hotels charge ludicrous amounts and you’ll end up broke before your first few days are over.
Instead of looking at popular travel blogs and trying to find destinations in these popular cities, consider travelling to cheaper locations such as India, Ireland or Greece. Although they aren’t as popular, they offer plenty of fantastic sights, eats and entertainment for much lower prices. You’ll get to experience a diverse range of cultures, mingle with tradition and leave feeling fulfilled.
There are many travel blogs such as Migrationology.com that could be dedicated from anything to eating to art, and they all showcase some of the best places to indulge yourself in the more hidden parts of each country. Perhaps there are some street food stalls in Thailand that offer delicious food for a fraction of the price that the hotels charge, or maybe there’s a wonderful little art gallery hidden in the backstreets of Italy that deserves more attention.
Plan your holiday before you book your tickets
It’s natural for us to make a list of travel essentials. We’ll worry about things such as our passport and the expiry date, visa requirements, medication, luggage, accessories and so forth. So why not put the same amount of effort into actually planning your holiday in advance down to each day?
When planning your holiday, you can essentially make a schedule for what you want to do on each day and get the most of your time abroad. First, give yourself a day or two of relaxation and exploring to adjust to the new timezone. Next, focus on the attractions that you want to visit. For instance, you might want to eat at a certain restaurant in town or you might want to see a show that’s on during your time abroad. You can start by booking tickets for the event, making a future reservation for the restaurant or getting in touch with private tour guides.
Split your activities so they are categorised into morning, afternoon and evening. If you feel you need a break from all the hustle and bustle, plan rest days or periods where you can wander around the city and soak in all the culture and sights. For the afternoon, plan a trip to visit some entertainment venues such as a museum, art gallery or any other local tourist attraction. When evening comes, you can plan to eat at a famous location, food market or catch an evening showing of something. If you’re feeling adventurous, you can even add a “night” period where you visit night markets such as the ones listed at TravelAndLeisure.com, go clubbing or mingle with the locals in their favourite hangout locations.
The reason you should plan your holiday is because you don’t want to be left with nothing to do, or spend far too much money during the first half of your holiday and have none left for later. Keep a schedule of the things you want to do, plan ahead, and try estimate how much money you need to spend on each day so you’re never caught short.
