For some people, travel is a reason for being. It’s why they get out of bed in the morning and are excited about getting on with their days.
But travel is also expensive. It drains your bank account like nothing else.
In this post, we take a look at some travel money-saving tips. These are the methods the pros use to keep their costs down while experiencing as much fulfillment as possible on their adventures. Check them out below.
Start Being Responsible At Home
People who travel a lot don’t spend a lot of money on their homes. After all, if they’re going to be away most of the time, there’s no point. Beautiful interiors and multiple bedrooms just go to waste when there is nobody there to enjoy them.
The trick here is to start being more financially responsible with the things that you buy. If you want to create a solid foundation for travel, you’ll need to think carefully about what’s truly important for you. Is it living in an opulent mansion? Or is it having the freedom to go where you please?
Don’t Take On Too Much Risk
Traveling is always a risk, but you can take on too much. Going abroad without insurance can be a disaster for your finances, particularly if you miss a flight or get sick.
To avoid this, make sure that you have a travel insurance policy that can protect you. Some insurers now offer schemes that protect you year-round for a simple monthly premium so you don’t need to keep buying new policies every time you go abroad.
Start A Travel Blog
There is a huge number of people out there who are desperate to live vicariously through the travel experiences of other people. They believe that they don’t have the money to go on expensive trips, so they want to read about others’ experiences.
You can be that other person by creating engaging content for a travel blog. Just talk about what you’ve been doing and take some pictures that will resonate with your audience.
You can make money in several ways using a travel blog. These include:
- Sponsored trips where a travel company will actually pay you to go on a specific vacation and tell your fans about it. Usually, they’ll provide all direct holiday-related expenses for free
- Affiliate marketing where you market on behalf of some of the big travel brands, providing links to the websites and discussing their products
- PPC advertising where you get paid every time someone clicks an ad on your site
- Content marketing where agencies pay you to post content with links to company products and services.
You’d be surprised just how much money you can make through a travel blog. Unless you’re extremely successful, it probably won’t support you fully, but it will get you a considerable distance towards achieving your long-term financial goals.
Stay Longer
It might sound like a strange thing to say, but staying longer is generally much cheaper than shorter breaks. That’s because you’re spreading more of the costs over a single trip.
Think about it. Imagine that you want to fly to Vienna, the capital of Austria. The price of the flight is usually fixed, so if you go for the weekend instead of a month, the price per day will be much higher.
There are also discounts on long-term rentals. Hosts and hotels typically want people to stay longer because it means less cleaning and higher guaranteed income and occupancy rates.
Go Where The Locals Go
Another top money-saving tip is to go where the locals go. If you travel to a city, like Rome, you’ll discover that amenities around the tourist hotspots are extremely expensive. You’re paying a small fortune for something as simple as pasta. What's more, it’s usually not that good.
Travelling out of the center of town, though, you’ll find where all the locals go. These venues tend to be cheaper and offer higher quality food.
In general, follow the locals. They know where to go more than tourists do.
Start Walking
Travel is also a chance for you to get fit and healthy by walking more. Walk as much as you can and reduce your reliance on public transport. You’ll find that you learn the destination much better and, after a while, can find your way around. In some cases, you might even be able to do a better job of it than the locals.
Avoid taking taxis. Cab drivers will often charge tourist rates in popular areas because they know that people on vacation are willing to pay more.
Eat Out For Lunch Instead Of Dinner
You don’t have to sit down for fine dining every evening when you're traveling. Instead, you can make lunch the main meal of the day.
You’ll notice that in most cities around the world, the lunch menu is cheaper than the evening one. There are some exceptions – such as the City of London – but these are rare. Generally speaking, evening is peak time for eating, so restaurants raise their prices.
Look For Discounts Online
When traveling, you rarely (if ever) have to pay the full prices. As sites like NetVoucherCodes make clear, there are always discounts available if you know where to look.
Discounts are a part of the travel industry. Operators know that some people are willing to pay premium prices, while others are not. For this reason, it is actually in their interest to offer big discounts to ensure that they get close to capacity.
Many people who love travel get offers sent through to their email inboxes. They can then book travel instantly, as soon as a deal becomes available.
Compare Prices
Prices across booking sites are rarely the same. Despite complete online transparency, they can vary a lot.
If you can, go on vacation travel comparison sites. These will list comparable prices from all reputable vendors, showing you what you can get for your money. You’ll notice that prices for flights vary wildly depending on where you buy them and the day of the week. Hotel prices can display similar behavior, though these tend to vary less.
Build Up Travel Reward Points On Your Cards
Relying solely on a debit card for all your financial transactions is a good idea generally, but not if you travel. Since travel involves a lot of expense and risk, you’re better off using a credit card. This way, you can build up points and then put them towards more travel adventures in the future.
Check how and when your credit card vendor will award you points. Usually, they’ll give you money off for things like flights, hotels and fine dining.
Go Light
Lugging heavy suitcases around the planet can get expensive quickly. Carriers will often charge extra for luggage over a certain limit (usually 20 kg). These charges can be high, so you need to be careful.
Make sure that you weigh all your luggage together and calculate the total weight. Then check this against your allowance stated on your ticket. It should be considerably lower.
Set A Daily Budget
While some travelers like to set a budget for the trip as a whole, it’s much better to hold yourself accountable daily. That’s because it is all too easy to spend all your money at the start of the vacation and have nothing left for the end of it.
These days, you can download travel budget apps for your phone. These show you precisely what you’ve spent and whether you need to save money.
