Traveling doesn’t mean breaking your bank and digging deep into your wallet. There are many tips to travel on a budget, especially nowadays, where you can plan most of your vacation on the internet.
If you plan to save while traveling and are looking for tips to travel on a budget, you have come to the right place. Follow these tips to stay on budget; you can even travel to your favorite destinations on limited funds if you’re savvy about it.
Choose Your Destination Wisely
This first tip is the most important tip for traveling on a budget. Some places are just more expensive, and you can’t change that. However, some places can be much more affordable, cheap, and easy to get to while still providing you with what you are looking for.
When planning where to go, keep in mind the countries and places where your currency has a higher value. With exchange rates all over the place, you become much richer in areas with weaker currencies. Your currency might not get you a good hotel in your own country, but identical amounts could let you stay in beautiful resorts and hotels in different countries. Look for places with lower currency values and cheaper living costs and plan on traveling to those first.
Travel Out of Season
Avoid traveling and vacationing when everyone else in the world is on holiday too. Times like Christmas holidays and summer vacations are when airlines, hotels, and the travel industry as a whole hike up their prices in order to capitalize on the higher number of people traveling.
Try planning your trip around these ‘travel seasons’ before they start or when the holiday season is over. This could mean you might not get as much sun on the beaches as you hoped for, but airlines and hotels will have much lower prices, and you will be able to afford a lot more during your visit.
Stay for Cheap
Instead of staying and living at known or big-named hotels and resorts, look for cheaper alternatives on websites and platforms like Airbnb and Vrbo. Platforms like Airbnb evaluate and review their hosts so you can be sure to get what is advertised on them. Properties also have reviews and recommendations from previous renters and hosts, so you know what you’re getting into.
Travelers who are young and are traveling to big cities can also look for youth hostels and dorms to live in while they visit. This is a great way to socialize with the locals, and they are incredibly less expensive when compared to hotels.
Ask the Locals
After you have reached your destination, try and befriend and talk to locals of the country. You will get information about the place that no travel website or travel guide can get you. This is a great way to find cheaper alternatives on everything from accommodations to food.
Also, most locals assume tourists are only into touristy things and food, so ask them the right questions to get the right answers. For example, if you want to look for cheap food, don’t ask them where you should go for a bite, but ask them where they would usually eat out.
This way, you won’t be pointed towards the closest tourist trap hotel but might be able to eat cheaper and, usually, better tasting foods that the locals themselves enjoy.
