3 Ways to Save Money while Traveling
Traveling is by far my favorite passion, activity, hobby, education, etc. I just love learning about new cultures through traveling. I have met many different people, from heaps of unique places with a plethora of eccentric life experiences. I have met people on vacation that have your typical jobs in their home countries like accountants, doctors and managers. I have met digital nomads traveling from place to place working on some pretty creative endeavors. I have also met backpackers looking to escape the monotony of their former daily lives.
While it might be easy for people vacationing to travel with, how shall we say it? More fiscal freedom. However, that might not be the norm for backpackers or young people alike. In all of my travels, I have been…balling on a budget… if you will. So here are the 3 ways I saved the most amount of money while traveling.
- Hostels
Forget about that movie series you watched in the mid to late 2000s or what your parents told you about those movies. Hostels are the best place to stay when traveling on a budget. In short, hostels are communal rooms that you share with other backpackers. They replace the need for a hotel, motel or Airbnb. Hostels are where you rest before the night out and sleep after the night out.
They come in many different accommodation formats with the most common numbers being between 4–10 people. That means if you book a 4 person room, you will have 3 other strangers in that room. Same would apply to booking a 10 person room. You would most likely have 9 strangers in that room that you are staying with for the night. However, depending on when you travel, the hostel you booked might not be full. So you might get a 4 person room for yourself or a 10 person room with 6 people in it.
Depending on what country and city you are staying in, hostels can be as cheap as $8/night all the way up to $40 or even $50/night. I would speculate that the average cost per hostel is somewhere around $20/night. That’s also the cool thing: they are readily available and abundant in most places. This leaves you with options for where you want to stay that will fit into your budget.
Hostels are where the fun begins. Because you share a room with fellow travelers, you get to make new friends with those people. It could be a cordial non-interactive relationship where you just say “hi” and “bye.” Or it can turn into a friend that you go out with that night and make plans with the next day.
The great thing about hostels is, for the most part, everyone is there for the same reasons you are. You are all traveling on a budget. You most likely want to see the same things in the city you are visiting, drink the local ale and go out to clubs at night. Of course, there are many different people with different interests, so finding someone that wants to do the same things as you isn’t really that difficult.
Lastly, the common room is one of the coolest places in the hostel. Usually people are pre-gaming there, before they hit the town. Here you will find a larger group of people usually hanging out, talking and drinking. This is another way to extend your friend group and make friends outside of your dorm.
2. Cooking yourself
While trying different local foods is usually at the top of your list when visiting a new place, cooking for yourself is a great way to extend your budget and perhaps your trip. I think the best approach is to find a balance between the 2. For example, maybe one day you cook breakfast, eat lunch out and cook dinner. Essentially you have saved the cost of 2 meals and can use those funds for either going out or extending your trip.
Of course it takes money to buy the ingredients to cook, but in general it is much cheaper to cook for yourself than eat out. Another trick is buying snacks at the store to get you through the day. Maybe you don’t want to eat out for lunch. Well get some snacks at the store you can still have a great day adventuring without constantly fighting the urge for food. When you get back to your hostel, you can make yourself a cost efficient, delicious meal.
Where do I cook the food though? Well almost all hostels if not all hostels have kitchens for the guests to use. They have pots, pans and might even have some spices to give your food some flavor. Airbnbs will most likely have kitchens as well or at least a plug in stove to help you cook food. The only thing you have to do is clean up your mess. You can even store your leftovers or groceries in the hostel/Airbnb fridge.
There are some exceptions however. In certain countries it is extremely cheap to eat out and just wouldn’t be worth it to cook. Some countries I have been to that are extremely affordable are Egypt, Thailand and Taiwan. We are talking about amazing meals for no more than $2. Of course, if you want to go larger you have that option too. But you can easily get by for $2 every meal.
In these situations it really wouldn’t make sense to buy all the groceries you need to make a meal when you can buy one for so cheap. For example a filling bowl of fried rice in Thailand and Taiwan costs less than $2. It would be more expensive to buy all the ingredients that go into fried rice to cook yourself, than buying the dish at a restaurant. Same thing can be applied to many different dishes in certain countries.
3. Being Flexible with Arrival and Departure
This is a great airline hack in general and it is especially useful when preparing for a backpacking trip or long trip in general. If you are somewhat flexible with your arrival to a country and your departure, it could save you hundreds of dollars.
Here is how it works. For starters the most expensive tickets are on Sundays and the cheapest tickets are on Wednesdays. So try to fly on a Wednesday and avoid Sundays if possible. Even better, avoid Friday-Sunday as these are the most expensive days. Midweek is a great rule of thumb. By traveling midweek you can save hundreds of dollars.
In a perfect world, traveling in the off season is another way to save money on airfare. In the US the off season to travel is usually the winter time as most people are working, going to school, and the weather is colder. Most people have more flexibility during the summer and as a result, the ticket prices are higher.
Lastly, if you have heard the myth book your tickets on a Tuesday, don’t be fooled. Numerous studies have been done to disprove this fact. It doesn’t really matter what day you book your ticket you are going to pay an extremely similar price.
There you have it! Those are my 3 travel tips for saving money that have undoubtedly saved me the most money. Please follow for more travel content! I hope to see you again soon! Cheers!
