8 Ways to Keep Your Travel Costs Down
Are you planning to travel soon? Do you want to spend less money? Surely, everyone fancies the idea of saving some money or paying less than initially planned. Here you can have a look at some interesting tips that can save you trouble with money and allow you to come back from the trip without empty pockets. If you use some or all of the next suggestions, you are going to notice the difference!
- Use Internet instead of a Travel Agency
The first tip that can come in handy is surely Internet, a worldwide free resource, to which you surely have access. Not only is it cheaper this way, but you can save yourself some money and your time as well. Instead of going to a travel agency, use Skyscanner or Google Flights to track the flight prices and buy when the ticket is less expensive. Follow the desired price in advance and sign-in with your mail, this way a mail will be sent to you in case the price has changed. Look for low cost airlines, but take into consideration the luggage policies, usually they allow from 8 to 10 kilos to bring on board with you.
2. Trivago for hotels
Once you have decided where and when to travel, you should look for accommodation. Where better to look than on Trivago? Here you can find all information about hotels and find the most suitable one. You can compare prices, availability, utilities, customer`s reviews and comments. If you set a desired price, you are most likely to get the right one, because there are a lot of good hotels, which are also affordable ones. Better do some research than going for the first one. Calculate the price and the distance from the centre.
3. Airbnb for apartments
However, if you don`t prefer hotels, you can always look for apartments. In that case, Airbnb is the right thing for you. There are more and more people who want to rent out their apartments, and according to that, there is a lot of concurrence, so some of these apartments might be much cheaper than the others to beat the concurrence. You should look for them, especially if you are travelling within a group of people, because that way you can share the costs and the apartment becomes consequently much cheaper.
4. Use the Bus
If your destination is not too far away, let’s say in a range of thousand kilometres, the bus could be a good choice as a mean of transport. It is usually a better solution if compared to the train, because the prices are usually lower. You will have to renounce to some luxury, but you will spare the money. Sometimes, travelling long hours both with train and bus can be exhausting, so why don`t choose the cheaper option? It all comes to the same end.
5. Do not travel during the high season
If you really want to keep down your travel costs, then you should think about travelling during the low season. Flights and hotels are much cheaper in these periods. The society is unfortunately standardized and the vacation periods from work are always the same. Christmas, New Year, festivity days like the 1st of May, summer and winter periods are known to be fully booked, because a lot of people have free vacation at the same time. Surely, airlines and hotel chains know that and take advantage of their customers. Like they want to take advantage of the routinized vacation, you can take advantage of them and plan your vacation when it is less likely expected. A prolonged weekend could do its charm by allowing you to save some money.
6. Avoid restaurants
During your stay, one of the biggest expenses to deal with will be the food. Our suggestion is to try to avoid the restaurants and try the local street food. Another alternative could be to buy some ready meal in the nearest shop. It can be tricky, but you can try it. For the beginning, if you are travelling by car, train or bus, you can bring your own food or make sandwiches for a day or two, breakfast or lunch. It will spare you some money, because you won`t have to buy food for the whole trip.
7. Rent a bike where possible
Transport can always be expensive, rarely though it is heard or said that somewhere it is cheap. If you are visiting big cities, expect big prices too. Transportation pollutes the air and the environment, that is why in the most of the cities, free bikes are available. Not everywhere, mostly you will have to rent one. If you rent a bike, you can move at your own pace, experience the place better and save some money.
8. Buy a travel insurance
It may seem a contradiction, but if you are travelling in some dangerous places or you are going to practice extreme sports during your trip, you should think about buying a travel insurance. Healthcare abroad can be really expensive. This way if you injure yourself or something bad unpredictably happens, you won`t regret buying travel insurance. Not only will it save you some troubles, but also a great amount of money as well.
Cheap is always sweet
No matter how much money do you have, if you are rich or poor, everybody is happy to save some money if they can. Surely, if something would be for free, that would be the best. But unfortunately, in life nearly everything has its price, so has the life itself. Enjoy your life, travel, see all you can and spend some money on the way for the next trip!
