30 Travel Hacks from Nomad House
The best tips for making travel cheaper, more sustainable and more enjoyable from people who’ve made it their lifestyle.
1. Book a Trip with Nomad House.
Well, it’d be silly if we didn’t have a little shameless self promotion in here. But it was first suggested by the guests, which legitimises this plug *in our eyes*. Why? You’re guaranteed to be hanging with a cool crowd, you’ll definitely focus on work and you can explore a new destination at the same time.
2. Google Trips — Becca
If you could imagine a travel agent in your pocket, it’d look like Google Trips. It pulls all details from your emails about reservations, hotels, AirBnB’s, flights and tickets, and orders them into a comprehensible format.
3. Skyscanner — Tim
If you’ve ever asked yourselves one of these questions:
‘Where can I get to in Europe for the cheapest?’
‘Where can I get home for the cheapest?’
Skyscanner has a tool for finding precisely that.
Here’s how to use their Everywhere tool.
4. Scott’s Cheap Flights — Sergio
So instead of searching for flights, Scott’s Cheap Flights packages them up for you and delivers them to your Inbox, sorted by continent. Cheers, Brian.
5. Hostel Booker-Nate
Sometimes the best way to get to know a city is by staying in a hostel, and by scanning the reviews and requesting a private room, you can make it a longer term option too.
6. Hotel Tonight — Edwin
‘At one point, I had a client whom would want meetings, last minute. Living outside of New York, this occassionally proposed lengthy journeys home, late into the evening, so it was easier to book a deal on a last minute hotel room using Hotel Tonight.’
7. Memrise — Stephi
Memrise is one of the best apps for learning a new language. Instead of simple lessons, it gamifies the process and you can download lessons for offline too. Perfect for long plane journeys.
8. Hit List — Stephi
‘You put in where you’ve been and where you want to go. It’s like a travel wish list that will pull in prices for places you want to go.’ So imagine you want to visit Vietnam, Colombia and Lisbon at certain points in the next year. Add in your dates and wait for the deals to build up in your inbox.
9. GoogleMaps — Kirsten
Pin, star, and flag your favourite points on the map — no data needed, just drop Pins as you go!
10. Trip It — Nate
Hook it up to Google Inbox. It will automatically pull in booking codes and flight details
11. Openflights.org — Nate
‘See a map of every flight you’ve taken. Automatically imports info from TripIt.’
12. Virtualpostmail.com —
‘Get all your mail sent to a US address and they scan all of your mail. No mailing address needed. Or Earth Class Mail (more expensive).’
13. Kiwi — Brooke
If you’re looking for cheap flight deals directly, Kiwi usually has the ticket.
14. Digit — Brooke
Takes small amounts of money at a time to an account for you. Saving, without moving money around too much.
15. House party — Brooke
On the off chance you start to miss friends and family back home, but you know you’ll never tie them down for a Skype call, House Party presents an easier way to chat. If you both have the app installed, you’ll see when the others are online and be able to chat when suits (5 minutes before the bus, just before bed, lunch, etc).
16. Like a Local — Sophie
When you go to TripAdvisor for Paris, you’ll be shown the Eiffel Tower and the Louvre. If you go to Like a Local, you’ll get hand picked recommendations for restaurants and shops. Ideal for meandering, browsing and getting under the skin of a city.
17. Google Translate — Kerstin
Just make sure to download the language you’ll need before you lose data, then you’ll be able to scan menus, tickets and more into the app. Instant translations as you go.
18. Instagram Search
Go on Instagram, type the location into search (ie, Paris) and you can see where people are uploading from (The Louvre, Hubspot, etc). If you’re really into the gram, save these posts as private collections to refer back to when you’re exploring the city.
19. Yelp Search
If you use Yelp, you might have seen the ‘hipster’ tag being used on occasion. If you can bring yourself to do it, use it to find decent places to work. Whilst most nomads will abstain from calling themselves hipsters, occasionally our need for wifi and caffeine puts us straight into that category.
20. Bands in Town — Nate
‘This app scans your music and tells you if anyone you like will be in town.’
21. Nomad List
Perhaps the Holy Grail of digital nomad resources, this is an easy way to find inspo for new cities to live in.
22. Onthegrid.city
Curated guides from creatives in the world’s most interesting cities.
23. Go to a spa — Tannu
There are very few other occasions where you can chat to a local for so long as when they’re doing your nails or cutting your hair. The guys also vouched for barbers being one of the most interesting experiences in a new city too.
24. Local bloggers
By searching ‘mojitos + blog + lisbon’, you’re more likely to get an authentic article about hole-in-the-wall joints and favourites, rather than tourist traps.
25. 55 Litre Backpack Max
Carry-on only whenever you can. 55 litres is the limit. Check in online to avoid having people make you check it at the desk.
26. Add ‘reddit’ onto any of your searches
Reddit is one of your strongest sources for legit information when you visit a new city (legit being: ‘is there a bouldering club in Lisbon?, have you got any experience with check-in at this random-af airport?, etc).
27. getfinal.com
‘It lets you create one time use credit card numbers if you are going to buy something on an unknown site (to protect privacy).’
28. r/churning
Fan of free credit card rewards? r/churning is an online forum for credit card hacking.
29. Rent a ticket to pass through a country.
Some countries require proof of onward travel on arrival (Thailand and Costa Rica to name two). FlyOnward allows you to rent a valid ticket for 24 hours so that you can arrive.
30. Highlighter and a guidebook
Because sometimes, it’s oddly satisfying going back to basics.
Thank you to the guests of our Lisbon Nomad House, who put together these tips with us over a Mastermind. Curious about what else happens in NH? Join the next House.
