Blog Around The World

Many people love traveling, but they are quite hesitant when it comes to planning regular vacations. This is because they cannot afford the expenses associated with a trip. Are you one of them? Are you waiting for the “right time” to travel because of your budget constraints?

Here is a disclaimer – your “right time” will never come anytime soon. You have to seize the moment and travel whenever you want, without loosening your purse strings too much. Gone are the days when you had to have wads of notes in your purse to plan for a trip. Today, if you plan properly and do the proper groundwork, you can travel cheap around the world.

Do you want to understand the art of how to travel cheap? Follow these simple tips and enjoy your favorite places with your loved one, even on a tight budget.

• Travel during off-seasons

One of the best ways to travel cheap is to visit your favorite destinations during off-seasons. The time of summer vacations (around July) and Christmas vacations (last week of December and the first week of January) are the peak holiday seasons. Flight fares, hotel tariffs, restaurant costs, and admission charges to tourist attractions are at least 50% higher than the usual costs. Also, most of the destinations are crowded during this time, which takes away most of the enjoyment on your trip.

This is why you have to travel during off-seasons. When the tourist season is not at an all-time high, you will get flights at affordable rates. Even premium hotels would have slashed their rates, thanks to which you can enjoy luxurious rooms that don’t burn a deep hole in your pockets. Tourist attractions are less crowded during non-peak seasons, due to which you can appreciate the beauty of those places better than before.

• Be flexible with your flights

Many people think that opting for low-cost flights is the only way they can save money on their travel costs. While it is the commonly used method, it is definitely not the only method to save money on flights. Here are some options that you can consider as well to travel cheap:

• Be flexible with your timings; sometimes early morning and night flights may be costlier than afternoon or mid-morning flights.

• Consider choosing a different airport in your state if the flight fare is cheaper when you land or take off from there; always check the fares from all your airports in your state to arrive at this decision

• When you are moving to a different airport in your state to save on flight costs, never take a cab, as that would negate any amount you saved on choosing the alternative airport in the first place; consider using public transportation such as the bus or train

• If you don’t mind waiting for a few hours to save costs, you can book your tickets on flights with stopovers, because they are way cheaper than direct flights to your respective destinations

• Always lookout for early bird offers because many flights offer attractive discounts when you book tickets six months before your actual travel date

If you have no time constraints and if you are open to travel on any date and any time, these tips can save you quite a lot of money on your flight tickets.

• Choose your accommodation wisely

Hotel rooms contribute to a major chunk of your travel costs every single time, don’t they? Does that mean you have to compromise on safety and neatness by booking yourself a cramped or dirty room in a lodge? Definitely not! Here are some ways in which you can choose great rooms for you and your family at affordable costs:

• Instead of hotels, you can choose to live in Airbnb accommodations that are houses with all the facilities like kitchens, television, well-furnished rooms, and so on. These are way cheaper, neater and more comfortable than hotel rooms. The best part of these accommodations is that you can cook your own food in the kitchens, thereby saving a lot of money that you would have otherwise spent in the restaurants.

• Couch-Surfing is a great option to save costs on your accommodation if you don’t mind sharing a room or couch with a complete stranger. You can get to stay with a stranger for free, and you can also make use of the local knowledge of that stranger to get your way around in the new place that you have traveled to.

• If you don’t mind doing some work to save money on your hotel costs, you can apply for the post of house sitters. Here, you will stay in a person’s house and mind the property in his absence. You will have to pay a nominal fee for staying in the property and this work out to be a lot cheaper than what even budget hotels would charge you for.

Apart from these, you can also search for dormitories, simple bed & breakfast, and hostel options in your respective destinations to stay. These are quite affordable and if luck is in your favor, you may also find neatness and hygiene in these options.

• Manage your local costs

You can save a lot by skipping international restaurants when you are traveling to any destination. Always stick to eating simple foods from street-side food stalls or the local eateries to save a lot of money on your foods. When you are traveling within the new city or state, always use the local transportation modes to know how to travel cheap. This is way cheaper than traveling by cabs.

Summary

As you can see from the above points, all it takes for you to travel cheap is careful planning and good research. Watching out for early bird offers, using public transportation, and cutting unnecessary expenses will help you travel cheap to any destination that you want. Follow these points and you will realize that money is no more an obstacle to your travel plans.

Written By Boyan Minchev