Travel doesn’t need to be expensive. This article will provide you some useful information on how to travel cheap. Here are some strategies and tips for you to save money while traveling. I’m going to break this subject into three sections 1. How to find cheap flights 2. Accommodations options and how to get free accommodations 3. How to save money on food. Also, please check out the bonus tips at the end of the article.
How To Find Cheap Flights
Flights are the most important and the most expensive part of traveling. You can use many resources to check out the prices and compare prices such as skyscanner or google flights (these are my personal preferences). My personal tips is I prefer to book a one way ticket instead of booking round trip ticket. Because this way in some cases it can be cheaper to fly to different cities to schedule a different layover on my own. So, if you set your current airport location then find the nearest airport that is close to the city of your destination, in some cases, you may find that it’s cheaper to fly to that airport. My advice is to do your research.
Useful tips:
- Try to get the ticket 6 weeks before hand.
- Turn on the incognito browsing mode (google chrome) to avoid cookies that may impact the prices of your flights.
- Look out for hidden airline fees i.e check in fee, carry-on fee, checked bag fee, food, etc. Make sure you read the baggage restrictions.
- Travel during the off season and holidays.
- Be flexible with your travel destinations and travel dates.
- Only travel with carry-on luggage.
- Use airline miles from credit card travel rewards for a free airplane tickets.
- Get a debit card that charges no ATM fees.
- Avoid flying and take buses or train instead. This option you’d better check the prices for land and sea and pick the best travel option.
- Choose longer layover for international flight connections instead of missing your flight and cost more money to buy a new ticket.
- Another useful websites to find cheap flight tickets are Scott’sCheap Flights, TravelPirates, Hopper, AirfareWatchDog.
Accommodations
- Hotels. You can use hotel points for free stay at the hotels.
- Airbnb can offers cost effective accommodation cheaper than the hotels.
- Hostels. Some people don’t like doing it so it’s not for everybody. If you’re not very picky this option can save you a lot of money.
- Couchsurfing. This is how you get free accommodations. You can use the website called couchsurfing or housesitter
How To Save Money On Food
- Eat street food. Eat where locals eat and avoid eating in tourist trap as much as possible.
- Stay in a small local own hotels with breakfast included.
- Cook your own meals or eat food from grocery stores. You can go to the local markets and make your own meals. If you stay on an airbnb or any hostels that have kitchen so cooking for yourself is one of the best ways to save money while traveling. Plus, you can also store the leftover food in the fridge!
Bonus tips
How To Work While Traveling?
How to travel cheap and make money while traveling? Here are some tips for many long-term travelers for working remotely to find money to fund their adventures.
- Au Pair. An au pair is a helper from a foreign country working for, and living as part of, a host family.
- Hostel Work in exchange for a free stay. This is a great way to work abroad without needing a visa or a long term contract in exchange for a free accommodation.
- Be a tour guide
- Work on a cruise ship
- Teach English
- Work online i.e. FIVERR, Blog, Vlog, UPWORK, Craiglist.
Free walking tours
This is another way to explore the new city during your travel. The tour guide may charge your a small amount of money or I suggest you should tip the guide anyway.
How To Use Students Discounts For Traveling?
How to travel cheap if you are students? If you are students, you can save big money and go on your adventure. Here are some of the tips to use student discounts for traveling.
- Leading airlines offer special discount fares to students and young travelers depending on the time of year, airline, and destination.
- Always ask for student discounts at the museums, parks, hotels, restaurants, landmarks, trains or buses, etc.
Transportation Budget Deals
- Flixbus. Flixbus is a budget bus travel company that has routes all around Europe.
- Eurail. A Eurail pass is an all-in-one train ticket giving you flexible access to most train across Europe.
- Blablacar. Blablacar is long distance carpooling service connecting drivers with empty seats to people traveling the same way.
That’s it! I hope you find this article “how to travel for cheap” useful. If you have some tips to share with readers, please put your comments down below.
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I am not a finance advisor. The ideas presented in this article are personal opinions and for entertainment purposes only. You (and only you) are responsible for the financial decisions that you make.