Saving Money Tips
Traveling does not have to be expensive, if you plan right. You can get great deals if you search around and plan well. The following tips will help you save on your next adventure.
Try to travel on shoulder and/or off seasons of your destinations. The most expensive times to travel are around spring/fall break as well as summer. As this is not the case on all occasions, a quick Google search will give you the high/low times of your destinations
We will often plan a trip by doing “reverse planning” as we call it. We will pick a destination after we find the best deals for that flight. For example, a couple years ago, we knew we wanted to go to South America in December. We used a site call SkyScanner.com that lets us compare multiple locations in December. We were able to find cheap flights to Colombia and bought then because they would be a largest expense. If you are flexible, utilize this method to save some money.
If you are traveling with kids, there are so many discounts to take advantage of. A few that come to mind : Kids under 2 years old fly free, hotels often will allow children to stay for free, cruises give ‘Kids cruise free’ promotions all the time, tour companies will allow for kids to tag along free. There are so many promotions, it is definitely worth looking into.
Don’t eat out every meal. When we travel we usually only eat out once or twice a day. This get extremely expensive but necessary when your love food like we do. To get the best of both worlds, we always go to a local supermarket day one of our trip. This gives us an intimate look into what people in the specific region of the world eat on a daily basis. Grab snacks, water, fresh fruit, and drinks to accommodate your trip. This not only will save you money but it will also save you a tremendous amount of time not going out three times a day.
Walk as much as you can. Again, this may not be possible depending where you are at but we have had so much fun walking the streets of an European city checking out the small shops, restaurants, street vendors, etc. This would not be possible if you are taking taxis/trains everywhere. Best yet, it’s all free to walk.
If you are looking to do a tour, there are a few big groups that we use including TripAdvisor, Viator, and even local tour groups. These will often be the same tour but given by different companies.The prices of the tours all fluctuate and you can compare prices to try to get the most bang for your buck.
Make sure you pre-plan your trip, especially the little details. Buying a train ticket 2 weeks in advance will the a third of the cost when buying day of, often. Utilize online services to book these tickets so you are not only guaranteed a seat/service but you can get the best deal.