Tips for Travelling on a Budget

If you’re like me and want to travel as much as possible – these tips will help you stretch your budget that little bit further and maybe squeeze in some extra trips.

Transport

Finding Cheap Flights

Use a website like Skyscanner to find the month or days (usually mid-week) that flights are cheapest for your chosen destination. If you don’t have a place in mind you can use it to just see where the cheapest flights are from your local airport.

Subscribe to Jack’s Flight Club to get emailed deals on flights that usually so cheap.

Check the prices of flights at other airports – not just from your end but your destination too. When we were booking our last trip to the USA we flew to TF Green airport in Rhode Island because it was cheaper than Boston or New York but still close enough. As we were hiring a car anyway, it didn’t matter too much and we got the explore another state.

Combine Trips

Take a multi-stop trip. This might sound counterproductive if you’re trying to save money but if your goal is to explore as many places as possible, joining some trips together can be more cost effective. For example, when I went on a city break to Tallinn, I took the ferry across to Helsinki and found cheap flights from there to Stockholm. In terms of flights, that ten-day holiday was more cost effective than doing three separate city breaks.

Airport Transfers

Check for local buses to and from the airport, they are usually the cheapest option, especially if you’re staying in a city centre location. You might even be able to find an express bus that isn’t necessarily slower than a taxi or coach.

Check for local options

If you’re planning a day trip, check if there are local transport links rather than buying a package aimed at tourists. When in Milan, I went to the train station to travel to Como for a day. Outside the station there were lots of booths offering coach trips for the day for around 80 euro. Just past these, I could get a train ticket for 5 euro (and get there quicker!). Of course tours are likely to come with guides and other extras but arranging your own travel can give you more freedom of timings as well as save money.

Food

This is probably one of the stingiest things my boyfriend and I do when travelling but I recently introduced this tactic to my Mum on our family trip to Canada and she found it really does help cut costs! We basically only eat out for one meal a day most days, usually dinner. Most of the time we would stay in airbnbs or cheap hotels where breakfast isn’t provided so on our first day we buy a big bag of croissants or breakfast bars from a supermarket (fruit will work too if you want to be healthy) and that will see us through the trip.

For lunch we’d often make ourselves packed lunches. If we don’t have kitchen facilities we’d buy sliced cheese and a loaf of bread, make sandwiches and put them back in the loaf wrapper to take with us during the day. I can go from hungry to hangry in a matter of minutes so this also helps to ensure I always have food on hand.

Accommodation

Shared AirBnBs

It’s no secret now that you can often find fairly cheap accommodation on sites like AirBnB. A lot of people are often put off booking just a private room even those these are cheaper! I’ve never had a bad experience here, just make sure you read the reviews. Sometimes staying with a host can give you lots of local tips that you wouldn’t tend to get from a hotel or solo place.

Private Hostels

If you’re not a student backpacker the thought of a hostel might not seem like an ideal holiday to you – but hear me out! Hostels aren’t all multi-bed dorms and dingy shared bathrooms. Lots of hostels offer private rooms, sometimes even with private bathrooms but at a lower cost than hotels. So when you’re next looking at accommodation – don’t let the word “hostel” put you off! I would still check ratings and reviews though.

Pod/ Mini Hotel Rooms

A new trend in recent years, especially in big cities is offering micro hotel rooms for much cheaper rates. These pod rooms are essentially just a bed and a tiny bathroom, but really what more do you need! All the ones I’ve stayed in so far have been ultra modern and cosy. In New York, we stayed in Pod Brooklyn when they first opened and I couldn’t recommend it enough – they even had a yoga on the roof and free bike hire. In London and Edinburgh, Premier Inn have several Hubs which offer much smaller rooms but for much lower prices.

Sight-seeing & Attractions

Check ahead for Free Days

Lots of museums often offer weekly or monthly free days. Check ahead and your could plan your trip around this.

Or look out for completely free attractions. In the UK, a lot of museums are always free entry. Depending where you are there might also be a few natural or public attractions that you can visit for free – such as a National Park.

Book online

Some tourist attracts offer discounts if you book in advance online. You might also get to skip the queue and of course, you’re then guaranteed a slot.

Check for alternatives to excursions

For popular sights away from city centres, you’ll often find various excursion options offering a coach there and back, perhaps a tour guide as well. Often its much cheaper to make your own way there and then you’re also not restricted to specific times. In Iceland, one of the main attractions is the Golden Circle, for full day excursion, prices start at £50 per person. Instead we hired a car for four days for just £99 between the two of us. Going in a small group would bring the cost per person down even more. Plus we drove to plenty of other sights too that would have been extra costly excursions had we not hired a car. Of course if you can’t drive this doesn’t help – but you perhaps you could go on holiday with someone who can?

Free Walking Tours

I love a good walking tour! It’s always the first thing I want to do when I visit a new city. It’s a great way to get your bearings and learn more about the culture and history of the town from a local. There are tonnes of great quality “free” tours out there. I say “free” because they do expect you to tip at the end. So its more a pay-what-you-feel/can deal. Just make sure you have cash with you!

If you have any useful money-saving tips that I haven’t included – please share in the comments!