Traveling doesn’t always have to deplete your funds. Here are a few tips for how to travel on a budget:
- Book tickets months in advance. As soon as you’ve been able to secure vacation time, you should book your plane tickets. The sooner you wait, the higher the prices will be or the seats may sell out.
- Choose hostels with kitchens. You’ll notice that while traveling, money spent on food adds up quickly. If you want to cut a majority of your spending, choose hostels that either serve a free breakfast or offer a kitchen for you to use.
- Walk as much as you can. While driving makes traveling a lot easier, sometimes walking is the best way to explore a city.
- Use airline websites such as STA Travel and Skyscanner. STA Travel is a great budget airline website that allows people under 26 to purchase cheap plane tickets. I’ve found Skyscanner to be useful for choosing the cheapest prices for flights all month long.
- Take advantage of trains and buses. If you’re traveling with a lot of people, it might be cost efficient to split the price for a rental car. However if you’re traveling on your own or with another person, consider using trains and buses for transportation around the city.
- FREE walking tours. Okay, the tours aren’t really free as you’re expected to tip the tour guides… However, these walking tours are usually given by locals who have lived in the city for most of their lives, and they’ll be able to share the hidden treasures of the city. Even with the tip, this is significantly cheaper than planned tours where you’re required to pay an exorbitant price.
- Travel during the off-peak seasons. Although summers are the most convenient for traveling, it’s the most expensive season to travel due to it being tourist season. Prices spike up tremendously during the summer.
- Break out your college student ID card. A few musuems will give discounts to students.
- Take advantage of overnight buses/ferries. In California, it’s easy to take an overnight Greyhound bus or Amtrak from San Diego all the way to San Francisco and the same goes for states on the East Coast. Overnight travels can work in Europe as well since the countries in Europe are so close together. You can easily take an overnight bus from England to France or an overnight ferry from Croatia to Italy. Sometimes you’ll need to forfeit comfort to save a few bucks on your travels.
