HOW TO TRAVEL CHEAP 2024 | 20+ Essential Tips to Save Money When You Travel (Every Time!)

traveling on a budget doesn't have to suck and by the end of today's video you're going to know all my top tips and tricks for saving money abroad and making the most of your travel budget without eating bread and hummus every day in case you're new here hi I'm Christina from happy to.com and this channel is all about practical travel advice so if that sounds like your kind of thing be sure to like And subscribe for more videos just like this one now let's start with some money-saving tips for booking travel first things first before you make all your travel bookings make sure you have a really good travel credit card that helps you maximize your rewards now I'm by no means a travel hacking expert but I really think that if you're going to be spending money on your flights you're going to be spending money on your hotels you need to make sure you're getting rewarded for it so at the very least I would look into cash back credit cards that give you some percentage of cash back if you're not into collecting points that said I do think you get better value out of actual travel credit cards that give you points and rewards But be sure to look into the different options for your specific country and circumstances on on top of that you should also consider signing up for cashback websites like rtin long story short when you shop through these sites essentially what's going to happen is they get a portion of commission for referring you to the retailer and then they pass back a portion of that commission back to you in the form of cash back granted this will range from 2 to 10% so it's not huge amounts of money but it's free money so you might as well sign up if you're interested in that be sure to check out my referral Link in the description to get $25 free now honestly when it comes to saving money on the most important thing is to be flexible both flights and accommodation tend to be cheaper around off peak periods so if you're looking for cheaper flights definitely look on weekdays rather than weekends same with hotels as well and that also applies to things like offseason versus peak season of course there's a lot of other great reasons to be traveling in off or shoulder season compared to peak season but if you're someone that has the luxury of flexibility that is probably the number one way to be saving money when you travel next when it comes to booking flight flights make sure you're taking advantage of different Fair alerts through websites like Google flights these days there's no hard set rule on when it's cheapest to be booking a flight you know back in the day people would say oh if you book three months in advance it's the cheapest or if you book on Tuesdays it's the cheapest it's really not that simple anymore and so it really depends on your specific flight annoyingly and also specifically your trip that you're taking so the best way to ensure you get the best deal is to way in advance set up a fair alert so that you can get updates on Trends and when the flights are going up in price or down in price apps like Hopper and Google flights are really great for this I would also really keep an eye on Fair Deal websites so if you're not familiar with them there's a bunch of websites out there these days that advertise really cheap flights when they find them so if your goal is to just travel more you don't necessarily care so much about the destination it's really great to be subscribed to websites like secret flying or Scots cheap flights that said although those websites are good for finding General deals if at all possible I would make sure you look for a local flight website most major cities these days actually have them so I'm from Vancouver Canada and there's a website called YVR deals that specifically advertises flights that depart from Vancouver or nearby airport so this really Narrows down the range and helps you find flights that are cheap for you and so I feel like this is great for saving a lot of time and also money now another tip that seems very basic but I think a lot of people are scared to try out is to just consider booking with a Budget Airline these days especially in North America there's a lot of new carriers that offer lowcost flights in Europe they've had these forever so carriers like Ryan Air and EasyJet for instance offer flights that are sometimes just a fraction of the cost of the Legacy carriers and granted these flights tend to be no frills they tend to charge you extra for bags Etc so it can add up but if you know the rules and you know what you're getting yourself into often times if you choose a Budget Airline you can actually save so much money and I think a lot of people are worried about budget carriers because they think they're more prone to delays or they think that they're unsafe honestly budget carriers are completely safe I've been flying with them a ton over the past decade and so if budget is your priority they're definitely worth trying out just make sure you read the fine print and make sure you know all the tricks that they use to get you to pay extra because there are a ton of them now when it comes to hotels one really easy way to save money is to literally just call them so these days there's a lot of third-party websites like booking.com Expedia Etc so those websites do often times get you really good deals and I do love using them for keeping track of lots of bookings or for using their search capabilities that said if your goal is to find the best possible deal and you're not booking that many hotels in different destinations actually often times the best deal you can possibly get is through booking directly with the hotel and sometimes if you actually call them and ask them if they have any perks for booking directly they might be able to offer you a discount or some kind of perk maybe like free breakfast or something because at the end of the day they actually have to pay fees to these thirdparty websites so they're trying to minimize those fees and often times they'll pass those savings back to you in the the form of a discount or through a free perk so it definitely doesn't hurt to try calling them up and seeing if there's any incentive for you to book directly that said if you are booking a lot of hotels let's say you're booking for a really long trip so you have lots of different destinations lots of hotel stays then in that case sometimes it is really worth it to use websites like booking.com and in those instances what I will say is it really pays to be loyal to one service so if you really like booking.com that's my go-to there's also hotels.com Expedia Etc but if you are using a third party it pays to be loyal to that specific website so with booking.com for instance I've booked so many things through them that I am officially I think a genius level three or something that makes me feel very important and in that case I actually get so many different discounts and oftentimes when I book on my mobile phone I'll get a 10% discount right away just because I'm a frequent Booker with them and I know that hotels.com for instance offers a promotion where if you book 10 nights with them then your 10th night is free or your 11th night not sure but you do get a free night for every 10 nights that you you book so that said it does pay to be loyal to a particular service so be sure to keep that in mind now another potential way to save money on accommodation is by looking into house sitting or pet sitting so of course this would probably make the most sense for people who are traveling longer term because you don't want to spend your short-term vacation watering plants and looking after people's dogs actually that does sound pretty fun but if you are someone who is open to the idea of watching someone's house watering their plants watching their pets in exchange for free accommodation then there's actually a bunch of websites out there these days that are designed for That explicit purpose for connecting people who have houses and pets that need watching with Travelers who are happy to do that in exchange for a place to stay so the most popular one is trusted house sitters but I have heard that there's a lot of other services out there even some localized ones so be sure to look into that if that sounds like something you'd be Keen to do now another trick for booking cheap travel is to look into oneway or repositioning deals so this is very common in the cruise industry but I've also seen it with certain car rental companies and it's essentially when companies will offer you a discount because you're essentially helping them bring a vehicle or a boat or something back to another point so I've seen this with camper van rentals in Canada for instance where let's say someone's dropped off a camper van in Vancouver but they need to bring it back to Calgary or they need to bring it to another city then they might offer you a discount in exchange for driving it from where the vehicle is to where it needs to go so if you're flexible that's another option to look into for sure lastly I say this in every sing sing Le video so I'm sorry if you're tired of hearing it but in case you're new here this is very very important make sure you get a travel Friendly Card like wise or revolute so that you can withdraw money from ATMs abroad for free and also minimize your currency conversion fees now let's cover some budget travel tips for getting around now first off make sure you're using public transportation as much as possible of course this does depend on your destination but if you're traveling to somewhere with a solid public transportation Network it really makes so much sense to be taking advantage of that rather than taking taxis everywhere I also love using public transportation because it's probably the best way to get a glimpse into what local life is like and it's so much cheaper now I know some people are very wary of public transport depending on what the networks are like in their home but just know that a lot of places around the world have incredible public transport systems that are safe clean and efficient so depending on your destination look into it you won't regret it now if you do plan on taking a lot of public transport a general tip I can offer is to always be on the lookout for deals that offer you some kind of discount either based on a time period so like a day ticket or based on the number of people that are traveling like a group ticket most public transport networks have some kind of deal that they'll offer for either you know a set time period or the number of people that are traveling and most of the time if you're going to be using a lot of public transport where you're going it's going to be way cheaper to buy one of these tickets rather than buying oneway tickets every single time so before you commit to public transport make sure you look at all the possible deals that they have it's probably going to save you you a ton of money now if you do plan on taking taxis or private transfers you know sometimes that's inevitable one handy little trick I would recommend is looking into whether or not there is a localized version of Uber or Lyft where you're going so a lot of the time depending on the destination again there will be local apps that are geared towards ride sharing and things like that so if you can find one definitely look into whether or not there's a promo code for new users because most of the time these places will offer a promo code let's say for your first ride Second Ride third ride whatever and that way you can just download the app and take advantage of the newcomer deals and get to whiz around for cheap sometimes destinations will even have many of these apps so you can just take advantage of the newcomer discounts for all of them and then just get around really really cheaply all right now let's move on to some budget travel tips for food now the most obvious one is cooking for yourself but I'm sure you knew that already one of my big tips especially if you are traveling longterm or you're doing a longer trip is to book accommodation with a kitchen that way you're not forced to dine out every single evening and you can prepare some meals at home which can honestly save so much money that said I do think that trying local food is a huge part of travel so don't force yourself to stay in and cook all your meals where I do think grocery stores come in really handy though is for things like snacks you know fresh fruit drinks things like that you can save so much money and it's not like going to a restaurant for Fanta is going to taste better than you buying Fanta in a can so make sure you at least stop off at a supermarket for those basic supplies now shopping at supermarkets aside if you're looking to dine out there are a lot of Handy tricks that you can use to save a bunch of money as well the first one is to look for lunch specials this is a pretty Universal thing but most restaurants will offer cheaper deals at lunchtime compared to dinner time so one way that I've been able to enjoy a lot of local Cuisine without breaking the bank is just looking at places that have lunch specials and then filling up at lunch and then having a lighter dinner rather than the other way around alternatively you can try to eat at some weird times some places will offer offer early bird specials so let's say if you're willing to eat dinner a little bit earlier than normal like 5 or 6:00 then you're able to get a discount or things like happy hour for instance where you can stock up on cheap food and drink around that same time frame and you can save a bunch of money by doing that and depending on your usual meal times this can actually work out well in your favor because a lot of places abroad tend to eat later than we do in North America so sometimes that could actually match up with your normal dinner time or jetti anyways so be sure to look into time specials like happy hours or early bird specials you can also save big on meals through something called first table this is a service that incentivizes early diners by giving them 50% off of their food bill so that they can get people in the restaurant you know make it look busy and kind of get the buzz going as soon as they open I know this sounds too good to be true but I actually have used it in the past in my hometown of Vancouver and yeah I got 50% off my food bill just by having dinner at 5:00 so that was really cool granted they don't operate everywhere in the world world but I do think they're active in over 50 cities so it's definitely worth checking out another app that's more widespread is called too good to go so this app I used to love it a lot but these days it's getting a little bit hit and miss basically it's an app that partners with local food vendors to sell their leftover food at the end of the day for a discount so when I say leftover I don't mean like the scraps off of someone's plate instead these are items that are untouched but are left over at the end of the day so I think Donuts from a doughnut shop or slices of pizza from a to-go place to to be honest the quality of this is a bit of a roll of the dice because at the end of the day you are just eating what's left and you don't have a lot of control over what you're given but in the past I've been very successful with getting great value out of these meals cuz often they're under I think $7 and then you can get like multiple sandwiches or fruit cups things like that so if you're really on a budget it's definitely worth downloading and looking into now next let's talk about budget tips for attractions and sight seeing first off be sure to prioritize free attractions no matter where you go there's going to be expensive touristy activities and also free activities that cost you nothing now I'm a Cheesy tourist all the way so I really don't mind paying for a lot of different attractions but if budget is a huge priority for you just know that there's almost always going to be free alternatives to the big attractions out there or at least free things for you to do in any given destination so in your research do not skip the search of free things to do in because often times you'll be very surprised to see just what you can find and if you do want to go to museums or special attractions then another thing to look out for are free days so again this will depend on where you're going but in my experience I found that most destinations their big museums and attractions will have special days where the entry is free whether that's geared towards locals to incentivize them to come or it's just free because they want to be nice to the general public so before you commit to going to a place make sure you have a Google to see if the big Museum or the big attraction has a free day and maybe plan around that another thing to look at for our Museum reciprocity agreement so this is super super Niche but if you happen to be a member of a museum back home often times museums will have Partnerships with other institutions so that when you have a membership with yours then you can get free admission to other museums so granted this is more common when you're doing domestic travel within your own country but it never hurts to check another Musto is to honestly just always ask about potential discounts so most attractions will offer age-based discounts or maybe local based discounts Etc so it never hurts to ask if you fall under a certain age group especially if you're a youth or senior often times there will be discounts available next if you plan to do a lot of sightseeing definitely look into City passes so there are some cities out there where going to see paid attractions is kind of an inevitable part of the experience and in those cases they'll often offer City passes that give you admission to most of the main attractions in the city for one set price so if you're someone who loves to get good value out of something like I do then this can often be a great way to see a bunch of attractions and save a lot of money and also kind of dip out of your comfort zone too and go to more places that you otherwise wouldn't have paid for that said Beware that this only really makes sense if you're planning already to see a lot of these paid attractions a lot of people fall into the Trap of buying these passes thinking they'll save money without actually crunching the numbers and doing the math and then realizing that they're forcing themselves to go to a bunch of tourist traps because they bought this pass so before you commit to one make sure you actually see the list of attractions that's included and total up which ones you genuinely want to visit because not all passes are made equal finally if you're really on a budget then I would say definitely take advantage of all the self-guided tours that are available out there I love a good tour I think a lot of the time you get so much local Insight when you book a tour guide but you know tour guides are expensive so if you don't have it in your budget to go on a guided tour everywhere you go just know that travel content creators like me have created self-guided tours to probably every destination out there so you can easily download these self-guided tours online and then that way you still get all the culture and context of the places that you're seeing without having to pay a tour guide to show you around all right thank you so much for watching I hope that was helpful and for more practical travel videos just like this one be sure to like And subscribe I'll see you guys next week bye

Channel: Happy to Wander

Views: 5,695

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Id: siQXYJPGAvw

Length: 16min 14sec (974 seconds)

Published: Thu Feb 08 2024