Rookie Traveler Budget Mistakes - Best Budget Travel Advice Ever

hey there fellow Travelers Mark here with Walter's world and today we're here the Jardin De Estrella Park here in Lisbon Portugal and today we have our budget tips for first time or newer Travelers so they know when they travel some of the mistakes they might make with their budget so they don't make them okay and so we're gonna do is we're going to talk about different money issues we're gonna talk about Transportation budgeting hotels restaurants just some general travel budget advice so you're better prepared to travel and your money can go a lot farther and you're not just like setting it on fire and throwing it away okay and what I want to do is I want to start with just general kind of money tips when you are traveling and the first thing I want to say is make sure you know the exchange rate of the countries you're going to go to not knowing the exchange rate can be a quick trip to running out of cash because the thing is if it's five pounds is that a lot of money or a little money if it's five escudos is that a lot or a little I mean you have to think about these things it's five reals a lot or a little you know in the exchange rate you'll realize oh a three pound Coke in England is actually five dollars is wait I don't want to spend that much for a can of coke at a restaurant it helps you know these things so that's the first thing always know the exchange rate other things with money when you're going to be taking money out or exchanging money don't exchange money at the airport you usually always get a worse exchange rate and that's not something you want so you want your money to exchange into more money than possible and the airport's not the place for that however I will say this if you're going to a cash dominance Society like we were in Morocco and it's all about cash there sometimes it is a good idea to at least exchange some money at the airport so you have some cash in case you can't find an ATM or something like that and speaking of ATMs our go-to way to get the best exchange rate for exchanging money we use our local bank debit card at a bank ATM when we travel why well your local bank is probably the one bank that's tried to like not mess you up the most they want to save you the most money so you're going to get a good exchange with them and probably the least number of fees also if you go to when Atrium in a bank they usually have lower fees than a private ATM service so just have a heads up for that one another thing when you do take out money from the ATM if they offer you the conversion don't take it don't ever take the conversion at the ATM because they'll say oh you want to take out 200 Euros that's great we'll convert it to 253 dollars you're like oh okay well I know what my money is going to exchange with but the thing is if you look at the actual exchange rate you might see that the actual strain exchange rate for 200 Euros should be 226 dollars those conversions whether it's at an ATM or it's at a store you're not going to win you are always going to lose okay so just say no I'll take I'll decline I want the local currency out with the local currency so then your bank can handle the exchange rate I know just now we went to a bank here and I got out 200 Euros and they offered me the conversion of 253 dollars well at the exact same time I went to the official exchange rate and it was 226 dollars so just a heads up for that don't do the conversion because you can lose up to what 10 percent of your money right there another thing with cards I want to talk about one make sure you always call your debit card your bank and your credit card companies to let them know you're going to travel and where you're going to travel but the thing is with the budget side of it I always try to get a credit card that has no foreign transaction fees if you're going to be traveling internationally because that can add on three percent to every single perfect so it's not a hundred dollars it's a hundred and three dollars it's not a thousand dollars it's a thousand thirty dollars and that can really add up so do try to get a credit card with no foreign transaction fees so now I want to kind of focus on some Transportation budget issues one thing when you're looking at your tickets don't just look at one website to buy your tickets what we do we'll look at kayak.com or skyscanner.com we'll get their prices and then we'll see oh they have a d on Delta why don't you check delta.com as well and see if I can save a little bit more money there and look around because most of the time they say you're buying the same ticket anyway but be open to to you know searching a bit more because if you just go to one site that could be an issue also another little budget hack for you when you are searching for plane tickets make sure you're searching in incognito mode or safety mode or whatever where it's secret mode so they don't track your cookies so they don't like artificially inflate the price a little bit to inspire you to buy earlier okay and the thing is when you're looking for those tickets here's another donut I have for you don't wait okay the longer you wait to buy your tickets for your planes your trains your hotels I know it's not too good for your hotel but book your hotel rooms the price here they get a lot of people think oh I'm gonna get that last minute deal I'm gonna tell you right now those last minute deals they don't come around very often that's why they're so great when you do get them you need to be booking in advance to get your tickets and get your best prices because you do wait last minute even the cheap airlines get really expensive and the hotels they book out and their prices get going up higher too so don't wait to book that's a big budget Plus for you make sure you're booking early okay and I mentioned those cheap airlines I do have another kind of budget thing I want to tell you about and that is don't think that all those low-cost Airlines and budget Airlines or is actually cheap as you think they're going to be I know the average they you know advertise prices oh fly for one pound or fly for 20 euros or go across the US for 89 look the cheaper airlines are cheap for a reason because they charge for everything so if you're gonna have to pay to check your luggage and maybe pay to have a carry-on and pay to print out your ticket and pay to use a credit card these kind of things add up and that can really hurt your budget but the thing that's even worse is sometimes these cheap airlines they don't go to the main airport they go to an airport outside of town so then you have to pay for the transportation in and out to that airport and if you're getting a flight that comes in it you know leaves let's say it leaves at 6 a.m there might not be public transportation out there so you got to pay a taxi to go out there I know for me I used to fly from Lithuania to London a lot and I did one time I flew back on a Sunday well the problem was my flight was at 6am on a Sunday from Stansted I had to take a hundred pound cab ride to the airport for my 30 pound flight because there was no Transportation so sometimes the idea is look at the easy Jets and stuff like that see what their prices are then compare to the British Airways or the lufthansas or the tap like here in Portugal because sometimes you'll see us wow getting in at like noon is way better than 6 a.m or vice versa so you want to think about those things also when you aren't traveling don't forget public transportation is your best friend especially when you're here in Europe public transportation will get you everywhere buses and trains and things like that and they're super affordable the thing is though I know a lot of people like to do taxis and Ubers everywhere the thing is taxes and Ubers really eat up a lot of your cash for things that you could do for a fraction of the price with public transportation so when you do go to a town get an idea of what the public transportation is here in Lisbon they got metros they've got trams they've got buses all kinds of stuff that can help you out and that'll get you around for fracture the price okay now when you're buying all these things or booking these tickets and stuff like that one another thing I'm going to tell you is don't forget to collect miles look sign up for the frequent flyer program of the airline you're flying with sign up for the the membership Rewards program for the hotels you're staying in because one of the things is sometimes they give you discounts like lower prices for our members or you might get free Wi-Fi or maybe a free breakfast or maybe a free upgrade or a heck just getting on the plane earlier can make a big difference and so don't forget to just sign up and collect those points because eventually you might get some other free stuff too but it's a nice thing to have and going along with those points another thing I'm going to say is don't forget to use your points but don't always feel like you have to use your points what I mean by this is if you collect enough points to get a free flight don't use a free flight on a cheap trip like I will never use my miles to do a free trip from the US to Ireland because those flights are really cheap I'll use it for going from the U.S to Japan or I might use it for an upgrade somewhere make sure you use those miles for the right kind of stuff see the bigger bang for your buck with them and with those points I'm going to tell you another thing to help with your budget just because you have points at Marriott or points with United or Delta don't think that you always have to stay with them and always have to fly with them because the thing is is that might be a more expensive flight and you might see huh if I fly Aer Lingus it's actually you know 200 cheaper than flying with Delta I mean sometimes this happens and so what you need to do is kind of balance is it worth the miles is the are the miles worth two hundred dollars or 400 for a longer trip you want to think about those things because that's one way you might be like yes I want to do Delta because I love them and we do but on a budget maybe it's a better idea to look at your options out there don't be like you know beholden to the miles okay and when you're buying your plane tickets another budget thing you can think about is use what's called a multi-city ticket now you know there's round trip tickets where you leave from Chicago go to London come back from London to Chicago the thing is if you do a multi-city ticket I can fly from Chicago to London and then I do my trip through Europe and then I fly back from Rome to Chicago and I don't have to double back to London now the thing is these multi-city tickets might cost a little bit more money but if you use it you don't have to double back so you're not wasting a travel day or wasting the money to go fly back to that location because a lot of times that cost to give back to London is going to be more than if you just bought the the multi-city ticket okay so definitely check that out and when you're booking tickets they'll have that option you'll have a return ticket a one-way ticket and then a multi-city ticket or multi-destination ticket okay uh we've got the transportation out of the way now we have to think about our hotels and some budget things to get there one little thing I've noticed I see a lot of people that kind of count on the hotels to have the toiletries for them the thing is some hotels will make you pay for the toiletries or you got to go to a CVS or a Walgreens or a pharmacy to pick up your stuff don't forget to bring your toiletries with you just get the travel sizes from Target back home just to save yourself the money because you know buying your toothpaste your toothbrush all these little things they add up so just have that kind of with you so you don't have to worry about it your hotel okay now so like serious Hotel stuff one don't pay for breakfast at a hotel if your hotel is making you pay 20 bucks or 10 bucks for a breakfast realize that you can go to a cafe outside and maybe get breakfast a coffee and a pastry for a couple Euros here in Lisbon or from the US you go head to a restaurant and pay you know five to ten bucks for a breakfast versus the 15 to 20 at the hotel so don't pay for breakfast that's an easy way to burn through your budget another thing I had to say with breakfast is if it's a hotel that gives you free breakfast don't oversleep because if you get your breakfast there maybe that'll get you through lunchtime or just make it so you only have to have a snack at lunch so you can save some money on your food budget that way another hotel thing I would say is watch out for the hidden costs you want to read the reviews to your hotel and see us are the resort fees included are there extra taxes you have to pay because those can add up I know I went to Vegas a couple years ago I paid for my hotel all online 150 a night and then I get there oh well sir there's also a 25 Resort fee that gives you Wi-Fi and access to the pool it didn't matter the pool wasn't open I still had to pay that and so all of a sudden that 150 hotel room jumped up to 175 and some places have higher Resort views than that so make sure you're checking for the fees that go along with your hotel because that can take a hotel out of your price range that you wouldn't look in in the first place so do have a heads up for that also with accommodation if you're in a group of four people or more I would think it'd be a good idea for you to also look at the opportunity to rent an apartment when you've got to go travel because a lot of times apartment rentals are cheaper than having to rent two hotel rooms okay you can look at that also it can save you money because you can have breakfast at the at your apartment where you can cook a dinner or lunch at your apartment and it gives you a kind of a base to be on so that's actually one something that we do a lot with our family because we've got kids they have a place to play or rest and stuff like that sud ad is very nice and it does save us quite a bit of cash and speaking of save yourself some real cash don't forget about your friends look you can go stay with your friends when you travel one of the best parts when we travel is going to see our friends sometimes we stay with them sometimes we don't and for a budget conscious person same with your friends can save you a bunch of money but I will say this remember friends and fish smell after three days so if you're gonna go someplace I can say you're gonna go to DC and stay with your friends I know we want to stay with our cousins okay in DC we stay with them for two nights and then we stayed in downtown DC for three nights because like look we love you you love us and we want to keep it that way so let's kind of mix and match that way all right but don't think don't think that you don't need to stay with them but just having a heads up because that could be a way to save a little bit of money now if you are staying in those apartments it's really nice to save money by cooking at your apartment and the thing is that kind of leads into a food budget idea for you one thing is don't be afraid to go to the grocery store the supermarket to pick up some snacks and get some food there because you can kind of beautiful Parks like the Jardin De Estrella here in Lisbon and have a picnic here I mean we did it lots of times when we lived here our Sunday afternoon we go to church then we come up here and have a little picnic it was a really nice thing and it saved us a lot of money so that's one thing though I do know not everyone wants to do grocery shopping and cooking for themselves when they travel Mark I'm on vacation I would eat at restaurants okay so a couple tips to help your budget in terms of restaurants one don't assume everything or anything's free okay I know in the US you get chips and salsa and free refills and stuff like that that is not a worldwide phenomenon sadly no for example here in Portugal you pay for the bread and the cheese and the butter they bring to the table it's in the menu you don't realize it but these these little things you got to pay for you want another Coke most like you're gonna pay for another Coke so just have a heads up for that just by knowing like hey what's free what's not free because that's how you can end up paying an extra five or ten Euros on your bill when you didn't realize it and you know what five or ten Euros add that up over a week hey I mean that's quite a bit of money you could be doing other things with all right but probably the most important budget tip for restaurants when you travel is don't eat at the tourist restaurants in the touristy touristy touristy parts of town you go to Rum you have the the way the tours go you don't eat in those restaurants they're always packed with tourists and here's what happens when you go to tourist restaurants you pay twice the price for half the taste and you don't want that so make sure you kind of venture out a little bit farther from the tourist centers to go to restaurants if you see a lot of locals there the food's probably good and probably the price is good too so do have a heads up for that because honestly tourist price stuff and the tourist area is always going to get you whether you're in Orlando or you're in Venice oh my God Venice it's horrible for that you'll see those things out there okay and we're gonna finish off now with some general budget advice uh when we are traveling these are things I've seen people make mistakes with when they have gone probably the biggest and most expensive one don't forget to tell your phone company that you're going to be traveling look I love having internet and checking my comments from my fans and I have a fellow Travelers and checking my bank balance and making sure we have money to pay for our trips and stuff like that but the thing is I need to make sure my phone company knows I'm going to travel and I could get that international data plan because you don't have the international data plan you can rack up seriously High bills on your phone and you may say oh I'm only going to check it once a day for a little bit yeah I got a phone call from a t Liam when he was two years old got on my phone was watching YouTube in China and we had like a 500 Bill like what happened I I had my phone off there was nothing there oh someone turned it on sir you now have a big Bill look you got to be careful with that make sure you let them know get that data plan or if you're not going to get the data plan turn off your data turn off your phone and just use as a Wi-Fi device for that but for safety reasons I always recommend getting us even the cheapest international plan in case you need to make a phone call call or check a map or something like that it can make a big difference but yeah but seriously don't forget to tell your phone company you're going to go and get that plan another don't I have for you for for first timers for budget issues is don't forget to get travel insurance I know you see like why should I pay a hundred bucks on my ticket why shipping another 20 bucks my ticket for the insurance kind of stuff well the thing is if you're traveling internationally your insurance plan might not cover things there I know mine from work doesn't cover me here so every time I go somewhere I make sure I buy the insurance when I buy my plane tickets in case something happens and the thing is that's not one of those ones that saves you money right away but if the worst does happen it does save you a lot of money in the long run all right now some other kind of things I would say another budget done is don't forget your budget look if you're going to be traveling know how much you can spend because I've seen people that kind of get caught up in the moment and they're like yes we're gonna go do the 200 jet ski ride trip or we're gonna let's go let's go to Switzerland and spend too much money there look you get very much caught up in the moment when you are traveling and it is awesome but the thing is you need to have a budget and understand what you're going to be spending things on so you don't blow a whole week's Budget on one kind of fun night in London which can happen when you go to London all right so just have an idea of what your budget is so you don't blow it and when a house without blowing your budget here's another thing is don't forget to do your research about the destinations you're going to go to what museums are free or maybe there's a day of the week when museums are free and you can get those discounts for example in Spain get the lunch special during the day you can save a lot of money having a lunch special versus eating your big meal at night and so if you do your research you can find these things out and the thing is some cities you'll find out are beyond your budget you know people wonder Mark why don't you have more videos on Switzerland or other places I'm like it's just too expensive for us to go there I can't afford to go there we try to go to more affordable places because we've done our research to realize I can't do four weeks in Switzerland I can do a week in Switzerland but not four weeks okay so that's where you your research can kind of help you out with your budget and that kind of goes into another thing is don't be afraid to try different destinations for example here in Portugal it is a very affordable vacation destination Spain is very affordable so if you're looking to save money and budget better maybe do a trip to Portugal and Spain versus Germany and Austria or maybe do the baltics instead of Scandinavia or maybe you do you know southeast Asia versus Japan you can save money by visiting the cheaper destinations and even cheap destinations they have great things to see as well so you do have that and then I have two things for you to finish off one thing don't forget to get discount passes and cards when you can but doing the research make sure you'll know if it's actually worth it for example do you get the city pass that gives you 50 museums and free public transportation well it might depend if you're gonna go to all those museums if you're not it might not be worth it and another pass that I find that's not always worth the money or like the Euro rail passes because the thing is unless you're going to be doing a lot of train travel maybe the price doesn't justify it you might want to do a combination of cheap airlines and just normal train tickets versus the Euro Rail ticket because that's one way you can you know be inefficient with your money and the last thing I want to say is don't think you have to travel just in the summer look if you travel in the off Seas under the shoulder Seasons you get significantly discounted plane tickets discounted hotel rooms very few tourists out there so the lines are a lot less and you can get a lot more bang for your buck if you're going in those shoulder seasons and what's great if you come to Europe in September or early October the weather is usually still pretty good too or if you come in April or May still nice weather all kinds of stuff and at a fraction of the cost so that could be really really helpful so do have a heads up for that so I hope this video helped some new Travelers and maybe some old Travelers as well to know some better ideas to help budget and and save some money on your travels and your in your stuff if you want to learn more maybe how to save money while you try travel so you can travel longer or maybe you want to think about hey how do I save money in order to travel we have videos on that as well to help Travelers out so do check those out on our website at waltersworld.com we're also on Twitter Facebook Instagram YouTube Pinterest all the great social media sites just find Walters world and we'll be there and if you like travel videos like this click that subscribe button click that notification Bell and you'll get new travel videos every Wednesday and Saturday from all over the world so if you have any other budget advice please put in the comment section below so we can help out other new Travelers and season Travelers save a bit of money so they can enjoy traveling longer so I'll say bye from Lisbon a great budget destination and just a great destination anyway bye

Channel: Wolters World

Views: 161,758

Keywords: travel, europe, wolters world, travel advice, tourist attractions, travel vlogger, honest travel, Walters World

Id: ZLOG8F6AS7o

Length: 20min 44sec (1244 seconds)

Published: Sat Feb 25 2023