Hi friends! As I’ve said many times before on this site, you don’t need to spend a ton of money, to do anything. And that includes everything from fashion, traveling, and your basic everyday life. When it comes to vacations, you definitely don’t always have to do something luxurious or fly 10,000 miles away from your home. I want to teach you how 5 effective ways to travel on a budget.
Anything can be a vacation if you treat it like one. But, we are humans and we have the desire to explore the world and do luxurious things (blame social media.) We see a ton of people on Instagram, living their best lives and I am here to tell you that you can too.
Trust me, I’m an American language assistant; living in Madrid, on a !,000 euro monthly stipend and I still manage to go on fun and exciting trips!
So today, I will give you 5 tips that I use to travel and have nice vacations on a budget!
- Mindset
Everything starts with your mindset. What I mean by this is you have to believe that anything is possible, understand that anything can be a vacation and accept that you don’t have the financial means to do all the things you want to (someday you will though!)
When I say “believe that anything is possible,” I mean for those of you who say “ugh, that’ll never happen!!!” well
Secondly, anything can be a vacation! I’m originally from Boston and taking a trip down to the Cape is a fun and exciting vacation for me because
Lastly, if you don’t have enough money, you need to understand that you have to make a few sacrifices. For example, you want to eat in that fancy looking restaurant you walked by but can’t afford an $80 plate, eat somewhere else! I feel like a lot of people put themselves in debt because they want
2. Book your flight in advance and look for deals
This is probably the most important part! If your destination requires a flight, definitely book said flight at least 3 months in advance. Which also goes to say that you should be planning your trips months in advance as well.
The reason this is important is because the flight will be significantly cheaper the earlier you purchase it. For example, when I was buying my ticket for Madrid, when I had originally planned to purchase it, it was only $100-150 dollars one way but because of visa issues, I ended up buying the ticket late and it skyrocketed to $360 one way and this was only a 2-3 week difference!
When it comes to deals, you should always check airline websites to see what sort of discounts they’re giving. Sometimes its a percentage off your first flight or percentages off to certain locations,
Also, those ads you see for travel apps, look into them! My two favorite places to look for travel transportation are Google Flights and Omio! Both give you the cheapest, fastest and most discounted flights first and help you out with filtering you needs.
Omio also gives ideas for bus and train rides if they’re available for wherever you’re headed. Another tip I suggest is don’t be afraid to ride a bus or train. Bus and trains are significantly cheaper than flying and you get to have
3. You don’t always need to stay in a hotel
I know hotels are the norm and that’s what we’ve been exposed to all our lives but, it’s 2020! You can honestly stay anywhere – even a treehouse! I’ve seen travel vlogs where people have stayed in treehouses, mountain homes, tiny houses and so much more.
Hotels can be expensive and have a ton of hidden fees. I suggest looking into Airbnb and Hostels. Since I’ve been traveling around Europe lately, I’ve come to learn that hostels are extremely popular here and some of them are even better than hotels!
So, definitely search for alternate accommodation to hotels in your destination location and stay there!
4. Be a local
What I mean by being a local is, look for non touristy things to do. We all know that destinations (especially popular ones) have a ton of tourist traps and you’ll end up spending $200 before you realize it.
Don’t get me wrong, you can still do the tourist things but I’m just saying to limit it. You can do one big tourist thing a day but for the rest of the day, do something thats free or a thing that only the locals know about.
5. Plan your itinerary before you go
This helps because it allows you to budget out your trip. If you know exactly what you’re going to do beforehand, you’ll be able to know how much you’ll spend a day and what leftover money you’ll have for souvenirs or to do something spontaneous!
Those are all my tips! I hope you learned something new and take them into consideration! You don’t have to listen to me obviously but, it couldn’t hurt! Read my 7 tips on how to live your best life here!
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Shay, Bye!