Budget Travel Webpage

If you want to travel but don’t want to pay a high price for air travel, there is always the road trip to consider. It is definitely affordable and fuss free. Consider visiting the countryside or the sea resorts or even travel interstate.

Here are money-saving ideas that allow you to travel and have a break from daily routine.

Split Travel Expenses

Split the fuel, food and accommodation expenses amongst your friend. You can’t do that with airfare or any other form of transportation.

Rent or borrow a car with great fuel mileage and a weekend road trip for four could cost less than $50 a person in fuel, depending on the destination. Overall expenditure rates will also be cheaper than you think.

No Baggage Fees

You don’t have to consider baggage excess allowance and the fees incurred. Just pack as much as the space in the boot allows. You can even bring a bicycle or a surf board that can be easily fastened on top of the car. Fishing rods can be carried around too for some fishing experience. You will never get to bring such equipment on the plane. You don’t have to wait at the baggage carousel to retrieve your luggage. That is one hassle eliminated. Your luggage travels with you and arrives the same as you.

Smaller Towns Cost Less to Visit

With a road trip, it’s possible to visit places not serviced by airlines, or even sometimes bus or train. Don’t overlook the idea of going off-the-beaten-path on a road trip and visiting small towns instead of a large city. They often have a charm all their own such as quaint houses and shops and lovely landscapes. Visit a curio shop or have scones in a quaint antique shop. Admire the clock tower at the town square, visit the local farmer’s market or have picnic at the park.

As a plus, hotels, restaurants and attractions can cost considerably less, as well. A chain hotel that costs $150 a night in a large city could cost half that per night in a mid-size or smaller city or town. A family-run diner could provide one of the best meals ever eaten for the same price as a fast food value meal.

Bring Snacks and Drinks

Pack a cooler with ice. Stick in some water, soft drinks and sandwich fixings and a group of four can easily save on dining expenses while on the road. If traveling in a larger vehicle, consider investing in a small fridge that plugs into the lighter outlet. Try preparing convenient sandwich fillings or easy meals for the first day of the trip to cut down on the food budget. Examples are egg mayonnaise, tuna, salami, shredded chicken, and corned beef.

No Need for a Rental Car

One doesn’t need to spend money on a rental car when one drives to a destination. Use your own vehicle or borrow from a friend or family member. You can save on rental cost and other hidden fees. The money saved can be spent on petrol and accommodation instead.

Of course one of the best reasons to go on a road trip is just spending more time on the journey, bond with your friends and have unforgettable memories. You cut down travel expenses by half at the same time.

Recently, a friend of mine came back from a backpacking trip in Asia and gave me valuable backpacking tips which I’d like to share with you.

We know things  in some Asian countries are cheap in terms of commodities, food, transport and accommodation. Don’t get blinded by cheap goods. You will end up spending more than what you planned on in the first place! One of the pitfalls of backpacking, my friend commented,  is spending too much money without thinking. Plan your budget and be practical when buying things in the bazaars. Don’t be taken in by the array of products and their astonishingly cheap, negotiable prices. This will result in you being short of cash and having to cut down on your activities and having to travel back home a few weeks earlier or worse still, having someone to transfer money to your account.

Here are some simple steps on how to backpack on a budget:

Accommodation:
Choose a hostel instead of a hotel because it’s your cheapest option where you share a room with up to 6 people. Meals are often not included in the price, but that shouldn’t be a problem because buying groceries in Asia is fairly cheap. You can prepare your own sandwich or cup noodles within the hostel premises.
Hostels are very affordable, convenient and a great place to meet other travellers. Have in mind that hostels are popular among young backpackers and even families, so the rooms fill up quickly. My friend’s advice is to travel during the off-peak seasons. But if you want to backpack during the high or peak season and you’re planning to stay at tourist-packed hotspots like Koh Phi Phi in Thailand or Siem Reap in Cambodia, remember to book a room way in advance. If you don’t do this and all the budget places are fully-booked, you will likely have to crash at an expensive 5-star hotel as a last resort.

Food and Drinks:
Avoid eating at road side food stalls or buying food from food vendors if your stomach is not used to it. There are basically food stalls and cheap restaurants everywhere in Thailand, Laos, Cambodia and India. But be careful when choosing a place to eat — take note of the hygiene and the way food is prepared before you make a choice.

Transport:
Ask the staff at the guesthouse or hostel where you can find cheap transport and how much it should cost. This way you will avoid being tricked by local taxi drivers.  It is a good idea like the public bus and train that charge standard fares.

Shopping:
Looking for cheap shopping? Where you shop is as important as bargaining. Shopping at the local markets is often cheaper than the huge malls. But have in mind that most of the markets are popular tourist spots, so they’re usually crowded. It’s usually harder to bargain at these places because the sellers know that if YOU don’t buy their products - someone else will.

Bargaining is the key to cheap shopping. But before you do that, I recommend that you stroll around to compare prices. If it’s your first time in a foreign country, it’s sometimes hard to know what things should cost. You can’t bargain for something when you even don’t know if it’s cheap/expensive. Bargaining is an art. You have to know how to bargain to get the best prices.

Money:
Avoid exchanging money at the airports. If you do this, you will get the lowest rate of exchange. Go to a bank instead as they can give you the best exchange rates available. My advice is to change enough for your stay before you travel. That will save you the hassle of finding a money changer or losing out on low exchange rates.
If you’re planning on travelling to several neighboring countries, avoid exchanging too much money if you’re leaving the country in just a few days. You may not have enough time to spend it.

Communication:
Instead of using your mobile phone for international calls, you should use Skype at an internet café. To save money on domestic calls, don’t use your mobile phone with your original SIM-card. I suggest you buy a local SIM-card. Have the owner from where you bought the card from help you activate the SIM-card.

Tours:
Visiting some attractions? Skip the package tours and rent a bike or taxi for a day. If you decide to rent a bike, it’s cheaper and you get to see the things you want to see in your own pace. For free information on history and sights, ask the local staff at the guesthouse or a fellow traveler. Otherwise, you can print it out from the internet. A couple of print-outs are cheaper and lightweight than a book.

My backpacker friend advises that you plan your backpacking trips carefully and check out how to get to destinations in the country. The internet is full of information at your fingertips. Happy backpacking!

Travel may not be an expensive leisure activity. It all depends on how you plan, how much time you spend planning your vacation, where you look for the best deals, the time you choose to travel and some frugal sense.

Check out the following ideas to save money on the road:

1. Look for alternative accommodations. Accommodation can be very expensive, especially hotels. Two good alternatives are hostels and apartment rentals. People think hostels are only for young backpackers and think of these as places where you’d have to share bathrooms. Well that’s not really true. Hostels offer private rooms with their own bathroom, wireless, and towels which are of course slightly more expensive than dormitory lodging and way cheaper than what hotels charge. You can find some of the amenities you’ll find in any hotel at half the price. They have a wide range of rooms to suit all types of travellers so don’t overlook them! (Read my post on “Hostel Accommodation’)

If the private room with attached bathroom in hostels you are looking up are fully booked (bear in mind they have limited private rooms in hostels) you can still stand a chance at budget hotels which offers the same amenities as the higher end hotels at a lower price.

On the other hand, apartment rentals are another option. Why not stay in fully furnished apartments while you are on vacation? Apartments are especially great for traveling families. They come with all the normal apartment amenities — kitchen, laundry room, and TV. If you plan to spend five or more days in a city, these are great cost effective alternatives to hotels. If you plan to travel during low peak season, you can save a lot on accommodation.

2. Learn to negotiate. Times are tough for the travel industry. If you must seek the services of a travel agent, use this to your advantage by asking for free upgrades or negotiating lower rates. You may be surprised by how accommodating any travel agent can be.

3. Think before you use your credit card. Should you use travel credit card? If you are a frequent traveller and are comfortable with carrying credit cards, specialty cards that help you earn free miles or allow you to secure free or very cheap lodging at otherwise higher priced hotels it may be worth to use the card. If you don’t have such deals, then you are better off not using credit cards. A debit card will do or alternatively change enough cash in your local money changer’s to avoid paying more than you should at your destination. 

4. Book flights in advance. Airlines are always the most expensive part of a trip. Booking 6 to 8 weeks before you leave will ensure the best price. The airline pricing system penalises last minute tickets as well as more advanced bookings. Moreover, always book a return trip: you’ll get a better deal that way too. There will be last minute deals available but unless you want to take a huge risk, it is wiser to book in advance.

5. Always visit the tourist office. These offices have all the information you need on the place or city you are visiting including the latest deals and discounts and free events happening in the city.

6. Get a City Pass. City passes give you full access to city attractions and transport for less. If you like to see museums or visit historic sites, then entrance fees can add up pretty quickly. It is much cheaper to get a city pass which will usually give you free entry into the majority of a city’s attractions and unlimited use of the public transport in the city for a day.

7. Opt to eat out for lunch and eat in for dinner. It’s much better and relatively cheaper to have a set lunch than dinner. You can make your own sandwich for dinner by purchasing bread and cheese, lettuce and cold cuts from the grocers. The money saved can be used for other purposes such as transport or paying for entry to tourist attractions.  

8. Stay connected for free. Do you need to check your emails while you travel? You can always get free access to the internet in libraries and free wi-fi in most cafes or fast food restaurants like McDonald’s. Check out the city’s wi-fi zones where you can plug in for free.

There are a variety of ways to save money when you go on vacation. It takes simple planning, research, frugality and thinking outside of the box. Oh yes and also some self-restraint like not buying unnecessary things while you are abroad. Check your priorities and stick to them.  

If you are intending to travel but are mindful of the expenses, there are ways you can adopt to cut back on unnecessary purchases. Always look for good bargains and set your priorities right while on the road.

1) Study airline fare cycles and consider alternate routes and times when booking your flights and save a lot of cash. Knowing the high and low airfares seasons and not reserving a flight in peak travel times will be much cheaper.  Be flexible with the routes you search for and don’t rely on default search results when using travel booking online. For example, airfares for direct routes are much more expensive than transit routes for example Sydney-Perth-Singapore. If you don’t mind the long route you may save some cash on your airfare.

2) Don’t use traveler’s checks. You have to pay service charges and they are troublesome to exchange. It’s very rare to even have them accepted as payment anymore and you’ll have to exchange them to have ready cash while traveling, losing a lot in the transaction. It is wiser to use your debit card to withdraw money from bank machines along the way.  Using your debit card for as many transactions as possible will also reduce he amount of cash you carry around. Change enough cash with the money changer in your home country to avoid being charged unnecessary high rates at unfamiliar money changers in the country of your destination.

3)   Stay in a motel, bed-and-breakfast or service apartment. Save on lodging costs and exercise flexibility. Most service apartments come with a kitchen and you can save by cooking or preparing your own food. Renting a room in a motel is cheaper than in a hotel. However, the benefit of staying in a hotel is that most hotels offer breakfast so this may be a good way to save on meals. If you tuck in to a heavy breakfast, you can forgo lunch and have a decent dinner. Alternatively, bed-and-breakfast lodgings provide you with this privilege.

4) Learn to say “no” to tour guides you hire on site. Many times you’ll be approached by independent guides once you arrive in a city’s airport, ferry port or places of interest. They can actually be helpful in showing you around the place and offer affordable rates — but — keep in mind they may be receiving commissions from restaurants and shops along the way. If prices of souvenirs and food seem far to exorbitant, tell the guide you would like to go elsewhere. They will likely protest, but stand firm. Also, say no to on-site photographers. They usually charge high rates for their services. Use your camera instead.

5) Use envelopes for easy budgeting during a trip. If you have trouble sticking to your budget or keeping track of numbers, try putting cash into different envelopes marked for each day or for each category for each day such as food, transport and admission tickets to places of interest. Only spend the cash in your envelope. Use your debit card for emergencies only.

6) Be creative when souvenir shopping. If you’re feeling pressured to bring something back for those back home, don’t discount the simple ways to share your experience. Buy from smaller local shops or rural communities. You’ll end up with a souvenir that’s not only authentic, but budget friendly such as an intricately woven coaster or a hand-made picture frame. Also don’t discount supermarket staples. Instead of buying $20 T-shirts, buy consumables from local supermarket that seem more exotic back home. Examples include chocolate-coated Macadamia from Woolworths in Australia and an intricately designed box containing local tea from Cottage Industries Supermarket in India.

Try to stick to your budget and refrain from being taken in by souvenir or restaurant touts. It takes some proper planning, discipline and flexibility to achieve your goal as a savvy budget traveller.