To many, travelling means having to fork out large amount of money which resulted in them not travelling as often as they would like to.
But is that true? Is there really a need to spend a large portion of your savings on your travels? Are there ways to get the most bang for your buck so that you do not have to compromise on your travelling experiences? Well,
my husband and I do have some tricks up our sleeves that has enabled us to keep our travel spending in check and we would like to share them with you!
Prior to the trip
In a typical scenario, one would usually follow the sequence of first deciding on the travel destination, followed by online booking
of the relevant flights and accommodation and ta da, the trip is set! Or is that so? Well, you could actually save quite a bit if you tweak that routine slightly.
For us, we will “F.A.R.T.” prior to the trip to make sure that we are getting the best travel deal possible! Wait, what? No, I know what you are thinking of but
that is not the case, it is just an acronym for “flexibility”, “apps”, “research” and “time”.
Flexibility
It is a common practise to fix a travel destination so that the planning that follows can be done seamlessly. However, by being fixated
on a particular destination, one would be subjected to a limited range of flights and accommodation available and no matter how costly they may be, one would have no choice but to make do with this high cost.
It is a common knowledge that every country has its own high and low tourist season, and generally the flight and accommodation will
be cheaper during the low season. But why do we still want to travel to places during their peak tourist season? Wouldn’t it seem like a better deal to be able to enjoy all the perks of travelling to a foreign land without
the need to fight for space with tons of tourists and better still, at a lower cost?
Although it may be true that there are many alluring reasons for the influx of tourists to particular travel destinations at specific timing
of the year, there are still many wonders to be uncovered during the low tourist season of the same said destination. Furthermore, there might be other even more interesting activities awaiting you during the low season! With
the world so big, saturated with many different places to travel to and explore, by exercising flexibility in your travel expectations as well as travel destination choices, you will find that you have actually opened up a
lot more cost-saving options!
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| Travel goal: To be as flexible as the Tower of Pisa ;P |
With a change in mindset, my husband and I will usually select “anywhere” as our destination on the flight booking apps when planning
for a trip. This will generate a list of destinations for us to have a rough gauge of the travelling cost to these different destinations. If a particular flight booking app does not have the “anywhere” option, we would
manually key in several different destinations and compare the travelling cost.
To step up the game, we would also be flexible in our travelling dates by playing around with the travel to and fro dates within a two
week time frame. You would be surprised by how great a difference in the transport cost travelling a day or two earlier or later could make! With just these two methods alone, we could then make an informed decision on the
most cost-effective destination to travel to for that particular time of the year.
However, things does not end here as we will usually shortlist two to three destinations from the list of destinations generated. Thereafter,
we will use the hotel booking apps to have a general feel of the accommodation cost at the selected destinations. The destination that we finally decided on will be the one that is most cost-effective in terms of both flight
and accommodation cost! In short, rather than allowing our travel destination limit the flight and accommodation choices, we have allowed our flight and accommodation choices to pinpoint to our travel destination!
Bonus tip #1: Be careful when selecting flights with the lowest cost, especially for flights at very weird timing of the day. The main reason being if the flight is scheduled for very early in the morning or
very late at night, there might not be any public transportation to the airport and thus would require travelling by taxi, which can be quite costly in some countries! Hence, when selecting your flights, do factor in the transportation
cost of travelling to and fro the airport as well - the cheapest flight might not be as cheap as it seems in the end!
Apps
Flight/accommodation booking apps can make trip planning a much easier task. We have found these apps extremely useful in providing
the data that we need to be flexible about our travel destination as mentioned earlier on. Our usual go-to app for flights is “skyscanner”, which will scan through all the available flights and list them out in order of
their cost. Although there is the option to book the flights directly through skyscanner, we would usually not book through them but through apps or website which offered loyalty programme. Some of these apps or websites include
“Expedia” or “booking.com”, which basically rewards customers who always do their travel bookings through them, either in terms of points (to be redeemed later on) or flight/accommodation cost at discounted rates.
If you are already a user of such apps/websites, I would recommend to stick to them as sometimes their members’ price or rewards scheme can be quite attractive which is useful in cutting down on the travel expenses. These
apps/websites, apart from being good sources to check out the accommodation prices of the selected destinations, may also offer greater discount if both flights and accommodation are booked through them. Of course, with so
many different travel apps and website available, there is a need to be prudent and only go for the reputable ones so as not to fall victim to online scams.
Bonus tip #2: Using a credit card that offers rebates or websites that offers cashback for purchases done through them would be like adding a cherry on top of a great travel deal!
Bonus tip #3: If the trip is more or less confirmed with no reason for a change in plans. you may consider booking the non-cancellable rooms as they are usually cheaper than the cancellable ones. A good thing
to look out for when looking through the accommodation option would be to opt for one with free WIFI in the room and free breakfast. This may seem trivial but being able to have access to the Internet might be essential to
prepare for the next day’s itinerary in the comfort of the room and a good breakfast also enables you to have the energy for the day’s exploration. Furthermore, hotel breakfast also ensures that you can start your day
at your scheduled timing and not be left at the mercy of the opening hours of the outside bakeries or restaurants.
Research
If time permits, it would do some good to research on the travel destination. As bulk of travel expenses are spent on transportation,
food and admission tickets to attraction sites, doing some brief research on these might help to save some money. The public transport system is different in different countries and it would be good to have a clear idea of
how it works prior to arrival. Having some knowledge of the public transportation system would allow for travelers to make informed decision about the most economical transportation to and fro the airport, the most value-for-money
public transport to utilize out of all the various options and whether to pay cash for each individual ride or to get a day transportation pass.
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| Be aware of the public transport system of your travel destination! |
Bonus tip #4: While researching on the public transport system, making a mental note of the hotels that are located in close proximity to the tourist attraction sites to visit would help in prioritizing the
choice of hotel accommodation. Choosing a hotel that are within walking distance to the attraction sites can minimize the use of the public transport and hence help to save some money!
As for food, we usually read through travel forums or google review sites to identify the most value-for-money eateries. It would be
a bonus if we managed to find information on the eateries that the locals usually frequent. One such example would be the hawker center in Singapore, where it is usually packed with locals and offering delicious food that
are around 3-4 times cheaper than those in restaurants! If there are no information that we can find online, we will usually ask the hotel staff or even locals that we meet during the trip on the eateries that they usually
go to - nothing beats getting information directly from the horse’s mouth!
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| Having the best churros at this cafe frequented by the locals :) |
Bonus tip #5: Try to keep an open mind about which eateries to visit while travelling because in some places, the best eateries are often not mentioned online and which are only known to the locals! Although
equipped with a list of eateries to head to during our travels, my husband and I will still be on the lookout for these “hidden” eateries! Once we have identified one of such eateries, we will step in to explore the place
slightly (looking out for signs like reasonable food prices and whether the customers seemed satisfied with the food) before making a bold move to dine in there. More often than not, we have had the most delicious and value-for-money
meals in such eateries!
Apart from transportation and food, payment for admission tickets to the various attraction sites is another major money-draining area
of a trip. As most tourist attraction sites worldwide have made their site information available online, it would be good to do some online research and check out for promotional bundled admission ticket deals to the various
attraction sites as well as checking out if there are discounts for tickets purchased online instead of at the attraction site counter. It might also be good to try and use credit cards that offers rebates when purchasing
admission tickets online. Although all these savings does seem trivial, when these little savings add up, it an help save a lot of money!
Bonus tip #6: Try to look out for special dates whereby there are free entrances to the attraction sites (for example, most museums and major tourist attraction sites in Paris offer free admission on the first
Sunday of the month) or discounted tickets at certain time of the day (some museums might offer discounted admission tickets at night on certain days of the week) and plan your visits accordingly!
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| Look out for free admission to the Louvre in Paris to catch a glimpse of Mona Lisa! |
Time
As mentioned earlier on, we would usually allocate a time frame of two weeks to schedule in our travels so that we can afford to find
the cheapest flight and accommodation option of the week. In addition, we usually do not wait till the very last minute to book my flights and accommodations as the price will usually go up nearer to the actual date. Planning
earlier in advance would also enable us to have more time to find the best deal, hence time is the essence in more savings when planning a trip!
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| Tick tock....tick tock... |
Bonus tip #7: Sign up for frequent flyer programs so that you can get the first hand alerts on promotional flight deals which can be quite attractive at times!
During the trip
So then, are these cost saving tips only applicable to the planning stages of the trip? What if you are already on the trip and would
like to save some money along the way as well? Well, fret now, as we do have another set of cost saving tips to use during the trip and that is “S.T.O.P.”, which stands for “sim card” “tours”, “offbeaten paths” and “packing”.
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| Learn more about the local lifestyle while travelling :) |
Even before we “S.T.O.P.”, we would evaluate the living standards of our travel destination upon arrival. Why do we even do that? Well, having a rough idea of the standards of living would enable us to know roughly if
the cost of transport, food, souvenirs and other items are going to be more or less costly from where we came from and in turn, we would know how much local currency we would need to exchange for at the money exchange counters.
It would also prep us to make mental evaluation of whether the cost that we are paying for in any instances are reasonable. There are many ways to evaluate but the one that we use most often is to compare the price of a MacDonald’s
set meal. The set meal at MacDonald’s are more or less similar in different countries and since MacDonald’s can be found in almost anywhere in the world, we find it to be a rather useful gauge of the standard of living
in different places!
Sim card
Staying connected, whether is it with our travelling partners or to the world wide web, is a necessity during our travels. Even though
many telecos have the international roaming option which offers users the convenience of using their own telephone sim card, it can be quite costly to use them. Hence, whenever we touch down on our travel destination, my husband
and I would usually start looking around for an appropriate local sim card to be used during our travel period. More often than not, this local sim card will come in handy when we are lost and require the use of google maps
to find back our bearings or to book admission tickets online or even to call and make reservations at restaurants. It is definitely a less costly way to stay connected as compared to the use of international roaming!
Bonus tip #8: When travelling to different places within the same continent, try to find a sim card that can be used in the various different country of the same continent as that sim card would usually be more
budget friendly as compared to buying individual sim cards for use in each country. In the event that the local sim card is too costly or difficult to get, fret not as you can still use the free WIFI back in the hotel or public
areas to do all the necessary googling as well as screen-shot a series of maps of the places to visit for the day as references.
Tours
Sometimes, while travelling, we might identify certain places that are located quite near to where we are but which can be a hassle to
travel to. Hence, for cases like this, we would usually look out for local tour agencies that offers day trips to the places that we are interested to visit. Of course, there is a need to evaluate if the cost of these day
trips are reasonable but so far, we had enjoyed all our day tours which enabled us to visit places out of the city and saved us the trouble of figuring out how to get their on our own. I guess paying slightly more for the
intangible convenience is certainly justifiable!
Bonus tip #9: Many countries (especially in Europe) offer “free” walking tours around the city, usually led by one of the local volunteers to share the historical stories of the city as well as to bring
tourists through the major landmarks. At the end of the tour, tourists are free to tip these volunteers as they deem reasonable. We had joined many of these walking tours and have found these tours useful in getting to know
more about the place that we are visiting! It also saved us the hassle of having the look up the history and significance of the various important landmarks located in the tourist attraction sites! Furthermore, meeting like-minded
people who are interested to find out more about the place of visit is indeed an added bonus!
Offbeaten paths
Although there are often a list of “must-see” attraction sites in every country, my husband and I are not the type to follow the
conventional ways. We prefer to explore the offbeaten paths and will try every possible means to explore places that not many people are aware of. Often, when we return with stories of discovering a unique place which even
the locals are unsure of, there is a sense of accomplishment knowing that we manage to do things differently. Furthermore, as these offbeaten paths are not as well known, we usually have the whole place to our own, without
the need to fight for space with tons of other tourists. Having the luxury of exploring a place at our own pace in our own little space certainly make such exploration all the more wonderful!
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| Not sure which path to take.... |
Bonus tip #10: Do make sure to do sufficient research on the offbeaten paths before embarking on it to so as to minimize risk of running into any danger!
Packing
Most budget airlines impose a fee on checked baggage and hence for all of our travels, my husband and I would usually try to pack all
our stuff into our own cabin bag so as to save on the checked baggage fees. However, regardless of whether we are taking an international flight or a budget airline, we will still stick to one cabin bag each because (a) we
can avoid having to wait at the baggage carousel and can leave for the city straight after exiting the immigration checkpoint and (b) it is easier to travel with less baggage!
We will also usually pack an additional item when travelling on a budget airline and that is food! Most budget airlines charge extra
to cater food on board and we often find the food selection to be quite limited as well, hence most of the time, we would pack our own food to have on board. This not only helped to save some money but also ensures that we
are fuelled up on food that we actually like and which indirectly translates to a great beginning of the trip when we touch down!
Bonus tip #11: My husband and I will usually pack some instant food or snacks to bring along for our travels in case the food at our travel destination is not to our liking or the cost of living is too high to
be always eating out. This little habit of ours not only helped us to save on our travel expenses, but it has also armed us with enough food stores to fuel our energy needs especially when travelling on the offbeaten paths
where it might be difficult to get access to eateries.
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| Try something different when travelling...you never know what exciting surprise awaits you! |
So, there you go - our “F.A.R.T.” “S.T.O.P.” strategies for getting the best bang out of our buck for our travels! What are some of YOUR strategies to save money while travelling? Feel free to share with us in the comment section below!
Looking forward to hearing from you! :)
