People often ask me how I manage to travel so often. The answer is very simple: I try to spend as little money as possible on my travels. You may think that this goes at the expense of having a comfortable travel. This is not necessarily true, but I admit that sometimes it is more comfortable to go for the first available option than to spend time looking for a cheaper alternative. However, most of the times it's also fun to find those cheap alternatives. An additional benefit is that you are more likely to get in touch with locals or other travelers with a similar mindset.
In this post I will tell you seven tips on how to travel cheaper and have more fun while traveling. I hope they will be useful for you.
1. Book your flight as cheap as possible
You can already save a lot of money before your travel even starts. If your destination is close, consider low-cost airlines such as RyanAir, EasyJet, GermanWings and WizzAir when purchasing your ticket. The seats in these planes are fine, so why pay more for the same flight at another airline? The only difference is that you don't get a free meal with most low-cost airlines, but food and drinks are available during the flight. Even if you decide buy the most expensive meal on board your total fare would still be cheaper than the cheapest alternative in most cases. The best thing though is to eat something at home or to bring food with you on the plane. You are not allowed to bring liquids on board, but you are allowed to bring your own sandwiches, cookies and chocolate on the plane.
If you are flexible with your travel dates or departure/arrival destination, it pays off to check out
www.skyscanner.com. This website allows you to compare your options very easily by allowing you to type country names instead of airport names in the "from" and "to" fields and by allowing you to choose the option "whole month" or even "whole year" instead of inflexible travel dates. Another advice is to regularly check websites that often have lists with discount tickets. I know that in Holland we have
www.ticketspy.nl and in Czech Republic they have
www.akcniletenky.com. It can be useful for you to know a similar website from your own country, especially if you are flexible with your destinations.
2. Never change money in advance when traveling to a cheaper country
This tip is very useful for people who live in a western country, like the Netherlands. When you exchange your money in a western country you usually pay a fixed service fee AND you get a bad exchange rate, especially if the currency you are looking for is rare in your own country. The best thing to do then is to bring euros (or dollars, for some countries outside of Europe) to your holiday destination and exchange the money there. If the euro is not your own currency: ALWAYS change the money you have left at the end of your holiday back to euros instead of your home currency and keep your euros in a special box at home so you can use them on another travel.
Another piece of advice: NEVER change money on the streets. People may come up to you and offer you good exchange rates, but most likely they will still rip you off in one way or another. Always exchange your money at an office that has its rates written down outside and count your money while you are still at the desk. Even if the cashier counts it for you, do your own recount to make sure that the amount is correct.
A final piece of advice: if you are arriving in a new country on a Sunday, make sure you don't have to look for exchange offices. It happened to me once in Ohrid (Macedonia) that I could find no exchange office at all, but I was lucky enough that I could pay for my accommodation in euros and get enough change back in the local currency to buy a cheap meal at the local McDonald's.
It's also recommended not to use ATM's abroad very often and to get big amounts when you do. Most banks charge you a fee of 2-4 euros per transaction, on top of the bad exchange rate they are offering.
3. Save on accommodation!
When you are traveling alone, it's ideal to stay in hostels. Hostels are a great place to meet other travelers. For those of you who have never been to a hostel: hostels are hotels with big dorm rooms where 3 or more people can sleep. You pay just for your bed and because you share your room with other people a hostel is a lot cheaper than a hotel. If you want to book a hostel, just go to
www.hostelworld.com, enter your destination, find a hostel you like based on your requirements and just book it. Alternatively, you can just write down the names and addresses of your favorite hostels and not book anything. I prefer to do it this way, because it gives you the flexibility to change your plans while you are traveling if you get some advice from locals, other travelers or hostel staff. Another advantage is that if you can't find your most preferred hostel, you don't need to search for it and can just go to another hostel.
An even more fun way to save on accommodation costs is to go Couchsurfing. Via
www.couchsurfing.com you can find people at your destination who are offering you a place to sleep for free (traditionally a couch, but there are also many people who have beds or inflatable mattresses). Usually your "host" will take you out to see the city, or at least give some advice. Which brings me to the next tip I have for you:
4. Meet up with and talk to locals
The best and most awesome way to travel is to meet many locals. They can tell you about all the good places in their city (including the ones tourist guides usually won't tell you about!) and explain everything about local food and traditions. Moreover, they can give you advice on how to use local public transportation as well. Compared to eating only in tourist places and joining expensive city tours for tourists, meeting up with a local (or just talking to them in a bus, on a plane or while you both are waiting for something) can definitely save you some money. But more importantly: these meetups are often what you will remember most about a trip. I will never forget how talking to a random man at a bus station caused me to make an 8-hour road-trip through the desert in Oman with 3 strangers. Or how I ended up spending an entire evening in a pizzeria in Kenya with 4 students I met on a local bus. So my advice: don't be shy or scared to talk to strangers while traveling. Be open-minded about meeting new people. This attitude might just give you a memory that will last for a lifetime.
Please do use common sense though and try to figure out whether this person is genuinely curious about you or just wants something from you.
5. Eat local food in small restaurants or on the street
A lot of tourists eat most of their meals abroad in big restaurants. They eat regular meals that they are used to eat in their home country or go to the touristic places where they sell local food for a high price. The best idea is to look for a place a bit more out of the center that has many local people inside. Getting advice from a local could help you with this. The receptionist of your ho(s)tel may also be able to help you, but you can never be sure whether he has ties with a certain restaurant. For sure you should NOT go to touristic restaurants that offer really cheap meals (especially if you ever find yourself in Aguas Calientes) or restaurants where nobody is sitting inside while it's dinner time. In both cases eating there would most likely not be good for your health.
In some countries you can also buy good food on the streets. This food is in some cases even better than the food you are getting in restaurants, but you should always be careful about hygiene. Make sure that you see how the salesman is cooking the food and that you agree with his methods before you buy anything from him.
6. Do volunteer work during your holiday
Many people are interested in doing volunteer work abroad. Most of these people drop out when they see the high prices that most organisations are asking their volunteers to pay. I have one organisation they need to know about: Service Civil International. At
www.workcamps.info you can find more than 500 short-term volunteer camps abroad (projects usually last around 2 weeks). As a volunteer you are expected to work 5 or 6 hours per day together with other volunteers from all over the world on a charity project. You can search for a project yourself, so you can also choose the kind of work you will be doing and your destination. You are required to pay a sum of around 100 euros (depends on the local branche of SCI in your home country) and all meals and accommodation are usually included. In the weekends you have free time to visit nearby tourist attractions or enjoy some relaxation together with the other volunteers. And you book your own flight ticket, so you can have as much time as you want before or after the project to visit the country or travel around a bit. So if you were ever interested in doing volunteer work abroad but never followed through, then this is your chance.
7. Be creative: use your own talents
This last one is a difficult one for me to describe as every person has different skills and expertise, but let me give you some examples of how other travelers managed to travel cheaply using their own talents.
- One Dutch man has traveled to Africa many times and it didn't cost him a penny. How did he do it? Simple: he bought an old Mercedes or Toyota (both very strong cars) in the Netherlands and drove them to Africa. Once in Africa, he could sell these cars for high prices because these brands are very popular in Africa. Moreover, this guy had a story to tell, so he was often invited by locals and offered free food and a house to stay the night.
- It can also help to learn more than just a few basic phrases in a language. Especially if you travel to a country where the people are supposed to be quite hospitable, it can pay off if you speak the language of locals (actually in more than just a financial way).
- One time when I was abroad I met an woman in her forties who told stories of her travels around Latin America when she was younger. She stayed in a touristic city in Mexico for a longer time when she ran out of money. She had to find a way to make money quickly and decided to try out being a "living statue" in a touristic place. According to her story, she was among the first people to try being a living statue and she earned so much money that she even had to take some of the money home at the end of her travel.
- If you are handy or good at gardening/farming, you can find very cheap working holidays at websites like
www.staydu.com or
www.wwoof.net.
That would be all from me. Do you have any more tips you want to share? Feel free to write them in a comment!
