How to Plan a Trip Without Breaking the Bank
There’s a common misconception that you need to have tons of extra money sitting around to travel internationally. News flash — you don’t! In fact, some international trips can be cheaper than traveling domestically if you’re doing it the right way.
Traveling definitely costs money, but you don’t need to break the bank to do it. If you’re looking to plan an international trip, there are many tips and tricks to keep it as affordable as possible without affecting your experience.
Below are a few tips that will help you plan an amazing international trip without breaking your budget.
Book an Airbnb…
Choosing where to stay when you travel abroad is quite possibly the biggest expense you’ll have to pay — so how should you go about choosing? But what if you could have more space, a kitchen, and more for even less of a price than costly hotels?
Airbnb is not a new concept, but some people are still intimidated by staying in a stranger’s home. But the pros here definitely outweigh the cons, for a number of different reasons.
First, you’ll have so much more space for a fraction of the price of hotels. You can rent entire houses and apartments to sleep a big group of people without being on top of each other, and it’ll make you feel like you’re right at home.
Another bonus? You’ll save a ton of money on food! Do a grocery trip when you arrive and get snacks, breakfast foods, and more — this way, you won’t have to eat out for every occasion and spend way more than you need to.
Plus, using Airbnb gives you the opportunity to find out how to experience where you’re visiting like a local. The best tour guides for any location are people who live there every day!
Or backpack!
Backpacking is an even cheaper way to travel if you can travel light. Backpacking gives you the opportunity to travel as light as possible for as cheap as possible, so you’re basically paying for some place to sleep. I did this in Dublin a few years ago as a college student, and paid less than $40 a night to stay in a hostel — that came with free breakfast, a shower, a bed, and a locker to put my belongings in. This worked out perfectly, considering I really only needed a place to sleep at night!
For some tips on how to backpack, check out The Savvy Backpacker.
Use Hopper to track when flights are cheapest
Hopper is an amazing app that will tell you when you should book your trip. Hopper helps predict cheap airfare based on the data from thousands of flights — and you can look right on your phone. Based on this data, it will tell you the cheapest and most expensive weeks to book your flights. You can eveb enable push notifications to find out the moment when prices drop so you can act on it.
Hopper is most useful when your trip is 3-6 months away, so it’s not ideal for last-minute trips.
Skip the tourist traps
If you’re looking up the best things to do wherever you’re traveling, chances are it’s a tourist trap — and it’ll cost you a lot more. Things like tours, restaurants, and experiences will charge tourists a bunch of money because they can really sell the fact that it’s a “once in a lifetime” experience. Chances are, it’s not, and chances are, you can find something else that is an actual once in a lifetime experience. In reality, you can find a lot of free activities to do where you’re traveling.
Some tips:
Ask your Airbnb host for recommendations — after all, they live there
Avoid tours — plan a self guided tour before your trip, instead!
Travel to locations during their offseason
Use public transportation or walk as much as possible
Look at the best destinations for low-budget options
Cheap travel options change year to year, based on the economy, travel trends, the weather, current events, and more, but there’s a ton of research done annually to tell you some of the best (and cheapest) places to travel. You can also get advice on the best times during the year to travel that’ll save you the most money. General tip: Summer is the worst time to travel for a LOT of places because prices are inflated.
If your heart isn’t set on one particular place to travel, I highly recommend spending an afternoon researching different places to see the average cost of travel. This way, you can know you can set a budget and follow it without many surprises.
Here are some cheap recommendations for 2019, Indie Traveler suggests:
Georgia (Caucasus)
Laos
Argentina
Nepal
Romania
Mexico
Turkey
Indonesia
Armenia
Bolivia
Colombia
Cambodia
Philippines
Ukraine
Cuba
At the end of the day, an affordable international trip is based on extensive research — take your time looking at accommodations, flights, locations, and more. By following some of these tips, you can plan an amazing trip at a fraction of the cost. Now, get planning!