Money Saving Travel Tips!
These Are the Best Money-Saving Tips to Ensure Your Next Trip Is Epic
Guest Blog by Jesse Clark
Travel can get expensive, fast. But with these smart money-saving tips, you can enjoy an epic trip without racking up credit card debt. Here’s everything you need to know about saving cash on your upcoming vacation.
Avoid Costly Cellular Overages
When you travel internationally, roaming and data charges can quickly outweigh the savings you started with. Contact your cellular service provider in advance of your trip and ask about their pay as you go cell phone plans. A prepaid phone plan will keep you in contact with everyone back home, with no unexpected overages to speak of.
Extend Your Stay
Whether you’re staying in a vacation rental, at an all-inclusive resort, or in a standard hotel, staying an extra night (or few) might make financial sense. Many properties offer extended-stay discounts, to the point where a seven-night stay might cost the same or less than staying four nights.
Cash in on Price-Matching Promises
Most booking sites, cruise lines, and airlines offer price-matching guarantees. That means you shouldn’t stop shopping once you book a flight, cruise, hotel, or any other service or accommodation.
Instead, keep combing the web for deals—and if you find a better one than what you booked, check your travel site’s policies to see if you can cash in.
Pack Light, Minimalist Style
There’s a reason the minimalist movement has caught on for every aspect of life. And when you’re traveling across the globe, there’s no reason to be weighed down with baggage. Skip expensive checked bag fees by minimizing your necessities and bringing a carry-on.
Business Insider also recommends baggage savings strategies like flying on airlines that check bags for free, signing up for airline credit cards with baggage benefits, or using rewards cards to pay for bag fees.
Travel Where Your Dollar Is Worth More
Favorable conversion rates can help you afford more at your destination. Travel + Leisure recommends visiting places where the US dollar is strong, such as Colombia, Costa Rica, Hungary, Japan, Argentina, Mexico, Brazil, Sweden, South Africa, and Poland.
To save on currency exchange fees, Nerd Wallet suggests checking with your local bank or credit union for rates. By exchanging cash before you depart, you’ll also be better prepared to explore once you reach your destination.
Avoid Peak Travel Times
Instead of traveling at the same time as the masses (e.g., spring break and major holidays), opt for off-peak times of the year instead. You’ll avoid crowds plus experience the same trip highlights as peak-season travelers. For example, winters can be beautiful in Italy, and many excursions are just as enjoyable in the off-season. CNN even recommends traveling during seasonal monsoon weather to peak destinations like Thailand and the Philippines.
Make Layovers Part of the Adventure
Depending on where you’re going, nonstop flights could be available—at a premium. Typically, flights without layovers are more expensive than those with multiple stops. But when you’re in an adventurous mood, you can make a layover part of the travel experience.
Choose a cheaper flight with multiple stopovers and see what there is to explore. Connecting flights with a layover in your planned destination can also cut costs in some cases—you just skip the last leg of the trip, VICE explains.
However, you should note that direct doesn’t necessarily mean nonstop. Direct flights mean the same flight number throughout the trip, even if the plane stops and you must get off. Direct flights can be connecting flights. Nonstop flights are the only type that does not include stops, layovers, or any other changes—barring emergencies.
American travelers spent a collective $933 billion in 2018, but the good news is that cheaper travel is available. All it takes is some ingenuity and planning, and you can enjoy the vacation of your dreams for less than what everyone else is paying.
