Many people do not travel often because they think that it is too expensive. The most expensive costs in traveling tend to be airfare, housing and food, the cost all of which can be substantially lowered with a little planning. In this post we are going to share the steps that we take to go to amazing places at a relatively low cost.
How to Buy Cheap Airplane Tickets
1. Figure out if it is worth it to travel to a larger airport instead of flying out of a smaller one that is closer to home.
Tickets to fly to your dream vacation spot are one of the most expensive purchases to make. This is especially true to those people that are living in rural areas and away from major airports. Tickets out of any of the airports in New York City are many times cheaper than tickets that fly out of Bangor, Maine. The first thing to consider when buying tickets is whether or not it is worth the cost to travel to a larger airport instead of flying out of one that is closer to home. For us, it is worth the few hours of driving to get a ticket that is oftentimes $400-$500 cheaper.
2. Look in the Right Places
While you can occasionally find good rates on airline websites or flight and hotel search engines, we have had the best deals using Skyscanner. This service acts similar to search engines like travelocity and orbitz, but seems to have consistently lower prices. What we love about skyscanner is that they do not intentionally raise the price of tickets to pressure you to buy them, which seems to be the case with every other service. No matter how many times you visit the website and contemplate buying that ticket, the cost is honest.
Another air travel site we like is Norwegian airlines. Norwegian is a lowfare airline, and the flights we were on would be considered… economic. They are the airline to use if you are just looking for a simple flight, the catch is they only travel to specific locations. For the most part, they cover Europe. There are less options of places to go when using Norwegian, but it is worth it to check out where they fly to and their airfare calendar, you never know what you will find! This is how we were able to fly to Guadeloupe for under $200 per person, round-trip.
How to Get Cheap Lodging
1. Use Airbnb
One of the easiest ways to travel on a budget is to avoid staying at resorts and fancy hotels, unless visiting a more dangerous location, in which case a resort is the better and safer option. One of our favorite ways to travel is by staying at airbnbs. Airbnb offers a lot more than just a cheap place to stay, you also get a real experience. By staying in peoples’ homes, you get to experience life like a local. Depending on if you choose to just rent a room or a whole house, your host may be around and able to offer advice on some of the best things to do in the area. In Guadeloupe we rented a room on Airbnb for $33 a night. It came with a private bathroom and we had access to the kitchen (important for a budget traveler). Check out this video of our Airbnb to see how awesome life in Guadeloupe is.
1a. The Airbnb Hosts
While we were renting the room, the hosts were around often. The man we stayed with was excellent; he told us about some cool hiking trails and introduced us to some local cuisine. He even gave us a bottle of rum at the end of our trip! One day he bought a variety of French cheeses and treated us to a sampling session. Our host went out of his way to make a phone call to the tour guide that we were meeting the following day (we had a miscommunication and our trip got cancelled). He talked (in French) with the guide for a while and sorted everything out, allowing us to go on the snorkeling trip, where we ultimately got engaged. We cannot emphasize how amazing our host was. Along with being able to talk to him about life on the islands, we were able to experience it as well.
2. Stay in Hostels
Another great option for travel, particularly outside of the United States, is staying in hostels. Hostels are dormitory style “hotels.” They rent by the bed and you are in a room with a variety of other people from all over the world. Hostels are a great way to meet new people, share stories and experiences and maybe even learn about a new place to go to on your next adventure.
How to Eat for Cheap
Stay somewhere with a kitchen
When choosing lodging, try to find a location that provides access to a kitchen. You can save a ton of money by cooking your own meals and being able to prepare, pack and take out your own meals with you on your adventures. Eating out for every meal really adds up, try to cook your own food as much as possible and save your restaurant money for only a few really unique dining experiences that you will never be able to do again, like a place that offers a really unique and interesting menu, or fun place that will make a great memory.
How to Do Things On a Budget
1. Plan, plan, plan
Making the most out of your adventure can get costly, but you can whittle down the cost of your trip by doing some research. Go on groupon and see if what you want to do is discounted before whipping out your wallet. Look on tripadvisor and check out what other people have done and what company they used.
2. Prioritize your activities
Going out on a tour everyday can get expensive, and many travelers stick to cheap activities to stay on a budget. We recommend deciding what activities that you want to do, prioritize them, and splurge a little on the top ones. You can still look for and find deals for what you want to do, but we find it easier to figure out what things we are willing to pay $75 for, and which things we can do for free. In our 2 weeks in Guadeloupe, we went out every day, but spent roughly $60 each day (for two people). The activities that we spent money on ended up being amazing experiences, ones that we look back on fondly (especially in the winter).
Renting a Car
This is often the most expensive part of an adventure for us, and we have not had much success in mitigating the cost. Skyscanner offers a rental car search engine, which does make things cheaper. The best we can say is to get an economy car for cheap and compare prices. If we figure how to rent a car for $50 a week we will let you know!
To Sum Up,
Going out on an adventure can be significantly cheaper than you may think, it just takes a little time to do the research. Websites like skyscanner are great for finding flights and rental cars, groupon is great for activities, and there are plenty of free options if you just want to go exploring. Take the time to go out and see the world, it is worth seeing.