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This post's overview:
- 0.1 Choose the dates of your trip using trip planners and monthly view
- 0.2 2. Fly in the middle of the week
- 0.3 3. Fly early in the morning or late in the evening
- 0.4 4. Subscribe to the special offers of some airlines
- 0.5 5. Book accommodation in advance.
- 0.6 6. If you are 100% sure about the property and the dates, pay now!
- 0.7 7. Compare the prices of Booking.com and AirBnb
- 0.8 8. Booking.com should also be your friend
- 0.9 9. Book as many attractions as you can in advance
- 0.10 10. Change money in the country, where you are going (depends on the country).
- 1 P.S.: Bonus point 11.
- 1.1 P.P.S: Bonus point 12.
Traveling isamazing, but usually, it requires a lot of money spent on hotels, flights andfood.However, with these tips you will be able to save money when travelling and planning your trip.
So far, we’ve traveled to more than 50 countries. Based on our experience, mistakes we made and our successful trips, we created a list of 10 tips, which will help you to save money when traveling.
Choose the dates of your trip using trip planners and monthly view
If the holiday you are planning involves a flight, check the best price for the flight using flight search engines and planners like Skyscanner, Momondo, Buruki, Kayak and Google Flights They willhelp you so save money when traveling for sure!
Wedoubt that the price of the same ticket will be really different in various trip planners, so it makes sense to use the one, which you prefer. Wegenerally use both, Momondo and Skyscanner. Momondo lets usfind a destination according to ourbudget (though, honestly, its data is never very accurate) and Skyscanner allows usto choose the whole month, e.g. May to see the flight prices and thus, weinstantly see, on which day it is cheaper to fly.
2. Fly in the middle of the week
Usually, but not always, the flights are cheaper in the middle of the week. So if you are flying on Tuesday, Wednesday or Thursday you have a great chance to save! Sometimes the price for the flight departing on Friday or Saturday is up to 2-3 times more expensive than for the same flight departing on Wednesday.
3. Fly early in the morning or late in the evening
Also, flights departing in the late evening (6 pm and later) and super early in the morning (5 am) are cheaper than the ones during more convenient hours (in case there are at least 3 flights a day to the same destination).
So if you are willing to sacrifice some of your sleep departing around 5:30 in the morning, you have a great chance to save.
4. Subscribe to the special offers of some airlines
At the price of few additional emails in your inbox, you get an amazing chance to be the first who knows about the ticket sale of selected airlines. Usually, the amount of tickets at the discounted fare is very limited, so it’s better to be the first one who sees the offer before it started spreading around the Internet. That is why the price of the flight 5 days after the sale had started, might be not any different than its price before this sale.
5. Book accommodation in advance.
Some people leave the accommodation booking for the last moment and then wonder, why all those average properties which are left are so expensive. It’s because the demand is high and they can set this high price because anyway, people have to stay somewhere, right?
In fact, some amazing hotels with the user reviews of 9+/10 can be fully booked already 4 months before the trip. If you have an option of free cancellation, why not to book an amazing hotel 6 months in advance? You’re not risking anything because you can cancel the booking anytime and there is no need to pay now but you’re getting an awesome hotel for a great price.
6. If you are 100% sure about the property and the dates, pay now!
Well, in case the dates of your vacation are already fixed and the eTicket for the flight is already in your mailbox, you can book the hotel and pay right away if there is such an option. As far as we know, for many hotels this option exists. The amount of money you save depends on the class of your hotel and on the country you’re going to, but just for reference, we can provide some information for you.
The price of a standard double room for one night in some nice 4-star hotel fIn Singapore can be 105 pounds if you pay right away or 124 pounds, if you choose the option with free cancellation.
7. Compare the prices of Booking.com and AirBnb
A huge stab in the back for the whole hotel industry was the emergence of AirBnb. However, not all the travellers use it because of various reasons (I’ll write a separate post about my experience with AirBnb and the industry trends a bit later). Nonetheless, the ones who use AirBnb have a chance to save on accommodation when the hotel prices are off the charts. When we were booking our accommodation in Paris for Christmas, we had a chance to book a very unpleasant hotel with the user reviews of 5.6/10 for the same price as a nice and clean 1 bedroom flat via AirBnb. Guess which option we chose.
On the other hand, once we had to book a hotel/apartment in Slovenia and we compared the prices of AirBnb and Booking.com and, surprisingly, found out that the price on Booking.com was 25 euros lower than the price on AirBnb for THE SAME apartment.
8. Booking.com should also be your friend
Once you start travelling a lot using Booking.com (at least 5 times a year), you get Genius discount: 10% off selected hotels and some nice benefits, such as early check in/late checkout.
Disclaimer: this discount is NOT applicable to the majority of the hotels, however, the amount of hotels participating in this scheme (10% off) is growing every year. Also, if you just sign up to Booking.com you can view the “Secret Deals” and save a lot.
9. Book as many attractions as you can in advance
From Airport transfers to tickets to Disneyland, everything is cheaper, if you book it online. Sometimes, there is even additional 10-20% discount for early birds, who bought their tickets, for example, 2 months in advance (can be 2 weeks, depends on the attraction). Plus they get the discount for paying online (which is usually 10%). So in total “Early Birds” get 20-30% off the normal ticket price. Not bad, huh?
Actually, even if you’re already in your hotel, having the best vacation of your life, just connect to wi-fi and check the prices of the attractions you’re planning to visit. By purchasing our ticket online (sitting in the lobby of our hotel), we got 10% off each ticket to Xcaret Park in Mexico.
10. Change money in the country, where you are going (depends on the country).
Once of the most common mistakes the travellers do is changing all the money in advance in their Bank in the country, where they are living. It’s okay if you’re living in the UK and going to Ireland, you can purchase Euros in advance and get a great deal with, Travelex, for example.
But what if you’re going to Thailand or even Russia?
If you have some doubts, just try to compare the exchange rates in the bank you’re planning to use to the exchange rate in the country you’re going to.
In the UK, you can purchase Russian Rubles (as for the end of January 2016) for 89 Rub for one pound. In Russia, you can change 1 pound for at least 106 Rub.
Even though the exchange rate is not so brilliant in the airports (Maybe 104-105) it’s still better than inside the UK.
P.S.: Bonus point 11.
In order to save money when traveling you can go to cheaper places. There’re actually plenty of places in the world, which are amazing and ridiculously cheap. You can read a post bytheexpert, The Broke Backpacker:
http://www.thebrokebackpacker.com/cheap-places-to-travel-broke/
P.P.S: Bonus point 12.
Looking for travel inspiration? Check this guide to the best places to visit in 2018!
Good luck, my fellow travellers! We hope, that these ways to save money when travelling will help you 🙂
P.P.S.: Spread the word, save it on Pinterest!
