Smarts Ways To Save Money On Travel In 2016
Raise your hand if you really want to travel more this year, but don’t really have the money to make it happen.
It actually is possible, though — you’ve just gotta be on your travel hustle. To help you get there, I asked some of the world’s top travel writers and bloggers for their tips on how to explore on a budget.
After all, many of them actually ~live~ on the road, so they’ve had a fair amount of time to figure out what works.
So here are 38 tips for wandering the world when you’re just a regular, hard-working person who happens to not be super loaded.
Some of the tips are for how to save money to prep for your trip, and others are about how to cut costs once you’re there — but all will help you get the most out of your 2016 adventure that you possibly can.
1. Join a local Facebook group that alerts you to sweet travel deals.
“And have it pinned so that these crowdsourced alerts always show up on your feed.”
—La Carmina, travel TV host and blogger, La Carmina
2. Be flexible with your plans.
“If you want to travel to a certain place, be flexible about the timing. If you want to travel at a certain time, be flexible about the location. Choose one — not both.”
—Tausha Cowan, The Globe Getter
3. Ask for cash or gift cards related to travel for your birthday, graduation, and each and every other holiday.
“People are going to be gifting something to you anyway, and everything adds up!”
—Nadine Sykora, Hey Nadine
(Pro tip: Airbnb now does gift cards. Just saying.)
4. Get an unlocked phone — or use T-Mobile.
“T-Mobile’s Simple Choice plan offers its subscribers text and data in 140-plus countries at no extra charge, but if you’re not a customer, there’s still a way to avoid those sky-high roaming fees. Using an unlocked smartphone lets you buy and useSIM cards in each country you go to, giving you local rates that are typically a fraction of what your provider wants to charge you.
Recent Verizon iPhones have a SIM slot unlocked for international use. If that’s not for you, call your cell provider and ask about getting your phone unlocked — you may be able to do it for free or a small fee, especially if you’re off contract or close to it. Failing that, cheap but decent Android smartphones can be purchased unlocked for under $200 — which could easily be less than your roaming bill!”
Recent Verizon iPhones have a SIM slot unlocked for international use. If that’s not for you, call your cell provider and ask about getting your phone unlocked — you may be able to do it for free or a small fee, especially if you’re off contract or close to it. Failing that, cheap but decent Android smartphones can be purchased unlocked for under $200 — which could easily be less than your roaming bill!”
—Dave Dean, Co-Founder, Too Many Adapters
5. Instead of just focusing on eating cheap on the road, eat cheap at home — so you save more money for your travels.
May we suggest these 27 easy meals that won’t break the bank?
—Tommy Walker, The Wandering Walker
6. Set up an automatic travel savings account at your bank.
“I keep my savings account invisible/inaccessible from my internet banking so that I never have the temptation to transfer money over and spend it. Accessing the money would mean physically going to a bank to make the transaction, and I’ve never been tempted enough to do that. I only use it for travel.”
—Alexandra E. Petri, The Write Way Around
7. Work out a credit and debit card strategy, so you won’t be charged any foreign transaction fees when you’re abroad.
“When I’m traveling, I always bring my Charles Schwab debit card. Not only does Charles Schwab not charge you foreign ATM withdrawal fees, it refunds you any money that foreign ATMs charge you by depositing a lump sum into your bank account at the end of the month.
I also bring a minimum of two credit cards. I particularly like the Chase Sapphire Preferred card, as it gives you double the points on food and travel, and of course doesn’t charge international transaction fees.”
—Ashley Fleckenstein, Ashley Abroad
8. Request your time off from work starting in the middle of the week.
“That way, you can take advantage of cheaper airfares. Tuesdays and Wednesdays are often the cheapest days to fly, so you can save hundreds round trip just by hacking your vacation schedule.”
—Shannon O’Donnell, A Little Adrift
9. Subscribe to email alerts for “mistake fares” and flight deals, particularly from Secret Flying and The Flight Deal.
“You can narrow down your preferences to flights departing from certain countries, and they’ll send you an email when a deal pops up. Thanks to these email alerts, I got my mother a $480 round trip ticket from Vancouver to Hong Kong!”
—La Carmina, travel TV host and blogger, La Carmina
10. Try using the search engine Rome 2 Rio.
“Possibly the best transport search engine in the world, in my opinion. They’ll tell you how to get to your destination by all transport methods, and tell you straight up which is the cheapest!”
—Alice Teacake, Teacake Travels
11. Before booking a round-trip flight, look at the cost of two one-way flights. Sometimes it turns out to be cheaper!
—Tausha Cowan, The Globe Getter
Source: http://www.buzzfeed.com/
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