Traveling to other places, seeing a new environment and enjoying more of what the nature has to offer can be an amazing experience. Vacations can surely be a good way to clear up your mind, get rid of all the stresses that working life provides and to escape things that make you sad. For certain, after a vacation, you’ll resume living your life with a brand new start and work well on your job. However, everybody knows that vacations aren’t for free and they come with a cost. Is there any way for a person to travel without spending too much? The answer here is, “yes”.
If you want to travel, yet you don’t want to spend that much, leaving you penniless after a “wonderful” vacation, it would be best to take these money saving tips below. After all, happiness doesn’t come from money you spent onto something, it would always be how you enjoyed it.
1. Get a bargain – the lifeblood of the travel industry has been always about negotiations. Its products are somewhat sensitive from the time. A room, which was left empty for a night or a plane seat that is not filled cannot be resold for the next day. So, you should do some sort of bargain, most especially when dealing with tour operators, hotels and travel agents.
2. Decide on your next trip – if you know where you’re going, you could surely save money for your travel. So, start looking for a place, set your date and work towards it.
3. Check for apartments – instead of booking for a hotel room, considering vacation rentals like apartments can be a good way for you to save. There are many homes and apartments where you can live for a few weeks and pay relatively cheaper than those hotels. Airbnb.com could be the best place where you can find help regarding apartment rentals all over the world.
4. Compare the price – there are websites where you can compare prices for free, so taking advantage of it will work for you. They could surely help you save money, but comparisons could be somewhat distorted by the companies striving to offer the cheapest headline prices by stripping away many extras.
5. Pick the date – if you’re traveling during summer school holidays, you should go for the latest dates possible. Usually, last weeks of August or first week of September are cheaper than other holiday periods.
6. Pick your time – if you’re booking for your travel in an independent, instead of pre-packaged holiday, make sure that you only get an overview of the available fares from travel websites or around the dates you have chosen.
7. Check your departure time – the long haul flight fares are being priced according to your departure date, so adjusting your departure date by a single day could surely give you dividends.
8. October travel – the best alternative for you to have a family vacation is by traveling in October. It’s somewhat a tricky time of the year for the Mediterranean weather. So, think about Morocco, the Canaries or Florida and book for the lowest fares.
9. Look for the IT fares – Inclusive Tour or IT, are the arrangement for which the long-haul flights are being sold as a package with the hotel accommodations or car hired.
10. Look for round-trip tickets – most of the time, the one-way tickets are somewhat expensive for which the round-trip ones are cheaper. However, make sure that you do not use the return trip.
11. Get back to similar airport – flying in and flying out of similar airport is relatively cheap. It’s not all about the flight tickets, but for the car rentals as well.
12. No more exclusive frills – hold baggage, check-in, priority boarding, seat selection and text message confirmation could inflate your flight’s headline price. So, if you would like to help you save, considering this tip can help you a lot.
13. Start monitoring the internet – most of the travel companies, hotel chains and airlines offer special offers as well as price reductions by email, but it may need you to sign up. The no frills railway and airline companies also announce the opening of the booking periods in a similar way. If you consider committing yourself for a long time in advance, you’ll surely get the best fares, most especially for the peak periods. It could be annoying receiving email once in a while, but it can surely provide you offers you cannot neglect.
14. Start tracking your expenses and create your budget – you should spend the next month’s writing down where you spend your money. At the end of the month, you can sum them up by category. Simply note any trends in your spending habits. Moreover, money could be somewhat impossible if you don’t know where it’s going. So, as much as possible, track your expenses every month. This can help you save for your vacation.
15. Substitute – you should also consider packing old clothes, especially if you’re planning to buy new ones on the trip. This way, you could surely keep one luggage and still have a good room for purchases.
16. Watch out for the currency – if you never had a good travel destination preference, you should always consider the exchange rate when you’re traveling. This actually makes a big difference for you to save money on vacations.
17. Get cash – most of the exchange centers have a bad exchange rate, so you should never go there. Search the internet in order for you to find out a good place in order to get cash in a local currency. For instance, doing a little search will tell you that the best exchange rate is being found at the airport and using ATMs in other countries.
So, if you would like to have the best vacation without spending too much, it would be best for you to consider those 17 useful tips above and have the best quality time with yourself.