There is no getting away from it, travelling is an expensive business. From flights and trains to eating and drinking out, the costs of travelling add up over time.
If you’re not careful with setting a budget, you can easily end up spending more than you bargained for! This could have the potential consequences of ending your trip sooner than you anticipated if you’re not careful.
Thankfully, there are a number of ways you can reduce costs if you’re smart. It only takes a few tweaks and you’ll have more money in your pocket, which you can spend on tours or other activities.
There is a difference between travelling frugally and saving money on your trip. I’m not advocating you try and save in every possible area, that would be ridiculous.
If there is a tour that you really want to go on or an attraction that you want to see, you should pay for it. That is spending money with a purpose and on something that you value.
Instead, you can cut back on costs that do not add any value to your trip and eat into your budget. If you do it right, you can end up spending less on your trip and enjoying yourself all the same!
Cook Your Own Food
This is the best way to save money as far as I’m concerned. Eating out is an expensive business. This does depend on where you go, but generally speaking, if you’re eating out in most cities it’s going to cost a lot.
If you’re planning on staying in hotels, cooking your own food is going to be an issue. That’s why I would recommend staying at a hostel, AirBnB, or rent an apartment.
There are more and more boutique hostels around the globe, and they have excellent facilities as well as allowing you to cook your own food! Whereas, staying in an apartment allows you to cook your own food and stay in relative luxury.
Buying ingredients at a supermarket that will last for a few days will normally cost you the same amount of money as one meal in a decent restaurant. When framed like this, it’s a no-brainer to try and cook as much of your food as you can.
By all means, eat out every now and again. It would be a waste to visit a new place without trying the local cuisine. However, you don’t need to be eating out every night. Doing so will only cause that hole in your pocket to get deeper and deeper.
Travel In A Group
I do most of my travelling alone. This is something I enjoy due to the freedom it gives me to explore places. However, there are a few downsides to this approach. One of them is loneliness, and the other is that you burden all of the costs.
If you’re planning to travel by yourself, it’s imperative that you set yourself a budget and don’t go on reckless spending sprees. Despite my love of travelling solo, travelling in a group is a great way to reduce costs.
I have been driving around Europe with two of my friends recently, and this is something that I couldn’t have done by myself. The costs involved are too much for one person to bear long-term.
However, between three people the costs become a lot smaller. Accommodation, food and fuel suddenly become cheaper and it allows you to see more places as a result.
You have to compromise when travelling in a group, but the upside of saving a lot more money is worth it in the long run. If you’re planning on going somewhere for a month or two, see if you can do it in a group. The savings you make will more than justify this.
Choose What You Want To Do
Visiting new places can be an expensive business. If you’re visiting a new city, for example, there will be a lot of places where you will have to pay to get in.
The same is true if you’re travelling in a country long-term. A lot of the main attractions cost money. Unless you have an unlimited budget, you won’t be able to do all of them.
That’s why I advocate setting aside some money to do the activities that you really want. By doing this, you know that you’re are going to be spending money on something you want to do, and you don’t have to worry about it eating into your budget.
There’s no point travelling somewhere and not doing anything because all of the activities require you to spend money. That would be lunacy. A better approach is to decide what you want to do beforehand and budget accordingly.
That way you get to enjoy the place and not worry about spending too much money either!
Buy A Water Bottle
This may seem like a weird inclusion, but it has its merits. Water is something that you will need to drink regardless of where you go. If you don’t bring a water bottle with you, you will be left with no choice but to buy bottled water.
If you’re doing this every day, this is a cost that will soon add up. The simple solution is to buy a reusable water bottle and take it with you on your travels.
This way you don’t need to buy bottled water, which saves you money and helps the environment too! Bottled water is one of the biggest contributors to plastic pollution in the ocean. Eliminating the need to buy it means there will be plastic in the oceans!
A lot of countries such as Australia and Spain have water fountains in their big cities. This makes it easy to fill up your water bottle while you’re out and about.
There are a few countries, such as those in Southeast Asia, where drinking the local water is not feasible to sanitary issues so you may have to break this rule in those places. However, in most destinations, there is simply no need to buy bottled water.
Bring a water bottle with you and save yourself some money and do the environment a favour!