My 7 Top Tips For Travelling On The Cheap

Travel can be horizon-expanding, life changing, fulfilling (or just a fun weekend booze up with your mates, who’s judging!). However, it ain’t cheap. If it was, I’d never be home! However after years of travelling fairly regularly (you’ve been keeping up on Instagram, right?) I’ve learnt a few tricks to keeping costs down and making sure you don’t spend the whole holiday eating the local equivalent of beans on toast because you’re already broke. With a bit of search savvy and an eye for a bargain, you’ll be instagramming gelato by the Duomo in Florence or yoga poses overlooking the sunrise in Bali before you know it!

1. DISCOUNT WEBSITES

There are plenty of great websites that offer package deals at a fraction of the price, or keep you updated on good bargains. I subscribe to groupon and travelzoo‘s daily travel deal emails for flight and hotel bundles (look out for Europe mini-breaks under £100!). My current favourite is Holiday Pirates, who have holiday deals as well as highlighting any good rates they find. You can also sign up for their daily deal to be messaged to you via Whatsapped (I’ve refrained, because I’d probably end up booking a trip daily..) Often the dates will be restricted to certain periods, but they’re basically doing the hard work for you by finding when is cheapest.

2. FLEXIBILIY

If you just want to get away and aren’t too picky about time or location, you’ll be spoilt for choice. If I’ve got the travel bug but no particular destination in mind, I’ll search skyskanner for ‘everywhere’ from London to see which places are particularly cheap at whatever time frame I’m looking at. I once found direct flights to Saint Lucia for under £300 by doing this! If you know where you want to go but have some wiggle room with dates, try searching for the whole month and choose dates according to which are cheapest. There can be hundreds of pounds difference with dates just a couple of days apart for no obvious reason, so don’t get caught out. Generally I find the cheapest flights are in January and February (post-Christmas everyone is broke!) whereas July and August tend to be pricey, though it depends on the high season wherever you’re heading.

3. PRICE ALERTS

You’ve found a location, and a good looking set of dates, but it’s still a little more than you want to pay? Skyscanner (can you tell it’s basically my favourite website?) has an option to set up price alerts, so you receive an email whenever prices on your chosen dates go up or down. It’s super helpful to get a sense of average prices, and as flight prices are always rising and falling you can often grab a bargain. That said it can be painful watching flights rise and rise and wishing you’d bought them straight away, but it doesn’t happen often!

4. ACCOMODATION

Instagram travel influencers would have you believe it’s 5 star or nothing, but for those without comped nights or unlimited budgets there are plenty of other options. Air B&B is hardly a secret, but it can be so much cheaper than a regular hotel, especially if you’re travelling in a group. If you don’t like the idea of bunking up with 10 other people in a hostel room, keep in mind that many hostels also have private rooms on offer, which may even be en-suite, but will still be cheaper than staying in a hotel (and often with a better atmosphere too!). It’s also worth keeping an eye out for deals, for example Hotels.com regularly include 10% off voucher codes in their email newsletters.

5. GET A TRAVEL MONEY CARD

If you find you’ve under-budgeted and don’t have enough cash with you, using your card abroad can be really expensive. However if you’re a regular traveller it might be worth looking into getting a dedicated travel money card, which will usually have better rates and no fees. For example I have a Caxton currency card that you can load up with whatever currency you need before your trip.

6. TRAVEL AS THE LOCALS DO

I don’t know about you, but apart from the occasional 3 o’clock uber after a night out, I never take a taxi. Certainly not a black cab that’ll cost you an arm and a leg for a ten minute drive (7 minutes of which involves sitting still in London traffic…). So why splash out on taxis when abroad? Sure, they’re often cheaper in other countries, but it still adds up. And besides, taking public transport can be a big part of the experience! Especially with apps like citymapper running in so many places there’s no excuse not to give local transportation a go, and save those vital pennies.

7. GET CREATIVE!

Never heard of somewhere, but it’s £20 return flights? Now’s the time to check it out! In January there are flights to parts of Europe for pennies – you may never have wanted to go to Gdansk, but if it’s cheaper than a round of drinks in a London bar why not? I once flew into Bucharest, saw the city, then flew to Athens for a few days before returning, just because it was cheaper that way. If return flights are too expensive, get a single on a cheap day, then fly back from another city. Two holidays in one! There are lots of ways to keep costs down if you’re willing to do some real digging around the internet, and have a taste for adventure!

I hope these tips help a little – if you’re planning a trip, where are you headed and what are your travel tips? I’m looking forward to South Korea and Madeira coming up, so keep your eyes peeled!