Love traveling, but don’t love how expensive it is? We hear you.
However, it’s worth keeping in mind that traveling doesn’t always need to be quite as expensive as you might think. We tend to assume that any traveling adventure worth a grain of salt is going to set you back a pretty penny.
That’s the assumption, but is it true? We don’t think so. There are plenty of ways to save money while traveling that don’t involve sacrificing any of the fun. Don’t believe us? Check out our handy tips below.
Travel During the Shoulder Seasons
You’ll pay more to visit a destination during its peak period since, well, that’s when everyone else wants to visit the place too.
But keep in mind the ‘peak season’ doesn’t necessarily mean ‘best.’ Most seasoned travellers will tell you that it’s the shoulder seasons (the periods on either side of peak season) that offer the best value. You’ll benefit from cheaper prices, fewer crowds, and in many cases, more agreeable weather — and the majority of things you’d do during peak season will be available to you, too.
Any destination that gets extremely hot during the summer (say, New York, Las Vegas, Barcelona) is best visited during the shoulder seasons. All the fun, none of the sleepless nights — it’s the perfect solution.
Look at Alternative Accommodation
Hotels are expensive. In fact, it’s usually the hotel costs that take up the bulk of the overall cost of the vacation. Just think about how much cheaper your getaways could be if you didn’t have to take the hit of paying for an expensive hotel each night.
Well, maybe you don’t need to. Staying in alternative accommodation, such as an RV, hostel, or Aribnb, can lead to significant savings — and in many cases, they’re even more fun than staying in a hotel. After all, what’s not to love about pulling up to an RV park, plugging in, and spending a night in nature while also having all the comforts of home? It’s much better than staying in a soulless hotel.
The bottom line? Before automatically booking a hotel, think creatively, and see if you can come up with any other alternatives that offer twice as much fun for half the cost.
Travel Dupes
The world’s best destinations are amazing, but they’re expensive. It’s not cheap to visit Scandinavia, Santorini, or the Maldives, to name just three of the most coveted travel destinations.
But what if there was a cheaper, less visited version of the same destination? Well, there might be. They’re called Travel Dupes, and they’re all the rage. In effect, these destinations offer highly similar vacations to the more famous destinations, only at a fraction of the cost. Instead of Scandinavia, you visit the Balkans. Instead of Santorini, you visit Paros (another Greek island), and instead of the Maldives, you visit Palawan in the Philippines.
These body doubles won’t offer the precise same experience, but it’ll be close enough — and that’s absolutely fine if it results in huge savings.