How to Save Money While Traveling on a Budget

Saving on Flights

If you’re flying, then we highly recommend using Google Flights, as this gives you the most flexibility and always shows the lowest advertised price. However, Google Flights does not always show you each airline; therefore, it never hurts to check other portals like CheapOair, Skyscanner or even to compare prices on individual airline websites.

Another way to save on flights is to join a miles program. Yes, we know. Miles programs don’t actually save you much money anymore. However, if you find that you’re consistently flying with the same airlines or airlines that belong to the same miles program, then it never hurts to have a few extra miles to help you save on future trips. These programs are almost always free to join and most airlines partner with others so you can earn and use your miles on the airline that gives you the best deal.

Helpful hint for flight prices: You should never pay more than €600 per person for a round trip flight between Europe and the United States. We once paid €450 per person round trip from Germany to Kansas. We also recommend staying away from budget airlines. The horrid experience is almost never worth the savings and paying a la carte often adds up to the same price charged by a decent airline. Furthermore, budget airlines are notorious for poor working conditions and highly pollutant practices.

Affordable Alternatives

Especially if you’re traveling in Europe, then you have many ways of saving money on transportation by taking the train or a bus. Granted, this takes a bit longer than driving yourself or flying, but it’s also rather low stress and allows you the opportunitity to see more areas in the respective countries that you would have otherwise missed out on by flying. There is a number of affordable bus lines as well as many great deals on train tickets. For example, don’t waste your money on an overpriced “flexible” train pass that gives you travel access throughout the entire continent for a limited number of trips over a limited time frame. Instead, you should book as you go, take your time a bit and go for the local deals. In Germany, for example, there are multiple single-day or weekend passes that allow you and up to 4 others to take all local trains within a region or throughout the entire country and into bordering cities in neighboring countries. Here’s a resource with all of our helpful links for travel deals.

Saving Money on Public Transportation

Another area where most tourists waste money is public transportation. Obviously, it’s not economical to take a taxi everywhere you go, but you should also consider whether or not transportation is even necessary where you are. London is a great example of this. Almost everyone takes the underground while they’re in London, even though everything is reachable by foot. For example, we were able to see all London sights in a single day without paying for public transportation. Why take the tube from Big Ben to Buckingham Palace when you can just walk there in 5-10 minutes? Moreover, walking lets you take in more of the city and see things you would not have otherwise seen. Tip: Pay close attention to the map markings. Objects on the map are often closer than they appear.

If you don’t feel like walking, then check to see if there is a bike rental program in the city you are visiting. Sometimes you only have to pay a deposit for the bike, which you get 100% refunded by returning it at the end of the day (in other words, it’s free!). If taking public transportation is a necessity (and it rarely is), then check on the daily and weekly passes and make sure they let you ride an unlimited number of times during the validity period. Paying a la carte is always more expensive. Finally, many public transit systems are now operating with scannable cards. The cards themselves can be expensive for short stays, but some cities will let multiple people use the same card. That helps alleviate the sting of the card fee.

Choosing the Right Travel Times

Saving money on travel isn’t only about finding good prices, it’s also about planning the trip around the right dates and making wise decisions regarding travel times. For example, it’s not very efficient to book a night in a hotel when you aren’t even going to arrive until 11 pm or midnight. That means you basically paid the full price for half the value. If possible, try to get the most out of your days by planning an early arrival time. Reaching your destination by early afternoon or even morning means that you can spend an entire extra day on location without first paying for the night before. Sadly, the most convenient flight times are almost always the most expensive. The cheapest flights are usually either very early in the morning or have very late arrival times. For the reason mentioned above, we believe that it is much better to arrive too early than too late. That way, you essentially get 2 days for the price of 1 night at your destination.

“But what do I do with my luggage if I can’t check into my hotel?” We’ve found that most hotels will actually let you store your luggage until your check-in time. So go ahead and find your hotel and ask if you can check in early. If not, ask if they’ll secure your luggage for you until your room is ready. They will almost always say yes.

Furthermore, if you can, try to be flexible with your travel dates and avoid booking last minute vacations during holiday seasons. If you want to travel during holiday seasons, then you will definitely need to keep a constant eye on prices and try to book well in advance.

Admission Fees

Sadly, more and more places are beginning to charge an entry fee and most of the time, these fees seem to be set under the assumption that you’re only taking one vacation this year. What we mean is that admission prices are becoming ridiculously high. If you get somewhere and see an unaffordable entry fee, then you really need to consider if entering is even necessary. This can sometimes be really hard to judge because you often can’t know if it’s worthwhile before actually going in. That’s also where goal setting (as mentioned at the beginning of this article) comes in handy. In our experience, paid admission sights are almost never worth the fee they charge. Really, you need to consider what exactly you’re getting for the price they charge and then decide if it’s worth it for you.

Discounts

If you do decide you’re at a must-see sight, then you can always ask what kind of discounts are available. Asking is free, right? Many times, places will give discounts for a wide number of things that you would not have considered. For example, you can sometimes get discounted parking and entrance if your hotel partners with the local tourism office (especially in southern Germany and Austria). Other types of discounts are student discounts, senior citizen discounts, corporate discounts, AARP, military and the list goes on! This also applies to hotels and restaurants. You can even just do a quick online search for discounts. There are plenty of websites like Groupon that offer deals (usually for groups). It never hurts to check!

Tours

A tour is a great way to see lots of sights for a fixed price (usually cheaper than booking everything individually), but the most extensive tours can often come with a hefty price tag. So how do you get around that? Sure, you can ask for discounts or check online like we mentioned above, but there’s actually an even better way to get a great tour for the price you’re willing to pay. The Sandeman’s organization pioneered the idea of free walking tours and they are always awesome. They don’t yet have tours available everywhere, but the model has become so popular that there is almost always at least one copycat company offering free tours at your chosen destination. Here’s what makes Sandeman’s tours so awesome in our opinion:

• Free: These tours are on a donation only basis, meaning that you pay whatever you can afford or whatever you think the tour was worth. The guides will never pressure you into donating nor will they make you feel like you should donate a certain amount. You pay what you’re comfortable with!
• Informative: The tour guides are very knowlegable and able to answer almost any question thrown at them.
• Extensive: Most tours usually last 2-3 hours, meaning you get taken to tons of sights and get plenty of information at each place.
• Funny: The tour guides often have a great sense of humor and take a very relaxed approach to the tours, simultaneously keeping you interested and entertained.
• No admission fees: These tours will never take you somewhere where you’re obligated to pay an admission fee. They’ll take you to these sights, but they’ll give you all of the most important information and sometimes can even show you a secret spot that most people don’t know about.

We also mentioned that there are copycat companies, trying to offer the same thing. We’ve tried some of these out and agree that they are hit and miss. Some do a great job of keeping the tour honest and comparable with the Sandeman’s model, but we’ve been on some copycat tours where the tour guides pressure you into giving a bigger donation than is appropriate. We took a free tour in Cusco where this happened (you can read more on that in the article). If you find yourself in that situation, don’t let yourself feel intimidated. Pay what YOU can afford and feel is appropriate.

If there is no free tour available at your destination, then you can usually stop by a local public tourism office or any hotel kiosk and pick up a brochure containing a city map and all of the local attractions. You can use this to build your own self-guided tour of the city.