“The world is a book, and those who do not travel, read only one page.”
-St. Augustine
Do you find yourself constantly pinning exotic and glamorous places to your “Wanderlust” pin board? Are you currently eyeing those Spring Break pics your friend just posted and finding yourself in need of a similar getaway? Maybe you just are tired of the winter blues and desperately need a change of scenery.
We hear you!
Laurel Wilson of the popular travel blog: Lost in Laurel Land, joins us today in Part 1 of our two-part series on traveling on a budget. So, before you schedule that “Out of Office” …take a look at our tips below to help you explore the world on any budget.
Take advantage of “Travel Hacking:”
Travel hacking is the practice of using credit card sign up bonuses to your advantage and turning them into free travel. Yes, I said it, FREE travel! There are so many great perks with credit cards these days, and especially with travel rewards credit cards. It sounds too good to be true, right? But it really does work! I have booked 6 different trips in the past year with my rewards points for free. All that is left is to pay the taxes on your ticket.
So here’s how it works: You sign up for a travel rewards credit card, meet the minimum spending requirement by using the card to pay for your normal budgeted expenses and then pay the card off each month. By doing this you earn a crazy amount of points that will translate into free travel for you and your family.
My favorite travel rewards card is the Chase Sapphire Preferred card. It is great for just getting started into travel hacking and also for the most experienced of travel hackers. It is well known as being one of the best travel rewards cards on the market. When you sign up for this card, you get 50,000 bonus points (temporarily increased to 60,000!) after spending $4,000 in the first three months after card opening.
To put it into perspective, a roundtrip ticket to Europe is usually about 60,000 points. Just for signing up for the card and using it for your regular spending, you now have a free roundtrip ticket to Europe!
Now, I know most people don’t just want to go to Europe by themselves. All you have to do is refer-a-friend (aka your spouse or whoever you want to go with) and they sign up through your link, follow the same steps and they also have enough points to go to Europe. AND you get 10,000 more bonus points for referring them. You can refer up to 5 people per year for an extra 50,000 points.
At this point, you have not spent anything more than your regular everyday spending on groceries and bills, and you have earned two round trip tickets to Europe! (Or many other places too!) You can continue this process by opening a couple of cards per year and redeeming the points for free travel. My husband and I have been doing this for almost two years and we haven’t even scratched the surface. We are working on hotel cards now so that we can do a romantic all-inclusive trip next year. The possibilities truly are endless, but the point is, you CAN go on that dream trip without breaking the bank!
*Special thanks to Laurel for her sharing her amazing travel hacking experiences!
*Editor’s Note: We do not endorse or condone any particular type of Credit Card, nor do we encourage travel hacking if you are unable to make regular payments on your credit card/pay in full each month. Your credit score and your ability to consistently make all payments should come before signing up for any “rewards” card. Additionally, be wary of annual/hidden fees often associated with such cards.
Prepare your budget ahead of time
Traveling can be an expensive hobby, but significant expenses can be saved if you plan far enough in advance. This week, take an hour to dig out that budget and your planner and get to work! Make a list of all trips you have on the horizon for the remainder of 2019/early 2020.
Where will you go? For how long? How many nights will you require a hotel/other accommodation? The more specific you can be, the better you’ll be able to quantify the cost of that particular trip.
Need help understanding what your flight may cost? Try using the Explore function on Kayak’s website, or visit Sky Scanner to assess the most optimal time of year to travel to particular destinations based on where you live.
At the end of your “planning” meeting, you should have a list that looks like this (for example):
- Trip: Sarah’s wedding!
- Dates: mid-August
- Starting Location: Chicago
- Destination Location: Tampa
- # of Nights: 2
- Price of accommodation/night: $160
- Flight price (approximation): $400
- Rental Car/Transportation: $40 for Uber
- TOTAL EXPECTED COST: $760
- Months remaining until trip: 5
- Amount I need to save until trip (divide total cost by months remaining): $152
- Pro-tip*: Set up automatic transfers from your checking to your savings each month for this amount so you can be sure to prioritize this event!
- Other tip*: Make sure to build in the cost of excursions and any other entertainment/events while traveling!
Spending time completing this exercise for each anticipated trip can be incredibly helpful in order to provide a guide of what you should be saving each month in advance. This way, you’ll be able to enjoy the trip guilt-free!
Limit your expenses DURING your trip
- Pack snacks (nuts, fruit, granola, dried fruit, trail mix)
- Bring a water bottle
- Download an informative app for any museum/attraction instead of spending money on a tour guide
- Avoid touristy areas
- Eat larger meal of the day at lunch (typically reduced price for the same food!)
- Picnic
- Walk whenever possible
- Use public transportation (and purchase a rail pass/subway card)
- Pack lightly (layers)
- Note*: Bread for the table and water are typically “extra” in European countries!
- Enjoy complimentary breakfast if your hotel offers it. One less meal to pay for!
Helpful resources:
- When booking your travel, use “incognito mode”. It is a setting on Chrome that removes cookies. Many times when you are researching flights, the website will track your cookies and bump up the price of the ticket to scare you into buying now in fear that the price will keep rising. By going incognito, you eliminate that issue and can do your research and book at a fair price.
- Download the City Mapper app when traveling to bigger cities with public transportation. It will tell you every possible way to get to your next destination, how long it will take, and how much the different options will cost you. Sometimes it will even tell you which route to take when it is raining so that you don’t get wet! It is by far my favorite travel app.
- Use Skyscanner when searching for airfare to find out what airlines most of the time it is actually less expensive to book through the airline’s website.
- Many budget airlines aren’t in the group searches on Google flights or Kayak so make sure to check those budget airline websites too.
- Booking.com has been a great resource for me. I pretty much exclusively book hotels through Booking.com because they always have great deals for members (it is free to sign up!)
- Speaking of members, just sign up for those airlines, hotel, and car rental rewards programs. It is free to sign up and you don’t have to agree to receive emails to do so.
- Follow your favorite airlines on social media. You never know when they may just do a flash sale for their followers!
- If you want to set a daily spending amount for yourself while traveling, use the Trail Wallet app. It lets you set a daily spending cap, and you can add your receipts to it throughout the day to keep yourself accountable.
- If you love pets and don’t want to spend a lot on accommodations, look into Trusted Housesitters. You are essentially given a free place to stay in the city you are visiting in exchange for caring for the owner’s pets while they are gone. Sounds like a win-win to me!
- Book your excursions in advance when possible and don’t forget to check Groupon!
We would like to thank the lovely and incredibly knowledgeable Laurel Wilson for her assistance in putting together this post. For more on Laurel and her travels, visit her website: Lost in Laurel Land or follow along on Instagram: @laurelwilson.
Leave a Reply