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How I Travel On A Budget - 5 Tips That Have Helped Me Travel For Under €200 Per Trip

11.1.19

One of my most asked questions on Instagram is always about my tips on how to travel on a budget and just how I've been able to get most of the trips I've been on (Gdańsk, Prague and Bruges to name a few) for under €200 for at least 2-3 nights. I am finally getting round to writing this post with my top 5 tips and hopefully it'll be helpful for those of you who want to see the world, but don't fancy having to take out a loan every time you travel!

1. Do your research. 

My first tip is probably a very obvious one, but it's one that helps me save the most money. Each year I like to come up with a list of cities that I'd like to visit and then I hop onto Google and spend a few hours scoping each destination out. The most important things to take not of are when the location is busiest with tourists, because this will obviously affect flight and accommodation prices. Another thing I look up is the weather, because usually a trip will be cheaper if it's during the colder months, for example our trip to Budapest in February is working out very inexpensive because it'll still be quite cold and not everyone likes to travel to colder climates. Google Flights (the only website I ever use to find flights and to get flight price comparisons) also has a feature that lets you put in the dates you'd like to travel on and shows you the world map with the price of flights to pretty much every city in the world for those dates. This is another very handy way of finding out where is cheapest to travel to at certain times of the year.

2. Track your flights.

Like I mentioned above, Google Flights is the only website I use for finding flights. I know lots of people love other sites like Sky Scanner, or Kayak but for me personally I find Google Flights nice and straight forward to use. One of the best features I've found on there is the ability to turn on price tracking for a flight you're looking to book. I will never book a flight on the first day of researching it as flight prices go up and down all the time. I like to track the flight price for a week or so, and see if there is a trend in the price change. Each time there is a change, Google will send me an email and lots of the time this is how I get super cheap flights because I know straight away if there has been a price drop. There are lots of articles online with advice on which days/times of the day are cheapest to get flights, so that may be something to look into, but for me, I just stick with my price tracking on Google Flights.

3. Look into Airbnb as well as traditional hotels.

If you've read any of my previous posts about Airbnb or if you follow me on Instagram then you're probably sick of me harping on about Airbnb and how much I love it, but seriously, if you want to travel on a budget, Airbnb should be your first port of call. It's definitely where I've saved the most money for our trips, with our Airbnb in Prague only costing €56 per night (in quieter months it's only €35 per night) for an entire apartment which was half, if not a third of the price of hotels in Prague and we had so much more space than we would have had in a hotel room. I have a whole blog post about Airbnb and the tips I have called 'A Guide To Airbnb - How To Find The Best Places To Stay' so if you want any more info on Airbnb then definitely give that one a read. If you haven't used Airbnb before, you can get €30 off your first trip if you sign up through this link and for every person who completes a trip using my link, I'll get €15 travel credit so it's a win win for all! I'm not in anyway sponsored by Airbnb by the way, anyone can share their link with their friends to get them money off, and €30 is a nice little discount to get on already cheap accommodation!

4. Pack light.

What's the point in going to all the effort of getting cheap flights and accommodation if you're just going to pack way too much and pay what are in my opinion extortionate baggage fees for checked or overweight luggage? I always travel with just a carry on suitcase and a backpack/tote bag no matter where I'm going or how long I'm going for. If you pack smart, you really only need a small suitcase like a carry on anyway. I do have a two blog posts about my packing tips and how to pack light, one is called 'The Streamline Wardrobe - How To Pack Light' and the other is called 'How To Travel With Just A Carry On - Travel Tips & Tricks' so hopefully they will be helpful!

5. Plan your trip and budget.

The final tip I have is to plan your trip and budget accordingly. I'm a planner anyway so I love this part of organising a trip, but it really does help to save you money as well as time whilst you're exploring a new city. The first thing I'll do is research the general price of restaurant meals, if the city has any kind of transport cards that last for a couple of days (a great money saver) and if there are any tourist cards like the iAmsterdam card that will give you free or reduced entry to lots of attractions. Then I like to get a good idea of the restaurants we would like to try out and how much it'll cost, how much transport around the city will cost, and how much the attractions we'd like to visit and sight seeing we'd like to do will cost. That way, when I am actually on the trip, I won't be stressed about money at all and won't come home and realise that I've spent triple what I'd intended on spending. Of course I don't stick to the budget 100% of the time, because I am travelling and enjoying the experience, but it does help to have a fair idea before you go.

I hope these tips are in some way helpful and that they'll help you save some of your hard earned money on your future trips! As always if you've any extra questions, just pop me an email or an Instagram or Facebook DM and I'll get back to you. Thanks for reading!

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