Traveling On A Budget
Traveling On A Budget can mean different things to different people, to us it means trying to do more with less and set up a budget we can stick to. This is becoming more and more a difficult task, but if you are willing you can find some amazing adventures that still fit into a tight budget.
- Get yourself a bag that counts as a personal item
- Use packing cubes to maximize space
- Be flexible with dates and destinations
- Find free things to do in your destination
- Book far in advance or very last minute to get the best hotel deals
- If you are open to it, try turo instead of the traditional car rental service
- Support local businesses whenever you can
The travel on a budget meaning, tricks to finding ways to keep the budget tight but the adventures limitless. The first tip in sticking to a budget is being flexible with travel dates, and travel locations. Google flights has an awesome feature, where you can put in your home airport and find the cheapest places to fly all over the world. But, if you know the location you want to go to, another great feature to use is search by calendar. If your dates are flexible you can look at the calendar view and select travel dates based on price. Or consider traveling to the location during “shoulder season” meaning, if the place is known for its summer travel, could you go in fall or spring to get the gist of the place, but not the high prices. Caveat, Google flights does not contain all budget carriers so be sure to do some research on your local area.
Next tip, work out the full transportation plan before you go. Fly direct whenever possible, maybe you can drive 2 hours to a different airport and save yourself a connection and some significant cash. (for instance we literally load FLL, MIA, RSW, TPA, and MCO if we are really desperate, all as our travel from location). When you start your planning about where to stay try to find out how the public transit/ parking situation is in the city/ town you are visiting. Parking in a city can really add up (and let’s be honest who really enjoys practicing their parallel parking skills and having the hungry family yelling at them that they just drove by a street too fast that had an open space – gosh – no? just me..?), so it might be cheaper to tackle the public transit situation. If you do, then staying closer in the city near a bus stop or metro/ subway stop may save you tons of time and money.
Finally, and this is one of my favorite, invest in a personal item that can hold a whole weekend worth of clothes, this will save all the budget carrier additional costs for carryon fees, and in these crazy times ensure your bag gets to your final destination.
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We have created the perfect packing list to get everything you need for your small town getaway into one lightweight personal item. Flights are getting more expensive, and carry-ons have become a charge for almost every flight. Getting everything you need into the perfect personal item is one of the best tricks to keep costs low.
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Tips to find the Cheapest Flight
- Go to Google flights
- Put in your home airport (no need to put in a destination yet)
- Example below is from Miami, you can easily zoom in and out to different areas, even international to find the cheapest options
- If your dates are flexible, even better, click on the dates, choose flexible and maybe choose the month you will have enough PTO to take a long weekend
- Following these steps will give you the best dates to travel to the location of your dreams
- Remember the flight isn’t the only expense, but it is significant so getting the price right is a great first step in your planning
To Rent a Car or To Use Public Transit
If you find the city has public transit you can easily use any of your favorite navigation apps and switch to the public transit to find out the times it will take you to get to and from the airport to the top site in the city. The rule of thumb to follow is if it takes 40 minutes, or more via public transit you may want to rent a car. However, you may want to factor the parking costs into your decision as well.
In the United States it is pretty easy to narrow it down. NYC and outer bouroughs of Manhatten you should only use public transit. Boston you can fairly easily navigate if you are staying in the city, and willing to add in a cab here and there. Chicago although not normally thought of as public transit hub, you can certainly navigate it, as long as you are willing to transfer from bus to train and back again. Washington D.C. does have public transit, but it can take significant time to actually traverse the city, and you tend to still need to walk 10+ minutes after getting off the metro. San Francisco with its trolley system is lovely to navigate if you have the time. Most other cities require cars, and parking to really navigate anywhere beyond city center.
If you do go the car rental path, Turo can be an awesome way to cut costs, it is like Airbnb but with cars. I have used it multiple times in multiple cities and the process was easy overall. The best option for most travel situations is to do airport pickup, the key is usually in a lockbox and they park it in long term parking. You take the shuttle to the car and get in a drive away, then when you are done you drop it in long term with the key in the lockbox and off you go. Getting a minivan in DC during cherry blossom season for $237 for the weekend? Yes, please!
When going the rental car option, check if you can use a discount code through your employer, sometimes they have codes you can use for personal trips. If that doesn’t work, put in the dates and see what you can find, if you are renting for 4-5 days you may find it is cheaper to rent for whole week and just return it early. There is no penalty to return it early and it can save you hundreds.
Tips for finding cheaper Hotel Options
Hotels can be very expensive, and area really matters, especially if you are trying to maximize your PTO bucket and make the long weekend count. If you have only a short time in the city, then the best suggestion is to find something near metro station (if in a city with good public transit) or <20 min drive with traffic (make sure to check during peak hours, like 8-9am and 4-7pm local time to ensure you are still in close enough proximity to really make the most of your time in the city.
A couple of websites that help, hoteltonight is a great option, if you aren’t afraid of a little bit of hotel roulette, you likely wont get reward night points for booking through this third party service, but if you wait to book until the day/ evening of the trip you can get some amazingly located hotels for a great price.
If you are more of a planner you can try Finding Free Things to do
Search for free walking tours, almost every city has them and you only have to tip the tour guide. The tour guide in Boston was a historian (at least he said he was) and it added so much to the experience. Another tip is to check if the museums or sites you want to visit have free or reduced entrance options. This can help to arrange your trip, as you may need to hit the art museum Thursday at 5pm to get free admittance. Many museums have free tours inside the museum, make sure you search the museum website, because the tour guides from the museum always know the best spots to hit in the museum, and the insight they can give you on the art or history is well worth the time you spend with them. Schedule in time to hit a local park, every major city has a lovely park option, and if it is a lovely summer day, nothing could be better than grabbing an ice cream or gelato and enjoying the nature surrounding you. The best free thing to do to maximize your budget is to stay with friends or family, so many of our best budget trips have been staying with amazing friends and family that saved us a fortune in hotel costs. If you are hitting a big city and the sites are spread out, London is a great example, then you might want to get a tour bus that hits the sites, the hop on hop off options tend to be the best at navigating your way through the day. You can spend a full day navigating the sites, and spend as little as much time in each stop. Make sure to take the boat ride up the river if they have it, it is a great way to put your feet up and enjoy the sites from a completely new perspective. This will save you transit costs, but it will be more than navigating there yourself. If you are interested in the history and fun facts then make sure to download the app or tune in the headphones so you can learn as you go. To create a budget the best first step is to see what you can afford and build backwards from there. Let’s say you have $1,000 for a long weekend the best first step is to find the cheapest locations to fly to. Let’s say you find a $65 flight round trip to Kansas City That is a great first step, you will likely need to rent a car, or get a Turo, lets say it is $200 total for the weekend for the rental and gas. That leaves you $700 for hotel, parking, food and entertainment. If you are willing to go during shoulder season, you can find the hotel for $100 a night and it will help you stretch your budget further. Support local restaurants, museums and parks and you can make an amazing weekend happen on a budget.
Tour Bus Options
Tips for Traveling on a Budget
Traveling on a Budget
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