Nine budget travel hacks to save you money on your next holiday – and get the most out of the trip
Travel experts who genuinely enjoy finding bargains give their top tips, from using public transport to couch surfing to sampling street food – not only to save money, but to help immerse you in day-to-day life at your destination
Want to travel like the pros? Better start pinching your pennies, pesos and pounds. While it’s true that money can buy you an elite – easy, even – adventure anywhere, those who travel for a living genuinely enjoy the challenge of bargain hunting.
Riding public transport, couch surfing and sampling street food immerses you in the day-to-day life of any city – and isn’t that what travelling is all about? We talked to four travel writers and bloggers about why they do it and asked for advice on how others can, too.
“Budget travel” is a redundant phrase for Matt Kepnes, a travel writer who founded the site NomadicMatt.com and wrote How to Travel the World on $50 a Day, a bestseller. “I’m cheap, so it plays into my natural tendencies,” he says of his travel habits.
More than 10 years ago, Kepnes opted to leave his cubicle job in hospital administration after trips to Costa Rica and Thailand gave him an unquenchable thirst to explore the world. Soon after, he launched his site and has continued earning his living by blogging about his travels.
Exploring on a shoestring challenges him to live like a local – among locals. “I like budget travel because it brings you closer to the ground and more into the day-to-day life of the people who live in the place you’re visiting,” he says.
Be flexible with your destination, he advises. “If you’re dead set on going to Paris in the middle of July, you’re going to spend a lot of money,” Kepnes says. Whereas, if you’re open-minded about where you’re going, you can save big. Rather than committing to a city or country, shop the deals and choose accordingly.