You hear it all the time… if you want to travel you need to SAVE MONEY! But TBH, sometimes counting each penny every day is just draining and if I really just depended on that mantra, I would never go anywhere at all! Don’t get me wrong, I’m not against saving my pennies as anyone who knows me would know, lol, but in this real world, saving a few pennies every month is not getting me on that airplane 2 to 3 times a year…. HELL NO!
So how do I do it? In Part 1, I detailed my hacks about travel credit cards and Skyscanner, check it out here (https://bit.ly/2E2PFBA)! Now continuing on, here are some MORE real-life practices to share!
1. Expedia & Kayak
In Part 1, I spoke about using Skyscanner & Google flights and the benefits of having access to an unending list of many more non-US based airlines and affordable pricing. However, in my experience, if you are looking for a North or Central American trip, Expedia and Kayak both offer great hotel + flight combo deals. I’m talking about trips to Mexico, Dominican Republic, Caribbean, US State, any place on that continent or any all-inclusive combo deal. It has worked for me before!
2. Flight Trackers
There are 195 countries in this world and even though It’s not my goal to visit all of them, I do have a very LONG bucket list in my little blue diary, yes my diary is blue! Loll! I am also very optimistic that COVID will be conquered and I could get back to my travel addiction in short order so as a result, I have continued using a Google email account to track flights and their prices. Many of my favourite search engines; Hopper, Google Flights, Skyscanner allow you to create flight trackers when researching flights so that you can be alerted via email on the increases/decreases of flight prices. It’s like being a stockbroker watching the ticker tape on the NY Stock Exchange! You better believe that when I was planning to go our group’s South Africa trip, I made sure to set up the tracking and we ended up only paying US$800 for our group’s return flights. BIG, BIG WIN!
3. International Hubs
Living in the Caribbean means that I always have to go through a US International airport to get to my dream destination. Over the years, I have learnt that New York wins 9 times out of 10. A lot of people always ask if I’m using Miami or Panama. I’m here to tell you that when I compare… and believe me I ALWAYS compare because I prefer to spend my hard earned pennies on my adventure rather than on the flight; NY always end up being approximately US$400 – US$600 cheaper.
4. City Tourist cards
In my free time I follow many travel blogs, I love reading about all things related to travel! From my research I’ve created numerous itineraries and I’ve told my friends to give me their dream destination because I AM SURE I could plan an itinerary for them complete with a few cost saving measures. One of those measures, especially for European countries, is a City Tourist Card. These cards can give you discounted or free access to sites, free transport, skip the line / no wait access to those popular locations and discounts to local restaurants. They are normally available at airports, train stations or tourist offices making it easy for visitors to purchase. Well worth it!
5. Hotel search engines
My search engine of choice is Agoda. I use others like Tripadvisor, Trivago, Priceline, Booking and Hotels but I always come back to Agoda.com. In the back of my mind, I always have a little hesitation when trusting the reviews posted on the others as maybe, just maybe, I’ve read too many horror stories about fake reviews. HOWEVER, the reviews on Agoda, in my humble opinion, have always been SPOT ON! Not only that, they offer a wide range of choices for wherever you want to go! At this stage of my life, I’ve done a lot of roughing it in some dives and now I want to rest my head in a clean and comfortable room WITH NO BED LICE, even if it’s just for a few hours a day. You feel me peeps??
So those are a few more tips on saving costs while travelling. Remember….
YOU DON’T HAVE TO BE RICH TO TRAVEL WELL. – EUGENE FODOR
All you need is to find a decent place to crash with a limited budget.
