10 Tips for Travelling the World for Next to Nothing

The Internet is overrun with articles giving you advice on how to save money while travelling abroad.

Before writing my 10, I purposely did not search for, or look at, any of these. This blatant act of not doing my research was, for once, for all the right reasons.

The following isn’t a cut-and-paste list of other peoples experiences. It puts forward ten tips I personally use while travelling to other countries in order to save money.

1. Fly on a Tuesday or Thursday

The majority of travellers, be it those flying for business, or people heading out on their holidays, will do so on a Monday.

The very same people will fly back on a Friday.

It is because of this that flights can be significantly cheaper when taken on a Tuesday or Thursday. For this reason, whenever I look up the price of flying to a particular destination, around a particular set of dates, I always choose to fly out on a Thursday and fly back the following Tuesday.

Nine times out of ten this will prove significantly cheaper than making the same trip on the Monday and Friday.

2. Avoid Bank Fees

We’ve all been there. We thought we were so prepared, exchanging our currency before we left the country, but sooner or later the moment comes when you have to take the plunge and stick your card into a foreign ATM.

Nobody likes to pay to withdraw money, especially when the fees can be so high abroad. Two quick tips to avoid bank fees are as follows: (1) Use a card associated to an account at a major bank. This cannot be stressed enough. The reason being… (2) the majority of major banks have partnerships with banks overseas, allowing free use of their ATMs. Check out your banks website for your individual details, or of course ask in branch.

3. Buy Return Bus Tickets to/from the Airport

An easy, obvious one that I repeatedly fall down on. If you use a budget airline the likelihood is you will be landing an hour, sometimes even two hours by bus outside your destination city.

When buying a ticket from the bus driver, be sure to ask about the validity of a return ticket. Often they will be valid for return (back to the airport) within a week.

This will save you a lot of money, especially in more expensive (Scandinavian) countries whereby the return ticket is only slightly more expensive that the single.

4. Walk instead of taking the Metro

On a brief trip to Oslo a few months ago I walked the entire city. It’s not the largest of cities, granted, but at no point did it even cross my mind to jump on the Metro to reach my desired destination.

You may want to use the Metro once or twice, just to observe it’s quirky differences to all the other Metro systems you’ve used across the world (I have very fond memories of Prague and Stockholm’s Metro systems), but in general it isn’t often necessary.

If you have time to spare, walk. It will save you a whole lot of money and you will enjoy seeing significantly more of the city.

5. Do Not Pay Luggage Fees

I absolutely advocate travelling as light as you can. At the very least, make sure your suitcase fits the hand luggage dimensions as set by the airline(s) you choose to travel with.

You don’t really need half the items you deem essential to your journey, and it’s unlikely you need half of the rest of them. Luggage fees can often double the price of your plane ticket. Save yourself the hassle and join the thousands of people who travel light and save money.

6. Put Your Money into a High Interest Account

If you are out of the country for an extended period of time it will be in your best interest for your money to be working for you while you are gone.

Consider transferring a large chunk of your money into a high interest account so while you are relaxing on an Australian beach, or skiing on the Swiss slopes, you are, even in a small way, continuing to add value.

7. Never Exchange Money at Airports or Train Stations

Another common sense one that we sometimes miss when in a hurry. The exchange rates in airports are appauling. The exchange bureaus are paying huge sums in rent to have that spot in the airport terminal. For this convenience to you, they want something back – something they take back by offering us poor exchange rates (all is fair, in love and currency).

Instead, wait until you are in your destination city and find a bureau in town. As long as it’s out of the way, the exchange rate will start to work more in your favour.

8. Stay in a Hostel

Cheap, reliable, friendly, social, central…

If you’re weary of hostels, it’s most likely that you’ve never stayed in one. And if you had had a bad experience in the past, move on and try again. Hostels are incredible value for money and they give you an experience you would never be able to achieve sat in a hotel on the outskirts of the city by yourself.

Just two things to keep in mind: (1) Read the reviews on the major hostel websites. Do not be put off by negative reviews. Sure, if the hostel has 1/5 stars with hundreds of bad reviews, give it a miss, but do not let a few one-off negative experiences put   you off a place. (2) If you can afford to, choose the smallest room size available (often 6-8 beds in a room).

When it goes beyond this (10, 12, 14, sometimes even up to 18 beds in a room) although this sounds like a more social experience, it often means you will be in a room with a large group of friends travelling together. This is cool if you instantly get on with them, but rather than tag along with a group I believe it to be a more rewarding experience to speak to individual travellers (which you are much more likely to find in the smaller rooms) who are in the same position as you that you can learn from and catch a beer with in the city.

9. Prepare Your Own Meals

This applies both to the evening (if you are staying in a hostel) and to the day. You can save yourself tonnes of cash by picking up some cheap ingredients from a local city supermarket and cooking yourself dinner in your hostel, or, during the day, buying cheaper food items from a supermarket, such as pastries and fruit.

In some countries market food is so cheap you could consume it all day every day and still be in pocket (if not out of breath) but while travelling for long periods at a time it’s a good idea to start budgeting your food, for the sake of your wallets health.

10. Compare Cheap Flights

It goes without saying in an age that we have car insurance comparison websites throwing themselves at us left, right and centre, that we should also be comparing the prices of our flights.

Skyscanner is Europe’s number one flight search engine, and my number one choice. Searching through over 670,000 routes, Skyscanner has become absolutely invaluable to me for speculatively looking up the cost of flying to anywhere in the world, as well as for actually finding these deals and booking the flights.

###

Tweet