How not to splurge on vacation: 11 life hacks for a budget travel

2024 Author: Malcolm Clapton | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-17 03:44

Save on food, seek restaurant discounts and cut travel costs.

1. Explore the sights in advance

Before your trip, explore the main attractions and make a list of must-see spots. Calculate the costs of visiting them and allocate this amount in your trip budget. If you get too much, find out if there are tourist maps in the city where you will be resting.

These cards give you the right to visit certain museums and use public transport for free - you may be able to save money this way. Here is some of them:

• Roma Pass in Rome.
• Venezia Unica in Venice.
• Paris Pass in Paris.
• Barcelona City Pass in Barcelona.
• ViennaPASS in Vienna.

2. Find free entertainment

On any journey, you can enjoy art, nature and a pleasant atmosphere without spending a single ruble.

• Look for free guided tours. For example, the Free Walking Tour, which is available in many locations. The guide shows you the city and you tip him as much as you like. Minus: most of the excursions are held in English.
• Download the audio guide and explore the city yourself. Free audio tours in Russian are available, for example, in the iziTravel application.
• Find out the days when museums are free to visit. Most often this is the first Sunday of the month, but there are other dates as well.
• Download offline maps. For example, Maps.me or Google Maps. With them, you will be able to build interesting hiking routes and you will definitely not get lost.

3. Think about how you will move around the city

When you don't know how to get to the right place, you want to take a taxi: you don't have to figure out where the stop is, and you will be quickly taken to the right address. But it will also cost an order of magnitude more. In order not to get into such a situation, before the trip, look at the opening hours and features of local public transport: how to get from the airport to the city, which bus or train number suits you, how much the fare and what tariffs are there.

In many foreign cities there is no single tariff: the price may vary depending on the duration or distance of the trip.

For example, sometimes it is more profitable to take an unlimited travel card for a day than paying for the trip every time. Information about such subtleties can be found on the travel forums, but it is more convenient to download the transport application of the city you are going to.

There you can build a trip from point A to point B and choose the best travel option. The program will tell you how much the journey costs, where you need to change trains and how long the journey takes. Search Google Play and App Store for searches like Lisbon Transport, Prague Transport, Seoul Transport.

4. Set aside a budget for the day

You probably have a travel budget - the amount you can spend on your trip. Subtract from it the expenses for the cultural program and calculate how much you can spend each day. And based on this amount, make all purchases: food, souvenirs, shopping, transport.

Keep track of expenses, or better write them down - this way you will not exceed the daily limit and will not go hungry the next day. In addition, knowing the exact budget prevents you from making spontaneous purchases. Keep this amount in mind at all times, and it will be much easier to refuse a Thai massage or a second ice cream.

5. Convert the purchase price into rubles

It can be difficult to navigate the prices abroad because of a different currency. To understand how much a thing costs, translate everything into rubles: it is sobering. For example, a five-euro magnet doesn’t seem so expensive by local standards, but it actually costs 357 rubles.

If you find it difficult to count in your head, download a currency converter. It is especially useful during shopping, when discounts cloud your mind and prevent you from thinking rationally. For example, the Currency Exchange application runs offline. You can update the exchange rate at the hotel in order to quickly calculate the value of the item before purchasing.

6. Don't use a credit card

The amount on the credit card is the bank's money. You cannot spend them as easily as your own funds, because everything will have to be returned, and sometimes with interest.

Instead, use a multicurrency card while traveling. This is a regular debit card that allows you to open multiple accounts in different currencies. This is beneficial because this way you will pay in local currency and the bank will not charge a conversion fee.

7. Give up the paid internet

Let's be honest: you only need internet while traveling to post stories on Instagram. If you do without it, it is quite possible to live with free Wi-Fi and save several thousand rubles - depending on your tariff.

It is better to spend the saved money on impressions: go on an unusual excursion or ride an extreme attraction.

8. Take the first aid kit

In order not to spend money on medicines on a trip, it is better to take them with you. And even if you like to travel light, it is worth grabbing at least the essentials:

• pain reliever;
• antipyretic;
• allergy remedy;
• remedy for food poisoning;
• lozenges for sucking if your throat is sore;
• antiseptic;
• bandage and adhesive plaster.

9. Carry a bottle of water with you

On a trip, you want to drink more often than usual, especially if you are traveling in the summer. To quench your thirst, you have to order inexpensive tea at a cafe or buy drinks at the supermarket. This is not wastefulness, but a significant amount is spent on water, which could not have been spent.

The savings are simple: carry a bottle of water with you and refill whenever possible. You can buy it upon arrival or take it from home: in tourist shops they sell foldable containers that will not take up much space in your luggage.

10. Take a snack from home

Food is one of the main expenses on a trip. In order not to overpay for food at the airport and spend less money in a cafe, take a small snack with you. This could be a couple of packs of cookies, granola bars, nuts, or instant cereals. The most economical ones take instant noodles with them.

You don't need to eat like that for the whole trip: you can use the saved money to visit a good restaurant and taste local cuisine.

11. Choose cafes away from attractions

Cafes and restaurants in tourist spots - near attractions and on pedestrian streets - overcharge and don't care much about the quality of food. They earn at the expense of vacationers, and the locals do not go there. If you really want to enjoy the beautiful view from the cafe, order a coffee or a glass of wine.

And to eat really tasty and inexpensive, look for restaurants away from tourist routes. They may look unsightly, and the staff does not always speak English, but in any case you will understand each other: the sign language and the translator in the phone have not yet been canceled.

You can search for establishments in offline maps, and there is also The Fork app from TripAdvisor. Here you can book a table and eat at a discount of 20 to 50% depending on the day of the week and time of day.