How to Become a Serious Budget Traveler

If you love to travel, but find that you must limit your travel ambitions due to financial restraints, you should know that there are ways to save enough money while adventuring that you can afford to venture along into your travels even more. Need some pointers? Here are some tips for how to become a serious budget traveler:

Consider Alternative Accommodations

Sure, most people know these days that it is possible to save a lot of money while traveling by staying in boarding houses and hostels. However, there are even more ways to save on accommodations that you may never have even thought of. Consider alternatives like finding a host family, staying with relatives or friends (or friends of friends), participating in a house swap, or “babysitting” a home while the owners are out of town. These options provide some of the best ways to travel cheap.

Skip the Gift Shops

Those places are there to make money off of tourists like you. You don’t need chotchskies when photos, journal entries, restaurant menus, hotel stationery, postcards, and videos make the best mementos there are.

Explore the Unexpected

Popular tourist traps can be expensive, and who is to say they are any more awe-inspiring than the lesser-known locales that few tourists have ever heard of? To find the best destinations off the beaten path, do plenty of Internet research before you travel, and ask the locals for their recommendations when you arrive.

Save on Food

You can save a lot of money by purchasing goods from a grocer or market and then preparing meals yourself, and by packing lunches when you plan on doing a day of sightseeing by foot. However, you can also find great, authentic local cuisine for a great price by communing with the locals and finding out about area hot spots they like to frequent. Also, it’s not unusual for families in many cultures to invite friendly travelers home for a hot meal and foreign conversation. Roam around and socialize some and you might be amazed at the opportunities you can run into (this goes for finding cheap entertainment, too).

Transportation

Do your research ahead of time to find the most practical and least expensive way to get around while on your travels. You might be surprised to find that a simple bicycle rental may be all you need in one place, while a hotel taxi may be your best travel bet in another place.

Saving money while traveling takes some thought and effort, but it can greatly stretch your travel time, so it is well worth it. Fortunately, it is also simple and easy, especially if you are adventurous and willing to give all of these tips a try.