“We are each on our journey. Each of us is on our very own adventure; encountering all kinds of challenges, and the choices we make on that adventure will shape us as we go; these choices will stretch us, test us and push us to our limit; and our adventure will make us stronger than we ever knew we could be.”
Aamnah Akram
I’m not a trained travel agent but these are just the planning tactics that worked for us. Follow along for our best advice on traveling while staying money conscience.
Airfare
Please let me introduce you to my friend, Hopper. Hopper has been an amazing tool that I have consistently used for any and all of my flight needs. Hopper predicts flight prices (as they fluctuate throughout the year) and even helps you through the booking process. So step 1 in saving money while traveling is track airfare rates and buy ahead of time! Make sure you check the fine print (which Hopper helps you do) for the baggage allowance and other rules.
Housing
Airbnb: it’s pretty much a household name now. As mainstream as Airbnb has gotten, we still generally rely on Airbnb to offer the best rates. I will say, occasionally a hotel stay is cheaper depending on the area so be sure to cross reference the rate of an Airbnb vs. Hotel in whatever area you’re heading to. Also as far as hostels go, we haven’t found very many that offer an environment where we can sleep together in the same bed and when I do find them, they aren’t all that cheaper than other going rates with complete privacy. Ultimately, best strategy is to always list out your priorities and cross reference the pricing in your specific area.
Additionally, though we haven’t personally tried it yet, what about house sitting? We found this really amazing website that connects you to people in need of house sitters. Why not use this in your travels? The name is House Carers and you should check them out to see if they’re right for you!
On the way to our London Airbnb.
Transportation
Again, depending on the area you’re traveling to, local transportation maybe the way to go. For example, local transportation in London was easy, comfortable, and affordable. However, for areas like New York at night, you may want to steer towards an Uber. As always, research is the key. You aren’t the first person to ask whatever question you have and most of the time it (such as “what is the cheapest way to travel in Orlando?”) has already been answered by fellow travelers as well as locals in the area.
Attractions
Prioritize, prioritize, prioritize. Don’t buy a CityPass just because it’s “what everyone else does.” For some cities, like Chicago, a CityPass was exactly what I was looking for. I knew I wanted to mainly see museums and other popular public exhibits (especially traveling the city alone). However for a city like Paris, we didn’t need a CityPass. We had a set number of days we would be in town and we wrote out our must-sees and that was enough.
If you are looking for strictly free things to do, the internet is FILLED with free/cheap events and activities in nearly every city in the world. For example, I went to Pinterest, typed in “free things to do in London” and received several of pages posts dedicated specifically to finding you cheap and free things to do!
