Savvy Ways To Save When Travelling

Travelling can be a lot of fun but one thing which was always a worry for me was money. After graduating I had saved up some funds and knew exactly what I wanted to do with it, travel. My last push was passing my driving test as nothing else was really holding me back, as a well done my dad kindly offered to pay for my flights which was a great head start.

I think the important thing to remember is know when to splurge and when to save. You need to have a budget and stick to it. One thing I did was when booking my mode of transport I worked out which would be the most budget friendly. So I took 3 planes and two trains as this worked out the cheapest way. Another thing to think about is your choice of hotel. If you spend a load on a 5 star luxe suite you've already blown money that could've been spent on more rewarding things. Unless you are made of money this is certainly a place you could save your pennies, after all you are going to this place to explore not to sit in your room. Just keep repeating to yourself it's just a place to rest your head, nothing more, nothing less. I was extremely lucky in the places I stayed, you do hear horror stories but you'll know if something is dodgy. I wish you all the luck I had.

Fill your life with adventures not things,
Have stories to tell not stuff to show.

Before you go away work out how much you've got with you in the correct currency. This will give you an idea on how much you have to work with during your stay. Simply break it down to how many days you are going so you have a daily limit. By doing a bit of research it can help to estimate the costs required for the place you are going. For example I knew when I went to Venice in particular the costs were going to be slightly higher than average because of the popularity of the city.

The more you plan ahead the smoother it is likely to go. I looked in to what I wanted to do when I was there so I could include tourist attraction prices within my daily allowance. It was only half way through my trip I realised they did student prices for almost everything which saved me a few euro here and there. They do discounts for a number of different reasons so always ask because there is no harm in that - the worst they can say is no. Its always good to shop around, I know its common sense but it can be devastating buying something only to find you could've got it round the corner for far less. Once you've been in the country for a while or the more you've travelled you will become more aware of what is a good price from the knowledge you've gained being there. The moral of the story is check the ticket price! If you can book before you go it just means one less thing to worry about and one less thing to pay for when you are there. I did this with a taxi from Rome airport to the place I was staying as I landed very late in the evening and didn't want to be flustered by trying to figure out how to get there in the dark or alone.  

I think the biggest outgoing of all time has to be food. It's only natural we need it to survive. I have to admit it seems to be where most of my money goes too according to my bank statements and its no different abroad. If anything I would actually say it's worse. You are going to need your energy to fully explore and appriciate your surroundings. No one wants to walk around hangry or on a sugar low! The trick is to do what you can at home (or hotel for that matter). Go in to the local supermarket and pick up a few bits to keep you going, I was lucky that a few of the places I stayed included kitchens so I had a lot more choice. I normally had breakfast and lunch from the supermarket and then had a nice dinner out. It wasn't anything too fancy just a croissant or cereal and coffee to start my day, a sandwich or something along those lines for lunch and then pizza, pasta or a salad for dinner - I mean I was in Italy after all. If I'm being completely honest I did have one Mc Donald's too, but to be fair I was travelling to a new place and I needed to be quick. Plus you want to try the local cuisine, they were some of the best pizza's I've ever had

I hope some of my tips will help you on your travels. If you have anymore share them in the comments, lets help each other out!

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