Budget-friendly travel options

Travel doesn’t have to be expensive. In some parts of the world you can live like royalty for just a few dollars a day. Usually “budget travel” evokes visuals of smelly hostels and bread buttered with more bread. It doesn’t have to be that way.

CONSIDER THE HOSTEL

Hostels are a great way to save money and extend your travels, and they’re also a solid bellwether for how expensive an area is. If there are no well-reviewed hostels, the area might be expensive to live in, or not a highly visited area. Just something to keep in mind.

TIMING

Costs may vary with the specific time of year you are travelling. Europe in August is a lot more expensive than Europe in March, for example. One of the most expensive hostels I’ve ever stayed in was not in London or Tokyo, but Dubrovnik, Croatia, in August. Most areas have a “busy” season that’s either obvious, or easy to research. Consider travelling during the shoulders of the season, a few weeks before or after. The prices will be lower but the weather will be similar.

CHEAP FLIGHTS

The biggest single cost of most trips is getting there. Most travel booking sites let you set alerts for deals on flights. I find Google.com/flights especially handy. It’s an extremely flexible and company-agnostic search tool that gives you date matrices to help you figure out what days in a month it might be cheaper to leave or head home. If you like flying a specific airline, check their route maps. It might help you figure out that it might be cheaper to fly to Munich and take the train to your adventure in the Austrian alps than getting a connection, which increases the likelihood of a timing issue.

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