I have always been traveling and I want to share some travel tips to you to save some cash especially when it comes to paying for the place where you will be staying for the entire trip. If you will be staying for more than 3 weeks in a country, it's best that you least an apartment as that would save you a lot rather than to pay for a hotel room which you have to put up for their high rates on a daily basis.
Another way to save when traveling is to not eat all your meals from restaurants. If you go to the local grocery store or market, you can eat much cheaper. You can get fruit and local foods and have a picnic or hotel room meal.
When I'm travelling, I never eat all my meals out, although it's nice to sample the local cuisine. Head away from the tourist areas and eat where the locals eat. It's always cheaper, and you'll eat authentic food, rather than a sort of mish-mash that's concocted to suit foreign palates. As for accommodation, well, you're only going to sleep there, so as long as it's clean and comfortable, it doesn't have to be 5 star. A hostel or boarding house will be cheaper than a hotel, and it's likely you'll meet more people than if you stayed in a hotel.
Cool tips, thank you. Also, travelling and living like the locals do can shave off quite a bit of the expense. For example, if visiting Thailand, eating authentic Thai cuisine is much cheaper than buying regular western food. Significantly so. Even renting a full house sometimes can be cheaper than a hotel. That is my two cents...
The same tips work for shopping for mementos and such. Visit shops or markets that cater to the locals rather than tourists. Whether you're buying clothing or other items, shopping in stores the locals use will be cheaper than shops at tourist locations. We bought most of our souvenirs in Ireland from charity shops or clearance racks and saved a bundle.
Food poisoning can happen at any restaurant. Five star restaurants are just as likely as fast food restaurants to have unsanitary food handling conditions. If most people knew what goes on in commercial kitchens, they'd never eat out again.
That's a good idea about leasing an apartment. In the US, you can't really do that because apartments tend to require a month's deposit in advance plus utilities and security deposits, etc. In touristy places, though, you can rent condos occasionally that end up being cheaper. You can also check with smaller motels to see if they have long term rates. Some people end up living out of hotels for a while, so they offer have weekly or monthly rates.
I unfortunately have never had the chance to stay on a trip for that long. This is a really cool idea though, and something that has set my wheels turning. I would be really interested in visiting a lot of places, and knowing these tips can help that happen.
A few good tips to save money when you travel: - Find out in advance if there's public transportation from the airport to your hotel/ guestroom. Often airport taxis charge extortionate fees and tourists that are fresh off the plane have no idea what the normal rate is, so they just pay it, and kick themselves later. If there's no public transportation, do some online research to find out how much a reasonable taxi fee should be from the airport to wherever you're going. - Check out CouchSurfing.org - this is a site that allows you to stay for free anywhere in the world. I've used it soooo many times. It's quite safe and reliable because of the way it's set up. You create a profile and then when you meet other couchsurfers, they leave you references. So when you do a couch search, to find a couch to stay on, you can check out the references on a potential host's wall and make sure that they're a good person.
Yeah I agreed with you a rental apartment not even just give you a big relief from money but also let you enjoy your tour as a local. I would say you must book an apartment specially if you are going on a tour with family.
This style can save you a lot because we had been doing that before. To save on the budget, we only eat once in a fine dining restaurant and for the rest of the meals we go to fast food outlets. When there is no chance for a fast food, we buy food in the grocery or supermarket. Especially for fruits, we always buy particularly the foreign fruits native to that country. By the way, this reminds me of our trip to Vietnam in September. I need to research on food.
This is something really amazing to have such a good time through the things you like to do. Log In would be amazing.
One main and major sacrifice to save money is to choose off season to explore specific region. That can save a lot of money but you are sacrificing best of it.
I agree with you Tara traveling offseason can help you to save money but by sacrificing a lot on your travel. I don't think it's worthy.
