This blog post is going to be about how to save money while planning your next adventure.
Flights
I would say the majority of people worry about spending a lot of money on buying their flights, it doesn't have to be this way. Yes, the flights may be the most expensive buy whilst planning a holiday but if you are savvy you can save a lot of money!
For instance, I love using Skyscanner.
I use this site almost as much as I use my social media channels! It is amazing for finding cheap flights to your dream destinations or places that had never before caught your eye. This website gives you a lot of opportunities and basically the more flexible you can be, the cheaper the flights will be. On the website you can select where you want to fly to and choose to put in specific dates or just look at a months view. The months view is what I opt for. You can easily see all the dates of the month and the prices of all the flights in one place which makes it straight forward to decide which will save you most money. For example, I have seen flights on a Tuesday being double the price of the Wednesday flight, it's insane!
In addition, saving money on flights (this could be hundreds of pounds) could mean taking a little detour in your journey. I don't mean a stop over but actually landing at a different airport. I know this may not work for some places but for destinations with lots of airports this could be the answer! Personally, I have used this tactic when travelling to Germany. The nearest airport to where I am heading is Stuttgart but if I fly to Baden airport then I can get flights for £20 return compared to £90 at Stuttgart!
Accommodation
I cannot RAVE about using Airbnb enough! This site is gold! People nowadays often travel different places because they want to enjoy another culture and have a unique experience. Sounds like you? Thought so! With Airbnb you get to live like a local, in a local neighbourhood, next to local restaurants and meet local people with LOCAL KNOWLEDGE!
I have booked 7 Airbnbs and each of them have been an excellent and cheaper alternative to a hotel, and more private than a hostel.
Here is a quick example of how cheap they can be. In London I booked an Airbnb for 2 nights. It was clean, had personal touches, close to the main attractions and the hosts were lovely. How much was it? Considering average price for a hotel in London is around £135 per night, I was expecting to pay around £60 at least for my Airbnb.
I only paid £74 for 2 nights!!!
Restaurants
This may seem like an obvious one but so many tourists fall into this trap time and time again. Unless you are desperate to eat a pizza beside the Colosseum or drink champagne on top of the Eiffel Tower....dine OFF THE BEATEN TRACK. I don't mean walk for miles out to a farm in Tuscany I just mean get more for your money by dining in between the main streets, in little alleyways or just explore a different side of town.
More often than not the food and service will be better quality because they won't be cooking for the masses and will value your custom.
Some restaurants will offer a "menu of the day" which is usually a reasonably priced set menu. Look out for "Menu del dia" in Spain as they tend to be popular in restaurants here!
