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Thrifty Travel Tips!

June 6, 2015|By David Lester

Travel Tips

When people are about to die they say they wished they didn’t spend so much time at work.  That is good advice so everyone should go travel right now.  It is also said that people are more genuinely happy through experiences vs. things so pick your ultimate travel location and go! I’ll show you how to do it for the most bang on a budget.  Did you think of where you want to go?  Did it pop in your head?  Book it boo! Make sure you have the money first.

There are ways to save TONS of money by being a great online flight shopper and ways to save a bit of money (that still helps) like putting your cable and gym on hold for a month or two.  Don’t buy a huge amount of groceries before you leave either.  They’ll all go to waste so eat down your cupboard.

Here are all the ways I’m getting ready to go to travel and how I’m saving money in the process. Remember, any money I can save here I can spend on sangria or martinis! Here are my tips..

1. Buying Flights: Go to your local travel agent and see if they have any great deals. Then take the same dates and go see if you can get them cheaper on line. This is the part when I have 800 windows open and I’m checking every flight for the best rate for the LOWEST amount of travel time.  Sometimes the actual airlines have better flights than the travel sites so check them all out.

2. Loyalty Points:  Check all of your point cards and see if you can get a free flight.  If you have points on a bunch of different airlines you can go to points.com and convert them to the points you need.  You can also buy points if you need more and it should be cheaper than buying the flight outright.  Use your points!

3. Hotels and Flights: If you need a hotel and a flight, click the Flight and Hotel button and see if is cheaper to book both on travel sights like Expedia and Travelocity. Generally, it is cheaper than booking separately because the hotels pay some of your way and you get the fly bigger airlines that normally land in the closer airports unlike sleazyjet, Ryan Air, etc.

4. Hotels Promo Codes:  When you find your favourite boutique hotel that’s on a budget then search for promo codes for that hotel.  Sometimes you’ll find one that works on their own site and you’ll save a bunch!  I love staying is five stars but only paying $5 bucks!  Look for boutique hotels in the cool area vs. the tourist area.

5. Hipster Areas:  When looking for a place to stay or places to party or dine, be sure to go off the beaten track.  Stay in the current hipster area and EVERYTHING will be cheaper, cooler, and more genuine to that city.  Those are all big things for me when I travel like a tramp.  You can go see the sites but day to day you want to be with the local beautiful and trendy people.

6. Eat at Grocery Stores: I love eating local cuisine when I’m away and the best way is to go to the local markets and shops.  Everything will be market fresh, authentic and you can eat it overlooking whatever local scenery floats your boat.  If the locals are shopping there – that is what they eat.  Ask them what’s awesome. It’ll also save you a ton from restaurants three times a day.  Make a picnic and eat in a park or public space.  It’ll  be cheap and cheerful.

When you leave on your trip be sure to get a travel pack from your cell company.  It’ll save you tons on texts, data etc.  Put on your WIFI scanning feature and pop into any coffee place to take advantage of the free service.  Only turn on your data if you need it or you have a good plan.  It’s EXPENSIVE when abroad. I do all of my searching at night in the hotel for free and then load up my itinerary for the next day.  Google maps will work without data and will give you a sense of where you are if you set it when you have WIFI.  Just turn the data off and go.  It works!

My new book From Middle Class to Millionaire has even more of my travel tips and more money saving ideas. So check it out.

David Lester
About David Lester

David Lester is a best selling author and professional Financial Coach, helping people be better with their money. David has written a personal finance book that breaks with traditional attitudes towards finance and describes his own philosophy to money that he has gained through his personal and professional experiences. His philosophy on money applies to many areas of everyday life, including banking, investing, goal setting, shopping and entertainment.