5 Simple Ways To Spend Less On Your Trips In 2023

PART TWO

This is the second article of this series called 5 Simple Ways To Spend Less On Your Trips In 2023. If you haven’t read the first article, don’t hesitate to click here after you finish reading this one.

So here are my other top 5 pieces of travel advice. If you want to know how to travel more while spending less, you’re reading the right article.

5- Don’t check in any bags. Just book a flight that allows you to bring a carry-on

In 2019, I paid $180 for a flight from New York City to Paris, France. Yes, it was that cheap. But the policy was: I was only allowed to take a smaller personal item onboard along with my overhead carry-on bag. And trust me, this was all I needed. Why would I feel the need to pack so much stuff? I wasn’t moving to France. I was only going to spend a few days there, so a carry-on bag was just enough for me.

Flights that already include a checked-in bag are normally more expensive than those flights that don’t include any. If no checked-in bag is included in your flight, the airline is most likely to let you bring a carry-on plus a personal item. This can help you save so much money.

4- Travel in groups and chip in main costs

Traveling with friends is not only the best way to bond with them and make new memories but also the best way to save money on a trip. Splitting the main costs of a trip can make traveling less expensive.

I’ve gone on a thousand road trips hitting so many destinations on the way, and they were ridiculously cheap compared to when I traveled solo. If you rent an Airbnb for $100 a night and you’re with 2,3 other friends, that $100 goes down to around $34 per person. If you need to rent a car, and it’s $90 per day but you are traveling with 4 others, that $90 reduces to $18 per day per person.

Traveling with other people and chipping in the main costs is the best thing to do if you want to save money and spend less on a trip.

3- Go camping instead

Now, who said that, whenever you travel, you have to stay at a hotel room, Airbnb or hostel? Have you ever considered going camping instead?

When I went on a weekend trip to Niagara Falls with a group of friends in 2019, we decided we would go camping instead of renting a room. We bought a large tent that could fit 5 people, and we reserved one of those camping sites/campgrounds. They are super cheap, and so many of them offer amazing facilities, such as showers, bathrooms, and even Wi-Fi.

We put up the tent together and spent the weekend camping. The campground was $30 per night if you brought your own tent. We split that amount evenly for the five of us, and it was ridiculously cheap.

2-Book travel packages

You can have better deals when flights and hotels are booked together. You can simply save so much money by choosing a bundled package. This is an amazing strategy if you want to save a few hundred dollars when traveling.

When I traveled to Iguacu Falls in Brazil, I booked a bundled package with a travel agency and it was so worth it. Everything was less than R$:900 (Brazilian currency), which is around $200. The package included flight+hotel for 5 nights+tranfer+one attraction. Yes, it was that cheap. This is one of the best ways for you to spend less on a trip.

Some airlines will have partnerships with some hotels, and this is great if you want to save money. One price for 2 services or more.

1-Don’t stay too many days away

And last but not least, if you want to spend less on a trip, my last piece of advice is to spend only 3–5 days at every place you travel to. My mom finds traveling hard because according to her, a good trip has to be between 7 to 10 days. Who said that? Travel agents? I personally know of so many people who will prevent themselves from traveling simply because they can’t take seven days off of work. Or because a seven-day trip is “too expensive”. But why can’t you travel for just the weekend? For 4 days?

It is a great thing to do because you will end up having to do less, and consequently, you will spend less. If you travel for 7 days, you have to book a room for 7 days, buy food for 7 days, do things for 7 days… All these things will just be too much compared to if you were just traveling for the weekend or 5 days.

People tend to spend a lot of days away because they want to see a lot of sights, but I like to say that the place you want to travel to is never going to go away. If you go to London today, London will still be there next year. You can always go back and make new memories.

When I went backpacking in Europe in 2019, I only spent 4 days at each destination. I could only take 15 days off of work, so I made sure I’d spend 4 full days in Paris, Rome, Barcelona, and London.

Why would I need to stay 7 days in each city? What’s up with this seven-day trip thing? I don’t get it. Don’t prevent yourself from traveling just because you don’t have “enough days” to travel.

Instead, go on that trip of your dreams, and make the best out of it. If you don’t get to do all the things you wish to do, this can be a strong reason for you to go back to that place. It doesn’t matter how small or how big a city is. You can never see everything there. Not even the local people have done it. So, go on this weekend trip and make the best out of it. This will be an amazing way to spend less while traveling.

This is the second article of this series called 5 Simple Ways To Spend Less On Your Trips In 2023. If you haven’t read the first article, don’t hesitate to click here after you finish reading this one.

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