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Maya: What's up beautiful people? It's your homegirl Shameless.
And I have guests here.
Damon: Damon and Jo! Jo: I'm Jo, this is Damon.
Together we have a travel channel on YouTube.
Maya: Yes, you have to check out their channel.
And we did a collab on their channel about New York vs. LA,
and now we are going to do the travelling on a budget,
because all three of us travel --
Damon: That was my travel --
Maya: The travel on a budget dance?
We all travel a lot.
We picked up some tips and tricks like along the way of
just random things that you wouldn't think about,
anything from accommodation
to booking your flight to managing your money.
So we're going to give you all of those tips.
So, I want to encourage you guys to travel
with these five easy tips that can apply to anyone.
Tip number one!
Jo: Tip number one is booking your flight.
So the number one thing people complain about when travelling
is it's so expensive to buy a flight.
Yeah it is going to be the most expensive part,
either that or your accommodation,
but here's some tips to like get the cheapest flight.
So we use two sites, the first one is Sky Scanner,
it's this awesome flight booking engine
because you can type in like I'm leaving from LAX
and I want to go everywhere,
there's actually an option where you click everywhere,
and it'll list down the cheapest places to go.
And then they also have the cheapest month,
so you can plan your trip around the cheapest month in advance.
Maya: Smart!
Jo: Jet Radar is another site, similar,
without the everywhere function,
but they have really cheap flights.
The only thing with Jet Radar
is that they offer really long layovers,
so make sure you know
how much time you're spending in layovers.
Maya: So look at the stopover -- layover --
Damon: Yeah, one time we had a flight
where we literally had to sleep in the airport,
and like we've done that many times,
but a lot of people aren't willing to do that.
But then again, we had a super cheap flight.
The last tip on that, on booking your flight,
would be to make your own connecting flights.
So this is actually risky, but I've done it before,
and it saved me hundreds of dollars.
I had to go to Lisbon
and the flight from New York to Lisbon at the time
was something like $600.
So even when I was searching on Go to Cheap, booking engines
like Sky Scanner and Jet Radar it will still $600.
Then I'm like, "Hold up."
What if I go from New York to Manchester,
or any European airport for that matter,
and then find a flight from that airport to Lisbon?
Maya: Oh, so just doing a one-way to one city,
and then another one-way to another city.
Jo: Exactly, so --
Damon: But it's super-risky,
I mean, she saved hundreds of dollars doing it,
but it's risky because if you miss --
Maya: If you miss your flight. Damon: -- your first flight,
or if that first flight gets cancelled or delayed
and you end up missing your second one.
So, you did a long layover?
Jo: I did a long layover, yeah,
always leave room for like some delays --
Maya: So like a day, and then explore the city.
Damon: You did 12 hours?
Jo: No, I did 6 hours, I was living on the edge.
Damon: Damn!
Jo: I was living on the edge, so yeah,
I ended up paying $300 for this flight to Lisbon.
Damon: They key point in finding cheap flights is to,
one, not be picky.
I actually just found one on my way here.
It was $161, and this is not a lie,
from LA to -- where was it?
Jo: Denmark. Damon: Denmark.
Maya: Oh wow, that's cheap. Damon: I'm like, "what?!"
I might have to cancel everything and go to Denmark.
Jo: But it's always the most inconvenient times
with the layovers that are really long.
So, I mean, you're going to get there eventually.
Maya: I find Google flights super cheap too.
Jo: Google flights is good because they have the numbers
It compares everything
and it also has like the little green number
if it's the cheapest day, so, it's always good to --
Maya: And also looking at certain times of the day,
like I find if you are searching after hours,
like off business hours the prices drop,
like I noticed that and also on weekends.
And then sometimes when Monday comes around
it's just like game over.
And booking your flights at least 2 weeks in advance.
Once you start getting in the two week zone, game over.
Maya: Tip number two!
Damon: Accommodations, so we have 3 sub-numbers for this one.
We have hostels, first off. Do we know what hostels are?
Maya: Explain.
Damon: Okay, hostels. Hostels are not hotels.
So instead of renting the entire room out,
you rent a bed in a room.
Jo: With other people. Damon: With other people.
Jo: Now you might be cringing at home, but don't cringe,
it's always fun.
Damon: No, it's really nice
because you're finally connecting with other travelers,
people who are trying to get around the city and not --
They don't need a 5 star hotel to travel,
they just want to be in the city and meet other travelers.
Hostels are the best place for that.
Number two is Couch Surfing.
Couch Surfing, do we know what that is?
Maya: Yes.
Damon: It's basically a Facebook for travelers.
You're traveling to a city, I'm traveling to Las Vegas
and I don't want to stay in a hotel or hostel,
so I'm going to look to stay with somebody.
Jo: Like a local.
Damon: Oh, but this is free. Maya: What?
Damon: Yeah, oh yeah, I forgot --
Oh yeah, this is completely free.
Maya: What?! Jo: Completely free.
Maya: Oh wow.
Jo: Couch Surfing is this organization,
it's like a community of people all over the world
that have this understanding
that you will sleep on their couch,
they will learn about your culture,
you'll learn about their culture --
Maya: Oh that's amazing!
Jo: -- in exchange for a good review,
so that when the Couch Surfing host wants to travel
they'll also be able to stay on your couch for free,
or like they'll have good reviews.
Maya: That makes sense. That's a good hookup.
Damon: It's awesome! And I've had the best ones,
like in London where it's so expensive
I stayed in this 2 story flat,
I had one of those rain showers,
and it's so awesome because he showed me around the city,
and I got to see London through a local's eyes.
Maya: That's amazing. That is winning.
Damon: Winning! And then the third part is work exchange.
Maybe there's a hostel that you enjoyed your stay at.
Me? That was in Lisbon, I loved this hostel.
So I reached out to them, and I said,
"Hey, do you guys have a volunteer program?"
So I stayed in Portugal for an entire month
and I worked the bar, I've never even served a drink in my life.
Jo: He didn't even know how to slice a lime.
Damon: I had no idea!
But that was a way for me to travel the world
and not have to pay anything.
Maya: Wow, that's amazing, that's amazing.
Jo: And then a subcategory of that, I have to add-in Airbnb.
Maya: I live on Airbnb.
My brother and his wife are in Mexico,
and they're snapping in this beautiful home,
and I'm pretty sure they found it on Airbnb.
Tip number 3.
Jo: Okay, so money, money, money, money, money.
Right? Isn't that what they say?
Damon: Let's talk dollars.
Jo: This is like the most stressful part about any travel,
because you're trying to spend
as least amount of money as possible.
And what we found is the Chase Sapphire card --
Maya: I need to get it, because the points!
Jo: The points, so the way that this card works is
you get the double points on travel,
so any time you book any kind of trip,
even if it's domestic like even if you're buying a metro card,
it'll be double the points, so that's good.
So travel is double the points,
and then international transactions
I believe are double the points,
and there's no exchange fee, so you can swipe --
Maya: That's insane to me.
Damon: And you're not getting charged.
Maya: And this is for U.S. residents?
Damon: Yeah.
Maya: So look into cards that offer points,
especially towards travel.
Jo: Double the points on travel and no international fees.
The second tip with this is whenever you're abroad
obviously you can't use a credit card
or debit card for everything,
and so you're going to need to take cash out.
We usually withdraw from local ATMs
so it comes out in the currency that you need,
but we withdraw like larger lump sums
because every time you withdraw your bank charges you
and your ATM, the local ATM will charge you.
Tip number 4.
Damon: Oooo! Okay, so,
you need to do everything locally,
which means like Groupon,
there are so many websites out there
that have specific versions to different cities.
I was in France and I went on Groupon France
which is a completely different website
from Groupon United States, but they have different deals.
So I now had access to all of the deals in Paris.
So definitely checkout the local versions of every single website
that you use back home.
Jo: And beyond that, just use local resources,
so ask locals, talk to people, talk to strangers,
we're big advocates on learning local languages,
because you always end up getting a cheaper deal --
Maya: They speak a lot of languages.
Jo: Yeah, I mean, primarily because we're cheap,
and we're like, "Let's get the deal."
I mean, you got to learn languages.
Maya: I love Yelp. Yelp, I get my life on Yelp,
and I review and do all --
DAMON/JO: You review?! Maya: I do!
But I just started because I'm like, you know what?
I need to start reviewing
because it's been so helpful for me,
every time I travel, I'm like where am I going to eat? Yelp!
Like I'm the Yelp girl.
And I also thought when you said go local,
meaning, even travel locally,
like you can travel within your own city.
Because a lot of people are like,
"I want to go big --"
Like you're in France, you're in Lisbon.
Damon: You don't have to.
Maya: You don't have to, you can like get out,
I know so many people, when I was living in Harlem,
that do not leave Harlem, like seriously shut-up and go,
because there's so much that your city has to offer,
but you have to look for it.
Jo: The last tip, which is exactly, shut up and go,
it's just know that you don't need to have a million dollars,
you don't need to have unlimited time,
you don't need to have 3 months of vacation,
you can honestly just leave your front door,
take a left, take a right,
go down streets you've never been to before
and see something new.
If somebody on Instagram can post that picture,
if somebody can see that amazing video,
I can be in those places,
like I can do it with my own eyes and my own --
Maya: You just have to make it a mission of yours,
like, I live on like to-dos and like goals,
but if you want to travel, just make that a priority
and make it happen.
And that's it from us,
make sure you guys checkout their channels,
click on their faces, description box.
Until next time, remember to do you, boo! Be shameless!
Jo: Bye!
[laughter]
Maya: Make sure you guys checkout Damon and Jo
in our collab video on New York vs. LA.
Damon: At the same time!
Jo: Question number one, which city is friendlier?
New York vs. LA?