One of the questions we're often asked is, how we afford to travel.
Well, to answer that question check out this video.
But travel itself doesn't have to be expensive.
In this video what we're going to do is share some of our travel tips that we use to save money while on the road
This video is sponsored by Squarespace.
Now many of you guys know I've been traveling for over 25 years even when I had minimum wage jobs.
It's been a process of sticking to a budget, saving money, and also finding ways to reduce costs while on the road traveling.
Travel can be pretty expensive and quickly add up when you take into consideration your airfare, your accommodation, and all of those activities you want to do.
Here are a few things that we've been doing over the years to make our traveling a little bit more affordable,
and to make our money stretch that much further while on the road traveling.
Accommodation with a kitchen.
Often we will rent an apartment that has a kitchen as well, just so that we can cook at home.
You'll quickly save money just by not eating out a couple of times a day, and don't worry you will always find a grocery store close by!
Save money on food.
Shop at the local farmers markets, local grocery stores, and local bakeries.
Even if your accommodation does not have a kitchen, you can buy things like fresh fruit, granola bars, crackers nuts, and bread and cheese.
Whatever takes your fancy, and take it back to your hotel room to eat for breakfast or for snacks.
When heading out to travel by bus, train or plane,
remember to bring some of those snacks with you because you know how expensive it can be when you're buying things to eat at airports or bus terminals.
Travel during the off season.
When do we typically travel?
Well, we're typically traveling during the shoulder season and off season when airfares and accommodation are typically a lot lower.
You will often find us traveling during the shoulder season when there is significantly less crowds but the weather is still very nice.
However, don't forget to check the tourist seasons and the weather seasons in the places you want to travel.
You might find that sweet deal to India, but it's in the middle of the summer where it's going to be hot, sticky and humid and very hard to travel.
Seek out flight deals.
Track and monitor the desired routes and destinations that you're looking to travel to, and double check with the airlines that service those routes.
You've got to be really flexible or as flexible as possible with your travel dates to get the best deals!
And you can track all this by using online search engines like Google Flights and Skyscanner
to kind of monitor the prices over time to know when to jump in and get the best deal.
A round trip ticket is great if you know you're going to be flying into and out of a single location
or you're only going to be in a location for a relatively short period of time.
The other option is to use the multi-city search and kind of look for places
that you kind of generally know the direction you're going to be traveling
and you could look at like other airports in other cities to fly out from.
When we were filming in Denmark, in Copenhagen,
we had actually flown into Paris on the way to Europe. But on the way out I saw a very cheap deal flying out of Copenhagen.
So we decided to spend a few days there before flying back to the US from Copenhagen.
It actually saved us a chunk of money.
Don't forget to purchase your tickets as far ahead as possible for the best deal.
Stay longer in a location
When we're traveling we're often staying in one location for a week or two,
and we're using that as a home base to take day trips from to explore the local area.
Many online sites offering apartment rentals offer discounts if you rent for a longer period of time, like a week, or two weeks, or a month.
And don't forget the other sites now offering apartment rentals like Agoda.com as a possible option.
Also look for local hotel promotions because the local hotels often offer discounts or free night stay when you book for multiple nights.
Choose affordable destinations
Always find out exactly how much a country is before traveling there.
Take a look at the average cost of accommodation, transportation, food, and activities in the countries you think you want to travel to.
By choosing less expensive destinations to travel to your money will go a lot further.
We've enjoyed traveling to affordable destinations in countries like Indonesia, Malaysia, and Cambodia in Southeast Asia.
And whether traveling in expensive or more affordable destinations, we are always using these tips to travel with.
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Enjoy free activities
Explore the local neighborhoods.
Check out a local church on a corner or take a little walk through a community park.
There's always local markets that you can wander around and experience.
There is so much that you can do for free while traveling.
We are always looking for local flea markets to take a little browse around.
Whenever we're in London we always try to visit some of the free museums.
There is so many. There's the Tate Modern, there's the British Museum, and some of the more obscure ones like the Sloan Museum.
But don't forget to do the research to find out about the free activities in the places that you want to visit.
Often or not there is limitations to the dates or the times or the time of year where these places offer free entrance.
Use public transportation
Within many cities you absolutely have no need to rent a car or even to take a taxi.
There's plenty of public transportation like subways, buses, local trams, or even commuter trains that will get you from A to B really quickly and very cheaply.
Many cities have day passes available,
but do the math because you might not need that many rides to get to all of the activities that you want to go.
So it may be cheaper just to pay for tickets as you go.
You'll find in Europe that many of the tourist attractions are actually a lot closer together than you think, so walking is a good option.
Also, look into public transportation when traveling to and from an airport.
It is easier to jump into a taxi, but it can often be a big shock as to how much it costs when you get there.
Most airport websites actually give you all of the options for public transportation.
So there is absolutely no reason why you cannot research the public transportation options before you get to your destination.
Research and plan ahead
So much of saving money and and preventing costly mistakes simply comes back to good research.
As part of your travel research read some travel guides, watch some videos,
search Pinterest, read some blogs, and then don't forget to check out some reviews of the places you're looking at.
When deciding what city and places of interest you want to visit, thoroughly research how to get from point A to point B.
If you do decide to get a car rental, then thoroughly check into that car rental company. Read the reviews on them.
Also take into consideration things like car insurance and breakdown insurance.
To save time money and disappointment double check the hours of operation of the places that you want to visit while you're there.
A couple of years ago we were planning to visit Versailles for a day,
and before we traveled we checked and realized that the place was going to be closed down the very day we wanted to visit because Vladimir Putin was coming to town!
Hotel rewards programs
By joining a hotel rewards program you can save up points towards free nights.
We actually use two programs and that is the Hilton and the Accor.
In different cities around the world then check on the amount of points needed for a single nights stay.
You can find some really sweet deals. With the Hilton rewards we've stayed in places like Romania and Poland for about 5,000 points for one night.
Local tips and suggestions
Talk to locals for recommendations. They're always full of really good suggestions for places to eat, places to shop, and things to do.
So many times we've been given recommendations that we otherwise would never have known about.
Also the touristy areas are typically a lot more expensive to find places to eat.
All you have to do is go a couple of blocks away from these areas to find places that are just so much more affordable.
I hope these tips have been really helpful for you for when you're coming to plan your next trip,
and let us know in the comments below what your favorite money saving travel tips are!