6 Hacks To Make A Low Budget Travel Plan

Often, we find ourselves scrolling through our social feed, daydreaming about faraway lands, inspiring photography and life-changing adventure. And then, we wake up to check our bank balance and drop the idea.

I wonder, how do people actually fund their travels? Not everybody has been saving money for years to make it happen!

After reading a lot of stories on known travelers, I’ve realized this one thing, everybody didn’t have a huge amount of savings. In fact, some were even left with less than $200 in the first place!

They learned how to make it work, how to survive on a budget and how to handle it in difficult times. Most people travel with savings, which I guess is the best thing to do!  It might be difficult, but it doesn’t mean it’s impossible to travel on a low budget.

People always wonder how much they should save for their next trip and also how to save money on the road, or prior to their big adventure!

Sure, traveling costs money, but there are ways to make it easier on the wallet.

Here are our 6 best tips on how to plan a trip on a budget:

1. Make the most of sales events

airplane over a dollar bill  - low budget traveling

While people are loading up on new TVs and tablets during Black Friday and the Boxing Day Sales, skip straight to the flight sites.

Bookmark the sites that compare prices of travel tickets and subscribe to their newsletters or notifications to get alerts and updates via email. You’ll be intimated if specific fares have changed or reduced: farecompare.com, farecast.com, yapta.com, travelocity.com.

2. Do you know how much a visa costs?

stamped passaport  - low budget traveling

Some countries, like Nepal, don’t require a visa for entry as a short-term traveler, and others charge for the privilege of entering.

Be aware of what you’re getting into, as you can plan your journey around destinations with cheap visa processes.

While there are a few countries with easy and cheap visa processes. Make sure you have done your homework already! 😉

3. Stay in hostels

hostel in the mountains  - low budget traveling

This is the best deal you can buy when traveling on a budget!

Hostels are much more wallet-friendly compared to hotels, resorts, and rental homes. Not only do you get your accommodation sorted at an affordable price, but also a backpacker atmosphere, and memories to cherish for a lifetime.

There are a lot of hostels in different cities and you get a chance to interact with people from different backgrounds.

Some of its advantages are that usually, you end up meeting people traveling to the same destination as yours, so you may end up finding someone to share transportation, dinner or day trips.

3. Walk as much as possible or rent a bicycle

bike san francisco  - low budget traveling

Travel will turn you into a walker.

It’s amazing to explore large swaths of countryside on a moped or by bus, but whenever you can (and especially when you’re in a city), stretch those legs and stroll!

When you need to travel that bit further, rent a bicycle.

You’ll burn those pesky calories, save some pennies, and definitely get to know the nooks and crannies of your chosen city in far more detail. Not only does it allow you to get around on the cheap, but also, it also keeps you fit. 😉

4. Street food definitely means cheap food

street food  - low budget traveling

Eating street food tends to be the cheapest way to feed yourself on a budget.

If you’re someone who fears how hygienic or healthy the food may be, there are places where you can actually watch the food being prepared and cooked, so it’s better than being hidden away in a kitchen.

While traveling, make sure you have a taste of the local food before leaving, it will definitely make your experience worth it!

5. Get to know the locals

people around the bonfire - low budget traveling

There’s no better way of getting to know a place than talking to the locals. They know the ins and outs, the dos and don’ts, the where-to-go – and the where-not-to-go.

They are, in a nutshell, the best tour guides you could wish for.

Some of them might even end up asking you to stay with them, enhancing your travel experience and at the same time cutting on your accommodation and food costs.

You might even end up learning the local language. 😉

 

“Travel is the only thing you buy that makes you richer.”
– Anonymous

 

We hope that these hacks worked for you. Let us know in the comments section below if you have some hacks of your own. 🙂

Till then, you can browse through the opportunities in budget-friendly countries to enhance your travel experience while serving the Global Goals!

If you liked this blog, you may also like: 5 Reasons Why Traveling Can be Your Best Teacher


Written by

Studying bachelor’s in biotechnology, Aayushi is a really passionate person, who loves to read and travel. She believes people, places, and stories have the power to change anyone and help them understand the purpose of life.

3 Ways How Solo Traveling Can Make You A Better Leader

Whenever it comes down to thinking about what traveling alone can mean to me, these words define it the best – initiative, intuition, decision and action.

It’s more like designing an art. Taking a leap of faith to start, listening to the calling of the heart, and just doing it the way we want.

Philosophical? Maybe.

Before we begin, this space is not about telling you what solo traveling is or how you should probably do it. Google has enough for it.

The idea is to understand the relevance of grabbing any travel opportunity that comes our way, to help ourselves become more of who we are.

Being on your own, for your own self, in an unknown place, around unknown people can be frightful. But that’s exactly why one should do it.

It’s fearful. It’s daring. Hence, it’s exciting.

You’ll never know what’s coming your way and how will you deal with it. That’s what makes it so thrilling. It’s similar to taking risks in a business.

Everyone is always asking us to take up challenges, right? There you go: being alone makes you rely on your own spontaneous decisions, and to have faith in them.

It teaches you to take big life decisions.

The more adventurous your experience is, the more enlightening your own reality is.

Here are a few ways how traveling on your own can be a journey to leadership:

1. It helps you understand your inhibitions

men solo traveling standing in front of a cliff

It’s often said that it’s only when you’re put in a hard situation you’ll learn how you’ll deal with it.

Becoming self-aware is one of the key aspects traveling alone teaches.

You understand your fears, attributes that hold you back and your behavior in unexpected or unusual situations. This is exactly how you get to know yourself better and realize your potentials.

You must build on your instincts around people and the environment.

It helps to gain the capacity of dealing with critical and analytical activities like managing teams, assessing people and identifying opportunities.

2. You learn how to find a way in the chaos

As the only person responsible for your life, you learn to become self-reliant and start searching for solutions in a menace.

You try and talk to locals for directions, finding places to feed your stomach, knowing more about the city and its culture. The entire journey revolves around you making attempts to finding a way out.

You’re usually clueless about what will happen next and how, but you still keep moving forward to discover. There’s a solution to every problem, known or unrevealed. To search for it is up to us.

3. It pushes you to stay out of comfort and embrace challenges

As a traveler, if we shift our approach from ‘why do I have to tackle this problem’ to ‘I need to take a next level challenge’, the scope of personal growth intensifies.

Comfort brings in ease, inviting fear and resistance to difficulties. On the other hand, overseeing comfort over opportunity upskills strength, maturity, and quality of life.

Even in business, the best of ideas emerge when a workforce chooses to think on broader spectrums. They come out of distinct realities and not from easy situations.

There might be a hundred reasons for you to escape traveling alone, but if you can dare to dream, you can become what you envision.

Venture on your own to discover, enhance and rebuild a new life.

If this interested you, you can read 7 Things I Achieved, Thanks To My Exchange in Turkey

Would you like to travel alone while working on an amazing project? Learn about our exchanges!


Written by

Vanyashree Chaudhary is a light-hearted Journalism student from Delhi. She’s crazy about her love for graphic designing, Oreo shakes and Daft Punk. Find her the happiest while she’s traveling!