Adventure Awaits: Money-$aving Travel Tips for the Savvy Adventurer
Traveling has a reputation for being expensive. Between flights, hotels, and meals, it certainly can cost you a lot. Just getting your passport costs you around $150.
If the travel bug bit you but forget to leave a pile of cash behind, don’t abandon hope yet. Keep reading and we’ll give you some cheap travel tips that will help you sate your wanderlust without maxing out your credit cards.
Travel Domestically
The US has an incredibly diverse range of climate types. You can get a taste of the tropics along the southeastern coastline or visit a temperate rain forest in the Pacific Northwest. The Southwest hosts deserts and the Grand Canyon.
Domestic and regional travel will almost always cost you less if you plan ahead and still provide an outstanding experience.
Skip the Tourist Traps
World famous attractions and the businesses that surround them all charge exorbitant rates for everything. Take a pass on those attractions and seek out local points of interest.
You’ll spend less. Plus, you stand a much better chance of meeting interesting locals.
Travel off of Peak Season
Peak seasons vary by destination. In the US, for example, summer and the holidays are peak travel seasons.
You’ll see cheaper prices on travel to most places if you venture there in the local “off-peak season.” For example, the rainy season in the tropics runs from around January through April. If you don’t mind brief evening showers, you can avoid the tourist rush in the dry season.
Shop Around for Your Hotels
Your hotels can end up costing you as much as your airfare if you aren’t careful. For example, picking a hotel right on the beach will probably cost you more than picking one a little bit inland.
Take some time and shop around on deal site and look for promo codes for accommodations. You can save yourself a bundle.
Travel on Your Tax Return
With any luck, tax season didn’t mean going back and checking pay stubs to account for a discrepancy on your W2. You can learn more about pay stubs in a world of direct deposit here.
If you budget around your take-home pay and stick with it, though, your tax return is a lot like a small lotto win. It’s money you travel on guilt free. It’s cheap travel in that it doesn’t hurt your regular finances.
Parting Thoughts on Cheap Travel Tips
Traveling will cost you something, but it needn’t prove a grotesque expense. You can avoid many of the highest costs simply by following the cheap travel tips listed above.
The other key is a degree of flexibility. If you can shift your leave date around a little, you can often knock a little more off the total price tag.
The best part of cheap travel is that you still reap the same health benefits as people who travel the expensive way. Check out our article about travel health benefits to see the good you do for yourself by traveling.
