6 Areas You Can Save Money For Your Travels

You’ve spent weeks, months, or even years saving up for the trip of a lifetime and now, the time to set off has finally arrived. Once you’ve booked your flights and accommodation, finished your packing, and put together an itinerary of things that you’d like to see and do whilst you’re there, you’re all set to go! But, for many travellers, one of the biggest worries is running out of money mid-trip.

Even if you have a lot saved up for spending whilst you’re exploring your destination, there’s always the risk that you have underestimated just how much you will need. Thankfully, there are several savvy ways to cut the costs of travelling. Therefore ensuring that you don’t end up in financial trouble.

Quit Smoking

Quitting smoking right before a big trip might not seem like such a great idea. However, for many people, being away from home and exploring a new place can actually make it easier not to smoke. Also, if you quit smoking now, you could put the money you save towards your travel budget. If you’re struggling, then you might want to consider switching to vaping. UK e-liquids can be taken in either your cabin or hold luggage and are much cheaper to purchase. What’s better – there’s a quit rate of around 70% for smokers who switch to vaping.

Ditch the Hold Luggage

Unless you’re planning to be travelling for months on end, then ask yourself, do I really need to take luggage in the hold? When booking flights, opting for cabin luggage only can be a great way to save yourself some significant money on the overall cost of your trip, as you won’t need to pay any extra to take it on. If your accommodation has a laundrette, consider taking less luggage and simply washing it to re-wear instead.

Buy Attraction Passes

If you are planning to visit a major city such as London whilst travelling, then purchasing a pass to all the main attractions is one of the best ways to save some money on your adventure. For a fixed price that’s usually set much cheaper than the price of an individual ticket to each attraction on the list. City Passes will get you entry into some amazing places and are available in several cities around the world. These include London, New York, Toronto, Paris, Rome, and Amsterdam.

Convert Your Currency Early

Whilst it might be tempting to leave currency conversion to the last minute when you get to the airport, doing so could mean that you lose out significantly when it comes to your finances. In general, airport currency conversion shops tend to charge much higher exchange rates, since they know that customers will need their service with few other options to choose from. Instead, getting your money changed over as early as possible will help you to shop around and take advantage of the best exchange rates.

Consider a Travel Money Card

For many travellers, the idea of carrying a wad of cash around with them isn’t something that they’re too comfortable with, especially for those who are travelling alone. If you are travelling to a country or city where the crime rate for theft is high, then it makes sense to want to try an alternative method of accessing your finances, rather than risking having your cash stolen.

However, simply using your debit card could cost you more in international use and exchange fees from your bank. Instead, a designated travel money card usually costs a lot less to use, and there’s no need to worry about the exchange rate since you can convert the money to the local currency beforehand.

Be Careful with Smartphone Use

If you are currently on a smartphone contract, then using it whilst abroad could be costing you more than you realise. Although there are several network providers today who allow their customers to use their smartphones at no extra charge when roaming, it’s important to check before you set off so that you’re not coming home to face a huge bill.

The best way to keep your smartphone bill down as low as possible is to use Wi-Fi as often as you can when travelling; apps such as WhatsApp, Skype, FaceTime audio, and Facebook Messenger can help you easily keep in touch with those most important to you using your Wi-Fi connection alone.

How do you save money when you travel? We’d love to hear from you in the comments.