Member Article

Want to explore the world? Here's 6 top travel tips on how to do it within your budget!

Over the last two years, I’ve been lucky enough to travel across three continents, visit 12 different countries, 30 cities and 15 beaches. So it’s safe to say I like to travel a lot. Whenever I meet someone for the first time, usually the first thing that they ask me is, ‘how do you afford to travel so much?’ Either they’ve seen my Instagram, or we’ve gotten onto the topic of travel blogging, and they want to know is how I can make it happen.

I’m by no means a famous travel blogger, and I don’t have tens of thousands of followers. So while I do get the occasional freebie, which is a pretty great perk, most of the trips, I pay for myself. And since I work for myself, it means a lot of smart planning and budgeting.

So I thought for my first piece for Bdaily, I’d share some of my secrets that can help you afford more travel.

1. Be open to ideas

A lot of my trips over the last few years have been born out of spontaneity by letting the destination choose me, rather than vice versa. Rather than fixate on a specific destination, I’ll head to Skyscanner, enter my chosen date and choose ‘Everywhere’ as my destination. This allows you to search flights by which country and destinations are cheapest!

2. Choose private apartments over hotels

Nice hotels often come with big price tags so I tend to search Airbnb for options first. Private apartments can be a much cheaper way of staying right in the heart of a place. Imagine a hotel in Venice with a view over a canal and being woken up by gondolas singing in the morning, you’d expect to pay a pretty penny, right? I found a place just like that on Airbnb for less than the price of a Travelodge per night!

3. Travel light

Whenever I’m booking a shorter trip, I always try to avoid paying for checked baggage. It sounds like a hassle trying to cram everything into a little suitcase, but for most 4-5 day trips, you really can fit all you need in there. Sure, I’m guilty of trying to still cram as much as I can in my case. But plan your clothing carefully, opt for travel size liquids and buy the rest at the airport, and you’ll be absolutely fine.

4. Know when is the best time to book

Booking flights is always a bit of a gamble and I’m not going to pretend to hold the secrets to when is the right time to book. I can however tell you that Tuesday is a great day to book flights on and usually when you’ll find the cheapest deals. That’s because most airlines release sales and last minute weekend deals from Monday evening. Don’t ask me why, but this one’s worked for me a few times.

5. Travel outside of high season

It goes without saying that traveling in the height of summer is always going to be expensive! Plus it’s usually the worst time of year to visit a place, because it’s so packed with tourists. Try planning your trip around the beginning or end of the peak season for a cheaper and more relaxing break.

6. Live more like a local

Getting to try something new is one of the great things about travel, and that definitely applies to local cuisine. As a rule of thumb, I tend to avoid eating places that are close to tourist attractions (for price and quality). But a lot of the time, I actually love trying out local street food. When I was travelling in Colombia, some of the best meals we ever had were served at the side of a road!

If you’d like to read more of my content, you can visit my blog Raspberry Kitsch.

For all business enquiries, from copywriting to photography, visit hannahlayford.com

This was posted in Bdaily's Members' News section by Hannah Layford .