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Tips for Travelling on a Budget

Whether you’re a student, a recent graduate, or a keen traveller just hoping to save some coin – I will help you get more experience travelling for less expenditure.

•Delete Cookies

This tip isn’t as tasty as it sounds – but it’s more healthy (on your bank balance) than the traditional method of making cookies disappear. Before you book flights, ensure you delete your cookies (you can do this through your browser settings).

Many websites track your browsing history and will push flight prices up, leaving you out of pocket – deleting your cookies prevents the website from seeing how frequently you’ve been looking at flights, and saves you money.

The best way to delete cookies

•Hit more than one place at a time

Okay, inter railing may be too time consuming or expensive. I personally would love to do it, but would be devastated haven used most of my annual leave in one swoop. But honestly there’s no reason you can’t split a week between 2/3 cities, or even a long weekend between 2. A lot of European cities are somewhat close to one another, there’s nothing stopping you flying into Amsterdam, checking out Brussels and before flying home from Paris (there are many other examples of mini-trips you could take), squeezing many sites in with just 2 flights is very cost effective (and more environmentally friendly). Plus trains tend to be affordable through Europe if purchased in advance; and if not – check out FlixBus.com

Trip plottin’

•Avoid the Bureau de Change

If you check how much your bank charges per withdrawal abroad – factor in a budget for your entire stay and just make 1/2 withdrawals throughout. It’s cheaper than the Bureau service fee, and if an ATM presents a ridiculous exchange rate, reject their proposal and it will come out as the currency exchange currently rate stands.

Your money is better off yours

•Duty free you say?

A lot of the places outside the common travel zone tend to be renowned for being expensive (Norway, Iceland, Switzerland etc), so be smart – check out how much alcohol/cigarettes (or whatever you envision yourself consuming) you can legally carry into these places, and stock up at duty free saving a fortune.

Why isn’t it this cheap in my local shop?!

•If it seems too good to be true, snap it up

The budget airlines (and the not so budget ones too) often have snap sales. So if you fancy a trip somewhere and see cheap flights – snap them up, because they may be gone tomorrow.

•Be shrewd with accommodation

At the end of the day, accommodation is there to be slept in and to shower in the morning. There’s no point splashing the cash on a 5-star hotel when you can get the same amenities at a 2-star hotel for a tenth of the price, or at a hostel for even cheaper.

•Sign up for a Monzo/Revolut Card

I personally use Monzo, but both Monzo and Revolut allow you to use your card abroad without incurring banking charges (which your traditional bank may charge up to £2 per transaction). Monzo also allows you to withdraw up to £200 of the local currency in a rolling 30 day period, which can also help you avoid Bureau de Change charges.

• Check the price before buying

I’ve heard so many horror stories of people walking into a restaurant and ordering something basic like a burger and chips, to get charged an extortionate price upon the bill coming down. This may sound simple, but so many people fall for it, especially close to tourist attractions such as the Eiffel Tower, or the Duomo. This can be avoided by simply checking the menu before buying. Though places can catch you out by not attaching prices next to drinks on their menu – so ask how much the drinks are (even if you feel cheap while asking – after paying €15 for a beer in Milan I wish I had have asked).

•Check for licensed taxis

Thankfully this is something I haven’t had to learn the hard way. Before leaving the airport etc plan your route – whether it’s by bus, train or taxi, the airport website will have a list of the best way to your destination from the airport. If it’s by taxi, check on the website what local licensed taxis look like, and if you’re approached to get into a taxi, refuse – go to the official taxi rank.

You don’t want to get stuck in a fake taxi…

Okay, after bringing the tone of this piece down with that crude joke – I’ll wrap things up. If you’ve any tips for saving money on hols, please mention them in the comments below.

•Check how much a taxi should cost

When new to unfamiliar surroundings, we often just accept things as we’re told they are by the first person to tell us so. And if you leave an airport and go to the official taxi rank, the first person you meet, whilst official, may not actually be genuine. We were told we could barter the price of everything in Marrakech, so the first thing I attempted to do was barter down the price of the taxi from 300 dirham. I was told it’s impossible as this is the going price to my destination – I foolishly accepted. 5 days later I find the return journey cost 75 dirham, a quarter of the price. Pre-plan your taxis, and find out online how much they should generally cost.

And I have another section on just general travel tips here.

Happy (cheap) travels.

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