TRAVEL: Top tips for budget friendly travel - booking your holiday

Photo credit: Unconventional Wisdom
Holidays – they’re expensive, right? So we cut down the length and decide we’ll only go for a weekend to save on costs, but when you add in the flights, accommodation, activities and food, you end up spending way more than you budgeted for. However, there are some handy tips you can follow to help you save at every stage of your holiday – read on to find out more!

Booking your holiday

·      Use Skyscanner

This can be a fantastic tool, particularly if you’re flexible on where or when you want to go. Before I’ve even decided on a destination, I head to Skyscanner and set my destination to ‘Everywhere’ to see what locations are the cheapest to fly to during the time I’m willing to travel. The site collates flight prices from across the web, and shows you the cheapest airline to travel with, and you can then book via Skyscanner or the original airline. Because of this simple trick, I’ve visited places I probably otherwise wouldn’t have considered rather than going to the more popular and undoubtedly more expensive places. This also works if you know where you want to travel to but are flexible with dates, as you can see when in a specific month is the cheapest time to fly.

·      Travel offseason

Tourism is a great industry for cities, so they want tourists to visit all year round. For the most part, the majority of visitors come in the summer and school holidays, so if you can avoid these, do! Flights and accommodation will usually be cheaper, as will certain tours and attractions. Be mindful though, sometimes things will shut out of season, so if there is a particular attraction you want to visit or activity you want to do, make sure this is available in the time you’re visiting.

·      Check how expensive the country is

On top of the above, you might also want to do your research on how expensive it is to visit the country or city, as you might have saved on flights but then end up spending more than you would have elsewhere on accommodation and food if the place you’re visiting is known to be expensive. I got caught out in this regard in Oslo (you can read about that trip here), it being the cheapest place to go on Skyscanner, but a super expensive city, meaning I probably spent twice or three times as much on food as I would have in a different country, negating my savings on the flight! Likewise, your currency might have a good exchange rate versus the country you’re visiting, which can also make it cheaper for you to travel.
  
·      Follow foreign exchange rates
Depending on where you live and where you're travelling to, currency exchanges can either be really beneficial or detrimental, meaning you'll be making more bang for your buck or actually losing money when you convert your currency. The best way to check is to look at currency conversion websites online, which will give you a good indication as to how strong your home currency is versus the destination that you're visiting. Check the trends - if it looks like your currency is declining, it might be best to buy now to avoid a continued declining trend; or if your currency is rising, maybe hold off a few days so you get the best rate. Whilst online currency conversion sites can give a good estimation, always check with the company you plan to exchange your money with, and if you can, only take out as much as you think you'll need as it may be more difficult to convert back.  

·      Consider ‘off-the-beaten-track’ locations

We’re a pretty predictable species, and tend to swarm towards beaches, Christmas markets, and big cities when we head on our holidays. These places are known for being nice, but there are plenty of places out there which are equally if not more pleasant to visit, but haven’t got the same level of publicity, and could be the perfect fit for your holidays. I’m a big advocate of Eastern Europe (check out my adventures to Sofia and Riga) which is generally cheaper and less busy than Western Europe, but looking at smaller cities within the country you want to visit can also be a great option. Take Poland, for instance – whilst everyone is headed to the capital of Warsaw, you could be swanning around less touristy cities like Szczecin, Bydgoszcz, or Katowice for a fraction of the price!

I hope you enjoyed today's blog of my tips for travelling on a budget! I'll be continuing this series with further recommendations on how to save money at the airport, on your accommodation, on food, and activities in your chosen destination, so make sure to follow me on Twitter @CiarasCountry to be the first to hear when new content is posted. If you like what you've read or have any suggestions for other tips you'd like to see, drop me a comment below and I'll get back to you. Thanks for reading!