TRAVEL: Top tips for budget friendly travel - activities and attractions

Photo credit: MyDiscoveries 
 I love saving money while I'm on holiday, because all the money I save is just more money to spend on future holidays! So far in this series we've learnt how to save money when booking your trip, at the airport, on accommodation and food, whilst abroad, which leads me to today's blog on how to stick to your budget in terms of activities and attractions. If you're anything like me, you'll want to see all the city has to offer, so read on to find out how to do just that without breaking the bank...

Activities and attractions

·      See what events are on

There are so many traditions, festivals, public holidays, and events that are highly location specific, that chances are, you may stumble across one on your trip, so it’s always worth checking on the locations tourism website to see whether you can take advantage of any of these. On some of my previous festivals, I’ve come across folk festivals, craft fairs and even medieval re-enactments that have just so happened to be on when I’ve been in town, and they’ve been fantastic for spicing up my holiday a bit and allowing me to do something different from the usual touristy activities. Many of these activities are free and easy to find, so can be a wonderful way to pass the day discovering something that you might not usually do.

·      Decide which attractions you want to go to

I like to believe that it’s physically impossible to do all that can be done when you’re visiting somewhere, and I’ve even found that to be the case in the city where I live. With this in mind, whenever I’m travelling I like to have different lists of ‘must-do’s’ and ‘nice-to-do’s’, with the former being things that I’ll do no matter what the cost, and the latter only if I can swing it within my budget. This makes it a lot easier to tick off the key attractions and avoid being disappointed when paying vast sums of money for things that I probably would have been just as happy not doing. Have a think about whether these are things you’ll ever be able to do again – if not, it may be worth the cost; but if so, you can always do them again or somewhere else when you have a bit more money in the bank.

·      Act your age

A lot of attractions – be they theme parks, historical buildings, churches, zoos and aquariums – often offer concessionary rates for students or over-60s, so make sure you bring some form of identification that proves if you fit into one of these categories, as they can bring down the entry price quite substantially. If there are no signs suggesting one way or the other, there’s no harm in asking either! The same sometimes applies to public transport, so always check just in case – ‘do you have a student rate?’ is another phrase that I tend to have readily translated should the need arise!

·      Buy a city pass

If you’re doing a city break and know there are a number of tourist activities that you want to tick off, it can work out cheaper to buy a city pass either individually or as a family. These passes essentially involve paying a one-time fee which will then allow you entry into some of the city’s top rated attractions, sometimes with a fast pass entry, and at a cheaper rate than buying entry individually. I’ve also found that with these passes, you can sometimes end up visiting places that you might not otherwise have considered but end up being great fun – I had a tourist pass in Amsterdam which gave me access to a diamond museum that would otherwise probably not have been on my list, but was a fantastic way to pass a few hours. Another example is the London city pass, which gives free access to over 80 attractions including the Tower of London, Hampton Court Palace, London Zoo and Kew Gardens – probably well worth it if you were planning to visit these places anyway. Plus, some of these city passes offer concessionary rates too as above, so can save you even more!

·      Free walking tour

If you’ve read a single one of my travel blogs, you’ll know that I love, love, love a free walking tour, and these tend to be the staple of any trip that I go on. Often taking only a few hours out of your day, these walking tours usually take you to every key attraction in the area, with the added bonus of a qualified tour guide telling you all about what you’re seeing (with more detail than a self-guided guidebook) and there to answer any questions you might have. At the end of the tour, you can pay whatever you think the tour was worth, which is pretty much guaranteed to be less than what you would have paid for an organised private tour. On the free walking tours I’ve been on, the guides have always been passionate about their jobs (they are volunteers, after all) and have provided me with great tips on what to do for the rest of my time there. Add to this that such tours are a great way to get a feel for the city, and to know where everything is should you wish to return at a later point, and you’re sure to feel that it was worth it. 

I hope you enjoyed today's blog! I'd love to know what other travel-related content you'd like to see on the blog so be sure to let me know on Twitter @CiarasCountry or drop me a message in the comments below. I have some very exciting holidays coming up so stay tuned for some travel blogs on those coming soon - thanks for reading!