Traveling is now more common than ever, more and more people every year are traveling to more and more destinations. When volume is increasing and competition between the destination is rising, there are some great opportunities for finding cheap trips and vacations. Here we look at 10 easy-to-do ways of getting away on a budget.
Unusual destinations are often cheap (and reachable by car, at least in Europe). Here is a picture from a road trip to Riga, Latvia.
Find cheap travel alternatives by following these 10 simple steps
10 step by step tricks for finding a cheap trip or cheap vacation. Starting for the easiest and most convenient methods, and ending with maybe the most fun ways. Follow these 10 tricks for finding the cheapest trip:
- Wait until the end of the standard vacation period.A golden trick is to wait with the trip until schools are starting again at the end of August or September. By traveling at times when not everyone is able to travel gives you more possibilities in variation and the prices are not sky-high anymore.
- Choose a destination that is not one of the most popular ones.Choose one of the known, yet not really popular destinations. For example, Tunisia, which seems to be kind of forgotten now, but still has everything needed for an easy to do vacation. If you are thinking the Mediterranean, think about the destinations along Africa’s coastline too.
- Compare different days of departure.If you have the possibility, try to leave in the middle of the week instead of during the weekend or Monday / Friday.
- Compare airports.The largest airports usually have the most departures, and most people travel from these ones. But smaller airports also provide charter travel and might have challenges to get the planes filled to 100 %. So at least when the departure day is approaching, looking at last-minute trips from smaller airports might be worth driving an extra mile or two.
- Compare the whole cost of the trip.Remember to count every expense of the trip. For example, at some airports, you get free parking. The tickets might be more expensive, or there might be a long way to drive there, but saving on the sometimes expensive parking fees might still give you a cheaper trip when looking at the whole cost.
Another thing to look at is if the luggage is included in the price or not. Some times the really cheap alternatives lack everything (like bringing luggage), and you have to pay extra for these. Check what’s included an what’s not. - Cheapest possible might become more expensive.Don’t look blindly at the cheapest possible trips, where the hotel often lies outside of the desired destination. This gives you a lot of extra transportation (taxi) costs, or uncomfortable bus rides every now and then during your trip. A slightly more expensive hotel at the destination might actually become cheaper in the end. Or like my own experience while booking a really cheap hotel in Bali, which was so bad and dirty that I had to book another one on the spot, but could not get any money back from the first one, so we paid double hotels the whole stay.
- Compare trips on several booking sites.Online there are a lot of different sites for comparing travel-packages. All of them usually have almost all alternatives listed, but they might have different deals with the providers, and therefore the different prices for the same trip. Check several sites.
- Travel auctions.Travel auctions might be another good way of finding cheap travel. Some travel agencies put leftover spots online up for auction. If you keep calm and do not have a set date for when you have to leave, you might find really cheap tickets.
- Last-minute trips.The classic. If you do not care too much for where you will be going and can book really close to the departure date, you will find leftover and canceled spots really cheap. This is a thing I usually do myself with great success.
- Think outside the classic flight+hotel-box.Maybe you do not always have to fly to a destination? Maybe you can take the train, or the car together with friends and share the fuel cost? Maybe time is not an issue? Can you be away 3 weeks instead of 1, and ride the train, live in hostels and cook some of the food yourself? Then the 3 weeks might be as cheap as the 1-week normal flight+hotel combo.
Common questions about cheap travel and cheap vacations
How to travel cheap?
Best tips for cheap travel is to wait until the end of the normal travel period.
You should also compare prices for the same trip on different travel sites, some times they have different deals for the same trip.
Last minute deals are awesome for people that do not have a specific date or destination set for their trip.
Odd and outdated destinations is a good thing to look at, and non-standard ways of traveling too, like road trips with friends, or taking the train.
Is the cheapest alternative the best?
Some times the cheapest alternative can be far away from your desired destination, it can be dirty and broken, or just require you to pay extra for everything. A few bucks extra per night for being closer to your desired spot might actually become cheaper and better in the end.
When to travel cheap?
Outside of normal travel period is always good. And during the destination’s off-season or really in the beginning or end of it. At the same time, you get away from the crowd.
Finding cheap trips and vacations
Hopefully, you found inspiration and ideas for cheap travel or vacation now! If you have more tips and tricks, feel free to share them with the world in a comment below! Happy traveling, and see you around! Best, Jonathan.
