Firstly, it’s good to book airfares, and rental cars in advance. The sooner we book, the more we can save. Hotels can be booked more cheaply closer to arrival in most cases, the exception being a special event like a festival or an expo. Depending on where we are planning to go, travel expenses can be a big item. Thus, its good be flexible with travel dates. Airline tickets ‘ price can vary, depending on the day of the week. Kayak.com allows travellers to compare prices on different dates. We have a full explanation of how to get the best prices here: Cheap flights. The headline ticket price may be cheap, but never forget the additional airport taxes and fees. Kayak.com also offers a comparison of costs for the different airports. Some useful tips here:
– Connecting flights – don’t decline this option, no matter how boring waiting on airports may seem. Unless you are very highly paid for your time, connecting flights are worth doing, because they save a lot of money. In addition, a good idea is to book round trip tickets – sometimes one way tickets may be more expensive than the corresponding round trip.
– Try to take-off and land at the same airport – it is always cheaper.
– Luggage – different airlines have different requirements and they charge for everything that doesn’t fit their rules. To avoid additional costs, don’t carry too much weight. Usually the limit for baggage is 20 kg per person. That’s including hand luggage. If you want to cheat a bit you can carry some extra kilos on board as hand luggage. Don’t check in together. One person can check in while the other person waits with the hand luggage and vice versa. The luggage is weighed together at check in and if the airline doesn’t catch you at this point you will be safe with an extra item of hand luggage per person so long as they are small enough to fit in overhead lockers on the plane.
When choosing your mode of transportation – consider that driving can significantly cut expenses. It gives the opportunity of sightseeing and the independence you won’t have in an airplane. Moreover, we can share the travel hours with our family, friends or kids and capture funny moments together (or frustrating as the case may be!). However, if you decide to fly, think twice before renting a car. Many larger hotels offer free transfer to airports or to nearby attractions.
Car rental services are double the price when the pickup and drop off locations are different. Unless your name is Rockerfeller it’s always better to return the car to home base.
– Fuel and car size – Firstly, It’s good to choose a smaller car for rental, in case we don’t need extra space, because a bigger car means extra gas. Quite often if you choose a smaller car you will get upgraded anyway because the car rental company quite often does not keep enough small cars. Secondly, don’t accept that service that fills the gas tank up for you. Car rental companies charge their clients for a full tank of fuel regardless of the amount left when the car is returned. Never accept an offer to buy a tank of gas from the company when you pick up the car. This is a favourite trick of the rental companies, and is always a bad deal as you will hardly ever bring the car back totally empty.
Consider other ways to get to the location – if we want to sleep during our voyage and skip the traveling hours, replacing them with sweet dreams we can take a bus ride. It is slower, but cheaper.
Use public transport : when we have reached our preferred destination, we can skip taxi services. It is much cheaper and sometimes faster to get from point A to point B with a subway, for example. Moreover, many metros and rails offer multi-trip discounts, such as a 3-day unlimited travel passes.( useful links: http://www.atdlines.com/promote.htm ; http://www.b-europe.com/Travel)
*Accommodation*
A pretty simple and easy way to save money during a holiday is to stay with family or friends; or swap homes using homeexchange.com for a certain period. Of course, every one of us has his own expectations and visions of a nice trip. For those, who don’t like the idea of home-sharing/exchanging and prefer hotel accommodation, there are tricks to spend less: it’s good to do some research before making a hotel reservation. There are many websites offering daily deals with huge discounts and group shopping discounts (like wimzy.com for example). try also the price-reduction services of Priceline.com and Hotels.com, or – save up to $50 per night by slumming it in a two-star hotel. These days user reviewson all the hotel sites will allow you to find a good, clean option. For some really sneaky ways to save even more on hotels: http://www.anotherway.org/2011/05/bargain-basement-hotel-rooms/
– Smaller towns offer cheaper services. Staying in a smaller town next to the place we have chosen will save money.
– Smaller hotel chains usually offer bonus packs – we can always call them and let them know that we can prolong our stay, if we obtain an additional benefit.
– Instead of having separate rooms, consider booking suites or apartments with 2 or 3 rooms. This option will preserve your privacy and will be far less expensive.
*Food *
If you are not afraid of trying new things, you can turn the old tricks in new ones. Cooking during a trip can be amazing. Some hotels and especially apartments provide gas grills, dishwashers, cookware and utensils we can take advantage of and have fun. It will save us money and we will skip waiting in restaurants. In addition, dinner preparation can be romantic and peaceful.
It’s a good idea to eat before going out in the evening, so that we won’t be hungry in the bar. Another option is to find an economical local restaurant and enjoy the local fare. The national meals in the corresponding country we are visiting are cheaper. Moreover, this gives us the chance to try new things and meet new people. Enjoy and have fun!