Travel for Months on a budget. Part 2, Staying There.

Ok, so we have given you a little step by step on how to get to your destination and what to do when you get there in Travel For Months on a budget part 1. Now it is time to time to learn how to stretch your money to stay at your destination longer.

Like I said before,  The Lonely Planet is our book of choice to find the accommodations that you need, we carry that with me wherever I go. You don’t have to follow their advice to the “T”, but The Lonely Planet is a great guide to give a hand.

Here are some tips that have worked for us in the past.

You need to really plan out your route.  In Central America, we made the mistake of not having a plan and ended up going through Belize 3 times paying for Visa entries way more than we should have.  Know where you want to go before you leave and plan the route that you want to take.  If you are traveling to several countries, make sure that you choose a direct path so that you minimize border crossings.  There are often entry fees, Visa’s etc, so the most direct route will save your money.

When choosing your hotel, know the area that you want to stay in and have a price in mind.  We aren’t young students, so we like to stay in the mid range hotels of our guide books.  Budget accommodations are always a little too rustic for us, so we like to step it up a bit.  In places like Asia, Central and South America, mid range is still very reasonable.  When you choose your guesthouse, you can barter.  If you are staying for longer than a couple of days, you can always ask for a discount.  And be sure to see if breakfast is included.

Staying at one place for awhile will also stretch your travel budget.  We spent 11 days on Gili Air in Lombok Indonesia just because we loved its chill atmosphere so much.  I am not saying give up your travel plans to save money, but if you are traveling for a long time, it is always nice to sit back and relax for a while.  When you stay at a place for an extended period, you get to know the locals better, make some friends and discover hidden gems.

Local bus in Egypt

Travel Locally.  Local buses are way cheaper than tour buses and they can be a far more fulfilling experience.  To give an idea, when we were in Bangkok.  The local boat on the Chao Praya River was about 9 baht.  The tourist ticket was 30.  Baht is 30 to 1.  So the same route is $1 for tourists, 33 Cents for locals.  If there is a savings of 60% on all transportation, you will save a lot of money.

As usual, eat where the locals eat.  You can guarantee if a place is filled with locals, the food will be fresh and delicious.  You will not only eat authentic food, you will also not be paying inflated tourist price.

Local Markets are great to shop at for food

Book your tours and treks on site.  When we climbed Mount Kilimanjaro, Mount Kinabalu and the Pinnacles, we booked our treks the day before at the parks.  Kilimanjaro only cost us $330 for our guide, meals and support at Kessey Brothers Tours.  We paid the park entry fee right at the gate to the park of $660.  So we climbed for less than $1000.  For all treks we shared the fees with people as well.  Flying into the Pinnacles of Gunung Mulu, we met another couple that wanted to do the trek as well, so we decided to share the cost of our guide and the boat fees.  Same goes for both Kinabalu and Kilimanjaro. We literally saved hundreds of dollars by booking on arrival and sharing fees with other travelers.

Be flexible.  When it is time to move onto another country and you have to book a flight, shop around.  If you are able to get a great deal that day, take it. If you have to wait a few extra days. Do that.  When we were flying home from South East Asia, we saved hundreds of dollars because we were willing to fly the next day.  The flight a week later was way more money.

Chose ATM’s and cash over travelers cheques. I am not saying don’t bring travelers cheques, it is always good to have a variety of ways to pay.  But, ATM’s offer a better exchange rate, and if you take out the maximum amount of money, you only pay one withdrawl fee with the added bonus of having local cash.  As a Canadian, if we use USD or Euro’s we always end up paying exchange twice.  If we are in Asia, and need to exchange USD into Malaysian Ringgit we lose twice.  If we take directly out of our account, we only have one exchange rate from Canadian to Ringgit.

When shopping, barter hard.  Be nice, but barter.  Rule of thumb, cut in half what they are asking and then start the game from there.

Always settle on a price for taxis, rooms, guides etc. before accepting their services or paying for anything.

Some great sites we have found to help make travel easier is

wotif.com for cheap accommodation

airaisia.com and skyscanner.net for flights

There you have it, some advice and tips for saving money while traveling, it is pretty straight forward. If you are willing to work a little harder you can save a lot of money.

Let us know if you have any other advice or tips yourself, we would love to hear of them.