Okay, so you’re on a budget. Who isn’t these days? If you are an avid traveler, this global economic crisis is surely putting a major crimp in your travel style. With prices soaring for hotels, flights, and everything in between, it’s hard not to get depressed trying to plan your next vacation.
Nowadays everyone is touting the staycation, a sad reminder of the economic crisis, where vacations are replaced by holidays at home, or close by. Forget strolling down the Champs-Élysées, unwinding on a beach in Bora Bora, or traversing the Sahara. How terribly depressing.
Yet with a little research, you’ll find that domestic vacations often cost a sum comparable to the cost of a carefully budgeted overseas trip. After all, prices are up for almost everything, and that includes domestic travel. A couple of domestic trips can often add up to one well-planned international jaunt. For budget travelers in the know, there are a handful of savvy tricks for maintaining your jet setting ways, contrary to popular belief.
Insider Tips for Stretching Your Money Further
Travel in the Shoulder Season
This can’t be emphasized enough. You absolutely must avoid peak travel seasons if you plan to save money!
Prices for flights and hotels can be as much as 50 percent off during shoulder seasons. This is also true of the off-season, however shoulder seasons, which occur directly before and after peak seasons like summer, are preferable since they still afford good weather in many places, and ensure that more facilities and attractions are open. Be flexible with your travel dates and you should be able to score a deal much lower than anything you’d ever find during peak seasons.
Stay With Friends and Family
Accommodations often account for the highest travel expense of a vacation. Over time, hotel bills can often exceed the price of airfare many times over. If you’ve got family overseas, by all means take advantage! That’s what family is for, after all. Or maybe an old college roommate is now living abroad. Get it touch with her.
No friends or family abroad? Not to fret. Try Couch Surfing, an online community where you can link up with travel-friendly hosts sporting extra couch-space, looking to show a fellow traveler around. Online you can read reviews of hosts and match up your travel preferences in order to narrow down the choices to someone you feel comfortable with. Staying with a local personalizes the journey, and provides great stories to tell later.
Look for a Favorable Exchange Rate, and Your Favorite Activities
Consider putting that trip to Japan on hold, or saving London for another year. There are hundreds of fantastic places to visit where you can still select the cultural highlights you crave, and save money at the same time, ultimately leading to a more enjoyable adventure when you don’t have to constantly stress about the price of everything.
Do your research and you’ll discover a plethora of interesting places to explore where the dollar still goes a long way. You’ll find that you can still live it up in Morocco or Bali for less than you would spend traveling to New York City.
Who says budget traveling has to be all restraint and sacrifices? It’s really more about flexibility. If you are open to catering your destination to the economic strength of a nation, you should be able to find a handful of places where you can live it up. Even if you don’t do this the entire trip, you can still conclude things in style by splurging on a five star hotel for the last few days of your vacation.
Vacation in Short Bursts
Shorter trips will save you headaches getting time off work, and save you money by avoiding unpaid vacation days if you haven’t accrued enough time to cover your trip. Plus a shorter trip will give you extra cash to indulge in more of the things you journeyed away from home to experience, instead of having to spread your money out over the duration of a longer trip.
Of course an extended around-the-world trip would be fantastic, but you won’t have to penny-pinch if you’re just away for a week or two. Going on a shorter trip is much better than not going anywhere at all.
Free Travel Extras
Dress up your trip by staying at a luxury hotel. For instance, if you’re heading to China, consider staying somewhere like the five star St. Regis Beijing. You’ll be surprised to find you can get roughly the same nightly rate you would usually pay for a three star hotel in most major metropolitan cities in the US!
Be sure to choose a luxury hotel where extras are included: gourmet buffet breakfasts, free bottled water, newspapers, internet access, or complimentary food and beverages at happy hour. That way you can make a late breakfast your main meal, or take food to go, and skip lunch. Have free happy hour appetizers, and you’ll only need a light dinner. Or hit the supermarket for a picnic meal.
So next time someone tries to convince you that an international vacation is not affordable, remember that with a little flexibility and planning, you can live it up on a budget. It may mean bypassing your first destination choice or going on vacation for just a week in the off-season, but that trip could still turn out to be the trip of a lifetime. When you’re caught up in the rush of a place, trying new foods and meeting new people, you’ll be glad you took a chance and didn’t surrender to the staycation mantra.
Gayle Wheatley - Gayle Wheatley is a professional writer, designer, and artist based in Los Angeles, and the founder of Culture Vixen magazine.
