Here are some Travel Tips and Hacks, in no particular order, to help you travel on a tight budget.
Photo: “Cocodrillo” by Leonara Carrington – Mexico City – by Trevor Warman
Some of these hacks might seem obvious, especially for those who have been around a while, but for those of you who are still “young and dumb” (The Expendables) and popped out of your mummy’s womb already holding a smartphone, these travel hacks offer some hard truths, many of which are based on having travelled on a low budget, backpacking the world before the internet and any digital technology.
How to Find Cheap Flights
I use a variety of sources when looking for flights, and NONE of them involve using sites such as Kayak or Sky Scanner.
I no longer use Expedia to book tickets, after a seemingly cheap fare became 2x more expensive when the small print that nobody reads revealed the baggage fees.
Baggage fees can make or break your trip. Airlines are the best at disclosing the fees; agencies are NOT. Period.
And I guarantee you that any searches you do will show the fare for travelling without baggage. Also, they will have just 2 or 3 seats at that price. You’ll be mildly pissed off when the price suddenly becomes 4x as much as your initial search. They suck you in and spit you out just like that.
I run searches for flights on different days of the week with the airlines, with and without a VPN. Booking in advance will generally get you a better price, but not always.
If I am flying from London to Mexico, I will check out British Airways and Aeromexico, and then try Iberia via Madrid or Barcelona, KLM via Schiphol (these never give me the cheapest option, but it’s always worth trying).
I scroll through the days. The last time I flew to Mexico, all the flights for the whole month were £2k, but sandwiched in the middle was a flight for just £700. It’s all about searching, researching and picking the flight that is best for you.
A cheap flight to Cancun rather than Mexico City? It’ll cost you an arm and a leg to fly out of Cancun with the new airport taxes.
Free Museum Days
If you’re into museums, many cities around the world have days when they have free entry or the annual European Night of Museums, for example, with 3,000 museums across over 30 countries opening late, offering free entry.
In Mexico City, many museums are free on Sunday, and there are many that are free every day as well.
I am always selective about which museums I visit. I love military history, so splashing out £30 on a ticket for the Western Approaches HQ in Liverpool or the Kelvedon Hatch Nuclear Bunker is worth it. But £30 for an art gallery, definitely NOT.
Public Transport
Learn how to use the public transport. UBER has its uses, but public transportation costs a fraction of any ride-hailing service.
Some cities offer 24-hour/48-hour and weekly tickets on the buses and metro.
Serbia offers Free Public Transport in Belgrade, as does Luxembourg.
Shuttle buses, which I call Gringo Shuttles, that whisk you from hostel to hostel, are for flashpackers who can’t rough it. Be a proper backpacker.
OMG, I see some comments on FB, where the hapless wannabe traveller is in a state of panic because their internet search comes up with no results when they Google: how to get from A to B.
Go to the fucking bus station and find the bus. Do you think locals use Gringo Shuttles or UBER to travel from city to city?
Book train and bus tickets in advance
This is the life these days. It’s all about making reservations and paying by card, so the big corporations can track your whereabouts.
But for sure, there are some good deals to be had when you book in advance.
On a recent trip to Xalapa, I got a ticket back to Mexico City for 328 pesos by booking 5 days in advance. Had I gone old school and bought from the ticket office, the tickets were going for 574 pesos. BIG savings.
I like travelling where the fares are fixed. None of this buy-in-advance shit. Travel is all about freedom. The internet killed that!
It is what it is. We have to adjust – but hell, I have a hard time doing that.
Drinking a Coffee or Beer
A coffee or beer at the café or bar will cost you big time. And who can drink just one coffee or beer?
A trip to the local café will end up being 2 coffees and a croissant. 130 pesos. Bang. Just like that!
Though they do offer a change of scenery.
Hopefully, your hostel has a kettle. Get a jar of Nescafé and enjoy a cheap Cup of Joe from the comfort of your own room or balcony.
Enjoying a 70 cent beer in El Salvador:
I have a portable water heater for use in Latin America. Not only are they a great way to save money, but you can also make a brew at your convenience. No need to wait until 10 am for the café to open.
Heading out for a beer? OMG, the prices are crazy. Here in Mexico, a small beer will cost you 50 pesos (relative to what the locals earn, that’s freaking expensive) and then some. In the UK, France, Australia, and Hong Kong, you won’t get much change out of a tenner unless you can find a Wetherspoons.
The supermarket is your new best friend.
Accommodation
A bed for the night will be roughly half the cost of your daily budget (well, it always has been for me). Big savings to be had by carefully selecting where you stay.
Location: A cheap hostel, 10 km from the centre, is not the way to go. This will mean getting public transport every time when going into the city, and coming back after dark might mean taking a costly UBER, depending on which country you are travelling in.
The ideal location of a hostel is within a 20 to 30-minute walk from the main centre and hopefully not more than 1 hour (which you can walk if you travel light) from the train or bus station.
Hostels: Hostels are a great way to save money, but it means sleeping in a dorm room, which can be an art in itself.
They are a great way to meet other travellers, find potential travel buddies or even a fuck buddy, or, if you are old school enough, get advice from.
Many hostels have shared kitchens where you can cook up cheap meals, though these are being phased out, especially in Europe. The cheap skate traveller will no longer exist soon.
Single Rooms: In some countries, a single room in a cheap hotel can be had for a lower price than a dorm bed in a hostel that caters for travellers with cash to flash.
Free Breakfasts: Hostels and hotels which offer a free breakfast, especially the all-you-can-eat buffet style ones, are a Godsend for hungry backpackers as they do away with the need to eat later. For years, I ate 3 times a day. Now, I eat only twice. If the breakfast is good enough, my evening meal can be as little as some fruit or a sandwich.
Booking sites: OMG, I could write about a whole blog post listing the pros and cons of using booking sites to book a room/bed. Maybe I will.
You can find some good deals for sure, but making a reservation for a week for a room in a hostel or hotel that you haven’t even seen is just plain stupid.
A reservation commits you. Any freedom and flexibility that you thought travel gave you has gone out of the window.
You will also be paying a hefty commission to the booking site.
That’s why Africa is such a great place to travel, because 80% of the hotels are NOT online, beyond being listed on Google Maps.
Take Night Buses/Trains
Save the cost of a night’s accommodation by taking night buses and trains. Sometimes there is no other choice. Buses in many parts of the world only have a nighttime option. Trains in Russia and China often take a few days and nights of travel.
If you can sleep anywhere, night buses and trains are the perfect solution, but they also mean hanging around all day after you have checked out, which can be tiring in itself.
And if your bus or train arrives at 6 am and check in aint until 3 pm (quite common these days), you waste the day unless your hostel or hotel will let you store your bags.
Europe is the worst place for this. They set these rules and are so anal about not budging.
In the so-called developing world, hotels have let me check in at 9 am, if the room is ready. In Glasgow, they wouldn’t check me in until bang on 3 pm.
Free WiFi
For many travellers, the first thing they do when arriving in a new country is to source data. Unless you need to be online, there is no reason to buy data, especially not straight away. For me, it’s the last thing on my mind.
It’s also really dumb to rely on your smartphone for everything, including the torch, because if you lose it, it gets stolen, you will be up shit creek without a paddle, as you have no idea how to do anything without your God-damned phone.
Yes, the smartphone is convenient, I admit that. But I can still manage/travel without it, except for managing bank accounts (they have you by the short and curlies here for sure).
Data may be cheap, but it’s not free. Many places have free WiFi. Airports, bus/train stations, and even on the streets of Mexico City. In London, Costa and Pret have free Wifi. Just make sure you use a VPN.
I travelled for years before internet technology came along. Indeed, I was happier in the days when we used to go to an internet cafe to send emails every 2 weeks or so. That was freedom. That was what travel was about. Now we all suffer from FOMO. That’s also the title of a potential blog post: How the Internet Fucked up Travel.
If you have enjoyed these, no messing travel hacks, don’t forget that I have a Travel Hacks PDF that you can download for free.