With air travel, we could go to many places around the work and in a matter of hours, we could reach the other side of the world. As airlines continue to lower their prices, air travel is no longer a privilege reserved to elite groups. However, air travel is only one element of budget travelling and there are many other things we should do:
1. Create Daily Budgets
We should have a good plan of what we should do each day. It is true that we may not be able to follow all the schedules in detail, but we should have an idea on how much money we would spend during the travel. As an example, a couple who plan to spend a week in France and Italy, may need to prepare about $5,000; including for airfare and accommodation. By making proper planning, they could make sure that the money is adequate for their activities. The same rule applies for family trip, but the daily budget could be more complex and the expenses will be higher.
2. Keep track of our Daily Spending
Even we have a carefully planned daily budget, it would be useless if we don’t perform enough monitoring. At the end of the day, we should take a pen and notebook and evaluate what we have spent, regardless of how small it is. This is particularly true if we rely more on credit cards during the entire trip. It means, we could spend money much more quickly, if we don’t have the habit of calculating our spending for the day. In fact, this simple monitoring task could help us to save money on some spending items, allowing us to do something that we enjoy more.
3. Book our accommodations well in advance
Accommodation is an essential element in any trip and we should book it well in advance to reduce costs. The last thing we want to do is moving between hotels to find vacant room that match our requirements. We should book in advance to make sure that we can arrive to specific places and rest immediately.
4. Book Transportation in advance
We could book airlines, boat, bus and boat through online means. This allows us to reduce the overall transportation costs, because huge airline fees alone could quickly eat up much of our budget. If possible, we should go to ticket stand, instead of purchasing online, because it is often the cheapest way to get tickets.
5. Find out about our Destinations
There should be more than enough information about our destinations. There are many things we could research on, such as good affordable restaurants, top attractions, decent low-cost attractions, local scams and tourist traps. We should take special notes about specific areas in our destinations popular for scams. Often, it is related to inflated prices and thefts. By avoiding scams, we could ensure that our trip will be within the specified budget. Often, scams are the reason why people spend so much on travel.