Travelling under budget - Tips

If you're a student you feel it: life is giving you the best time to travel around, but is not giving you enough money. We're young and free. And yes, I know that sometimes Uni life does not even give you time to sleep, but you should not wait to have a job to travel. Enjoy while you're a student because you'll never be sure when you're getting holidays again...

So, to make the most of your money, here are some tips to travel under budget:

Meals:

I always bring on my backpack some sandwiches, water, fruit and snacks. Normally I don't have to buy anything to eat and if I have to, I'll go to a supermarket.

If the place I am staying to sleep has a free or cheap breakfast, I always go for it and make some extra meal for the day.

There are some countries, such as the UK, where pubs and restaurants have different discounts each day. It's very useful to get to know them to enjoy cheap food :)

Accomodation:

Looking for accomodation on Couchsurfing is by far the cheapest option. I think if you look carefully and some time before, you'll probably find something suitable for you. It's also the most complete experience in terms of accomodation, as you have the opportunity to meet local people and learn from them. It's very important that you''ve a complete and updated profile in the website !

Hostels are obviously another great option and you can easily find the cheapest ones in their main websites, such as Hostel World. Besides the price, you may take into account if bed sheets, towels and breakfast are included for each hostel, as this can make a big difference.

A more recent opportunity for cheap accomodation is Airbnb, where you can find a lot of different places to stay, depending on your preferences. You can frequently find lower prices than in hostels, mainly if you're going with a big group. Adding to this, you can use some tricks to have discounts ! Airbnb gives you 35€ if a friend invites you to create an account and also gives 35€ to your friend, once you accept it and schedule a trip. This is perfect when you're planning a trip through different places with a group. You can make different invitations and use people accounts to book the accomodation and we'll always have 35€ discount!

Transports:

For direct flights Google Flights is a very useful tool. You can check the flights and keep tracking the price by receiving, for instance, e-mails when it becomes more expensive. If you consider to do different leg flights, I recommend Momondo to find the best alternative.

To find alternative routes for my trips I normally use Google Maps. It normally has information about the local buses and trains, as well as as FlixBus or others. However, it's also important to search in additional platforms, since there are alternatives (e.g. Megabus) which are not listed in Google Maps. By doing a complete search online, we'll surely find the cheapest option for your journey.

If you're using trains you must be careful and book it some time before. It depends on the country but in some of them, like UK or Italy, the prices increse with time and they can easily be full.

Attractions:

First obvious tip: you may check online before you go which attractions are free to visit and which ones have discounts for students. You may also have other cards suitable for discounts.

Free Walking Tours are more and more common nowadays. In almost every city you can find a free tour everyday. You just need to search for it's timetable (normally in TripAdvisor) and join the touristic guide at the meeting point. You should always pay something worth the visit, but normally it's much less you'd pay for another type of guided tour.

If you have friends or you belong to a international group, you can always join them in the new city and enjoy their experience to get to know it better from a local.

Geocaching is a fantastic game that can drive you to amazing and unkown places in every place on Earth. You'll surely find city treasures and have fun for free!