I often see people telling me that they really want to travel but that it is too expensive. They then end up searching for ideas on how to travel for free or how to travel for cheap (less), become demotivated and end up not travelling at all. If you are anything like me you want to experience as much of the world as you can but unlike what many other articles tell you to do you don’t want to; stay in hostels, stress about getting a job abroad or hitchhike. What you want is to see the world, experience the culture and go on as many crazy adventures as you possibly can whilst getting insane deals. You want to learn what the best travel hacks are. Use our top hacks to save £££’s on your holidays and find cheap flights! Ready to take it to the next level? Download our free travel hacking guide and book your first free flight; step by step instructions included.
1. Prioritise. Decide on what you need and what you can live without
The experience is key, everything else is negotiable. The same way you sacrifice that cup of Starbucks coffee every morning so you can save for a better car, house, clothes, travel is much the same. Decide on what your needs are and then build from there.
Do you really need to stay in that 4* or 5* hotel on each part of your trip when you are going to be spending most of your time outdoors exploring? Can you pack lightly so you don’t have to pay for checked luggage? Are you better off using public transport rather than taxis? Do you need all inclusive, half board or even B&B if you are wanting to experience local food?
Elly and I prefer to hit mid-range hotels for the majority of our trip with 1 or 2 show stoppers thrown in for when we will be spending more time at the hotel, usually at the end of our trip. Sometimes you have to make sacrifices to travel for less. This step is key if you want to learn how to travel for cheap.
2. Research Research Research. Find the lowest airfare
Due to the way airline ticket prices work, you can save yourself a considerable amount of money by doing your own research and not relying on travel agencies, who have their place.
The first thing we do when we have picked our next destination is head over to Google Flights. Google flights searches a far wider database and provides some interesting flight options compare to other comparison sites. You can also see how much you can save if your alter your itinerary by a few days or change the class of flight. Yes sometimes premium economy can be cheaper than economy!
Once you have found some dates and options head over to Momondo. This is a great site to find cheap flights. Search for the key dates, force certain routes if you have stopovers and wait for the deals to roll in. I constantly save £100’s off my flights using this. For a complete guide on flight hacks and travelling for peanuts using error fares download my free Travel Guide.
3. Location Location Location. Research Hotels
When I hear how much people have paid for to stay at the same hotel I am staying at, it makes my eyes water. Follow the below approach to pay the lowest prices for your hotel every time.
First head to a comparison website. My website of choice is hotels.com as it includes all taxes and fees in your booking which a lot of other sites such as booking.com don’t. So whilst they appear cheaper at first you end up paying more once the taxes are factored in. Once you have narrowed down your choice of hotels apply the following 3 step approach. 1) Email 2 or 3 travel agents with your choice of hotels and stay options, 2) Search for the hotel and key dates using google and 3) Supercharge your savings with cashback websites.
Typically I book most of stays through hotels.com or airbnb. With hotels.com I earn 1 free night for every 10 nights paid and get a further 10% cashback on each booking. See point 5 for more on cashback sites.
4. Join loyalty and travel reward programmes
I strongly feel that this is something that is so underutilised by most travellers. When you travel, airlines will give you reward points or miles which can be converted into some serious rewards such as “free” upgrades or “free” flights. Now did you know that you can earn travel points without actually flying?
Say hello to the travel rewards credit cards. By spending on travel credit cards and taking advantage of the welcome points you can easily reach enough points for a “free” flight. I say “free” because you still have to pay taxes. This is the exact approach we deployed to earn enough points for a business class flight to Tokyo with BA in just 1 month. Download my free step by step Guide on how you can quickly earn over 120K points and a 2-4-1 travel voucher, to book your own business class flight to Tokyo or anywhere else.
5. Don't get mad, get Cashback!
Okay maybe that was a little cheesy, but get cashback on everything. We have saved £000’s using cashback sites on hotels, flights, activities, absolutely everything.
Did you know you can get up to 10% cashback on your flights, even when booked directly with airlines. Emirates, Etihad, BA – all these airlines have a rewards programme. When you combine cashback with the airlines or hotels loyalty programmes you can see how easily you can supercharge your savings. For me, this is one of the best travel hacks but one people often overlook!
We recommend you sign up to TopCashback and Quidco in the first instance. These are great, free to use, cashback sites for beginners and you can get cashback on pretty much everything. The cashback on flights is usually quite small but my cashback site of choice gives you 10% off. It took me years to find a cashback site as comprehensive and rewarding as this one. If you want to find out what the ultimate cashback site is then all is revealed in my travel hacking guide.
Tips & Tricks
To make your money go even further when abroad don’t convert your cash before you get there. Instead take our recommend Halifax Clarity Credit Card and use this for all spend or withdrawing from ATM’s. This way you will get the official Mastercard exchange rate, which cannot be beaten by any cash exchange bureau. Remember, if withdrawing cash pay the credit card off in full asap and always pay off in full each month.
Hopefully you have now learnt how to travel for cheap, but if you have any questions please leave a comment below.