Cheap Travel Methods : 11 Most Effective Ways

I always say that a cheap flight ticket you buy is a source of motivation when buying the flight ticket of your next travels. Do not neglect to read my article titled “Ways to Find Cheap Flight Tickets”, which I wrote about cheap flight tickets, which constitute the most important pillar of economic travelling.

Make Accommodation Affordable

One of the most important expenses that make up the cost of travelling is accommodation. If you are looking for cheap ways to travel, you probably don’t plan to stay in a 5-star hotel. We have 5 golden suggestions for accommodation in the ways of economic travelling. These suggestions will be a medicine for your budget and will directly reduce your accommodation expenses.

Early Booking

No matter where you will stay, early booking reduces costs. If your travel plan is clear in advance, definitely book early. A hotel price you set 2 months ago will not be the same as the price you will set at the last minute. Therefore, if you want to travel cheaply, early booking is a must.

Hostel Accommodation

Hostel accommodation is one of the most important topics of cheap travelling methods. It saves you a lot of money. For example, we preferred to stay in a hostel during our trip to Ukraine Kiev. We stayed in Kiev for 2 people, 3 nights and 4 days and we paid 340 TL for the hostel. The room we stayed in was for 2 people. We shared the kitchen, wc and bathroom in the hostel we stayed.

There are many advantages of staying in a hostel. You both know different people from different countries and you can use the kitchen of the hostel and reduce the cost of food. You can find a market in the place where you are travelling and you can use the kitchen of the hostel very easily and cook with the ingredients you buy. You can also take something from Turkey, provided you don’t overdo it 🙂

Airbnb Experience

Airbnb What is Airbnb? Airbnb is a platform that allows homeowners to rent part or all of their homes and brings together landlords and tenants. Thanks to this application, homeowners can earn income by renting out the places they do not use. The tenant gets cheaper accommodation instead of paying high amounts of money to hotels. Airbnb is one of the best ways to travel cheaply. There are also very nice houses on this platform. It is important to do good research and act quickly.

Couchsurfing Experience

If you don’t want to pay for accommodation, then Couchsurfing comes to your rescue. It is the best way to travel cheaply because you don’t pay anywhere. If you can use Couchsurfing well, you can both meet different people and make accommodation free. We experienced Couchsurfing on our trip to Iran Tabriz and we were very satisfied. For detailed information about Couchsurfing, you can check this my article .

Tent Setting Up

Travelling the world with a backpack and a tent. Maybe the dream of many people. Although travelling the world by setting up a tent is the most difficult way to travel cheaply, there are many people who do it. Like a turtle, your house is on your back, so accommodation costs are in places.)

Other Accommodation Details

• Whether it is a hotel or a hostel, you should definitely have a free cancellation option until the last day because last minute plans may change.
• If you are travelling with a large group and plan to stay for a long time, you can rent a normal apartment.
• Do not book a hotel or hostel too far from the places you will visit. Don’t spend more money on transport while travelling cheaply.

I am leaving my detailed article about cheap accommodation here. Don’t forget to take a look.
https://bujuyollarda.com/en/cheap-accommodation-methods/

Reduce Your Food and Beverage Costs

If the goal is to visit many places with little money, you need to scrutinise every issue. Since the issue of eating and drinking abroad is an issue that increases costs, it is at an important point among cheap travelling methods. You always need to act in a planned way and cut costs when it comes to eating and drinking. Here I give you 5 golden advice. Thanks to these recommendations, your food and beverage costs will be minimised.

Breakfast at the hotel

The issue of eating and drinking is related to where you will stay. If you are staying in a hotel, you should make sure that breakfast is included in the accommodation. Also, make the breakfast quite strong. It is up to you to make additional meals from breakfast. We Turks are very skilful in this regard 🙂

Self-catering in the Hostel Kitchen

As I mentioned in the title of accommodation, staying in a hostel-style place at the point of eating and drinking provides you with a big plus in order to reduce costs. Since the hostel has a kitchen, you can bring the meals cheaply by using the kitchen of the hostel with what you bring from Turkey and the shopping you do from the markets where you are.

Food Delivery

Spaghetti is also ideal for taking up space, so it makes a lot of sense, keep that in mind. In addition, tuna fish is also a good option in terms of protein. By the way, it is useful to take a look at the articles about the customs rules of the country you are going to. For example, Singapore is quite strict on food. Some countries also have very strict rules on honey and meat. It is useful to be careful.

If you have a short trip (3-4 days), foods such as sandwiches and wraps that you prepare and stretch at home work very well. Since you will be travelling with high performance, you can also take energising foods such as snacks and nuts with you between meals. 

Avoid Luxury Restaurants

If you want to travel cheaply, you should avoid luxury restaurants and prefer street flavours or more suitable places instead. Be careful in Asian countries in terms of hygiene at the point of street flavours. Do not ignore the fast food option.

Find Cheap Grocery Stores

Just as we have affordable markets such as BIM, ŞOK, A101, try to find such markets where you go. In this regard, when you find such markets, you can shop for food from them, such as Lidl in Europe.

Reduce Transport Costs

Although the amount spent on urban transport does not take up much space in the budget, it is actually an important cost item. What I mean by the cost of urban transport is the amounts paid for means of transport such as taxis, buses, subways and trains. Especially the amount spent on taxi use may seem like a small cost, but when you look at the total, it can be a serious figure.

Urban transport is closely related to whether the country you are travelling to is developed or not. In some countries, taxi is the only alternative, while in others there are many alternatives such as bus, metro, train. I am listing 5 pills to reduce costs in urban transport.

Use Uber

If there is UBER in the country you are travelling to, you are very comfortable at the point of urban transport. Using UBER is a good way to make your travels cheaper. You can find all the details about UBER in my article titled What is UBER, How to Use UBER.

In order to reduce travel costs, there may be alternative applications to UBER in your destination country. Especially in Asian countries, different applications such as Grab, Snaap are used, so I recommend you to do a good preliminary research on this subject.

Don’t Forget Public Transport

Apart from taxis, the cheapest way to reduce urban transport costs abroad is of course bus, metro and train. You can find the public bus website of the country you are travelling to and find out the cost in advance. We did this in Santorini and it was very convenient for us. Public buses are very nice to catch the spirit of that city. You feel as if you are a local living in that country.

For metro and train, it will be cost effective to download the maps of the city before travelling and act accordingly. At this point, it is useful to take a look at my article titled Offline Maps and our favourite application Maps.me. You can also take a look at Rome2rio, which can be useful and give you ideas for urban transport.

Negotiate with Taxi Drivers

The most difficult point to get around the city is the transport between the airport and your accommodation. Especially if you land at the airport at night and there is no bus/metro service, the only alternative is taxi. At this point, it is very important to bargain with taxi drivers. After all, there is a tourist logic in many places.

Hitchhike

When it comes to cheap transport costs, hitchhiking should not be left unmentioned. We are not very familiar with hitchhiking, a way we tried in Greece. But we know that hitchhiking in Turkey and even travelling around the world. This issue depends entirely on you and your ability. It is a good way to travel cheaply.

Walk A Lot

If you ask what is the most convenient way of travelling in the city, of course it is the tabanvay:) We have travelled at least 20.000 times a day. For this, if the distance between the places you will visit in the city you are going to visit is close, walking will be the most convenient in terms of costs.

Being a Student is Life

Being a student is an advantageous situation in many places. If you are really a student, I can say that you have many parental blessings in some respects. Let me give an example right away. When we went to Santorini Island, we bought ferry tickets with a 50% discount by using our student ID (ISIC Card) and this allowed us to make a profit of about 80 Euros.

You can benefit from student discounts not only in transport but also in many places, especially in the entrance fees of museums. Being a student, which I count among the ways to travel cheaply, is a great chance. Of course for those who can use it. By the way, if you issue an ISIC Card, which is an International Student Card, you can benefit from student discounts in many places abroad. For this, don’t forget to take a look at my article titled ISIC Card.

Attention to Car Rental Costs

We’ll save money on car hire, too? Yes, that’s exactly right. Among the ways to travel economically, there are also issues to be considered in car rental. If you must rent a car, pay attention to the following items.

Your biggest assistant in car hire is of course the internet. Advance booking is very important in car hire. In order to reduce costs, booking in advance after preparing your entire plan will make your trip cheaper. If you stay at the last minute, you can also do your market research in the city centre of the place you are going to. City centres will be more convenient. Do not rent a car immediately from the first rent a car you enter.

You should pay attention to the insurance coverage of the car. Comprehensive insurances should always be preferred. If they ask for a reimbursable fee for this, it will be useful to pay.

You should pay attention to the fuel condition of the vehicle. There is no advantage for you to put too much fuel. For this, checking the mileage and buying fuel accordingly will reduce the cost.Your biggest assistant in car hire is of course the internet. Advance booking is very important in car hire. In order to reduce costs, booking in advance after preparing your entire plan will make your trip cheaper.

If you stay at the last minute, you can also do your market research in the city centre of the place you are going to. City centres will be more convenient. Do not rent a car immediately from the first rent a car you enter.

You should pay attention to the insurance coverage of the car. Comprehensive insurances should always be preferred. If they ask for a reimbursable fee for this, it will be useful to pay.

You should pay attention to the fuel condition of the vehicle. There is no advantage for you to put too much fuel. For this, checking the mileage and buying fuel accordingly will reduce the cost.

The Importance of the Time Period You Will Travel

Among the cheap ways to travel, choosing the low season is always a big plus. In every sense, prices are going through the roof in the high season, that is, in the summer months. Therefore, you should prefer low season to travel cheaply. In addition, since popular destinations are very crowded in the high season, another advantage of planning a trip in the low season will be that you will travel spaciously.

In high season, the budget suffers the most at the accommodation point. Let me explain with an example, when we made our Santorini trip in May, our hotel fee was 49 Euros per night, while the same hotel was 199 Euros per night in high season, that is, in summer.

Museum Entrance Fees

Travelling and travelling brings some costs, this is normal. But after this article, I am sure you will make your travels with a more affordable budget. Anyway, let’s talk about another travel cost, museum entrance fee.
It is impossible not to visit the national museums of some cities. The history of countries lies in their national museums. It is quite difficult to reduce costs in this regard, but I would still like to mention 2 ways.

International Museum Day (18 May)

Firstly, some museums can be free of charge on certain days (which may be an important day in that country). One of these discount days, 18 May International Museums Day, coincided with us in Rhodes Island and we visited the museums (except private museums) for free. You can find out the discount days of the museums by entering the official web page of the museums. Of course, it will not make sense to plan your trip according to these free days, but this situation should still be kept in mind.

Buy Combined Tickets to Museums

Secondly, in some countries there is a combined ticket in their museums. Let’s say there are 4 historical places to visit where you are travelling. With the combined ticket you will buy, you can visit these 4 places more conveniently. For example, if you visit them separately, you will pay 20 Euros in total, while you pay 12 Euros with a combined ticket. You can reduce museum entrance fee costs by buying a combined ticket.

Caution When Exchanging Foreign Currency

When it comes to travelling cheaply, currency exchange also comes into play. The point you should pay attention to about currency exchange is commission rates. Some places can charge you serious fees with a high commission rate like a loan shark.

For this, my recommendation is to exchange your currency in a more institutional place (such as a bank). City centres are always ideal for this. If you need to exchange money at the airports, it will always be useful to exchange enough money to last you for a certain period of time. You can exchange the rest from the city centre.

Note: Do not forget to find out the exchange rate of your destination before travelling.Note: Do not forget to find out the exchange rate of your destination before travelling.

Reducing Communication Costs

If you want to have an internet package in the country you are travelling to, you need to buy a sim card. For this, it will be useful to research in advance which operators are available in your destination. You should calculate how many gb internet you will use according to the day you will stay.

In terms of economic travelling, you can also skip the sim card and go offline. For this you need to have a foolproof plan prepared in advance. If you have decided not to buy a sim card, you can connect to free wi-fi networks in the central places or squares of the city you are travelling to.

Shop Carefully

In the question of how to travel cheaply, a lot can be written when it comes to shopping. But let me try to write what you need to know about shopping abroad as much as I know.

Avoid Excessive Touristic Places

You should stay away from touristic places for shopping. If it is understood that you are a tourist in many places, prices may vary.) For this, if you can prefer places where local people shop, you will reduce your costs.

Do not hesitate to negotiate

It is generally beneficial to negotiate. Since we grew up with the bargaining culture, this issue is not very foreign to us. For a souvenir you will buy in a foreign country, the seller opens his mouth to you from 50 Euros and then drops to 10 Euros. You need to be vigilant about this. Do not hesitate to bargain. Also, do not keep too much money in your wallet and never let the seller see the amount in your wallet.

Beware of Street Vendors

The incident I will talk about in this article happened to us in Florence. While we were walking on the road, the black salesman of African origin first asked where you were from, continued with “you look very good together”, entered from the National Team, exited from Dembaba, then said that he was giving you a gift necklace and left, and after 10 seconds he came behind us and said that my family needed money and asked for money.

But he did it very professionally. He did it so professionally that we gave him money just for this acting:) In other words, do not believe in such people who say that they are giving you a gift (it happened to us in Edirne Selimiye Mosque) and be careful with these sellers.

This is my list of cheap travel methods for now. Everything in my economic travel guide is fixed with experience. The most important point here is to do a very, very good research before travelling. If you have any experiences on how to travel cheaply, we would be happy if you share them with us by leaving a comment below. Our motto is clear: “The best result of making a trip cheap is to sail to another trip.” Happy travelling.