Some useful tips for travelers

Traveling to a foreign country can be an expensive affair. You need to think about lot of factors and plan it in advance to avoid any inconvenience during your vacation. Here I am listing few tips which can help you save money as well as help you plan your trip a lot better:

Flights

Choose cheap days: Usually cheap days are Tuesday, Wednesday, and sometimes Thursday for international travel, cheaper flights are generally on weekdays instead of weekends. Tip: Check fare calendar for the entire month you wish to travel and sometimes traveling a day before or after can help you save good amount of cash.

Compare prices: There are hundreds of websites to book flights and hotels. Same flight can have different prices on different websites. So it is necessary to compare prices across various websites to get the best deal. Now, it is not possible to check each and every website individually. To make this job easier for us, there are websites like Skyscanner, Kayak & Momondo who makes this job easier for us. Just visit these websites, feed in your destination (You can also select Anywhere on skyscanner if you are open to travel to any destination) and dates (Similar to destination, you can select Cheapest Month if you are open to travel at anytime) to get the best possible fares for your travel. Tip: Use incognito mode in your browser when you are booking flight/hotels.

Fly cheaper times: Travel at early hours (dawn) and late night flights often have better deals than 8am or 9am flights. Tip: Super early flights can be great when bad weather is expected. These first flights are the only ones that depart before delays start impacting planes.

Select cheaper routes: Often (but not always) connecting flights are cheaper than a direct flight. If you are flexible to deal with longer travel time, do check if a connecting flights are available. Also, do check if you need a transit visa for the country on a connecting flight. Usually, you don’t need a visa if you are not changing terminals or leaving the airport. Tip: If the stopover is for more than 6 hours and the transit country is visa free, you can explore a new city for free.

Pick cheaper seasons: Every tourist city has its peak and non-peak season and prices for flights/hotels are more than twice for a peak season. If you are on a budget, it is advisable to choose a month before/after the peak season and you tend to get the best deals with less tourist crowd. Tip: Use month planner on the websites listed above to find cheapest fares by month.

Travel light: Some airlines give great discounts if you don’t need a checked baggage. Usually, you are allowed to carry 7kgs for domestic routes and 10kgs for international routes as carry-on baggage. Tip: Avoid carrying any liquids like perfume, shampoo, deodorant in your carry-on baggage.


Stay

Hostels: Staying in hostels is a great way to meet other travelers if you are traveling solo. You get the best recommendations & tips to explore a new city and is quite economical too. Tip: Use websites like Hostelworld to compare various hostel accommodations.

Airbnb/Couchsurfing: If you are traveling with friends, Airbnb can be a great option. Sometimes, you get the entire villa with well equipped kitchen for a good price. Like Airbnb, Couchsurfing hosts can guide you about transport, food, languages etc to make your travel convenient.

Booking.com: This website lets you book hotel rooms for a token amount. So in case, you have to cancel/change your stay, it doesn’t cost you entire amount.


Others

Eat: Try to eat local food, visit local restaurants instead of famous food-chains. It will be more healthy too. Tip: There are popular apps like Yelp, Zomato which can recommend you best restaurants in your vicinity.

Transportation: I would highly suggest to rent a bicycle. It is an easier, quicker and cheaper mode of transport to explore a new city. Tip: Uber, Lyft, Grab tend to give free rides for your first few rides in a new city if you register.

Walking tours: Many countries offer guided tours where a guide helps you understand the culture, significance of the famous tourist places. And these tours are generally free or for a minimal price. Tip: Visit free galleries and museums, there are numerous collections of art and history and are typically free or charge a small fee for entrance.

Currency: It is best to convert 60% of your currency to local currency of the country you are visiting (Like Asian cities) and save other 40% in Euros/USD. You never know, how much cash you will spend and you don’t get a good price for the smaller currencies in your country when you return back. Tip: do your research, if the destination you visiting, accepts cards. Certain credit cards give you best conversion rate and waive off on bank charges.

SIM Card: Use the local sim to avoid international roaming charges. Most of the countries offer good data packs which can help you make call back to your country via Whatsapp/Line/Skype.


Here are few of the tips, I could think now. I will keep on updating this article. 

Feel free to share your trips in the comment box below. Also, bookmark this article and make sure you read it again before you travel 😊