Solo Travel Budget: How Much Money Do I Need to Travel?

When you are deciding on when to take your trip, flights will be the most expensive to travel during high season. Each country will have different high seasons depending on where they are, but high seasons will also be when school holidays are, if you are going to a popular tourist destination. Avoid these times and instead travel in the shoulder or low season. You will find much cheaper prices because not everyone is trying to get on that plane.

Most people tend to only think about hotels and resorts when they dream of traveling. These types of accommodations are your most expensive options. Instead I would suggest trying hostels. When I mention this to most people they roll their eyes, explaining how they are not in their 20’s and think of it as a really terrible idea.

Hostels have come a long way. Yes you can get hostels with dorm rooms with 20 other people who are all probably 19 year olds and everyone’s out to party. I’m here to tell you there are so many different types of hostels though. I’ve stayed in many and the first time I stayed in one was when I was in my 30’s. I’ve met people from 19 all the way up into their 70s, staying at hostels. 

There are many different room options in hostels. You don’t just have to stay in a dorm room and even dorm rooms come in many different sizes. I’ve stayed in all female dorm rooms, I’ve stayed in rooms where there’s only four of us. I personally would not suggest going higher than six or eight people in a dorm room. Most don’t realize you can also get private rooms.

There are also many different styles of hostels. The typical party ones but also boutique styled ones and even pod ones. A great benefit to staying at a hostel is the ability to meet other travelers. It is much easier to strike up a conversation with people you know are also traveling when there is a common room or lounge to mingle. Plus hostels supply kitchens so you can cut down on your food costs by cooking some of your meals yourself. 

Now if hostels are not your cup of tea, I would check out the Airbnb’s in the area. Most people think of renting out the whole place, but to cut costs you can just rent a room. This is easy and much cheaper when you are traveling solo. You get to stay with a local, have local knowledge and have someone there to ask questions to. 

Solo Travel Budget: Food

 

Even though food is another costly budget item on your trip there are so many ways to cut down these costs. 

To bring your food costs down, you want to live like a local. What this means is don’t go out to a restaurant for every single meal. Grocery stores are your budget continuous friend plus they are a great place to peek into the culture by exploring the type of food found here. I personally love visiting grocery stores in every country I go to. I tend to pick up some items for breakfasts or lunches, and prepare/eat them in my accommodations. I also pick up “to-go” type of food for picnics during the day or even some evenings. 

Another tactic I find myself doing when I travel is eating two meals a day instead of three. So do breakfast and a late lunch on some days. Lunch menus are usually pretty similar to dinner menus in restaurants, except lunch menus tend to be cheaper. So when you do a late lunch you’ll be saving money over going for dinner. If you do get hungry in the evening you can always just go out for dessert. It’s allowed on holidays…right?! 😀 Also a lot of people are not breakfast eaters so continue to skip that one while you’re away. 

One final tactic is to eat where the locals eat. Look for the local restaurants. Stay away from the restaurants that have someone outside trying to get you to come eat there. When you go where the locals are going, you’re going to get way better food and you are not going to get overcharged.