Solo Travel: How to Save Money Pt. 2
Everyone wants to make the most of their travel dollars. With this six-part series I want to show you different ways to save money when travelling solo so you can travel more or longer. Use one, some or all of the techniques and you will be well on your money saving ways!
This is part two (check out Part 1 here) of the six-part blog post that will cover the different areas of a trip. I will be writing them in order of how I go about planning a trip.
- Trip planning
- Flights
- Accommodation
- Things to do on your holiday
- Getting around
- Food & drink
Lets now jump into flights.
Use a travel rewards card
One of the easiest ways to save on one the most expensive costs of your trip (flights, accommodation being second) is to start collecting travel rewards. Get a card that gives you a sign up bonus of points and then continue to use this card for All your purchases daily. There is a whole lot to learn about earning and using travel rewards but learning the basics is all you need.
Head over to The Points Guy. This site is a great place to start learning the basics. For people in Canada Rewards Canada gives Canadian specific information, but be sure to also learn some techniques from The Points Guy too. “Free” flights are always welcome…and by free I mean you only pay for the taxes/fees.
Do your research
Looks on different sites, compare prices and locations (where the airports actually are). You want to check out sites like Kayak.com to see the different airlines available, and then check the actual airlines site to compare. You can also sign up for price alerts to know when to book. The research you do before you travel will give you the confidence that you got the best flight and price for your needs.
Compare both round trip tickets and one-way tickets
Nowadays there are not always benefits for booking return tickets anymore. When you are looking for your flights, look at the return flight prices and then also pull up one-way flights for each direction then choose which one is better for you. Another benefit for using one-way tickets is if you plan on visiting a couple cities/countries on your travels, you can fly into one and out of another so you don’t need to back track to your initial destination.
Pack light
Packing light has so many benefits. One of the main ones is saving you money from paying overweight at airports, or checking too many bags. When you pack light it will also decrease your stress levels significantly while you travel.
Know your limits
Just because something is inexpensive, make sure you are fully aware of what that cost entails. Saving $50 or $100 on a flight may result in spending twice as long travel to your destination with a couple of layovers. Also be aware of booking with budget carriers. Some of them fly into outlying cities not the actual city of where you want to be. Take into account the cost and time to get back to the city you actually want to be in.
These carriers fool you with saying the main city on their sites, but when you look to see where the airport is it is usually at least an hour or more to get into that main city. Decide what is important to you in regards of time, money and convenience.
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