Best travel hacks to save money – Travel more for less money

Last updated: 10.10.23

I have visited more than 40 countries and 5 continents and I’m living a nomadic lifestyle. Traveling can be expensive but it doesn’t always have to be. In this post I will share my favorite travel hacks to save money so you can travel more for less money too!

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10 best travel hacks to save money – Travel more for less money

The 10 best travel hacks to save money:

– Be flexible with dates
– Book longer stays
– Travel off season or shoulder season
– Make your own food/eat local food
– Track your money
– Research
– Drink tap water where it’s safe
– Walk around/use public transportation
– Use reward programs
– Do free activities

More details about each money saving travel hack:

Be flexible with dates:
If you are able to be flexible with dates, it’s possible to save a lot of money. I always check for the cheapest flight days around a certain date – Maybe Thursday is cheaper than Friday for your destination.
I always use a flight search engine to find the cheapest day of departure. My favorite is Momondo.

Book longer stays:
When you’re booking longer stays it’s possible to get a great discount. We use @airbnb who often offer discounts for stays longer than 4 weeks.

Travel off season or shoulder season:
If you travel off season or shoulder season you can save a lot of money! Extra bonus: You avoid huge crowds. However be aware of the weather as that is usually the cost you pay.

Make your own food/eat local:
There is a lot of money to save when you avoid expensive restaurants. Make your own food or eat where the locals eat.
We use food courts and street food when we need an affordable meal.

Track money:
When you know exactly how much you are spending, you can easily find and reduce your unnecessary expenses.

Research:
Good research is always a great way to save some extra money! Find discounts and compare prices.

Drink tap water where it’s safe:
When it is possible to drink water safely from the tap, there is money to save! Instead of buying water in the supermarket you can freely drink from the tap and fill a bottle from the tap at your accommodation (only if it’s safe to drink). That way you also use less plastic.
Bonus info when visiting France: Always order tap water, it’s FREE in all restaurants.
In Iceland we also got free tap water in most of the cafes we visited. If you only drink free water to your meal you can save money too.

Walk around/use public transportation:
Instead of spending a lot of money on an expensive taxi you can walk (with shorter distances) or take metro, bus or train if available.
If you end up walking around more, most likely you will also experience the more authentic areas of your destination.

Use reward programs:
A good reward program can save you a lot of money. We have Genius level 3 status at Booking.com, which means we can save up to 20 % on some bookings and sometimes we get free breakfast included in the stay.
We also look for good deals on hotel programs, where we can earn good points for our stays, which we might use for other hotel stays in the future.

Do free activities:
There are so many amazing free activities to do all over the world. We love spending time in nature and it’s often free.
Free activities can be hiking, relaxing on the beach, watch architecture, stroll around a city area and so much more.

I hope you found some inspiration to save money on your next travel!