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Vacation and Saving Money
By Daniel | May 21, 2008
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Vacations can get expensive very quickly and it only takes a little effort to cut down the costs and save money on your trip. We are leaving on our first European vacation this week to visit Germany, and the posts will be a little thin until we get back. I did a lot of reading and research to keep our expenses low and found some tips for saving money on a vacation. J.D. at Get Rich Slowly posted Ten Money-Saving Vacation and Travel Tips earlier this year. Here are the tips for traveling frugally: |
- Research Your Destination:
- Budget:
- Carry A Guidebook:
- Pack Light:
- Pack Smart:
- Manage Your Money:
- Carry A Money Belt:
- Sleep Cheap:
- Eat Cheap:
- Relax:
We’ve used several guide books and internet websites to learn about each city to plan our sightseeing and maximize our time. Knowing where to sleep, what to eat, and how to navigate will save valuable time and money. Finding unbiased source is the key here.
An estimate of daily expenses will keep us in check during our trip. It’s easy to lose track of how much you’re actually spending. We have a one page list with each day listed and how much money we’ll need for sleeping, eating, tours and or sightseeing. It’s not set in stone.
Excellent Idea for planning and reference during the trip. Ours is already packed and will help us find restaurants in our price range and will serve as our cheap tour guide for several stops.
Pack Light, Pack Light, Pack Light. I feel like we read that everywhere, but that’s because it’s important. A carry-on for each of us will make it easier for us to keep track of luggage and we won’t have to pay to have someone carry our bags or end up spending money to ship stuff home.
Packing clothes that we can layer if it is cold and ones that will work for any place we visit cuts down our load. We only need to carry our necessities.
We called our credit card companies and bank to find out which fees apply overseas and what our limits are. We also checked the exchange rate, which is hard to look at with the dollar being weak against the euro.
Losing money, passports, and tickets will cost us time and money to replace. We’re protecting ourselves against pickpocketing.
With the exchange rate not in our favor, we’ve chosen smaller B&B as opposed to the expensive hotels. This is our second largest expense behind the airfare.
Food will be our third largest expense while traveling. We’ve packed several snacks for the plane ride and layovers. When we arrive, our plan is to find a grocery store for a few simple meals. Our guidebook will also help us find the affordable restaurants.
Providing down time in our schedule will give us time to re-energize and enjoy the trip.
Again, Don’t forget to read The full article Ten Money-Saving Vacation and Travel Tips at Get Rich Slowly, J.D. is a phenomenal writer with great information.
Topics: Travel |