Everyone who likes to travel knows that a cheap plane ticket sometimes just isn’t enough. It is a great start, but the real expenses start when you start travelling. The food, accommodation, entrance fees... Everything can add up a big load of money. Of course you have to treat yourself a bit, but where can you save money and don’t even know it?
It starts at the airport
The first thing are of course the plane tickets. Low-budget airlines are the first website to go to when you’re planning your next trip. Before boarding a plane, it is good to remember bringing your own water and food. You can buy water at the airport after security check and bring certain food from home and our saving starts before we even stepped in a foreign country. When you arrive to the foreign airport, choose the cheapest way of travelling to your hostel. Sometimes hostels offer free transportation, you can go by bus or by train and check whether it’s cheaper to choose a round trip, book the transportation on the internet or even pay it on the internet and then just go to the chosen form of transportation. If you’re renting a car, also check more agencies and get a credit card (and not debit, which is held by most Europeans).
Hostels, hostels and again, hostels
Sleeping in a hostel might seem obvious to you. But sometimes it’s not the best to choose the cheapest. See what other hostels are offering. It there’s breakfast included (usually it’s all you can eat breakfast), it is worth to pay a few euros more and get one meal out of your way. It is also good to have luggage storage and some hostels don’t even have free showers.
Hostelling International is a site where all the great hostels are available to book. If you choose this hostel, you will be guaranteed a high quality hostel as all
HI hostels meet assured standards that are the same everywhere in the world. They are safe hostels with affordable prices.
London or Sofia?
When you travel around Europe, don’t forget that Europe has one of the most expensive cities in the world. Return plane ticket to London might cost you only 50 Euros but the expenses will be higher when you actually arrive there, despite staying at hostels and driving on the metro. The
Telegraph writes that Helsinki, Oslo, Copenhagen, Paris and Zürich are some of the most expensive in Europe. If you have a tight budget, choose Bulgaria, which is a very popular destination among tourists and Sofia is the cheapest travelling destination in Europe, according to the Backpacker Index. Backpacker Index includes the cheapest hostels, two trips with public transport, one entrance fee to an attraction, three meals and three beers. Sofia is followed by Krakow, Bucharest, Belgrade and Budapest, writes the website
Price of travel.
Local stories
Hostel can be a source of important information. You can ask other travellers or at the reception, where can you get good coffee, food and much more. Don’t forget to ask if there’s “Free Walking Tour” available in the city you’re visiting. You will find it in almost every city, it lasts for about three hours (with a stop in a bar or at a restaurant) and you will quickly get an idea about the city, see the biggest attractions and hear a local story. You might never find out that there are so many attractions this close to your hostel or that you don’t even need to use the public transport. Or you can meet an interesting person who will invite you to visit them on the other side of the world. Be open and let go.
Good and cheap food with help of apps
Food can be a big expense. If you’re having breakfast at the hostel, it is one meal you don’t have to worry about. Hostels usually offer kitchens where you can cook a meal and not spend so much. Buy the food in the supermarket and cook it in a hostel. If you’re choosing a restaurant, stick with a rule that you don’t eat by the big attractions, and go at least 6 streets away. Use your smartphone and download apps like
TripAdvisor and
Yelp, where you can see prices and quality of food in restaurants. You can also find out a lot on a free walking tour or on good old Facebook. Foreign language skills will be helpful while finding cheap food as you can simply ask the locals.
