Budget traveling tips to achieve your travel dreams

My parents have emphasized travel as an essential part of life and learning since I was a child. While we had previously taken many trips around the country (and sometimes the continent), my family recently took a two-week vacation to Madrid and Lisbon over winter break. Being a middle-class family, this was a trip that we could only imagine going on for a long time.

I have come to realize that much of the reason that we are fortunate enough to vacation is because my family has accumulated a plethora of budgeting knowledge. As this was the first trip in which I was old enough to understand and care about finances, I have accumulated some tips and tricks for budget traveling.

The most useful tip for budget travelers is to be flexible. Flights tend to be at their most expensive starting on Friday until Monday. This can be attributed to business travelers leaving on Mondays and coming back on Fridays, as well as leisure travelers going on weekend getaways. Travelers can often get a better deal on the same flight if they opt to fly out on a slower day.

While some people swear by the idea that Tuesdays are the cheapest day to fly, this is highly regarded as a myth by most travel experts. Regardless, choosing an ‘off day’ such as Tuesday, Wednesday, or Thursday will typically offer a better deal than weekend or Monday flights.

Google Flights, the search engine’s built-in price checker, is a useful resource when it comes to flexibility. It shows the price of flights in the context of an entire month of prices.

The app ‘Hopper’ is another resource in the same category. Hopper will alert you whenever your flight dips in price and lets you know if the deal is likely to reappear. Through this app, my family was able to buy round-trip tickets to Madrid for less than 600 dollars apiece when the average is nearly double.

For students in particular, the website StudentUniverse collects student discounts that airlines offer to show young travelers the cheapest possible tickets available. This works for hotels and tours as well as plane tickets. Similarly to Hopper, StudentUniverse offers fare alerts to let you know when tickets will be at their cheapest.

Airline tickets are only one portion of an expensive travel experience, however. While traditional hotels have long been regarded as the only option for lodging, hostels and Airbnb’s have recently overtaken the market. Hostels offer a unique opportunity to lodge with people and explore the city that you are staying in, while Airbnb’s offer a similar experience to a hotel at a fraction of the cost.

In my experience, especially for international travel, Airbnb is a fantastic option for budget travelers. While there are extravagant homes and apartments on the service, there are many options to rent a single room or simple accommodations for less than fifty dollars per night. By giving up a traditional hotel experience, travelers can spend valuable money on experiences instead of sleeping arrangements. This makes much more sense in the long run.

Traveling is immeasurably important to personal and cultural development, but one of the greatest woes of wanderlust people is the sheer cost of tickets and accommodations. With some budget travel knowledge, you can save thousands of dollars and have a much more rewarding trip.