10 ways to reduce travel costs

Nowadays traveling isn?t a luxury good anymore. Globalisation supports to travel faster and easier than several years ago. Netherless people wonder how to afford traveling not just once a year. People like you and me want to travel twice, three times or even more in a year and we can tell you: yes, it?s possible!

10 ways to reduce travel costs, prevent any cost or even earn money.

Loveistraveling wants to give you some ideas how to put travel cheap and environmental friendly to practice.

First of all you look for a destination. How far the destiny is decides how you get there.?For example if we wanna travel inside an European country or even to a neighbour country we love to travel by Blablacar.

1. BLABLACAR:

   It is a ridesharing service which is located in 19 countries like France, Germany, Spain, Mexico, India, Great Britain and more. People like you and me share on the platform which destination they drive to, the day and the time. They tell you how many seats are available and how much money they want.You can look for an offer or you just publish your own ride. It?s very simple, fast and cheap at the same moment.

   We are used to travel by Blablacar because it?s faster than a bus, it?s cheaper than a train and more environmental friendly to make the car full instead of every single person drives its own car! It should be mentioned that sharing a car is a really trustful act and it?s not about earning money, it?s about sharing the petrol costs. Additional Blablacar is a great way to meet new and interesting people. We love it and hope you will try it once to tell us which experiences you made.

If you decide to go to a farer country by plane we have some simple advices for you to save money.

2. MOMONDO, SKYSCANNER OR GOOGLE FLIGHTS:

   Those three search engines help you to find the cheapest offer for your destination.?Sometimes if you just travel with a low-cost airliner it?s worth travel only with a hand luggage. You gonna save about 20 to 50?.?Additional try to book your flight at least one month before you leave – as earlier you know where and when you want to fly, book it, as cheaper it?s gonna be!?If you have the choice, take a flight in the middle of the week and not on the weekend ? the search engines will show you the cheapest days and Google Flights even give you proposals which airport close to your place offers cheaper flights. Even the hour can be important to save some more money.?Look for flights with open eyes!

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Well done, we have our destination and we know how and when we get there. Now we have to look for a suitable accommodation. Here for we have some inspiring choices for you!

3. FRIENDS:

   First at all if you have friends in that country or in the city ask them for staying in their house or maybe they even offer you a bed.?Most of the time we visit friends in different countries and combine the visit with some travels. It has several of benefits, for example you save money for an accommodation, you are with a local who can show you many awesome places you never would have gone alone as a tourist, you even meet more locals and make new friends, you are right in the middle of a daily life ?

   Once you make the first step into the traveller world you will meet many interesting people who invite you to your country and you invite them. It?s a give-and-take and so enjoyable.

Until you don?t have anybody to visit try the hospitality exchange and social network Couchsurfing.

4. COUCHSURFING:

   It?s a platform where people offer a couch or even an own room without any ask for money!

   How does it work? You sign in and create your own profile. You can get in touch with people from all over the world, ask them for staying in their house and you will share some days with a real local. After your stay it?s important to give your host a feedback and hopefully you will get one too. Couchsurfing as well shows up events like meeting other couchsurfers or hosters in your place.?It?s very famous on the whole world and I can tell you even as a girl you can try it and make incredible experiences.

   (Just to take away your fears as a girl I will tell you my first experience with Couchsurfing in New Zealand. My first couch or better my own room with a bed I got offered from a man who is originally from Singapore. I wasn?t worried at all and stayed in his house. I felt so comfortable from the beginning and we talked about many interesting things. The next days I went to a festival in the same city but I wanted to camp there and I did. Unfortunately the weather changed after the second night ? thunderstorm, heavy rain and wind. My host and I were still in touch because he was on the festival as well and he told me every day: ?Jess, please remember that you?re welcome in my house at any time.? So after two bad nights in the tent I decided to go back to my host. Sadly I got very sick – fever, diarrhoea, throwing up and so on. My host was so worried and helped me to get better: tea, good food and he bought medicine for me. I think that Couchsurfing experience is the best showpiece how social the fellow human can be.)

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The next two options are different possibilities when?the first once didn?t work out.

5. AIRBNB:

   It?s a way to rent or leas a room or even a whole apartment. Private persons offer it and you can decide how many nights you wanna stay. It?s cheaper than a Hostel or Hotel and you?re still in touch with locals. Airbnb want you to feel like at home when you?re on holidays. Sometimes you stay in the best locations for less money.

6. HOSTEl:

   You don?t want to spend hundred of euros for a hotel? Then try any hostel on Hostelworld or other Hostel platforms. The difference to a hotel is that many hostels provide a kitchen. Furthermore you have the choice of a shared dorm or a private room. Sometimes you have your own bathroom or you share the bathroom with your bed neighbours. Choose what fits more for you!?Hostels are a good?place?to meet other international travellers. I promise you, you never will be alone even if you travel alone! While cooking or just hanging out on the terrace or the living room you always will?find somebody to have a good conversation with. It?s fun sharing some trips with your roommates or joining some events the hostels offer. There?s always something to do!

Finally arrived at your accommodation it?s time to discover the village, city or even the whole country. Gonzalo and I we?ve never travelled with a guidebook. The first step to get the best information about a place might be locals. If you wanna see some pictures have a look on Instagram ? there are pictures that make you curious! But how do you get to the different places?

7. WALKING:

   Let?s wander around and stop wherever you want. Walking is one of the cheapest ways to get to know a new place and an orientation. We love to walk and explore our destination in our own way, taking pictures, sitting and watching people. I think the craziest thing we did so far was walking up a mountain in summer in Andorra because we didn?t want to pay the lift nevertheless we wanted to enjoy the view up there. Walking has benefits and disadvantages: You do some exercise and will arrive at home kind of tired. That means on foot you?re not that fast and far distance won?t be reached that easily.

That?s why we have another idea for you: Why don?t you rent a bike?

8. BIKE:

   There are plenty of different bikes you can rent. For the sport freaks we recommend a bike with gears so you can ride up and down at every place you are. For the lazy people who just want to see more things in shorter time an electro bike could be the solution. See every monument, every closer village or even some mountain views while riding your speed bike. Maybe the electro bike will be more expensive than the ?normal? one but that?s up to you and your budget.?Bike is a very useful vehicle because you don?t pollute your environment, you do some exercises, sometimes you are
   faster than any bus or underground in a city. The most important point is, you?re very flexible ? leave whenever you want to!

   We rode bikes in several places already and the most funny and wroth places were in the Netherlands and Seville. In the Netherlands all paths are pretty flat so you don?t need any effort to even ride 20 km one way. Additional on your bike you always have that fresh wind which means on warm days you sometimes prefer the bike than other public transfers.

There are even more possibilities to move on. For example, what about?renting a motor scooter, a car and publish your journey on Blablacar to save petrol money? I mean if you are in a trustful country you definitely could try to hitchhike (without guarantee, with its own responsibility!!!). We hitchhiked in Andorra for example in winter as well as in summer and it was so much fun.

Then there are the moments you really get hungry. The easiest way to stave off hunger could be a restaurant or even fast food. But imagine you travel more than just two or three weeks and you?re tired of all the fast food and the expensive menus in a restaurant – that?s the opportunity to try something new while traveling.

9. COOKING:

   Cook your own fresh meal and your wallet will be grateful! In every place should be a supermarket, go and buy some ingredients for less money and cook something. When you live at a friends place, at Couchsurfing, Airbnb or even at a hostel every residents has a kitchen where you can swing the cooking spoon.

   If you?re not close to your house because you?re on the other side of the city and it wouldn?t be worth to go back, you could have made a lunch at home to take away before leaving. Just remember if you really want to save money there?s always a way to spend less. You just really have to want it!

   Another idea for persons who just want to relax and prefer a restaurant: Why don?t you visit a restaurant out of the tourist zone? Ask locals for recommendations and you will find the best local food. Traveling means to try traditional food of the country you stay in!

Our last point about how to reduce travel costs is a mix of several ideas. Notice that we haven?t tried yet as loveistraveling. We wanna share some different suggestion with you which are on our Bucket-List!

10. SUGGESTIONS:

    A road trip with a little van is one of the things we would love to do: Your bed always travels with you. You are flexible and ?you can sleep at any place you want to. Sometimes the van is big enough and you can carry some pots and a Bunsen burner. That?s adventurer life pure!

    I was in New Zealand and had a car with back seats to put down. I sometimes used my little car to sleep in it and to save accommodation costs. Of course to own a car or maybe to rent one brings some more costs with it but if you can use your car to sleep in and publish your destination on Blablacar you can have lot of fun!

    That brings me to another point: Camping! Take a tent, a sleeping bag and let?s sleep at a camping ground or maybe wild in the nature. Wild camping is not allowed in every country so before you decide to do that inform yourself if it?s legal! Another point on our Bucket-List is wild camping in Sweden.

    Now I gonna introduce you one of my absolutely favourites ways I saved plenty of money in New Zealand: WWOOFing?(World Wide Opportunities on Organic Farms). WWOOFing is a platform where mostly organic farms offer people to work about 4-5 hours a day in return of accommodation and food. In New Zealand I used that platform a lot because it brought me close to locals, I saved money and I learned many things from different people. Sometimes farms even offer you to work longer and earn some money. WWOOFing is a great option to travel more than just one month. How long you stay at a WWOOFing place depends on your hosts: Some people want you to stay just a week, some prefer WWOOFers to stay longer than 4 weeks and so on.

I would love to share that experience with Gonzalo as loveistraveling!

That was our exceptional personal list how to reduce travel costs.

We hope you?ve got an idea how we travel and what you could use to travel on a low budget. Of course that list is not unchanging. There will appear many more interesting ways to save money and if we know something new we will let you know.

Please let us know if you have tried one or two things we recommended and tell us your story! loveistraveling@gmail.com

We are interested in what our followers do and like or even don?t like!

And please, spread the word! 🙂