Something which we always aim to do here at Passive Family Income is to find ways to get cheaper travel for the whole family. There are hundreds of travel hacks which you can use to save cash, and these apply whether you are just heading off for a 2 week vacation, or if you are looking to travel long term. Saving money means 2 things, it means that you can afford to travel to places which you may not have thought that you could, and it also means that you will have more money to spend on having fun and getting involved in more activities when you do travel.
If this sounds like something which you want to take advantage of then read on for some of our favorite travel hacks which are guaranteed to save you a little bit of money when you travel, let’s take a look.
Flight Searching
We’ll start with an easy hack which is guaranteed to save you money on flights and that is to use a flight aggregator like JustFly when you are searching for your flights. These websites take the hard work out of searching for flights with multiple airlines and they can also find you the lowest prices anywhere around. Simply hit the site, put in your destination and your dates and wait for those super low prices to show up. Don’t bother checking in with every single airline, use an aggregator to make your life easier and save some money.
Credit Cards
There are a lot of people who haven’t unlocked the value in using credit cards and it is something which can save you a lot of money on your travel. There are many credit cards which can offer air miles, hotel points and many other travel benefits. If you use a credit card already which doesn’t offer these benefits then look to switch, if you don’t currently own a credit card then this is a good enough reason to start.
Hotels
Many people have started to use websites which collect many hotel prices and they often believe that they are getting a good discount on the actual hotel price, this may be true in some cases but there is a great travel hack which you can use to save even more money. Let’s say that a hotel aggregator has found a hotel in London which costs £100 per night, you need to be aware that the aggregator will take a percentage of this, so head to the hotel without a booking and see if you can make a deal for say £85, because of the fact that they are not paying commission. This won’t work with chain hotels but independents very often give you the deal. To be sure that you have somewhere to stay, have 2 or 3 hotels lined up to try this with, you’ll find it almost always works first time however.
Local SIM
Roaming charges for using your cell abroad have been rising and rising but you don’t have to pay these astronomical charges. The best thing to do is to buy a local SIM card upon your arrival to your destination and then simply use your phone as you normally would, paying local fees rather than crazy roaming charges. SIM cards are dirt cheap to pick up, simply load your phone with a bit of cash and then you can use social media and messaging services to your heart’s delight, without the worry of a huge bill when you get home.
Currency
Currency exchanges, depending on how good a rate you get, can save or cost you a large amount of money. In order to avoid this you shouldn’t run the risk of changing currency at the airport because they almost always offer a poor rate. The best case scenario is to get your currency before you go, as domestic banks usually offer far more favorable rates.
Haggle
The oldest travel hack in the book is to learn how to haggle in order to reduce the price of your purchases. This of course won’t work in large branded stores but if you are in a market or an independently owned store then you need to hustle to get some money of the price. The worst that people can say when you offer them a lower price is no, so why not give it a try?
There are many hacks out there but even with this handful you can easily save plenty of cash on your travels.