I have been saving money for a while now, budgeting for everything I buy and working a lot to afford my future. My boyfriend has been doing the same, all so we can afford to move away and start a new life abroad. But while we are cutting on a lot of things, we knew we still wanted to travel somewhat often. In the last year we managed to visit about 5 different destinations all on budget and we are due to travel very soon too.
Firstly I want to touch on the topic of saving money. Obviously you are going to need money to travel and the only way to get money is to save and work for it. What I do is I budget everything, I restrict myself from buying any makeup that is not a necessity, the same goes for clothes and I also separate my savings into parts. One part, the major part, is not to be touched and then I have a special fund in which I add extra money I get and can afford to put into other things, like travel or tattoos.
I usually have some money left from my pay check and I use it for everyday life but I also put some on the side, even if it is just 20€. I also put all birthday money I get and my tips in a special envelope and don't touch it but then use it again for travel or tattoos.
I will also do anything to get more money, which sounds weird haha. I just mean I work a lot, meaning I pick up any shift there is for grabs and work any job I have to. Just this Thursday I worked from 5 AM until 1 AM, 2 different jobs and I was exhausted but still I knew I had a bit more money to travel. My boyfriend does the same, but unfortunately he is currently mostly interning to gain experience.
So lets get into actual traveling and booking things.
The first thing I always do is plan. I try to think of all the things I need to do, like find out who I am going with, where, when, how much will it cost to get there and how much will I spend there and so on.
I usually travel with my boyfriend and friends, but we do make sure to travel at least once a year alone as a couple. If I am traveling with friends, it is always more complicated since there are more people I need to coordinate with. For instance, this new years we went to Sarajevo in Bosnia and at first there was 5 of us going and that number grew to 20. And since so many of us were going I did some research and I actually found out it would be cheaper for all of us to hire a bus and a driver and go. So we did that hah. And even though it was super stressful it was also a lot cheaper.
Airplane tickets
After I have all of those things answered, I start planning for real. I always find the plane tickets first, it just seems logical to me. Tickets can be the most expensive part of traveling, but I found that if you really search and use these 'tricks' you can get by with a pretty good price. It depends on where I am traveling to, wether it is in Europe/where Ryanair flies to or if it is international.
If it is in Europe I will usually fly with Ryanair which is really affordable, last summer I got 3 tickets for under 100€. Even though it is affordable you still need to be savvy when buying tickets. You need to travel at the right time and be quite flexible with your departure and return time. And even with the location.
For the next trip on which I am going I actually didn't know where I will be going until I had a look at the prices. I chose the airport I wanted to travel from and then checked all of the destinations I can travel to and for how much. Then I gathered the ones I liked the best and wrote them down with the price and date details. I also didn't look at a set date, I just knew that it would be in April and then compared the prices. And I found the perfect time and place all for a great price. I payed 63€ for a return ticket to Marrakech in Morocco.
But I also want to touch on something quite important with Ryanair. They will try to get every cent they can out of you. You can only travel with carry-on luggage which is fine for short trips but can be a pain for longer ones or if you want to take something like a camera bag with you. You can add a check in baggage for the ''low price'' of around 50€ which is ridiculous. When I went to London last year I did this but I was splitting the cost with my boyfriend and it was also cheaper. I did also kinda cheat and take a carry-on and a big purse but I knew I could fit everything and that purse in my check in bag and my carry on if I had to. I wouldn't dare to risk that with a camera bag full of expensive equipment. Carry-on regulations can also be quite restricting, especially cosmetics wise so beware of that, I don't want you losing all of your makeup because of that. I can do a full post on how to pack if that is something you guys would be interested in.
It is also important to pick the right airport, since you have to get there which will also cost you and it has to fly to quite a few places for you to make an informed decision. The closest one to me is Bergamo near Milano, Italy. They offer a wide range of flights, I mean it took me a few hours to get through all of my options and it is quite close. I would prefer to travel from the Treviso or Trieste airport since they are much closer but they don't fly to many destinations.
Now if I am traveling to somewhere outside Ryanair bounds I will use websites like pocenipopotovati or skyscanner. When I went to New York I found my ticket on Skyscanner for around 400$ and it was a very good flight option. I flew from Zagreb to London Heathrow and then directly to NYC JFK airport. But I was really lucky that I have found the ticket.
Usually, for a good price, you have to look months in advance or get a last minute option. Last minute tickets will be found the quickest on sites like pocenipopotovati or any other equivalent you might prefer. I love sites like these, where they combine all of the cheap flight options they have found and sometimes they also find cheaper accommodation options to go with the tickets.
Don't forget to include transfer to and from the airport in your planning and booking. I love Goopti for this but be sure to book it in advance since it gets quite expensive as the trip nears. The cost of our transfer will be 58€ to Milano for a roundtrip so not that bad but you can definitely find better options if you are willing to risk more. A good site for transfers, here in Slovenia, is also prevozi.net but you depend on people who are also traveling there so you have no real reassurance that you will actually get there on time. And you cannot book a few months before you go, but a few days sometimes weeks, so it is quite risky.
There is one more thing you need to be flexible about and that is flight time and non direct routes. Sometimes it is just so much cheaper to fly to different destinations and travel for a longer time than it is to go the direct route. Although you need to be mindful of how much time you want to waste traveling if your trip is short. When I travel I like to actually count only the days I spend there and not traveling days, obviously if that is possible. I just think that flying and carrying everything tires you out and you cannot enjoy the place as much.
Another, quite commonly known tip is to search for flights in incognito mode or at least clear your cookies with every search. Prices do actually increase and if you really want to save as much as you can I recommend using this technique.
Some airlines also use frequent flier miles but I don't collect those because Ryanair does not offer them and I actually don't fly that much for it to count.
It can also be cheaper to book two one way tickets instead of a round trip.
So just to sum the flight info up: be flexible with everything (location, time, travel time..), don't forget to look everywhere for flights (pocenipopotovati, skyscanner, ryanair, airfare watchdog, momondo..), check your airport options and compare the cost for transfer to there, use incognito mode/clear your cookies, frequent flier miles.
This post turned into a big flight only post and although I have intended to post about all of my money saving tips I will separate it into parts. It is only because this post got to be so long. I will add other tips in the next few days/weeks.
Did you enjoy this post? It is a bit different but I love traveling and I want to incorporate that on my blog too. Do you want me to write about my experiences in different cities and my other travel tips?
Firstly I want to touch on the topic of saving money. Obviously you are going to need money to travel and the only way to get money is to save and work for it. What I do is I budget everything, I restrict myself from buying any makeup that is not a necessity, the same goes for clothes and I also separate my savings into parts. One part, the major part, is not to be touched and then I have a special fund in which I add extra money I get and can afford to put into other things, like travel or tattoos.
I usually have some money left from my pay check and I use it for everyday life but I also put some on the side, even if it is just 20€. I also put all birthday money I get and my tips in a special envelope and don't touch it but then use it again for travel or tattoos.
I will also do anything to get more money, which sounds weird haha. I just mean I work a lot, meaning I pick up any shift there is for grabs and work any job I have to. Just this Thursday I worked from 5 AM until 1 AM, 2 different jobs and I was exhausted but still I knew I had a bit more money to travel. My boyfriend does the same, but unfortunately he is currently mostly interning to gain experience.
So lets get into actual traveling and booking things.
The first thing I always do is plan. I try to think of all the things I need to do, like find out who I am going with, where, when, how much will it cost to get there and how much will I spend there and so on.
I usually travel with my boyfriend and friends, but we do make sure to travel at least once a year alone as a couple. If I am traveling with friends, it is always more complicated since there are more people I need to coordinate with. For instance, this new years we went to Sarajevo in Bosnia and at first there was 5 of us going and that number grew to 20. And since so many of us were going I did some research and I actually found out it would be cheaper for all of us to hire a bus and a driver and go. So we did that hah. And even though it was super stressful it was also a lot cheaper.
Airplane tickets
After I have all of those things answered, I start planning for real. I always find the plane tickets first, it just seems logical to me. Tickets can be the most expensive part of traveling, but I found that if you really search and use these 'tricks' you can get by with a pretty good price. It depends on where I am traveling to, wether it is in Europe/where Ryanair flies to or if it is international.
If it is in Europe I will usually fly with Ryanair which is really affordable, last summer I got 3 tickets for under 100€. Even though it is affordable you still need to be savvy when buying tickets. You need to travel at the right time and be quite flexible with your departure and return time. And even with the location.
For the next trip on which I am going I actually didn't know where I will be going until I had a look at the prices. I chose the airport I wanted to travel from and then checked all of the destinations I can travel to and for how much. Then I gathered the ones I liked the best and wrote them down with the price and date details. I also didn't look at a set date, I just knew that it would be in April and then compared the prices. And I found the perfect time and place all for a great price. I payed 63€ for a return ticket to Marrakech in Morocco.
But I also want to touch on something quite important with Ryanair. They will try to get every cent they can out of you. You can only travel with carry-on luggage which is fine for short trips but can be a pain for longer ones or if you want to take something like a camera bag with you. You can add a check in baggage for the ''low price'' of around 50€ which is ridiculous. When I went to London last year I did this but I was splitting the cost with my boyfriend and it was also cheaper. I did also kinda cheat and take a carry-on and a big purse but I knew I could fit everything and that purse in my check in bag and my carry on if I had to. I wouldn't dare to risk that with a camera bag full of expensive equipment. Carry-on regulations can also be quite restricting, especially cosmetics wise so beware of that, I don't want you losing all of your makeup because of that. I can do a full post on how to pack if that is something you guys would be interested in.
It is also important to pick the right airport, since you have to get there which will also cost you and it has to fly to quite a few places for you to make an informed decision. The closest one to me is Bergamo near Milano, Italy. They offer a wide range of flights, I mean it took me a few hours to get through all of my options and it is quite close. I would prefer to travel from the Treviso or Trieste airport since they are much closer but they don't fly to many destinations.
Now if I am traveling to somewhere outside Ryanair bounds I will use websites like pocenipopotovati or skyscanner. When I went to New York I found my ticket on Skyscanner for around 400$ and it was a very good flight option. I flew from Zagreb to London Heathrow and then directly to NYC JFK airport. But I was really lucky that I have found the ticket.
Usually, for a good price, you have to look months in advance or get a last minute option. Last minute tickets will be found the quickest on sites like pocenipopotovati or any other equivalent you might prefer. I love sites like these, where they combine all of the cheap flight options they have found and sometimes they also find cheaper accommodation options to go with the tickets.
Don't forget to include transfer to and from the airport in your planning and booking. I love Goopti for this but be sure to book it in advance since it gets quite expensive as the trip nears. The cost of our transfer will be 58€ to Milano for a roundtrip so not that bad but you can definitely find better options if you are willing to risk more. A good site for transfers, here in Slovenia, is also prevozi.net but you depend on people who are also traveling there so you have no real reassurance that you will actually get there on time. And you cannot book a few months before you go, but a few days sometimes weeks, so it is quite risky.
There is one more thing you need to be flexible about and that is flight time and non direct routes. Sometimes it is just so much cheaper to fly to different destinations and travel for a longer time than it is to go the direct route. Although you need to be mindful of how much time you want to waste traveling if your trip is short. When I travel I like to actually count only the days I spend there and not traveling days, obviously if that is possible. I just think that flying and carrying everything tires you out and you cannot enjoy the place as much.
Another, quite commonly known tip is to search for flights in incognito mode or at least clear your cookies with every search. Prices do actually increase and if you really want to save as much as you can I recommend using this technique.
Some airlines also use frequent flier miles but I don't collect those because Ryanair does not offer them and I actually don't fly that much for it to count.
It can also be cheaper to book two one way tickets instead of a round trip.
So just to sum the flight info up: be flexible with everything (location, time, travel time..), don't forget to look everywhere for flights (pocenipopotovati, skyscanner, ryanair, airfare watchdog, momondo..), check your airport options and compare the cost for transfer to there, use incognito mode/clear your cookies, frequent flier miles.
This post turned into a big flight only post and although I have intended to post about all of my money saving tips I will separate it into parts. It is only because this post got to be so long. I will add other tips in the next few days/weeks.
Did you enjoy this post? It is a bit different but I love traveling and I want to incorporate that on my blog too. Do you want me to write about my experiences in different cities and my other travel tips?
