When you are travelling on a budget, you want to find the cheapest way possible to get around and do things. Or at least find a good balance between convenient and cheap. Sadly the cheapest option is most likely not the most convenient!
In this blog post, we’ll give you some tips on how to travel cheap but still convenient and easy.
A lot of things may sound logical but might not come to mind directly when you arrive in a new country. These tips are things we learned from experience, most likely doing it wrong the first time, so have a read and don’t do what we did. Like walking an hour and a half with all of our stuff just to save us a two dollar tchuk tchuk in Cambodia.
Table of Contents
1. Get a local sim card
It may sound like wasting money because most public places have free wi-fi, but in the end, it will cut down the cost of travelling. When using apps like Uber or google maps, you can get to any location cheaper than having a taxi or organised transport. See it as an investment.
For example, when Joachim arrived in Indonesia he paid 250 000 Rupiah (AUD 25) to get from the airport to his hostel. Going back to Australia he spent 47 000 Rupiah (AUD 4,7) for the same ride. Just because he bought a local sim card, he could use an app and his transport cost him not even a fifth of the price.
2. Get a local bank card
This is especially important if you’re staying in a country for a longer time. It will be cheaper to get a local card than to use your card from back home. Last time we went travelling without a local card, we paid over €700 in banking fees over the course of eight months. International transferring, converting different currency, it all costs a lot!
A second tip, use Transferwise. For us transferwise only charges a tenth of the price my bank would charge us! With this Transferwise link, your first transfer is free of charge!
3. Download the right apps
Ever since Uber broke the taxi market with their app a lot of places have their own specific apps. Look up which app is cheapest or best in which country. Here listed below are a couple of our favourite travel apps.
Transportation
Uber: This alternative to taking a taxi is easy and simple to use and works in a lot of countries and cities in the world. Not to mention it’s only half the price a taxi would cost you. This will be your most global option when travelling.
For a first free ride, use the ubercode: joachimt61ue
Grab: Joachim’s favourite transport app in Indonesia. It is as easy to use as Uber only a lot cheaper! It works in a lot of countries in South East Asia (Malaysia, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand, Vietnam and Indonesia). You can choose from a car or even a motorbike which is cheaper and gets you to your destination faster.
Accommodation
Airbnb: Of course hostels are the way to go but sometimes you want some luxury or an awesome villa. With Airbnb, you can easily find amazing places at low prices! Most of the time it will come out even cheaper than a hostel. When we were looking for a place to stay in Perth with a private room, after spending six nights in a hostel dorm, we found this house just outside of the centre for half the price of a private room in a hostel. And of course, it was more luxurious than any hostel around.
For an AUD 30 booking credit to Airbnb use this link!
Hostelworld.com: The perfect source for all your hostel related searches. In some countries such as Australia, it is sometimes cheaper to go to the hostel itself as they might have deals like stay four nights, pay for three. While in most Asian countries the price online intends to be lower than the price at the hostel. You can still go to the hostel to check and then book online at the counter.
4. Get your own transport or use local transport
Doing day trips can be expensive, even in the cheaper countries. If you want to be driven around and have a relaxing day, book a day trip! If you want to do it cheap and on your own terms, get your own transport! Hiring a motorbike or car is in most countries quite cheap and gets you to the places you want to go to!
In Vietnam, we hired a motorbike to get from Hue to Hanoi and stop in Phong Nha National Park. A bus to Phong Nha and then another one to Hanoi would have cost us more than the motorbikes and gasoline altogether. It would then be a pain in the ass getting around in the national park since it is huge and there aren’t any local transport services only organised day trips. It gave us the opportunity to see every corner that we wanted to explore!
DO REMEMBER: It can be dangerous to drive around in some countries. Not to be stereotypical but in Asian countries, people drive like crazy. Make sure you are confident with your driving skills and pay attention to the other drivers. We have found it’s easiest to follow local traffic and see what everyone else does. In Vietnam for example, who honks first has the right of passage so every crossing you honk as if your life depends on it! Which it does, really.
Tourist transportation will always be more expensive than local transport. We do admit, local transport can be hard to find, but there is a simple solution for it. While travelling South East Asia and South-America, we always relied on wiki travel to find the cheapest way to get to our destination. Okay, sometimes it took a little bit more time and effort to actually find it but it saved us heaps of money and prolonged our trip a lot! It is a travel website for travellers by travellers and is updated by its member regularly. So you’ll find up to date travel information that, in our eyes, beats printed travel books every time.
5. Eat Local Food
A lot of people are afraid to eat local food. We always ate local food and Joachim only once ended up in the hospital. This was because of a very questionable egg salad sandwich when going down Machu Pichu. Not only does it save you money, you also discover a different cuisine, untouched by western influences and actual local culture. we can’t count the number of times we couldn’t order because we didn’t share a language and just said the word for food in the local language and nodded at the first thing the owner said. It did get us a lot of special meals we hadn’t eaten before.
7. Shop around
A lot of places or activities you have to do with a tour otherwise it is practically impossible. Don’t just take the first one you find. Go to different places and ask for prices. Inform them that the price somewhere is lower to get a special price. Also if you are with more people, the price automatically goes down, so get a group together for whatever you want to do!
8. Haggle
In a lot of countries, haggling is part of the culture. It is a normal thing to do and in some countries, it is even rude not to!
A couple of tips when haggling:
– Always keep smiling, this is not a fight but a friendly conversation to get a lower price. – Walk away if the price is still above your limit, most of the times, if the price you suggested is reasonable, they will call you back.
– In touristy areas, the price locals say is a lot higher than normal because a lot of people just accept it anyway.
Laura is the lead writer at BackpackBeliefs.com, where she specializes in travel guides, cultural exploration, and sustainable tourism. With over 10 years of travel experience and a Master’s degree in Cultural Anthropology, Laura brings valuable insights to her readers.
For the latest travel tips and updates, connect with Laura on Facebook at @backpackbeliefs and Instagram at @backpackbeliefs. where she has 4,622 followers.
