The Frugal Globetrotter: My Budget Travel Tips for Everyone
Reading Time: 7 minutes How do I travel so often? Want to also become a frugal globetrotter? I budget my expenses and plan my trips accordingly. That’s the best piece of advice I can give to someone who wants to travel, even if it’s only once a year.
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Here are my budget travel tips and tricks you need to follow to become a frugal globetrotter too:
Table of contents
You Must Make A Budget
Some people have the luxury of picking a spot on a map, booking a ticket, and leaving the next day. We’re not those people, were a frugal globetrotter. Having a budget, even a rough budget, is super important to being able to travel. Especially if you’re on limited funds but want to use #vacaylife on your Instagram posts. It’s okay to have a small budget and still have an amazing trip.
I had a budget of $2,000 for a month in Thailand, (you can read those adventures here) and that was entirely way too much while I was there. I also had a budget of $2,000 for two weeks in Italy (you can also read about Italy here), but I felt like I didn’t have enough money by the end of the trip.
Pick a price point you want to stick to for your trip and then save every paycheck you get until you have that saved. When I went to Vietnam, I was able to find amazing hotels for USD 35 a night in major cities, but I ended up staying in hostels that cost me USD 4 a night instead.
What To Budget For
Remember while planning your trip, there are things you need to budget for ahead of time. This is so that you can enjoy yourself while there. Being a frugal globetrotter takes planning. Some aspects are easy to figure out (hotels, transportation) ahead of time, but other things aren’t (souvenirs). Here’s what you need to budget for:
- Hotel: Make this 40% of your total trip budget
- Transportation (car rental or taxi, buses, trains, etc): 10%
- Food (meals, snacks, drinks): 25%
- Entertainment/Excursions/Tours/Site seeing: 20%
- Souvenirs: 5%
I use this estimate for every trip I follow, but I also adjust depending on where I’m going. While in Italy, I budgeted 45% for hotels, but I cut down my entertainment to 15%. Here’s my typical breakdown for a trip with a USD $2,000 budget: Hotels $800, Transportation $200, Food $500, Entertainment $400, Souvenirs $100.
Do Your Research
Research the place you want to go to before you get there. While going into the world’s tallest building sounds great. But if it puts you out of your budget it’s not worth it. Figure out the things you’d like to do once there and plan accordingly. Don’t always book ahead of time, but have an idea of what you’d like to do and an estimate of how much this is all going to cost. A frugal globetrotter does lots of research ahead of time.
Before I went to Thailand, I made a list of things I wanted to do while there. Take a cooking class, see elephants, go island hopping, etc. I looked at prices online, but I waited until I arrived in Thailand before I booked any of these activities. My cooking class online would have cost me USD 50, but my hotel offered the same class for USD 35.
Pro Tip: S.E. Asia is known for being cheaper to book things once you get there.
Spend Some Time Looking For Flight Deals
I’m crazy, I know. I could spend HOURS finding flight deals from NYC to any city in the world. I even have a Facebook group at work dedicated to these flight deals I find and giving them all the details they need to book these flights. But I know no one else does this or wants to do this.
I also subscribe to lots of different websites dedicated to finding cheap airplane tickets for any airport in the world. One of these is Google Flights, this happens to be the first site I check. You can either search for direct flights or look at maps and scan the world for specific dates.
You can also use the explore feature and look-up trips for anywhere in the next 6 months that last either 1 to 2 weeks. Google gives you so many options for finding the best deals around. This is the best advice I have for aspiring frugal globetrotters. Keep your availability open.
The next best site I use is Expedia.com. This is the all-in-one vacation planner. You can just book flights, flights + hotels, packages, and anything else dedicated to traveling. I use Expedia to book most of my trips. Especially my all-inclusive trips to any of the Caribbean islands. I love how easy the site is to use, and I usually find the best deals.
I booked my last trip and my next trip using Expedia. At the time of this post, I booked Montego Bay, Jamaica. 4 people for 7 days all-inclusive with airfare from NYC for $2,800 total. That’s $700/person or $100/day/person. Hotel/Food/Drinks/Airfare/Taxi to the hotel for the week.)
How To Plan My Perfect Trip
Here’s my process for how I book travel. I think about where I want to go, or what type of trip I want to take. If I just want to spend time in the sand, getting drinks handed to me, and not think about what to do, I do all-inclusive and go straight to Expedia to book my trip.
My husband likes these types of trips. The less he has to do, the more enjoyable the trip for him. He says he’s so busy when he’s at work, that he prefers a trip where he’s doing absolutely nothing. He only wants to think about what to eat at the resort.
I like to explore, so when I’m thinking about where to go, I first go to Google Flights. I look for cheap airfare to somewhere I haven’t been before. I’m am a frugal globetrotter, I don’t pay a lot for airfare. Little known secret, airlines will have deals for different countries or US states, but they tend to sell out quickly. I’ve never paid more than $550 for any round-trip flight. I also book when flights are cheap, not on set days. My trip might start mid-week.
Once I find the destination I want to go to and the dates I want to go away, and I book my tickets through the link on Google Flights. Then my research on the destination will start.
Usually, the deals I find are anywhere between 3-8 months ahead of the trip itself. That determines how much I want to budget and how to save each paycheck for it.
Planning The Details
I look at where I would like to go or what I want to do while there. I like to have a list of places to go, and then plan my lodging from there. If I’m going to Cambodia and know I want to visit both Siem Reap and Phnom Penh, then I know that these are the cities I’m going to book my hotels in.
Pick a price point in your budget for a hotel per night and look at ONLY those hotels. You’d hate to fall in love with a property and find out it’s WAY over your budget.
Once you have a flight and hotel booked, you have plenty of time to figure out activities and tours that you want to do while on your trip.
I like to look for activities that are free first. Sometimes free is just as good as paying someone. Look for these on tourism websites for the cities or countries I’m looking to visit. I found a walking tour in London that only cost a tip for the tour guide. Then I look for paid activities that seem like fun and are popular or sound good.
I know budgeting and booking your trip can be daunting, but that’s part of the fun. As a frugal globetrotter, you’ll become a pro on searching for great deals. It gets you excited about going as the days count down and you can rest knowing you know how to get there and you’ll know where to sleep at night.
Happy Travels!
