Do you like travelling? Do you dream about going somewhere and enjoying your life? Who doesn’t?
My husband and I LOVE travelling, so we try to travel as often as possible. At least 3 times of overseas trips and 4 times of trips in Australia in a year. Whenever I announce our trip plan, the responses of people around me are pretty much same ways. “ Again? ” or “How can you afford all the trips?”, or “ You much be very rich!”. I travel 3-4 times more often than friends or colleagues around me but I promise that my travel budget/expenses are not too higher than their ONLY trip for a year. I want to travel more often than go on a expensive (people calls “a luxurious travel”) trip and cannot go anywhere for a long time and only dreaming about it. So, I would like to share with you some tips how to organise a travel under the budget.
1. Change your perception on “Travel”; Definition of ‘travel’ is the act of going from one place to another, as on a trip; journey (according to the dictionary). Through travel we can experience new/different things in new/different places and it can be unforgettable experiences and events in our lives. However, quite often people misinterprets that travel is for a life opportunity to spoil themselves by behaving that they can afford “the LUXURIOUS treat” even though actually they can’t. Travelling is not for forgetting your realities and disguising yourself as others who are wealthy and can go and afford the luxurious breaks any time they wish. This kind of travel will fantasize you for a short time and give you a LONG and TOUGH financial pain for a long time.
2. Set a reasonable budget and choose affordable place to go; Before you plan a trip, you need to set a reasonable budget which cannot effect your daily life. It doesn’t mean you cannot go anywhere. If you don’t have enough money for a trip, set a plan and save money for the trip instead of borrowing (especially from Credit cards). Choose inexpensive places such as Thailand or Indonesia instead of Hawaii or Maldives (from Australia) if you have a low budget. You can find plenty of places where you can travel on a low budget in the world. You can plan and go where you need to have a bigger budget (where you cannot afford at this stage of life) next time when you are financially comfortable for the trips.
3. Use a local travel agency; In my case, the biggest part of my travel budget goes to getting a flight ticket. I normally check on-line to find out a good deal but as you would have experienced it is not always easy to get a one, especially if you want to travel when most of people want to travel such as school holidays or public holidays. So try to avoid this time and season. If you really cannot avoid it, move your travel time a couple of weeks earlier or later. Bit of flexibility will allow you to get a better deal. But back to the flights. Last year one of my husband’s colleagues who is Thai recommended her Thai travel agency (located in Sydney) for our flight tickets for a trip to Bangkok and we could get the best deal from them which even other travel agencies refused to match. Their excuse was according to their policy, they can match the prices with only Australian travel agencies. Anyway, since then I have always used the Thai agency for any trips to Thailand, even for the next one which happens within 2 week time. The difference on the price is 25% to 50%. So why don’t you try a local agency located in your area to get a good deal. Do not focus on only price. If you need to stop 1,2,3 ... places and waste a long time to transit, better pay bit more for a direct line as time is money.
4. Use a web site shows compares hotel prices such as Hotelscombinded (hotelscombinded.com.au); Use a web site that shows compared hotel prices of major accommodation websites such as Hotelscombinded (www.hotelscombinded.com.au); Choose a hotel which has most of (not all) your needs such as a gym (as a gym addict, Very important for me), swimming pool, internet free access, breakfast, etc... You can choose some suitable hotels which meet your requirements through one of major accommodation website. Because it is easier to see the pictures of the hotels and REVIEWS. Focusing on tourists reviews is more important than number of starts of the hotels. We were surprisingly pleased to stay in a 3 start hotel/motel in Busan (South Korea) for $35 per night. I booked the hotel based on the reviews (VERY GOOD over 8/10) and it was an eye opening experience. Once you know where to stay, you go back to a website that compares prices of major accommodation websites and find a best deal. Surprisingly, quite often you can get a cheaper/better deal through this website than any individual website. For example Agoda offered a same room $80 per night on their website but I could get $75 per night through hotelscombinded. I hope this helps. Also do not forget to ask upgrade a room when you check in. Amazingly, very often you can get free upgraded room if you ask. So why not?
5. Necessary to have a travel insurance; You never know what will happen while you are in overseas or far away from your home and family. While you travel, many unexpected things can happen to you which are beyond your control so I do discourage you to have ‘couldn’t careless or don’t care attitudes’. A few years ago, one of our employees made her lifelong dreamed travel to Europe with her sister. How exciting it would be as she was late 50s. Unfortunately, the first day in Europe her sister fell from the stairs and broke her both legs. They found out that they didn’t organise a travel insurance while she was filling a form for her sister in the hospital. Painfully, the accident without travel insurance costed them unbelievable amount of hospital treatment charge and heart breaking memory from their life dreaming. You really never know what can happen so insuring the ‘in case’ is very wise things to do. My husband and I never expected we would get a ‘Dengue Fever’ from Lombok (Indonesia). You can use a website that gives you compared prices offered based on the range of cover by Travel insurance companies.
6. Don’t prepare too much; “Are you moving?” when I was a beginner traveller, my husband yelled at me because of my overloaded suitcases. We are all excited before travelling but frequently we become out of control on preparation. Buy this, buy that, will need this, and also need that, just in case this will be helpful and that one, too.... endless list of things to prepare before the journey will make you get stressed instead of get excited and your unnecessary travel expenses will go up and up. The world is now one. You can buy anything anywhere so you don’t need to carry a department store and chemist with you. Be simple and light baggage will help you to travel easy. Buying local goods or international products in a local shop will let you experience unique fun. Last time we used local mosquito repellent which costed 1/3 of the price here but we didn’t get bitten even one bite.
7. Include local transportation in your itinerary; Use local transportations such as train, bus, subway, taxi or ferries. Firstly it is such a great fun and sometimes unbelievably cheap (not like a day trip to Manly by ferry). Last time when I was in Bangkok, we took a ferry to across a river and paid 3 THB. It was old and wouldn’t pass any standard safety check, but it was simply amazing. 3rd class ticket for a train to go 400km, we paid 60THB (less than 2 dollars per person). No booked seat and sitting with local people who looks at you like an animal escaped from the zoo with curious eyes made us all day smiling. Using local transportation will make your budget under the safe zone and bring you extra fund for the trip as long as you can scarify bit of your comfortable life style.
8. Eat local food; Eat what local people eat and where local people eat as long as the hygiene meets your standard. Some people tell me that they had Pizza and Mexican food in Phuket and spent time to find a restaurant which sells international food such as Hamburger, cheeps, pasta, etc in Asia. If you travel Asia, be ready to eat and experience Asian food. If you travel Europe, be ready not to eat rice for a while. That is fund of travel, isn’t it? Eating local food/fruit is experience you will never get anywhere else. Avoid going to a “well-known restaurant for tourists”. You will pay as much as you pay here and you will not get the REAL local taste as they will make/change for the tourist taste. You go local market to buy their fruits. They are so cheap and nice we will end up walk around and around all day long.
9. Learn/study about where you travel; When you learn and know about where you travel, I promise you will enjoy and learn more from the trip. To be frankly, I am not a great reader so very often leave reading about the place to go till the last minutes or make a dramatic excuse that I will enjoy the mysteriousness when I get there. Lucky enough my husband is an enthusiastic reader so he reads a book about the place before the trip and carries it everywhere. Lonely Planet is his favourite travel guide as it has plenty of practical trip tips including history of the place you visit. Travel with basic knowledge about the place will enrich your trip. If you do not learn anything from the trip will be same as no profit from you hard working business.
10. Be aware; Travelling is an exciting event in our life but not always going a right direction as we expect so we need to be aware of unpleasant incidents and unexpected problems that can happen anytime of the travel. Always be aware of that there can be pickpocketers around you so keep safe your bag or wallet as your money and travel documents will be in. Especially loosing passport will give you an awful headache so leave your valuable belongings (why would you take your valuable belongings to travel at the first place?) in the hotel. Avoid carrying too much cash with you if it is unnecessary. Be aware of traffic accidents. Quite many tourists are involved in car/bike accidents especailly young ones. Do not expect that the roles will be same as where you are from and respect (be careful) the difference. Remember that you are in a defferent place with different culture so not everything will work same way as you are from. They know how to drive safely in a caios but you don’t. Keep away from going out too late or alone. Most of dreadful things happen at nightime so start and finish the day bit ealier for the another beautiful morning. Maybe too boring for the young ones but better be safe then. Don’t get too stressed on what could happen while you travel but if you are aware of things can effect your trip and life, your trip and life will be much happier and safer.
As a story teller, my tips got longer than I expected but I do not want to remove any thing as I believe all will help you to travel well and keep you under your budget. Hope this makes you think about how to manage your life with more times of travel and plan for a next trip. Good Luck!
Day 1 - Butterfly on my sketched canvas.
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