It’s safe to say that we all enjoy a good break, albeit travelling abroad or a stay-cation, either way travelling can quickly become expensive. Make sure that you are travel savvy and keep your costs down.
Make your own travel-size toiletries
Don’t waste your money on over priced mini toiletries, I’ve been guilty of this before but not anymore. Fill your own travel sized bottles with your toiletries like hair products, body lotions etc. You can pick up little travel sized bottles from supermarkets and even budget stores like Home Bargains and B&M.
Travel Light
Beat the baggage fees and pack wisely. Do you really need a huge case filled with items that you aren’t going to wear? Plan your outfits ahead and only take what you really need. If you can squeeze all of your belongings into a cabin sized case, even better!
It’s always best to weigh and measure your luggage before you get to the airport to avoid any unexpected charges.
Car Hire
Take a look at broker companies when looking for car hire. We managed to get a great deal by pre-booking our hire car through a broker that didn’t include an extortionate deposit and we were covered for any damage with the insurance included.
Always make sure that your car hire includes insurance and check the vehicle over for any bumps and scrapes before you sign for it.
Travel Money
Travel money exchange rates fluctuate all the time, we found it best to use comparison sites to get the best rate available at the time.
Monzo Card
Whilst it’s useful to have cash available, we transferred a good chunk of our travel spending budget to our Monzo account. Monzo cards are free to use abroad and they use the Mastercard exchange rate with 0.0% fees.It’s easier than carrying around a wallet of travel money and easier to replace if lost.
Travel Insurance
Skipping on the travel insurance can end up costing you £1000s, from lost luggage, money, cancellations, medical care etc. So it’s always worth spending the extra £20 or so on travel insurance, even if you don’t end up having to use it. Again you can get yourself a great deal to cover the whole group travelling on price comparison websites.
We’ve claimed for lost luggage before and also when we had a bag containing travel money stolen. (We were able to sort out a quick short term solution with online loans, which we were able to pay back off from the travel insurance when we returned home.)
Consider the October half term
Travelling during the school holidays is so expensive with prices more than doubling for the same holiday. Consider taking your vacation during the October half term holidays as prices tend to drop a little because it’s out of season. Places like the Canary Islands are hot all year round so you can still have your week in the Sun in October.
Avoid unnecessary charges
Sometimes it’s tempting to add on the little extras that you don’t really need like priority check-in. Most airlines have pre-booked seating nowadays so there’s no point in paying any extra unless you really have to.
Sight Seeing or Travel Passes
If you are staying in a city, you can often find great deals on travel passes and sight seeing tours if you look online and organise them yourself, rather than paying a fee through a travel company.
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at 4:19 pm[…] sure you know exactly what is included in your plan when travelling abroad. Try to avoid making international phone calls – use Facebook or WhatsApp to make calls […]