How to Save Money on Travel
As someone who has traveled with almost zero dollars in the bank, I’ve found some creative ways to save money so I can still travel without staying in hostels and living off premade PB&Js – that may be for some people, but not for me!
This is not a guide to extreme budget travel, but more of a guide to save money on any type of travel purchases you make for your trip, no matter your budget.
This post contains affiliate links that earn me a commission. For more information, read my disclaimer.
Travel in the Off Season
This is the key to saving on travel for me. Prices for everything — flights, accommodations, and activities — are lower between October-November and January-March.
Those ranges may change depending on where you’re going (for example, Australia, where summer months December-February). Other places like Las Vegas are 4-5x more expensive on weekends vs. weekdays, no matter the time of year.
The other benefit to off-season travel is fewer crowds!
London in January 2019 (empty!)
Skip the Hotels/Resorts
No matter what time of year you travel, staying in a rental instead of a hotel/resort could save you hundreds, and in some places, thousands!
Plus, you can usually find places that feel much more comfortable and equipped with a kitchen for some home-cooked meals.
Our Airbnb in Sevilla
Our glamping tent booked on Hotels.com
Airbnb
We all know Airbnb. People put their own homes and properties on here for rent. If you want to go extreme-budget, you can even rent a private room in a place that is shared with strangers. I’ve never done this and likely never will, but it is an option!
You can still opt to book an entire place all to yourself, plus they now have a whole section for unique stays that you likely won’t find on other sites.
We booked stays for our month-long Europe trip on a budget through Airbnb and got some incredible deals.
VRBO
My current favorite place to book stays is VRBO. They’re similar to Airbnb where people can list places to stay, but the difference is that you always get the entire place – no sharing with strangers ever.
While researching places to stay for my most recent trip, I actually found much better prices—and even nicer stays—on VRBO compared to Airbnb. We ended up booking an amazing place on here!
I highly recommend checking here first before you look at other sites.
Hotels.com
Don’t let the name fool you! There are rentals on Hotels.com that are not hotels. It’s actually where we found our incredible glamping spot in Moab, which was most definitely not a pricey hotel (it was much better!).
You do have to weed through hotels and expensive resorts on this site, but there are gems if you’re willing to look for them. Plus you can earn rewards for booking through Hotels.com!
Booking.com
Similar to Hotels.com, there are hotels and resorts on here, as well as cheaper, unique rentals.
Just dedicate a bit of time to searching and you’ll likely find cheaper accommodations that are listed by an individual or private rental company between the $$$ hotels/resorts.
You can use the map below to search for locations in your destination! If it isn’t showing up, try disabling your ad blocker.
Save on Flights
This is something I am not an expert on, and I’m sure I have overpaid for flights in the past. I do have a couple tips to share, along with resources that are more helpful than me in the cheap flight department.
Fly on Weekdays
Prices typically increase if you’re flying out/back on a Saturday or Sunday. I try to opt for flying out on a weekday (even Fridays are much cheaper than Saturday or Sunday) and flying back on a weekday.
You can look at a calendar on Google Flights to see which days would be the least expensive for a round trip. Weekends are sometimes randomly cheaper as well!
Add Multiple Airports
This isn’t an option for everyone since you may only have one airport near you, or only one that flies to where you want to go.
If you do have multiple airports nearby, like I do in the San Francisco Bay Area, you can put multiple airports into Google Flights and pick the one with the cheapest round trip!
Cheap Flight Websites
I have used a few cheap flight websites before and have found great deals! I recommend checking a few different ones out and seeing which site you like best.
You can visit upgradedpoints.com for a full list of cheap flight websites, along with pros/cons of each one.
Get Groceries
Going out to eat for every meal can be EXPENSIVE. Depending on where you go, there are some places where it may be just as cheap to eat out as it is to get your own groceries (like Bali, Indonesia).
We prefer to book places with kitchens so we can get our own groceries from local grocery stores, farmers markets, etc. and cook at home for some meals. We lived off of caprese sandwiches with ingredients from grocery stores in Paris and Spain.
It’s also nice to just have food on hand if you want to make lunch in the morning and take it with you on your adventure that day.
Sign up for Email Discounts
Sign up for newsletters from airlines, hotels, and booking sites ahead of your trip to get exclusive discounts sent to you.
You do have to give your email address, but you can always unsubscribe once you’ve booked your stays/flights/activities.
Get the Honey Extension
I’ve had Honey for over 5 years now and it has saved me so much money!! It’s just a browser extension that automatically tests out discount/promo codes for you.
It finds codes for me the majority of times I use it, and even when it doesn’t find any codes, it will usually give me 1-5% cash back (and sometimes up to 20%)!
You can redeem your Honey gold/cash back for gift cards or payment through PayPal. I’ve made over $200 on Honey just from points and cash back, not including the thousands in savings it’s gotten me with the discount codes.
This works on most sites — not just travel bookings! It’s also completely free!
Redeem Credit Card Rewards
I am not a financial advisor in any way, so I can only give credit card recommendations based on my personal experience.
I have a Capital One Venture credit card and earn thousands of dollars each year in miles just by using it on all my purchases. You earn unlimited rewards with this card and get 2x rewards on all purchases, and 5x rewards on hotels and rental cars booked through Capital One Travel.
I just ensure that I don’t spend more than I have in my checking account and pay the card off each month. In 2021 and 2022, I used $900 in rewards to pay for my Corfu trip and $600 in rewards for my Kauai trip! FREE MONEY.
You don’t have to just use the points for travel purchases either. You can spend them through Amazon or redeem them for cash in PayPal as well.
Plan Ahead
Sometimes I’ll get home from a trip and look at my credit card bill only to realize I spent way more than I thought I would spend. That’s where trip planning comes in!
If you’re on a budget, picking the activities, accommodation, transportation, etc. ahead of time—and planning a food budget as well—will help reduce those surprise costs.
You can download my free Travel Budget Tracker to help you effortlessly plan your costs ahead of time (without having to do any math yourself!).
Transportation
If you’re somewhere that requires transportation (other than walking) to get to places and it doesn’t have great public transportation, a rental car will probably save you money in the long run!
Places like the Greek and Hawaiian islands have so much to see, but you’ll likely pay much more to hail cabs or Uber than to rent a car.
For going between countries, we opted for trains and buses to save money during our month-long Europe trip.
Our Corfu rental car
Gare du Nord – Paris Train Station
