A lot of people would love to travel more. See the world, new places, and explore different destinations. Although jetting off to a new place is exciting, you do have to do a few things in order to afford the vacation you desire.
Going on vacation is usually associated with being lavish and having a big spending splurge. Sitting by a fancy pool while drinking an uber expensive cocktail.
While you can go all out a vacation if you want, there are ways to make one affordable.
In a lot of travel writing, there is the recommendation to practice travel hacking. The practice of travel hacking usually involves signing up for credit cards, hitting a certain minimum spending requirement within the first few months, and then getting a bonus in the form of airline miles, hotel stays, or another type of reward points.
Travel hacking, while it can be good, has some downsides. Many of the sign-up bonuses require you to charge thousands of dollars to the credit card within a few months in order to get the bonus.
If you’re a person who has low monthly expenses or a tendency to overspend on things, then travel hacking might not be the right fit for you. Rest assured, there are other ways to afford a vacation.
When it comes to affording a vacation, it is all about prioritizing what matters most to you when it comes the vacation and what isn’t as important. Below are some ways to afford a vacation and go on the trip of your dreams.
1) Automate Your Savings
Having a dedicated savings account to save for your vacation can be a great thing to do. With the money sitting in an account separate from your regular checking and savings account, you’re less tempted to spend the money.
For me, having a dedicated vacation fund motivates me to save more. I like seeing the money grow in the account and since it’s at a different bank from my checking account, it’s out of sight and less likely to be spent on some quick impulse purchase.
There are a lot of different options when it comes to opening a savings account. However, not all savings accounts are equal. Some offer much higher interest rates than others, so it’s best to look around to see the best option for you.
A Capital One 360 savings account could be a good option. The account has a much higher interest rate than traditional bank savings accounts. Plus, if you open up a new account through the provided link, you get a $25 bonus.
2) Pick Up a Side Hustle
A side hustle isn’t just a traditional part-time job (though it can be). Unlike common part-time jobs where you work set hours for a set pay rate, a side hustle can be as few hours or as many hours as you want.
There are a host of different side hustles you can try out. The great thing is how much side hustles can vary, so they accommodate all different personalities, lifestyles, and skills.
Consider what an extra $100 or $200 per month could do for you to help fuel your savings and afford the vacation you want. You could do a few freelance writing articles per month, sell on eBay, or do some TaskRabbit gigs. The possibilities, and income potential, are endless.
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3) Utilize Financial Technology
Financial technology services, or FinTech for short, have been growing a lot in recent years. There are apps that help you budget, save your spare change, get cash back and more.
Consider all the areas of your personal finance you’re looking to optimize in order to making affording a vacation a priority. You could use a service like Tiller to help you budget, Qapital to round up your purchases and save your spare change, or a service like Ebates which let’s you earn cashback on purchases you’re probably already making.
4) Skip Traditional Hotel Rooms
There is this common assumption that whenever you go on vacation, hotels are the best or easiest or only option. This is so not the case. If you’re only using hotels while on vacation, then you’re missing out.
There are plenty of options outside of traditional hotel rooms that you could use as accommodation. The frugal route is to usually stay in hostels or do Couchsurfing. These can be good options if you don’t mind staying a dorm room and rooming with other people.
Hostel dorm rooms and Couchsurfing definitely aren’t the only low-cost options. Hostels usually offer private rooms as well, either with their own bathroom or a shared bathroom. These can be good for providing a low-cost option while still being able to have your own room.
If you have a love for animals, then sign up to do pet-sitting. With pet-sitting, you get usually get free accommodation in exchange for watching the owners pets while they are away. This usually gets you access to apartments and houses with kitchens, which means you can cook at home rather than eating out. Check out services like MindMyHouse or TrustedHouseSitters to get started.
My biggest favorite when booking accommodation for a vacation is to use Airbnb. What I like about Airbnb is the variety of options you can choose. There are shared rooms, private rooms, camper trailers, houseboats, and even full apartments and houses you can rent out.
When you set up a new account, you can get a $40 credit towards your first stay.
5) Watch For Deals
Get thrifty and look for deals for places you’re considering visiting. Sign up for airline watch lists and newsletters so you can be aware whenever any flash sales or deals happen.
Use sites like Skyscanner and Airfare Watchdog to compare flight prices across different airlines and dates of departure. Always search for flights in incognito or private browsing mode in order to see the lowest prices.
6) Cook Your Own Food
Food doesn’t have to be such a big expense when vacationing. Through a combination of cooking your own food and eating out at the right times, you can keep your food budget at a good level.
What I’ve started doing whenever I visit a place is to have accommodation with a kitchen so I’m able to cook some of my own meals, rather than constantly having to eat out. Airbnb has been a huge help with this.
I search for accommodation on Airbnb that includes access to a kitchen. This usually involves staying a full apartment or house or using a shared kitchen. When I do eat out, I seek out restaurants that aren’t super fancy and eat during lunchtime rather than dinner time since it’s usually slightly cheaper.
7) Visit Destinations Where Your Dollar Goes Further
There are certain places that are going to cost a lot no matter how much you budget or save. Look for destinations that aren’t as highly frequented by tourists.
Southeast Asian places like Thailand, Vietnam, Cambodia, and Malaysia are popular and inexpensive destinations. You can get accommodation for just a few bucks and eat out for just a few dollars.
If you’re super keen on visiting a certain place, then look at when the off-peak season is. Traveling in off-peak season usually means lower prices on accommodation and tourist activities.
This past spring, I went on a trip to Italy. The peak season for Europe is during the months of June to August. By traveling during the shoulder period in the spring, I was able to save a good amount on accommodation and ticket prices to places while I was there.
It’s all about strategizing and figuring out how to work it out to fit your schedule. If you can travel to a place during off-peak or shoulder season, then definitely consider do it.
How do you afford a vacation? What do you do to save for one?
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Oh yes traveling is amazaing but it can became a really expensive affaire so after my big holiday in Michigan in 2012 I spent most summer in town and doing some daytrips (these helps too for recharging batteries) now I’m planning some little hoidays during the year…this post is really helpful!!!
I look for travel deals all the time before I book my vacations. I’m on a few newsletters, so I get e-mails with deals sent to me every week. Most of the time it’s to places that I’m not interested in going to, though.
Having a kitchen is a great money saver. I’ll admit that we didn’t really consider this until we had kids. Sometimes it’s just easier to not have to go out to eat when you have little ones around!