Traveling as a student can be difficult, especially financially, but that shouldn’t stand in the way of prioritizing new experiences.
This summer, I flew out from the Midwest and spent five days cruising the Bahamas and eating amazing food, all for under $700. It can be easy to cut costs on otherwise pricey trips if you strategize correctly. Trips like these normally cost upwards of $2,000, so I reduced the cost by over half.
So how did I make this possible? To answer that question, I’ve narrowed it down to four strategies you can use when planning for your next trip on a budget. When used correctly, these ideas can help significantly cut costs and get you the best deals during trip planning.
Comparing Prices on Sites Like Expedia
Using travel aid websites like Expedia can be helpful to compare pricing of tickets from many different brands all in the same place.
When booking our cruise, we checked Expedia daily to see which cruise lines and ships had the best deals. Being able to see all our options in one place instead of bouncing between websites made finding the best budget-friendly adventure much easier, and less of a hassle.
We were able to compare many different cruise lines, like MSC, Norwegian, Royal Caribbean and Carnival with ease, seeing how similar options lined up with each other and differed pricewise between brands. Now, I would 1000% recommend booking direct to make the most secure travel plans, but the comparison these travel sites provide between competing brands is where the benefit of using them is. Reading an article from NerdWallet, a personal finance company, solidified this idea to me: using travel aid websites allows you to see different pricing for the same route across separate websites without searching for each option individually.
Following this advice from NerdWallet allowed us to find the cheapest option and save hundreds, making this trip much more budget-friendly.
Flying Standby and Buying Cheap Flights
Flying anywhere can be extremely expensive, so if you’re traveling on a budget, it’s important to maximize what you’re getting for the lowest price.
For this trip, we were flying from Indianapolis to Miami, which wasn’t the cheapest route. To get around these high prices, we had to explore our options.
We compared the pricing differences between flying into Miami and flying into the Fort Lauderdale–Hollywood International Airport in Fort Lauderdale, Fla., weighing our options with added Ubers and layovers.
In the end, we flew into the FLL airport with a stop in Philadelphia on the way there and a stop in Charlotte, N.C. on the way home. Flying out of the way, with extra long layovers, made the price drop significantly, and doing things like getting on standby flights during our layovers allowed us to travel more efficiently while still paying low prices.
Playing the system and knowing how to maximize the benefits of your flights at a low price can save you a lot and can do wonders when you’re traveling cheaply.
Exploring On Your Own
Going into our Bahamas cruise, we knew we wanted to limit extra spending as much as possible. Excursions through our cruise line or run by tourism groups reached into the hundreds of dollars, and while those sounded amazing, that price wasn’t something we were willing to go in on.
Years of travel experience has taught me, though, that sightseeing and exploration can be just as fun on your own too. Doing research ahead of time about what you want to see or places you want to visit gives you enough knowledge to be familiar with what you’re going into without relying on someone you pay to share it with you.
Venturing away from touristy things and taking the road less traveled has its benefits and can significantly reduce costs when you stay away from the high price tags of excursions and bus tours.
Being open to exploring on your own can cut costs significantly, especially if you were like us in the Bahamas – passing up pricey tours for just a simple relaxing day at the beach.
Staying Flexible
Staying flexible has to be the most important step to making your travel arrangements budget-friendly by far. This can mean being flexible on what destination you’ll be visiting or being comfortable with not having concrete plans until the day they’re taking place.
When planning this trip, I wasn’t only comparing prices of cruises to the Bahamas – I was looking at many destinations such as Bermuda and Mexico. International travel becomes a lot more accessible when you open more doors and don’t fixate on one specific destination or experience. Travel prices to different areas fluctuate regularly and being open to exploring what places are cheaper at a given time gives you more leeway to find good deals on things like airfare.
You have to be flexible when it comes to timing too. While planning ahead and having all your arrangements prepared in advance can be very beneficial and reliable, it doesn’t guarantee you the best prices. Watching price maps and being willing to hop onto last-minute deals can give you great opportunities. Many airlines and cruise lines drop their pricing the week of departure, which doesn’t give you much time to think through decisions, but can get you the same experiences for a fraction of the price.
Flexibility opens a lot of doors, and if you’re looking to travel for less, it can take you a long way.
Final Thoughts
While travel might seem out of reach price-wise, it doesn’t have to be. Following these tips and being aware of your budget when planning can help you travel without breaking the bank.
Happy travels!