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Looking for cheap travel tips?! You’ve come to the right place!
The world is opening back up and boy is it exciting. After the chaos that 2020 brought, things are still out of balance, making certain things oddly expensive. Thankfully, travel doesn’t have to be!
23 Cheap Travel Tips For Your 2024 Travels!
1. Go to Countries with No Covid19 Travel Restrictions and Tests
Yes, there are countries that still have Covid19 travel restrictions. In fact, Japan only recently reopened its borders to tourism, and some countries are still completely closed.
Doublecheck Covid restrictions by departure country here.
2. Make Coffee at Your Place
We go all out with coffee in the van. Jay weighs out the coffee, and has a specific technique for our pour-over down to a t. With that said, when we travel, we love to have instant coffee with a spoonful of sugar. It just truly hits the spot and is super easy to make.
We’ve also done our fair share of traveling with this small pour-over coffee maker, and the Aeropress, a great option for traveling.
3. Look for Happy Hour / Discount Drinks at Local Corner Stores
Oh my lanta!! This is the hack of the century. I get there is a time to get drinks when you’re out. However, more often than not drinks, whether alcoholic or not, are a buzz kill to a budget.
Check the local stores for discounted drinks and special deals. When we were in Mexico recently, we got three large beers for less than the price of one beer at a restaurant just by shopping at the local convenience store.
This is also a great way to try drinks you wouldn’t normally try! Just get whatever drink is on offer and you’ll soon try all the local favorites!
4. Eat Breakfast In
Breakfast might be the most overpriced meal ever. Think about it, all you really need for breakfast is something as simple as fruit and cereal or oatmeal. Or shoot, even eggs and potatoes!
Making these things at your accommodation, or buying single-serving yogurt with fresh fruit every morning is way, WAY, cheaper than having breakfast out!
5. Eat Where the Locals Eat (no English menus)
English menus are typically a big fat red flag to overpriced, subpar food. Before you get hangry, as you’re walking around a city or town, pay attention to where and when the locals are eating out! This will give you not only insight into their normal eating patterns, but also typically is a good way to tell if a place is good or not.
Some places like Argentina, have a nap hour (or three) in the middle of the day, causing all the local restaurants to close during “normal American dining hours”. Likewise, in Europe, you’ll find many restaurants are closed for a bit before opening up for a late dinner.
And as you may have guessed, some restaurants remain open, only for tourists, making the price higher and food quality diminish.
6. Make Your Own “Tours”
The cost of tours these days is just unreal. And while there is certainly a time and a place to join a tour, in most cases you can do a DIY tour instead. For example, we recently did a DIY Taco Tour in Mexico instead of paying over $50 USD per person for a taco tour.
Oftentimes, you can look at what big tour companies are offering and then plan your own transportation and “tour” on your own!
Alternatively, look into free walking tours. A lot of major cities offer free tours (for tips usually) of the area. It’s a great way to meet other people and get your groundings for the place you’re in.
7. Walk Where You Can
Walking is a fantastic way to really experience the places you travel! And to be honest, I reckon you’ll be surprised at how “walkable” a lot of places actually are!
More often than not, we find hidden gems, like these hidden gems in London, and the best restaurants when we walk places instead of jumping on public transportation!
8. Take Local Transportation When You Can’t Walk
Walking isn’t always practical, but don’t fret, jumping on an expensive cab ride isn’t your only other option. Taking the train, underground, or bus are all great options in big cities. Check out the app Rome2Rio to figure out how to get from point A to point B with public transportation!
9. Uber Instead of Taxi
Gone are the days of haggling with taxi drivers and having to pay cash for a ride. Instead, things like Uber and Lyft offer a stress-free way of getting a “taxi”.
Simply download the Uber or Lyft app, and set up an account. Then, book a “cab” online, pay for it through the app, and have a set amount before you even step foot into your ride. Uber and Lyft are also great options for people traveling solo, as you can check reviews of drivers and be sure to choose a driver you feel safe with.
There’s also a new cab service on the market, In-Drive. It’s meant to be the cheapest and fastest option, and loads of people were using it in Puerto Vallarta in 2024.
10. Shop Around Before Buying
If you forgot something when packing or just planned on getting it at your destination, shop around before actually purchasing anything. When looking for sunscreen, we found prices for the exact same bottles fluctuated by nearly five dollars throughout the different shops!
Buying souvenirs? Shop around for them too! And don’t be afraid to get souvenirs from grocery stores! We found a great selection of Utah National Parks stuff at a Walmart in Utah for prices way cheaper than in and close to the parks.
We strongly suggest when looking for things to buy, go away from the touristy areas! Those are all areas that are overpriced and, oftentimes, are not authentic goods.
11. Likewise, Shop Around Before Exchanging Money
I kid you not, the most recent time we exchanged money the difference in conversion rates was through the roof… especially when exchanging a large sum of money!
Don’t just go to the first place you see. Shop around and find the cheapest — and definitely avoid exchanging money at the airport!
I’ll also add here, people often say it’s cheaper to just pull money from an ATM instead of bringing currency to exchange. That’s not always the case, and when we were recently in Mexico, we found the ATM rates and fees were way more than just exchanging the cash we had.
12. Use a Travel Credit Card + Pay in Local Currency
Travel credit cards are a fantastic way to save on fees while abroad! And the best part is that not only are you saving fees when you pay with a travel credit card like this, but you also rack in the point to earn free things!
Find the best travel credit card for you here. We have the Chase Sapphire Preferred Card and have loved all the perks and rewards programs it offers for a cheap annual fee! A huge perk is the travel insurance offered on trips booked with the credit card, saving your travel budget in the insurance department!
When given the option to pay in local currency or your home currency, always pay in local currency. When you choose to pay in your home currency, you get a bad exchange rate, and as you may guess, there are fees for the currency conversion too.
13. Travel Carry-on Only
We are huge advocates for traveling carry-on only. In fact, we have a whole post about how to travel with just a backpack here. It’s way cheaper to not fly with luggage on major airlines in most cases, and when flying on smaller airlines while say hopping around Europe or Thailand, traveling with just a carry-on will literally save you hundreds of dollars.
Don’t worry, if you’re afraid you can’t do carry-on only because of your toiletries… we’ve got you covered. Learn all about liquid rules and how to get around them here.
14. Pack a Reusable Water Bottle
Whether you’re in a place where the water is unsafe to drink, or you’re in Europe where you have to pay for water when you go out.. packing along a reusable water bottle like this is the way to go.
You’re saving your budget while also saving the planet! That’s a win-win!
15. Look for Long Stays with Discounted Rates
Possibly the best cheap travel tip for 2023, is making your trip longer and booking extended stays. Obviously, we know that you can’t always get all the time off work you need or escape to travel for weeks on end. However, even just booking a full week at some places offers a much better deal than paying night by night.
In fact, sometimes it’s literally cheaper to book an entire week or month and not even stay the whole time. Hello, major budget travel hack!
If traveling to a place like Mexico, look into month-long rentals. We found out month-long rental prices are around $350-$400 a month (in the off-season). Way cheaper than booking places week by week.
16. Be Flexible with Your Days of Travel
A lot of people say that traveling in the middle of the week is when you’ll find the best flights. And while that may be true in some cases, finding the best flights in our opinion is really about having flexible travel dates.
With Momondo, our go-to flight searching tool, we look at a price map for a month at a time, then book tickets on the cheapest days that month. It’s super simple and easily saves us a couple hundred dollars per ticket.
17. Look for Meal Deals
Menu del Dia. Menu of the day. £3 meal deals. There are so many meal deals offered literally all over the globe. And finding them and eating the menu of the day is a great way to eat as the locals do.
What’s “Menu of the Day,” you ask?! It’s a simple and cheap meal that varies by day and by restaurant. They often include a soup, main dish, and dessert or drink. And are always fantastic prices! This was our absolute favorite way to eat in South America, and it’s been a fun thing to find in places like Poland, Scotland, and Mexico too!
READ MORE | Authenitic Food Around the World You Need to Try
18. Eat, Sleep, and Shop Away from Tourists Zones
Tourist zones are easy to spot with all the trinkets and goodies spilling out of doorways and hanging from stalls. When traveling cheap, steer clear of the tourist zone for drinks, eating, shopping, and even sleeping. You’ll be surprised how cheap things get just a street or two away from the main tourist regions.
19. Look into House Sitting International
Housesitting is a fantastic way to help out a fellow traveler! Trusted Housesitters is a membership-based service where you literally go and housesit for people in exchange for a free stay. What I love about housesitting is the sense of really connecting with a place and understanding what it’s like to live somewhere.
Now, with that said, there are some housesits where you have responsibilities like walking a dog for 30 minutes three times a day. That doesn’t allow for much exploring for the housesitter. So, be sure to read the responsibilities of the housesitter before committing to a housesit!
20. Eat the Local Food Instead of What You’re Used To
Grocery shopping is a great way to save money while traveling in most cases. However, if you go to a store and want to buy all your favorites from back home, you’ll likely be spending more money than if you had just gone out in the first place.
Shop at local stores and snag local flavors, dairy products, and produce to save the big bucks!
21. Use WiFi or A Local SIM Card Instead Of Your Home Plan
Honestly, when we travel abroad, we like to just connect to the outside world only when we have wifi. Instead of being tempted to post things all the time and/or rely on our phones for everything, we like to just have the internet when we have WiFi.
However, that’s not the case for everyone, and at times it can be super inconvenient. In those cases, it’s best to snag a local SIM card from a convenience store or local phone company.
22. Consider Camping or Campervan Rentals
Depending on where you’re traveling, booking a campervan rental may be the best way to save some money. Campervans are a great option for places like Iceland and Scotland, where you’ll likely be renting a car anyways.
Instead of renting a car and paying for accommodation each night, get a campervan and kill two birds with one stone!
Adventures made simple – Rent an RV from RVshare if traveling in the United States
Traveling in Europe or the United Kingdom? Check out the biggest Campervan rental platform here.
23. Book Your Flights With Momondo
We mentioned it above, but it’s worth having its own space. Booking flights with Momondo is how we always find cheap deals on flights. We always cross-reference with other websites, and time and time again, Momondo blows it out of the water with the cheapest flight options. Search for your flight below and be ready to save!
Search Flights at momondo.com and Save Up to 35%
More Cheap Travel Tips
LEARN MORE | Carry On Toiletry List | regulations + recommended products
GET COMFY | In Flight Comfort Kit
STAY ON BUDGET | How We Stick to A Travel Budget
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