51. Our 13 Tips for Affordable Travel

Tired of expensive travel?

In this episode, we dive into 13 fun and effective ways we have made travel more affordable while starting our online business.

This episode is not a travel hacking guide. Instead, it discusses practical and sustainable methods we have used to save money while traveling. These tips are handy for those who are just starting out their online business and have limited funds.

We believe that travel doesn't have to break the bank, and we're passionate about sharing our insights with all of you.

Remember, travel doesn't have to be a luxury reserved for the wealthy. With the right mindset and practical strategies, anyone can explore the world affordably. So, join us on this journey of affordable travel, and let's make our wanderlust dreams a reality!

Please tune in to discover our tried and tested strategies for saving money while traveling.

You'll learn:

• How to save money on flights and accommodations 
• Our tried and true methods for affordable travel while in country
• Travel doesn't have to be expensive!

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Transcript

1:43

All right, welcome back to another episode of the profitable nomad couple podcast. This episode is going to be really fun because we're going to be diving into 13 things that we have done to make travel more affordable as we've been starting out our business. Yeah, we've been kind of laying on heavy the mindset podcast. So this is going to be a little break from that. Some travel tips and we have 13. I know 13 is traditionally an unlucky number, but in our family between me and Monica, 13 is actually a very lucky number. So this is a very lucky travel episode for all you guys listening. I was born on Friday the 13th and 13 has always been my lucky number. So we're just going to run with that on this episode. Yeah. So just a little bit of a heads up. We want to tell you guys what this episode is not. This episode is not going to be a travel hacking episode. We're not going to be talking about credit card points and finding the exact best time of day and talking about transferring hotel rewards and last minute bargains, all that stuff. It's very like extreme coupony to us. And I mean, I feel like that might have its time and place. But for this episode today, what Monica and I want to share are just fun generalized ways that we have actually saved money on our trip. So these are all personal things that we have done and we want to share them with you. Yeah. And in our mind, these are things that make travel more sustainable, especially when you're just starting out your online business and maybe don't have as much cash to play with. So these are really good ways that we have not only like save money on traveling, but save money like in general while we have been traveling. So we're going to start by tackling two of the biggest expenses for everybody's trip. Your plane tickets and your housing. So a little bit of a bonus in this first one, because we actually kind of have three tips all grouped into this one tip. So how to save money on airfare. First of all, you can travel to a different airport if it's close enough to your destination city. So for example, when Monica and I were coming home from Vietnam, we could have flown into Sacramento, which was the closest airport to where we were wanting to go. Francisco and then pay for an Uber to drive us to Sacramento. And we saved, I don't remember exactly, but it was around $1,500 by flying into a different airport. So if you have an airport that's close enough to where you want to go, and then you can just take public transportation or even a private ride there, there's a good chance that you might be able to save quite a big chunk of money there. Yeah, we've definitely saved a lot of money flying in and out of Vegas as well. So that's a really good tip. Another one, as a digital nomad, you have the coolest ability to travel to places during the off seasons. So this means plane tickets will be cheaper, housing will be cheaper, places will be less crowded, and it's really enjoyable. The one thing I would caution though is to make sure you know why it's the off season, for like monsoon season in some places or like really smoky seasons. So do make sure you know why it's the off season so you can prepare for that. But that is a really good tip for getting cheap flights. A lot of times it's just the off season because people are working or in school during that time so they can't. So that's definitely a big perk to being a digital nomad and working online. Our third tip within airfare is to let the good deals be your guide. So what you could do, again, you have to be able to be flexible with your timeline and your dates and even your destination. But instead of saying I'm going to travel to XYZ, you know, this place during this time, be a little bit flexible and depending on what the deals are, you could have a really cheap flight to somewhere that you never even thought of during a time you might not have been planning to travel. But if you can make it work, then you can save a lot of money, have an incredible experience going to somewhere new. Yeah, and it's kind of fun too. It kind of feels like the old like throwing a dart at a map, you know, and just kind of going there, but a little bit more digitalized. But yeah, that can be really fun. Okay, tip number two, let's talk about housing now. So we have found some really fun hacks to reduce the cost of our housing while we have been traveling. And the first one is house sitting. And then I guess kind of the second part of that is rental property management. So house sitting is actually becoming really popular. There's several websites like trusted house sitters.com. There's one other one. Do you remember what it's called? That was the one I knew off the top of my head. Well, drop the other one in the show notes for you as well. But you can essentially upload your profile onto these platforms and then people can go, okay, like I'm looking for someone to watch my house while I'm on vacation. And you can find like beautiful houses to rent or to house sit. And they're in really cool places for the most part. It seems like it's most popular in the US, Canada, Australia, and a little bit of Europe. So you are a little bit more limited as to where you can go. But in some cases, you actually can get paid for being there managing the property as well. So Austin and I right now currently, while we are recording this podcast, we are managing a cabin just outside of Yellowstone. So we actually get free room and utilities here. And then we get paid a little bit on top of that to do some extra work, some housekeeping to clean the beds and stuff. And then we just get to meet all the guests that come in and out and hang out. Yesterday, we had a big bonfire with a bunch of different people from all walks of life. And so it's been really fun. And it's been a really good way for us to lower the cost of our travels while we have been building up our business. So another one inside of this housing topic is to book stays for longer than you're going to be staying in order to get a monthly discount. So when Monique and I went to Southeast Asia, I'm pretty sure we talked about this on the podcast already. But we were staying in one of the countries for I think 27 days or something like that. But if you book it for the full 30, 31 days of the month, like yeah, technically, you're going to be paying for four or five days that you're not staying there. But because you booked it for a full month, you get the monthly discount, which in our case was like a 48% discount. So we saved hundreds of dollars that way. So if you're going to be, you know, you got to look at the crunch, the numbers a tad, but see if it's worth it to bump it up to a full month to get those savings. Yeah, definitely. All right. Number three, do not pay for baggage fees. Pack light. You need less than you think you do always. Austin and I just travel with 50 liter backpacks and we just use it as our carry on. And we have all of our podcast equipment. We have all of our clothes. We have our computers. We have everything. Everything fits in there and more. You would be surprised at how much stuff we can fit in there. And then it's easier to avoid baggage fees. You don't have to wait to pick up your luggage. And you have less of a chance of losing your stuff through the airlines. So you could save your money there on having to replace the things that you lose. Yeah. Yeah, we have only so just a cautionary tale. I guess we've gone through one airport that didn't let us take on our backpacks as a carry on. It was a really bad experience at the airport altogether. And it was just kind of an uncommon occurrence, but I would watch out for that as well. All right. Tip number four, consider volunteering. If you want to travel somewhere, but maybe you're in the middle of school or you don't have the funds to travel there right now, you can go work as a volunteer. And oftentimes they will subsidize or help pay for part of that trip. So when Monica and I were dating and then when we were engaged, actually going into our marriage years, too, we were Spanish interpreters for a medical team that went down to Guatemala for about 10 days at a time. And so because we were interpreters, they actually paid for all of our ground costs there. So they paid for food and housing and transportation. We've gone about five times all of the times we've had to pay for our own airfare. That was our only expense. Actually, that's not true because... Except for one, I was going to say. Okay. Sorry. Sorry. I got excited. Jump in the gun here, Monica. I got excited. Yeah. There was one trip where actually we found stellar deals on plane tickets. It was like 300 each. And so the organization actually decided to cover that cost for us as well. Well, yeah, that was the year I was doing my internship. So I put together a full sewing program for them and they paid for us to go down there and help implement it and things. So find a cause that you're passionate about or find some work that you want to do in another country. Find an organization that does work in that country and that thing that you're passionate about. And then there's a good chance you might be able to find some good deals where they help cover some costs for you. Yeah, definitely. Okay. Tip number five, transportation while on location. So a really common mode of transportation is taxis and Ubers, but that happens to be the most expensive way to get around. So I would instead try to take buses, trains, subways, bike, or even walk to different places. Austin and I, I think our favorite mode of transportation is probably being on a bike or walking. And the reason for that is while we are walking, number one, it's good exercise. And number two, we get to see different parts of the city and different aspects of the place that we're in that you don't see when you're going so fast in a car. So we found some really cool spots. We've made some really cool friends at some super delicious restaurants just by walking instead of getting an Uber. And it saves us a bunch of money. Yeah. I think typically what we do is when we first touch down in a country, we'll get an Uber or something to go directly to our place because we've got our bags and things like that. And so we don't want to, I mean, we don't know the area yet. We have a bunch of stuff to carry and we're okay paying that little extra cost. But then for the rest of our time there, yeah, you know, take public transportation and get to know the city a little bit more intimately that way. All right. Travel tip number six for affordable traveling, travel to cheaper countries. This one is a little bit more obvious, I think. I think a lot of people already know this one. Southeast Asia, the whole region, South America, those are going to be much cheaper places to travel to, to live in the housing, the food, the activities. All that's going to be much cheaper than places like Europe, for example. Or the US. Or the US. So depending on your budget and if you're just looking for, you know, a little a week to a month to two months kind of stay and you just want somewhere cheap and somewhere new, consider a cheaper country. Yep. All right. Number seven, free walking tours. So these can either be done in person or online. You can find lots of really good free walking tours. This is a great way to really quickly get to know some fun places in the in the city that you're in, and it's also a good way to meet people. Now, if you do do an in-person walking tour, there is probably the expectation that you are leaving a tip, but it is still just a really fun way to get a local perspective on on some fun things to check out while you are staying there. So a couple of really cool things that we've done, like some of my favorite experiences with this is you can find some apps or websites and you can find walking tours through this app. So, for example, when we were in Angkor Wat in Cambodia, we found an app that had it was like a geo located app so it could tell where you were. And then based on where you were, it had different spots with pre-recording or sorry, pre-recorded like audio messages. And so when you walk by a certain temple or a certain wall, you can click it and it'll give you a little two to six minute audio clip about what you're looking at. And so it's really cool to you basically get a more personalized experience. But it's it's very, very cheap. A lot of these apps are free. There's some higher quality ones if you want to pay a dollar or two, which is still really not that bad. We did a couple of those in Hawaii, which was super, super fun. So, yeah, definitely, you know, try and find some apps or some websites that have some information like that on free walking tours. All right. Number eight, eat street food. So, first of all, the street food is normally way better than what you'll find in restaurants. And it is significantly cheaper. I would caution you, though, to just be smart about it. You know, if it looks really gross, it looks really dirty, maybe like passing, go find another street vendor so that you don't end up with travelers gut. But definitely we have some of the most amazing things that we have ever eaten have been kind of more the local scene, either street vendors or we ask for really specific recommendations from locals living in the area to get off the beaten path out of the touristy kind of destinations. And we've had some really good food. Yeah, luckily, both Bonnick and I have been blessed with iron bellies, iron guts. We really don't get sick from like food and things like that very often. So we you know, you got to know your own body and know if you're going to be a little bit more sensitive to that kind of thing. But man, one of the best empanadas I've ever had, there's this lady in Thailand who had just a little car on the side of the street. We stopped one time because we were walking home from some activity, hungry. And I could do not for like three weeks. I was just I was so anxious to get back, but we couldn't find it like we didn't know what day she was there, what time she was there. We finally found her another time. But no kidding, they were the best empanadas I've ever had. And so, yeah, like a lot of times these cheaper foods are way better than what you can find in a more expensive restaurant. Yeah, definitely, definitely, especially when it's more kind of the local food, because you can always find, I don't know, Western food or like things that you're more used to eating, but those will definitely be more expensive than the local flavors. All right. Tip number nine. Wander and get lost. This kind of goes almost hand in hand with the free walking tours and a little bit similar to just walk around the city instead of paying for public transportation. But more than just walking, like actually try and get lost. Like put your phone away, put your GPS away for a little bit. And just if you see a street, you want to go down, go down that street. And then if you see something else that catches your eye, go down there. And, you know, if you laid it down the road, you can pull out your phone to find your way back home. But just explore and wander a little bit, get lost. And and I guarantee if you do that, you're going to find unexpected things that you're going to love. You're going to find free or discounted things or just unexpected activities. You're going to meet unexpected people. It's just a really fun activity to just wander for a little bit. Yeah. And again, I would caution you just to be smart. I mean, if you're a solo traveler or if you're, I don't know, even just wandering down the road and you see an alleyway that's kind of dark, sketchy people there, maybe don't go down that one. Just be smart. Trust your gut. Like keep your eyes open. But it is definitely a really, really fun way to to explore. I mean, that's something that we have always actively tried to do is to get lost. And it's been quite enjoyable and sometimes harder than you think to actually get lost. But it's a good time, especially if you have a really good sense of direction, you're going to have to try a lot harder to get lost. Yeah. So Austin has to try harder. I'm lost like the second we turned on the street. So. All right. Number 10 DIY your excursions. So sometimes there are lots of like tour kind of things you can do that sounds super fun. But you can also do the same things by yourself for quite a bit cheaper. So something I also like Austin and I like to do is get on things like, I don't know, like TripAdvisor or Kayak or sometimes even Airbnb has some like experience recommendations now. And we just kind of scroll through and see just kind of what the touristy type options are. And then we will piece together our own excursions instead of paying for the more expensive excursions. This also helps the local economy a little bit more because we try to pay directly to the locals to take us to these places. So and it and it ends up being quite a bit cheaper than some of these bigger organizations. Yeah, that's one that we love that one. That's we've done that in Mexico. We've done that in Vietnam. We've done that in several places. So fun thing. Tip number 11 cook food at home. So in most countries, it is going to be much more expensive to eat food out at a restaurant or even out on the street than it would be to just cook food at home. So depending on the length of your stay, go out to the grocery store, get some produce, get some staples like rice or pasta, things like that, bring it home and then do your breakfast or your dinners at home. You're going to save a lot of money and hopefully you're good cook. If not, you can take some cooking glasses. I mean, you could also like look online and look up recipes of the local foods there. And like, obviously you're not going to be great at it because it's your first time cooking this food, but it could be kind of fun to try your own hand at cooking some of the meals that you see served in the restaurants. Actually, if this is an option that you really want to do and you really want to work on like cooking at home more, but you're not quite sure about the ingredients. One thing that I would recommend would be taking a cooking class or seeing if you can find somebody to teach you how to cook with the local ingredients. A lot of times these classes involve like tours on the local markets and they'll show you like, oh, this is about what it should cost. This is what this food is. This is how you use it. And it really just kind of sets you up for success there. That's a really good point. The cooking class that we did, they actually email you an ebook with all the foods that you cooked in the class and then the recipes and the instructions on how to make it. So if you take a cooking class and earlier in your trip, then you have that and then you know exactly what ingredients to get. You've had experience going to the markets and then you have directions on how to cook it at home. Yep. Alrighty. Um, number 12 ATM charges. First of all, plan on them. You are always going to have ATM withdrawal fees since a lot of places you'll be traveling to will not accept card. It's always good to have some cash on hand. So first of all, plan ahead. Know that as part of your budget, normally they're between, I don't know, four and six dollars or something like that. It's really not bad, but it's just important to know that that's coming up and that fee doesn't lessen with the like the amount of cash that you take out. So for Austin and I, we try to withdraw cash as few times as possible. So it's kind of a game sometimes to try to figure out how much cash we're going to need when we are staying in places for longer than a month. Normally we will track our expenses really like down to the penny the first month. And so that we know how much to anticipate pulling out the next month. And then we only have to pull out cash about once a month to avoid accumulating a bunch of ATM fees. Yeah. And the more experiences, like the more places you travel to, the more experiences you have with knowing how much things are going to cost, you're going to get better at estimating how much to take out. Um, I can pretty much guarantee you're never going to get it spot on. Um, but like Monica said, it is kind of a game sometimes, like you want to pull out enough so that you cover all your expenses, but you don't want to have to have leftover cash in a currency you're never going to use again, or at least not for a while. So it is kind of a game. It's kind of fun trying, you know, guess what it's going to be. 21. That's what the gambling game is called. Right. Blackjack. Yeah. Blackjack. I don't gamble very much as you could probably tell. Um, yeah. Okay. Um, another thing though, just really quick on that same note, there are places that do take hard a lot of times and make sure you don't have international fees on your cards because those will bite you in the butt. Yeah. Those will rack up real, real quick. Yeah. Okay. Our last tip, tip number 13 is to barter and negotiate most places that we've been, um, outside of the U S, um, I think that was weird brain fart. Most places that we've been to, um, they don't have fixed prices on things. Like when you go to a local market, they're not going to have, um, set prices for what you're expected to pay. Um, and oftentimes they're going to start with a higher price because they can tell that you are not a local. So, uh, it's a skill to practice. You gotta get good at, um, knowing, you know, they're going to start high. You gotta start low, but you know, you don't want to start too low and then you kind of work your way to the middle. Um, I would say in most cases like that, unless you see a price tag posted somewhere, you can negotiate down to a lower price. Um, we, Monica and I have this philosophy where like, you don't want to be so stickler about it. Like you don't want to try and bargain, barter down and save 50 cents. You know, if you got to think about what this item is really worth to you and what you're willing to pay before you go and start bargaining, bargaining, cause you got to remember like there's people's lives on the other side of this bargaining. Like it's their livelihood to sell this thing. So be, be courteous, be respectful as you do it, but you don't always have to take the first price. Yeah. And don't anticipate getting local prices because you won't. And then you'll just be frustrated. So instead of trying to just get it, like just see how low you can get it, like really ask yourself, Hey, like, what is this actually worth to me? And that's the price you're going to try to get. Um, so yeah, so those are our 13 tips, things that we implement in our travels all the time that really help us save money. Um, we are huge believers that travel doesn't have to be as expensive as people think. I know for a lot of people that we talk to, that's one of the bigger, um, deterrents to traveling is, Oh, I don't have the money. I don't have the expenses for this trip. Um, there's so many ways to save money and to travel affordably. And so we hope that this episode gave you some insights. If you have some travel tips that make traveling more affordable to you that you've done that we have not mentioned, we would love for you to send us a message on Instagram. Let us know what it is so that we can practice it and then share it with more people. Yeah. All right, you guys, thanks for joining us for another episode. We will catch you next week.