Travel Tips: Saving Money on Your Next Adventure

Travel Money-Saving Tips: Flights, Hotels, Trains, Credit Cards & Shoulder Season Hacks

Brittany and Josh share financial travel tips they’ve learned, from being flexible with dates using Google Flights and tracking price alerts to searching coupon codes and booking directly with hotels and car rental companies for lower rates and better perks. They recommend using local train apps/websites instead of third-party platforms for up-to-date schedules and easier rebooking, and using Airbnb as a search tool before checking if the same stay is cheaper on other sites. They suggest saving money by eating street food, using public transportation and walking, and traveling in shoulder/off-seasons or staying in nearby towns (e.g., Augsburg vs. Munich, Utrecht vs. Amsterdam, Mandello del Lario vs. Bellagio). They discuss benefits of travel credit cards (miles, insurance, free checked bags, lounge passes), filing airline customer care complaints for compensation, checking if souvenirs like alcohol are similarly priced at home, saving luggage space by buying toiletries locally, and reducing phone costs by toggling Verizon plans instead of paying daily international fees.

00:00 Welcome and Money Goals

01:23 Flexible Dates and Google Flights

03:33 Coupons and Book Direct

06:38 Trains and Local Apps

08:26 Airbnb Fee Workarounds

09:22 Food and Getting Around

10:49 Travel Cards and Miles

14:00 Lounge Perks and Club Passes

16:20 Complaints and Delay Payouts

18:55 Souvenirs and Packing Space

21:37 Toiletries On Arrival

22:10 Pack Your Own Skincare

22:51 Borrow Their Luggage

23:26 Cheaper Phone Data

26:14 Shoulder Season Wins

27:19 Off Season Ireland

30:29 Stay Outside Hotspots

33:35 Lake Como On Budget

34:54 Choose Your Travel Style

38:42 Flexible Flight Planning

39:31 Travel While You Can

40:35 Wrap Up And Follow

@WSMHtravels

Transcript

brit 0:11

Hello, and welcome to the We Should Move Here Travels podcast. My name is Brittany.

josh 0:16

I'm Josh.

brit 0:17

And we are your hosts. Today, we are gonna be talking about some financial tips and tricks that we've learned along the way throughout all of our travels.

josh 0:27

Yeah. A lot of things that we've learned, probably a lot of things that seasoned travelers or people who have traveled more than once probably know already, but maybe newbies out there need to hear some tips that we know and, of course, like you said, some things that maybe we picked up that people don't know.

brit 0:44

Yeah. I wish we knew all of these things as we were traveling before.

josh 0:50

Absolutely.

brit 0:51

Because I think we would've saved a lot of money.

josh 0:54

Would've saved a lot of money. A lot of headaches.

brit 0:58

Yeah

josh 0:58

brain cells. I don't know. Would've saved a lot of stuff.

brit 1:06

So let's get into it.

josh 1:08

Yeah, we can knock out some ones that are fairly well-known. Pretty much if you were to Google anything, like how to save money when traveling-

brit 1:17

Mm-hmm

josh 1:18

I think a lot of these first few would just come up right away.

brit 1:22

Yeah. Oh, absolutely.

josh 1:23

Like, this one that we have down is just be flexible with dates as much as you possibly can.

brit 1:30

Yeah. If you go onto Google Flights, you can look at the prices of dates. if you're flexible, you can find pretty decent flights.

josh 1:41

Mm-hmm.

brit 1:41

it's maybe not reasonable for everybody to be flexible with their dates, but maybe you pick your dates and then you take time off, rather than taking time off and then picking your dates. Now, if you have an employer that maybe doesn't always approve your PTO, totally get it that you can't be flexible with dates.

josh 2:01

Mm-hmm.

brit 2:02

Shame on them, though.

josh 2:04

Totally agree with that. Yeah. Absolutely. Um, both of us have worked in corporate jobs before, so maybe an idea is to look ahead. If you got a time period, like, "Hey, these two months I wanna go on a trip-" Mm-hmm and it's for a week, two weeks, ask your employer or wherever you work, say, "Hey, what's a good week or a good time period that I can be gone?" And get, like, a two or three-week span.

brit 2:31

Yeah.

josh 2:31

go look on Google Flights, like you said. Find the best week-long trip that you wanna do, or two-week-long trip in that three-week-long gap. That way you can get flights on, like, a Wednesday, flying out on a Wednesday and back on a Friday, where flights are typically very cheap or much less expensive on those days than typical.

brit 2:53

Yeah. I would just recommend getting to know Google Flights- Mm-hmm as much as you possibly can. Just play around in it, maybe dream about future vacations and just, play around with the dates. Not that you're actually gonna go, but eventually you might see a price where you do go,

josh 3:11

so. Yeah. Absolutely. We love to do that. Yeah. I love to do that. Me too. Every couple days I go on there, man, I'm like, "If we went this time of year-" what's a really inexpensive destination go to?"

brit 3:23

Thailand.

josh 3:24

Yeah. Is that what it is today?

brit 3:26

I don't know. Isn't it hot over there right now?

josh 3:29

Uh, yeah, it's probably pretty hot. Not the hottest, but it's pretty hot, I'm sure.

brit 3:32

Oh, okay.

josh 3:33

a classic one that probably all online shoppers know is just searching the internet for coupon codes.

brit 3:39

Mm-hmm.

josh 3:39

Going to websites of travel, hotels, or booking sites that you have used before or like to use, subscribe to their emails, maybe subscribe to their texts.

brit 3:51

Yes. I feel like more than once, we have had an instance where on the hotel website, it actually is much cheaper than any other website. So you have to actually look at their website too.

josh 4:09

I think, one of our biggest things that we've learned in the last half year, is we were always really Travelocity, Booking.com, looking at those.

brit 4:19

Yeah.

josh 4:20

And the more you go back to them, they kinda keep on giving you deals. And you're like, "What's with this?" And then if you go to the hotel one, usually they say, like, "Call us or book direct, we'll give you the best deal, breakfast included, late checkout- Mm-hmm um, pick your room." Where sometimes Travelocity and Booking.com, you have to pay a premium price for those things.

brit 4:42

Mm-hmm.

josh 4:42

also, a- again, usually with those sites, you can quickly sign up for, like, a text subscription to get updates, and they'll give you 5, 10% off of your next booking.

brit 4:54

Yeah.

josh 4:55

Mm-hmm.

brit 4:55

You can also do that on Google Flights. Mm. You can track the flight. Yeah. So if you have a, I almost missed this, if you have a destination that you're really wanting to get to but you're, like, waiting for a good price, once a price gets down to a certain point, they'll, like, notify you. So you can set that up too.

josh 5:15

Definitely helpful for those people who have very flexible schedules. Mm-hmm. All of a sudden you get a price check. "Oh, next week you can fly to wherever for this much."

brit 5:23

Then you're off to The Bahamas.

josh 5:25

Jet off to The Bahamas, sure.

brit 5:27

I wanna go to The Bahamas.

josh 5:29

That would be fun.

brit 5:30

We should go to The Bahamas.

josh 5:32

You should set a Google notification for it on Flights.

brit 5:35

Okay.

josh 5:37

yeah, booking directly through the websites, looking for those, coupon codes or discounts. that applies for hotels, that applies for car rentals. Car rentals was huge for our Ireland trip- Mm-hmm 'cause I was booking out way ahead of time for the car. Well, not way ahead of time, but a couple months, because the closer you get, the more expensive the car gets. And I was looking on Travelocity and Booking, and even through United where we were booking the flight through, 'cause they have a car rental discount to book through them. However, then I went directly to Eurocar or Europe Car, whatever site it was, it was half the price.

brit 6:18

Yeah.

josh 6:19

And then you book directly through them. You give them all the information. It was so easy to get there. Just get the car and go.

brit 6:28

Mm-hmm. Yeah, that was super easy. I was a little nervous for it once we landed in Ireland. I don't know why, but it was a really easy process-

josh 6:36

Mm-hmm

brit 6:37

picking it up.

josh 6:38

Another one that we realized mainly for our long Europe trip, last September. If you listen to any of our episodes, we were in Europe for 31 days and used trains the entire time. there are plenty of apps or booking sites out there where you can book trains Just like through one app. I don't know the name of it 'cause we didn't end up using it.

brit 7:04

Mm-hmm.

josh 7:04

Because there are so many, like, fine print items when you go through those apps. It's harder when the timetables change for those trains for them to switch you. If you miss a train, like it's your own fault, they definitely don't help you with rebooking. There's always a fee, like added on top of the normal train ticket because it's a third party.

brit 7:29

Mm-hmm.

josh 7:29

And we just went through, even though it was different per country and different for regionals, we went through the local app or Google and found out where it was right then and went to the website, because we missed a few just by being late and changing trains. And when you book directly through them, most of the time they're like, "Oh, we'll just get you onto the next one."

brit 7:51

Yeah, definitely do your research, per the country that you're going to. it is interesting because each country does have a different app. All of them that we used have been super easy.

josh 8:04

Mm-hmm.

brit 8:05

And they do have the most, up-to-date timetables as well, which is super helpful-

josh 8:12

Yeah

brit 8:13

when you have travel anxiety and you're, just trying to make sure that you're on the right train, it will really help you.

josh 8:20

Mm-hmm.

brit 8:21

So research what app to download for trains- per country.

josh 8:26

Another place where it's easier to find stays, but then you should look- through the internet to see if they have a different booking site would be Airbnb.

brit 8:35

Yes.

josh 8:35

It's great to search for, but typically again, Airbnb adds on booking fees or maybe the rental place adds on a cleaning fee through Airbnb to offset costs.

brit 8:48

Mm-hmm.

josh 8:48

We've done this a few times where we look, we found it on Airbnb, and then we use the address and we search on Google, just search on the internet, and then they've listed a couple other sites, including their own booking site- Mm-hmm where then it is hundreds of dollars cheaper

brit 9:05

Mm-hmm

josh 9:06

Yeah.

brit 9:06

with all of the things that we just talked about and that we've learned in the past year, I think that we saved probably, like, a good couple hundred dollars at least.

josh 9:16

Oh, for sure. Yeah. With everything we've listed, we've probably saved, between $500 and $1,000 I'm sure.

brit 9:22

So also along those lines, not every meal has to be super fancy. In fact, I think that some of the best meals that we have had have not been super fancy. Mm. Like, we've eaten some street food that is some of the best street food I've ever had. So eat some street food. I will say being in Japan, they had the best street food markets-

josh 9:49

Mm-hmm

brit 9:50

to date.

josh 9:51

Mm.

brit 9:51

It was so good. We went on some food tours there that were incredible. But if we went on our own instead of the food tour, we would've saved money.

josh 10:01

Mm-hmm.

brit 10:02

For sure.

josh 10:02

Yeah.

brit 10:03

We wouldn't have gotten the whole experience of everything, but go to the markets.

josh 10:07

Go to the markets.

brit 10:08

Mm-hmm

josh 10:09

Last thing, just don't be afraid of the public transportation in another country, don't be afraid of walking if you have the ability to get to some place. You know, you're gonna find some hole-in-the-wall places or just a new spot that you wouldn't have th- thought of because you decided to walk instead of taking an Uber.

brit 10:28

That is so true. The amount of times that we have found, like, a cool spot because we walked to the destination-

josh 10:35

Mm-hmm

brit 10:36

loved it. Yeah.

josh 10:37

That's how we find the best street art, I think. We always find the good street art when we're walking someplace.

brit 10:42

Yeah. We do. Mm-hmm. Lots of side quests.

josh 10:45

Yeah, lots of side quests. I love that.

brit 10:49

so now we're getting into the middle tier of things that maybe not everybody knows, but definitely not difficult to figure out.

josh 10:58

Yeah.

brit 10:58

So.

josh 10:59

Again, things that you would easily find in a Google search or how to save money on traveling search, but n- you might have to dig just a little bit more.

brit 11:09

Yeah.

josh 11:10

And I just wanna preface all this. We're not sponsored by anyone. We don't get money for saying any of this.

brit 11:18

No, we do not. But these are things that we have learned.

josh 11:22

Yes, we have learned. I think the one thing that has saved us more than anything else is by having our Chase United Airlines credit card.

brit 11:36

Yes. Well, you have a United Airlines. I have an American Airlines. Mm-hmm. Which we haven't taken full advantage of the American Airlines card yet.

josh 11:46

Yeah.

brit 11:46

Um, but I do see us doing that in the future. I think I, I looked the other day and I had like 60,000 miles on it.

josh 11:53

Mm-hmm.

brit 11:53

So pretty decent.

josh 11:54

Take advantage of it at some point.

brit 11:56

Yeah. put everything, literally everything on that card. Mm-hmm. If you have the ability to pay off what you spent the month prior every single month, make sure you do that, but put literally everything on it.

josh 12:15

Yeah. Absolutely.

brit 12:15

Cause you will build up miles, and it will save you money.

josh 12:19

I love that you point out that you pay it off at the end of each month or, you know, once your statement comes out 'cause I don't want us to be put, put everything on the credit card and then people don't pay off their credit cards.

brit 12:30

No. Pay off your credit cards. We are not trying to get everybody in debt here. But I mean, if you're gonna be spending the money anyways, then you might as well get some miles out of it.

josh 12:43

And there are so many other benefits to putting purchases, not only travel, but other ways on a good travel card. I really love the Ch- Chase United card that we have because it has so many like purchase protections on some like electronic things that you buy. Mm-hmm. Of course it has cancellation and delay insurance, baggage insurance, rental car insurance, all the good kind of insurances that you need when you travel a lot.

brit 13:13

Yeah.

josh 13:14

Also with the United card, we get each of us a free checked bag when I book with the card, which is huge because typically a checked bag is 50 bucks each way.

brit 13:25

Yeah.

josh 13:25

even if we just have a roller carry on and we don't wanna be rolling it through the airport, we check it 'cause it's free.

brit 13:34

It's free, and it's easier to do it that way than all we have is a backpack.

josh 13:38

Mm-hmm. We get priority boarding, which- don't care about, but we get it. every year we get travel cash, which basically offsets the yearly fee of, I don't know, 50, 100 bucks that it is. Mm-hmm. They give us, like, 100 bucks in travel cash, so as long as we take a flight during the year, which we do several, then it's paid off that way. we get yearly United Club passes, which we have learned to love immensely.

brit 14:07

That is so nice. And even if you don't have the free option, it definitely isn't saving you money to go to the United Club. It probably is offset by the expense of if you have, like, a long delay and you're gonna be buying food in the airport anyways, it's quite expensive. But in the United Club, you get free wine, free beer. You get, free food, all of it, for the expense of getting in the United Club. So I think it's, like, $50 to get in.

josh 14:43

Yeah, 50 to $60, I think, to get in. Yep.

brit 14:46

Totally worth it if you have a long layover.

josh 14:48

Yeah. When we just did our Portugal trip, I think I had ended up having, like, a five-hour layover, and we had already used our club passes for the year, but I paid the 50 bucks or 60 bucks to get in because that's, I mean, six hours, that's two meals. in an airport that's 20 bucks easy.

brit 15:07

Yeah, and if you're gonna be drinking in the airport, going to the United Club is the move-

josh 15:13

Yeah

brit 15:13

cause it's free.

josh 15:14

Plus they got illy coffee, which we like, so I got-

brit 15:17

Yeah

josh 15:18

I had a bunch of coffee- Good

brit 15:19

coffee

josh 15:20

and a couple of

brit 15:20

beers. The food is okay. I mean, it's, I haven't had a really bad thing from the United Club, but I also am pretty picky on what I choose.

josh 15:29

Mm-hmm. if you're comparing getting fast food in the airport to it, it's comparable. Yeah. And you're probably gonna, if, if you got a four-plus-hour layover, it's nice to get in there. Some of them have showers. Some of the United Clubs that we've been to have had showers, so if you're like, "Oh, this has been a long day, I'm gross, I just want to shower," you can go in there, lock up your bags, take a shower.

brit 15:50

Which is really nice. We haven't done that, but really nice option.

josh 15:55

Yeah, absolutely.

brit 15:56

One of the ones that we went in, I think it was LAX, on our layover, uh, from New Zealand. Mm-hmm. Yeah, we were in LAX for a while, and they had, like, a patio where you could literally- Yeah step outside and breathe fresh air.

josh 16:14

Yep.

brit 16:14

And there were, like, fireplaces and stuff out there. It was so cool.

josh 16:18

Yeah, it was really nice.

brit 16:19

Anyways.

josh 16:20

Right along with an airline credit card, something that has gotten us so much money if you have a flight delay or if you have a bad customer experience with an airline, I think we've done this both for American and United.

brit 16:40

Mm-hmm.

josh 16:40

They have customer care complaint- Filing options through the app or the website, where you can go on there. It has, like, a drop-down, like, customer care complaint, for what reason, and ours have typically been flight delays, 'cause we just do the cheapest options, which are usually short layover. So if there's a small delay, we usually miss a plane.

brit 17:00

Or cancellations.

josh 17:01

Or cancellation.

brit 17:02

Yeah.

josh 17:03

So we go and, and we file for that after we've completed our trip, and most of the time we are given between, like, 50 and 150 bucks for each of us for our delays or the cancellation.

brit 17:15

Mm-hmm.

josh 17:16

I have also, with the customer care complaint and the insurance, filed a complaint regards to delayed baggage. We came home from our long trip from Scotland a couple years ago, whatever happened, I think our flights got changed. My bag ended up in Germany, and we were back home in Appleton 'cause I had checked it. Within two hours of being home, filed the complaint. and they immediately gave me a stipend-

brit 17:46

Yeah

josh 17:46

to spend on new clothes, and it was significant. It was $1,000, and I was only missing my bag for, I think, 72 hours.

brit 17:55

Mm-hmm.

josh 17:55

Maybe 96 hours. It was three or four days I was missing the bag, but it was a significant amount of money,

brit 18:01

Yeah. I mean, you were kind of taking a risk on that one 'cause you went out and bought, like, new clothes, and then you had to send the receipt in- Mm-hmm uh, while your clothes were missing. Mm-hmm. So you were kind of taking a risk on that one, but

josh 18:14

it

brit 18:14

worked. I,

josh 18:14

it, it totally worked. I got new clothes out of it. Just missed it for a few days. Of course, if it was clothes that you needed, like, the next day for a wedding or something, obviously you would rather have your wedding clothes right away instead of having to order or purchase new clothes then. But it worked out. Freak

brit 18:32

out.

josh 18:32

Nothing was going on except I had school and work the next couple days. Yeah. And I think my shoes were, my shoes were definitely in there, so I had to buy a new pair of shoes as well. that's how that worked out. But it, it definitely a benefit to have the card, to file the complaint, to just let them know, like, "Hey, this didn't work out the way it said it was gonna work out." And then they typically give you a little something, which is nice. another thing that we have learned, because we like to bring souvenirs back from places

brit 19:02

We love to bring souvenirs back, but like functional souvenirs

josh 19:07

And functional souvenirs like alcohol- is one of our favorites. Nice bottles of wine or bottles of whiskey from, like, Ireland.

brit 19:19

Well, I think one of our favorite things to do is, like, sharing a bottle that we tasted in the country or-

josh 19:25

Correct

brit 19:26

that we learned about, and then sharing it with our family.

josh 19:30

Mm-hmm.

brit 19:30

We love doing that- We do and teaching our family about, like, what we learned and-

josh 19:35

Mm-hmm

brit 19:35

how, how to drink it and stuff like that, so.

josh 19:37

Yeah. One thing that we have found out, sometimes it is much cheaper directly from the source buying it there and bringing it home. But there have been times, like on our month-long trip in Europe, we have during that trip looked up on Total Wine or some of our local stores here back home and found that bottle of wine or that bottle of whiskey, bottle of beer. We have found them there for close to the same price.

brit 20:05

Yeah.

josh 20:06

So instead of having to lug it around for a week or asking them to ship it, which is usually a significant price, we just look it up, see that it's back home, and then just go get it when we get back.

brit 20:17

Yeah. If you live by a Total Wine, that place has a lot of different wines and whiskeys and just different kinds of alcohol from all over the world.

josh 20:28

Mm-hmm.

brit 20:29

So always look it up on there.

josh 20:31

Yeah. Absolutely This is a newer one from just this last trip. I decided that I wasn't gonna bring any of my, like, typical body wash or body soap or shampoo. I wasn't gonna bring any of that. I was gonna save my space in my luggage because I knew we were gonna bring, be bringing home a bottle of wine. I was like, "I'm just gonna buy stuff there."

brit 20:57

Mm-hmm.

josh 20:58

Save the space. Got there, found fantastic bars of soap and bar shampoo in Portugal-

brit 21:07

Mm-hmm

josh 21:08

made out of local ingredients with sea salt. It's amazing. I took a card from the place that I got it from, and if I can, I'm gonna order some back here once I get through what I bought.

brit 21:18

Yeah. That definitely isn't saving money.

josh 21:22

It saves space, though.

brit 21:24

It does. It saves space. But I guess, I mean, if you are okay with using the provided shampoo and body wash- Mm-hmm every single place we have ever stayed provides that.

josh 21:36

Just about, yeah. I'm trying to think. There might be, like, some Airbnb or something that didn't have something, but even those pretty much always have, like-

brit 21:44

Always

josh 21:45

you can use whatever is in here- Yeah as far as shampoo and soap. But yeah, either way, you can leave stuff at home and just buy once you get there.

brit 21:54

Yeah. And it usually is significantly cheaper depending on the country that you're going to, obviously. Mm-hmm. but in Portugal, I think the bar shampoo that you got was, like, two bucks.

josh 22:04

Yeah.

brit 22:05

So very reasonable, and very good quality stuff as well.

josh 22:09

Right.

brit 22:10

I will say, I don't necessarily do this one. I bring my own stuff. I got sensitive skin. I like my skincare.

josh 22:17

Mm-hmm.

brit 22:17

I like my toothpaste, and my shampoo and conditioner obviously. I got a thick head of locks, so,

josh 22:26

Those thick locks.

brit 22:28

I do. I got some thick locks. I need to take care of them the w- only way I know how, so I'm gonna bring my own stuff.

josh 22:35

Yes, definitely not something for everyone, but if you're okay with trying something new, you wanna be fully immersed in what everyone locally is doing or-

brit 22:45

Yeah

josh 22:45

you're okay with trying something like I am, good option. It worked out.

brit 22:50

It did. If you wanna talk about saving space though, you can always put that extra stuff in your partner's luggage, so- That's what I do.

josh 23:01

Step one, have a partner or a buddy you're traveling with that packs light. Step two, put your excess package of stuff inside their bag. Money saved. That's, that's just good math. Space

brit 23:15

saved.

josh 23:15

Space saved.

brit 23:17

Not money, but space saved.

josh 23:20

Oh, gosh.

brit 23:20

At least in my luggage, so.

josh 23:22

That is too funny. this one, I don't know why it took me so long to do this cause it was a big expense in all of our trips prior to this year. I was just doing the daily $10 travel pass through my carrier, which is Verizon. So every time we would go on a trip, I wouldn't change my monthly plan. I wouldn't sign up for everything. But it was $10 a day, and it was unlimited data, text, calls, whatever, international. And I was like, "That's a good deal." And then I saw a commercial for Holafly, and I was like, "Oh, just download this app on your phone, $3 a day or special deal for 10, 20, 30 days," whatever. I was like, "Oh, that's great." "Man, I never thought about that." I wonder if I can just do a special plan through Verizon for a month." And then I looked. Sure enough, you can just toggle every month between different plans- on Verizon and save an insane amount of money. Like, my Verizon bill usually, I think is, like, through my family, 40 some dollars on the ultimate unlimited, and that's anywhere in the world. And then when I'm home, I can toggle it down to $20 a month. So it's only 20 or $30 more a month for however long we are gonna be, which our trips are typically two to three w- weeks long in another country.

brit 24:44

Yeah.

josh 24:45

It's only 30 bucks more instead of $10 a day- Oh my God which would be like 200, or Holafly, which is still a better deal than $10 a day, but why wouldn't you just, You know what? I'm gonna pay 30 bucks more through mine, and then I get to keep my phone number, all my contacts," which with Holafly you have to... With, with the app you get, like, a different international number for the time you're using it, and it's a little weird.

brit 25:11

Mm-hmm. Wait, but why didn't I know this?

josh 25:15

I don't know.

brit 25:15

I can't believe you were paying $10 a day.

josh 25:19

I did it before this past year.

brit 25:22

Okay.

josh 25:22

So for Sweden-

brit 25:25

Mm

josh 25:25

I did Holafly. Everything- Oh,

brit 25:27

yeah

josh 25:28

and, and then-

brit 25:28

I remember that.

josh 25:29

Yep. And then as soon as we started the podcast, I just did the Verizon switch.

brit 25:34

Okay.

josh 25:35

But before that, I was just doing $10 a day.

brit 25:39

So, like, when we went to Japan, Scotland, Canada.

josh 25:43

I was paying 200 some dollars. But it's definitely been offset now because we've been gone so much this past year.

brit 25:51

Yeah.

josh 25:52

Pretty much leveled out in my mind.

brit 25:54

Sure. Okay. That's crazy.

josh 25:58

Yeah. So the tip is, depending on your carrier, I know for sure Verizon, just toggle between the ultimate unlimited and your normal plan.

brit 26:10

Mm.

josh 26:10

If they allow you, they should. They allow me to do it, next We got some tips for people who are, I think, total type B. I don't know if you, you look at this list and you're like, "Eh, these are not what we planned." But I think they're really good tips. I think these are what have led to some of the best stays that we have had.

brit 26:34

I agree. I also think that these are things that are less talked about. They might be well-known, but I don't think people talk about them a whole lot.

josh 26:43

Mm-hmm.

brit 26:43

So...

josh 26:44

Right off the bat, when you're traveling, find the off-season or the shoulder season, as they call it, for the destination you're going to.

brit 26:52

Yeah. I think shoulder season is really great.

josh 26:56

Mm-hmm.

brit 26:56

I love being in a shoulder season, because it's not very touristy yet.

josh 27:02

Mm.

brit 27:02

but there are a lot of things that you wanna do starting to open, or maybe there's, like, a couple tourists here and there. it feels like you get to explore the town in a different light- Mm than maybe during tourist season.

josh 27:18

Yeah. This was most evident for us, I think, when we went to Ireland.

brit 27:23

Yeah, in Dingle.

josh 27:24

Yep, in February, so it was before St. Patrick's Day, which is basically how they described it was the start of tourist season for them. As soon as St. Patrick Day hits, then it's tourist season all the way until September, October.

brit 27:40

Mm-hmm. Yeah. But we loved it. We had so much fun. Mm-hmm. I mean, the weather was still pretty good for hikes.

josh 27:48

Oh, it was perfect for

brit 27:49

hikes. It was, it was so great. I loved it. And then, like we would walk into places and it wouldn't be overly crowded, but I just keep coming back to, like with this conversation, I keep coming back to Dingle-

josh 28:01

Mm-hmm

brit 28:02

because a lot of the places were closed, I will say. we didn't get to experience like all of the restaurants that we wanted to. However, the places that we did get to go are local places- Mm-hmm that are built and run by locals. Mm-hmm.

josh 28:21

And that's not at all to say that the ones that were closed weren't owned or operated or consumed by locals. They just weren't during the other half of the year when tourists aren't mainly there.

brit 28:32

Right.

josh 28:33

Yeah.

brit 28:34

Like the fish and chips that we had at, where was it? EJ Kings or something like that.

josh 28:39

Yep.

brit 28:39

Oh my gosh. That was so delicious. That was like the best fish and chips I've ever had.

josh 28:45

Mm-hmm.

brit 28:45

And it was so local. Mm.

josh 28:48

It also got us into Staying in places that were more local because-

brit 28:55

Mm-hmm

josh 28:55

big chain hotels were closed.

brit 28:57

Mm-hmm.

josh 28:58

Because their management's like, "Yeah, we're not gonna stay open when no one comes to these places out of tourist season," so they were closed. So we had to stay in some small local B&Bs-

brit 29:10

Mm-hmm

josh 29:10

and it was great.

brit 29:11

Yeah. I mean, some of the best places I think we've ever stayed.

josh 29:16

Absolutely.

brit 29:17

And for a fraction of the price during tourist season.

josh 29:22

Yep. I was just gonna say, flights were really cheap going in the s- shoulder season. The B&Bs, hotels were cheap. There were less people, like we said, when we were in the small towns.

brit 29:35

Mm-hmm.

josh 29:35

Lot less people. We didn't have to fight to get into a restaurant or a bar or anything like that. Car rental, very inexpensive. It just, it worked out very well.

brit 29:46

Yeah. It really did. I appreciated that trip so much, and I think it did open my eyes a little bit to going more shoulder season-

josh 29:57

Mm-hmm

brit 29:57

to places, so I think it's worth it.

josh 30:00

Absolutely.

brit 30:01

It is definitely worth it. You're not gonna get to experience everything maybe that you want to, but you'll get to experience so much more than you thought. At least that was our experience. Our experience.

josh 30:13

So. Which is just all of this, anyone could try any of these and be like, Well, my Verizon plan sucks and it doesn't let me do that," or, "I tried Google Flights and it gave me wrong..." These are just our experiences with everything. It's what, what's worked for us, and we suggest that you try it if you can. Another one that just piggybacks right off of what you were saying with Dingle, also with our long Europe trip we did this quite a bit, try staying in a smaller town just a s- short train ride, short walk, short car ride away from maybe the main tourist destination that you're looking forward to.

brit 30:50

Mm-hmm. Yeah. There are also some perks to this of being, like, more in a local space-

josh 30:57

Mm-hmm

brit 30:58

and getting immersed in the cultural experience a little bit more.

josh 31:02

Example of this for me is when we went to Germany this last fall. We were in Germany during Oktoberfest.

brit 31:12

Mm-hmm.

josh 31:13

But we did not stay in Munich, which is where the main Oktoberfest event happens. We stayed in Augsburg, which was only a 20, 30-minute train ride away Because it was significantly cheaper. There were not huge tourist crowds there like there was in Munich when we went to Oktoberfest, and we just got a little bit more of an extended cultural experience outside of the Oktoberfest bubble.

brit 31:39

Yeah.

josh 31:40

We still thoroughly enjoyed Munich and Oktoberfest while we were there.

brit 31:44

We did. It was very touristy- It was and it was so busy and crowded everywhere, so I'm so glad that we stayed in Augsburg.

josh 31:54

Mm-hmm. and because it was a train ride away, we got to overconsume at Oktoberfest and not have to worry about driving back or anything.

brit 32:02

Yeah.

josh 32:03

Another one on our trip last fall was Utrecht we stayed in versus Amsterdam.

brit 32:10

Yeah. Utrecht was amazing.

josh 32:14

Mm-hmm.

brit 32:14

Mm-hmm. I loved it there. And they had, if you ever go, they have a vegan food tour.

josh 32:21

Mm-hmm.

brit 32:21

And it was incredible. Go listen to our Utrecht episode.

josh 32:25

Yep.

brit 32:25

It was great.

josh 32:26

Yep.

brit 32:26

We loved it.

josh 32:27

We- we've done that in so many places now. I've tried to make it a point of finding a small place adjacent to a main tourist destination.

brit 32:39

Well, smaller. I wouldn't say that Utrecht is a small town.

josh 32:42

Yeah, smaller. But

brit 32:43

it's smaller than Amsterdam.

josh 32:44

If someone who's never been to Germany before and doesn't know much about Germany, it's like where sh- do you wanna go? Probably say Munich, Berlin.

brit 32:53

Mm-hmm.

josh 32:54

Something like that. They're not gonna say Augsburg. But if you look into it on a map, it's still a significant size just to, I think, the west of Munich,

brit 33:02

Yeah. And there are late night trains in all of these places, so if you wanna go have a fun night out, you can always get back to the train, and I think they run until, like, midnight most places, so.

josh 33:16

Yeah, or at least it did during Oktoberfest season, so.

brit 33:19

Well, Oktoberfest and also we had a late night in Amsterdam and we got back-

josh 33:23

Yep, late night in Amsterdam to Utrecht. Late night in Japan.

brit 33:27

Yep. Go listen to that episode. Yeah. That's a fun story.

josh 33:32

You know, just listen to all the episodes.

brit 33:34

Yeah.

josh 33:35

I think this really started, though, I just remembered this, the first place that we did this unintentionally, it was just because I was trying to save money, was when we went to Italy. Still one of my favorite stays of all time.

brit 33:50

Mm-hmm.

josh 33:50

Mandello del Lario. It's because we were looking at Lake Como, and if you look at Lake Como, one of the most iconic names of a city, a place to stay in on Lake Como is Bellagio.

brit 34:02

Mm-hmm.

josh 34:03

Insanely expensive to stay there, especially during, like, high tourist season. But just, around the edge of the lake, Mandello del Lario

brit 34:11

And it's gorgeous.

josh 34:13

Stunning.

brit 34:14

we were the only tourists there, and everybody was speaking Italian

josh 34:19

Mm-hmm.

brit 34:19

But it was really cool to be able to stay somewhere so local and so, out of our typical environment, with no other tourists around. It was so interesting.

josh 34:34

It was so amazing. It felt so authentic.

brit 34:38

It did.

josh 34:38

We were connected by the train, so we could easily get to Bellagio to go visit, and anywhere else along Lake Como. Again, very inexpensive. That, that's my number one.

brit 34:49

Yeah. I think that's one of mine as well, one of my top ones, yeah.

josh 34:54

For sure I think the, the last one that isn't so much of a direct financial tip or financial advice is just choose your own path as far as travel. I have seen some great deals come up for full tours of Ireland or for full tours of New Zealand, where you go with a group and they have, like, the flights, the hotels, buses between, the tours, meals, everything planned for you. I've seen a few of those and been like, "Dang, that is about the same or even a little bit cheaper than what we paid for ours."

brit 35:35

Yeah.

josh 35:36

And, like, none of the headache, 'cause someone else has it all set for you.

brit 35:40

That is pretty cool.

josh 35:42

Mm-hmm.

brit 35:42

And they probably get better deals because it's all a group.

josh 35:45

Cause it's booked as a group.

brit 35:47

Yeah.

josh 35:47

Yep.

brit 35:48

Oh, that's cool. Why haven't we done that? We should try that.

josh 35:52

We, we might have to try it at some point, but you know, like, we're such-

brit 35:57

Yeah, we're very independent travelers. Mm-hmm. We like to do our own thing, and if somebody tells us that we need to be somewhere when we want to be sleeping-

josh 36:07

Mm-hmm

brit 36:07

that's a no-go for us. Yeah. So yeah, maybe let's not do that.

josh 36:12

It, it's kind of like people who are cruise people- Yeah who like to go on cruises, which we've talked about and we're like, at some point, maybe we gotta do one.

brit 36:23

I don't know.

josh 36:24

Yeah, but at the same time, you think about it too much and you're like- It just doesn't seem like my vibe

brit 36:30

It is not my vibe, I will say. Cruises are not my vibe. They actually really scare me, all of the, like, sickness that breaks out, and germs and all of that. And then just, like, being stranded. If there's, like, an outbreak of something, you're stranded on a boat with a bunch of people that you don't know in the middle of an ocean.

josh 36:50

But the one cruise that we would have to do to go to a place.

brit 36:54

Yeah, go to Antarctica.

josh 36:57

Gotta do a cruise.

brit 36:58

I, I think I would do two cruises. I would do the one to Antarctica, because it's the only way you can get there, and we want to go there s- at some point in our lives. And I would also do a Alaskan cruise, mainly because an Alaskan cruise, you get to go to so many different spots-

josh 37:21

Mm-hmm

brit 37:21

that you can't otherwise.

josh 37:23

Hmm.

brit 37:24

So.

josh 37:26

Might have to look into that, I'm not sure. You lost me.

brit 37:30

Well, an Alaskan cruise, like, you can do day cruises where you go to diff- different, like, glaciers and stuff like that.

josh 37:37

Right.

brit 37:38

But there are glaciers way the fuck out there-

josh 37:42

Hmm

brit 37:42

that you get to see on an Alaskan cruise. And also, it just sounds like a good time. Like, it being really cold, there's hot tubs outside. If it snows and you're, like, in a boat, in the hot tub, and it just- Right sounds like a good time to me.

josh 38:01

And you see, that's the whole point of this point that I was trying to make. You just gotta, you gotta choose your path on it.

brit 38:08

Yeah.

josh 38:08

You know? You don't... And that includes me. I shouldn't be so strict and being like, "I'm never doing a cruise," because you know what? You kinda convinced me a little bit. Yeah. Like, maybe doing Alaskan cruise might be fun.

brit 38:19

It would be fun.

josh 38:20

And some of them will definitely s- we've seen deals on cruises And some of them are, like insanely inexpensive. Again, maybe during more off-season or shoulder season they even get less expensive. I mean, just, just try something different. Do what you're comfortable with.

brit 38:38

Yeah. And

josh 38:39

go to a place, you know, maybe you didn't think of going. And I don't know if that is one that we had mentioned, I just thought of it, is maybe if you're like, "Oh man, I gotta go to this place. I gotta go to this country," whatever, and you're looking at booking it, maybe on Google Flights. I love using Google Flights, and the map of the world, and it gives you all the, like different dots of- Yeah prices where to go. I like doing that, and then all of a sudden country here, say it's London, I wanna go to the UK so bad, and I look at the price and it says to London from Appleton is $1,100. But then I look south of it, and for some reason at the same time getting to Denmark is only $400. How about I just choose a different time to go to London, and this time I go to Denmark?

brit 39:28

Yeah.

josh 39:28

Just change up your plans. Be flexible on those plans as well.

brit 39:31

I think the moral of what you're saying is that even though this is, this podcast episode is about saving money- you're not gonna die with what's in your bank account. go out there, explore the world, and see what your kind of vibe is. Just go out and do something.

josh 39:51

Go

brit 39:52

out and do something. If you have the accessibility to do that. If you have money banking up in your savings account, maybe you need it for something. But also, like I said, you're not gonna die with it.

josh 40:04

Yeah.

brit 40:04

It's not that deep.

josh 40:06

Mm-hmm.

brit 40:06

But what is that deep is traveling the world.

josh 40:09

I think you look at most people who have lived long lives and they got some money left over at retirement, but they don't have the energy to travel. They're like, "I wish I would've traveled then," when they had accessibility too. Not everyone does, but like Anthony Bourdain said, "Just get out of the town you grew up in." Even if you just go to the town next to you, that's traveling.

brit 40:30

Yeah. Yeah, even if you just go somewhere new in your state.

josh 40:34

Yeah.

brit 40:34

That is totally traveling. Don't forget to like, subscribe and follow on TikTok, Instagram, and YouTube @WSMHtravels

josh 40:41

You can listen to our podcast on Apple, Spotify, and YouTube. YouTube is where we have our video record version, including pictures and videos from our trips. Please continue to leave your comments and send us messages on what you liked from our trips and suggestions for future trips. We really appreciate it.

brit 41:02

Thank you so much for listening. Until next time.