I want to talk about a common myth a lot of people believe about traveling: traveling has to be expensive. 

Ricky and I are very fortunate, blessed, lucky (whatever you call it), to be able to travel, but we do not consider ourselves "rich". If we believed that traveling has to be expensive, we would stay home. However, we discovered there are countless ways to travel without breaking the bank and I want to share some of those tips with you.

Airfare:

Usually, the most expensive part of a trip is airfare. Depending on where you are going, one ticket can cost you hundreds if not thousands of dollars. But what if I told you that Ricky and I only paid $120 for our tickets to Vietnam that should have cost us $1450? 

That’s right, by using points earned on a credit card we saved over a thousand dollars! 

There are many credit cards out there that have a point system that can be redeemed for a multitude of things, including airfare. 

I will not pretend to know all the ends and outs of travel hacking with credit cards, because I don’t. But after spending just a little bit of time doing research, I found a credit card that we qualified for that we could earn points on. 

Most credit cards also come with a sign-up bonus. Usually to qualify for the sign-up bonus, you have to spend a certain dollar amount within the first few months, so if you know that you are going to be making a big purchase soon and can hit a sign-up bonus, do some research and see what card you qualify for! 

Being business owners, we chose the Chase Business Preferred Ink card. With this card, we get double points for travel related purchases as well as basic travel insurance. If you are a business owner and are interested in applying for this card, we would appreciate your support by using our affiliate link: https://www.referyourchasecard.com/21a/HNMBXNCYYE

Disclaimer: If you are not good with credit cards or do not have the funds to immediately pay it back, then we would not recommend a credit card. But don’t worry, we have other tips to share that don’t require credit! 

Accommodation:

Another costly aspect of traveling is accommodation. The price of accommodation is something that can vary widely depending on the location. A decent hotel in New York is probably going to cost 5x more than a decent hotel in Vietnam, unfortunately. However, in this day and age it is so easy to find accommodations that aren’t hotels. In fact, during our 4 month trip we rarely stayed in hotels.

We used Airbnb for almost all of our stays and spent roughly $18-$25 a night on average throughout our whole trip. However, instead of opting for entire condos and hotel rooms, we choose to stay in guesthouses and home-stays.

If you don’t know what a homestay is, it is basically getting a private room in someones home who is actively living there. Yes, it was a little weird at first, but we ended up loving it because each time we got to connect with locals on a more personal level and we met some wonderful people.

If you haven’t signed up for Airbnb, we would appreciate your support by using our referral link: https://www.airbnb.com/c/rickyg798?currency=USD

By signing up through our link, you’ll receive $40 off your first booking!

Transportation: 

One thing we quickly learned was that the cost of taking taxi’s can add up fast. In fact, on our second day in Vietnam we got completely scammed by a taxi who charged us way more than he should have (about $20 extra), but with the language barrier, new currency, and overall newness of being in a foreign country, we didn’t realize it until it was too late. Right after that we decided to look for alternative methods of transportation. 

One method that seemed to cost lower than a taxi is using Uber or Grab. Uber was not only cheaper, but it saved the headache of a taxi driver going in circles since the Uber driver automatically has your destination on their GPS. 

For longer distance travels, we opted for local buses and trains that saved us a bunch money versus flying or using a tour operator. 

In a city like Bangkok, using the BTS system not only saved us money, but time too (the traffic there is crazy). If I remember correctly, it was only around $1-$2 per person to get across the city versus the $20-$30 taxi ride. 

Another option that is cost efficient and fun (albeit a little scary at times) is taking tuk-tuks, rickshaws, tricycles, etc. These aren’t available everywhere, but if you are traveling to a location that has these then you definitely have to ride in one! 

Food:

Dining out can get costly really fast, especially for big groups/families. However, there are ways to eat great food on the cheap. Depending on where you are traveling to, street food is usually an inexpensive option and almost always delicious. In Vietnam, you can get a fresh banh mi or a hot bowl of pho for just a couple dollars from streets vendors. When eating street food, we tend to look for the stalls that have a few people lined up and are visibly clean. 

Another way to cut costs on food is to plan ahead and find restaurants in the area that have happy hour deals. We did this in New Orleans a couple years ago and had the BEST pizza ever at Domenica. Their pizzas are usually $14 each, but during happy hour they are half off along with wine and cocktails! 

Of course, preparing your own food back in your room is always another option to cut costs on eating out so you can splurge more on activities and souvenirs. It is actually very fun and interesting to visit grocery stores around the world to buy local snacks and drinks to try. 

Bargaining: 

When it comes to souvenir shopping, there is almost always room to bargain (this applies to markets, not so much big stores). We rarely paid the original asking price on souvenir items unless they were already reasonable. However, most souvenirs are priced way above what they are worth, and the shop owners know that you know that. Many times you can get a shop owner to go down on a price just by telling them the price is too high. 

Don’t be afraid to ask what you think is a fair price. Another tip is if you buy a few things from the same shop, versus just one item, the seller is more likely to give you a deal. 

These are just a few tips that we use while traveling to save money. 

Let us know in the comments if you find these tips helpful or if you have a tip of your own!

Written by Katelin Brooke