Traveling Cheaper

So you may have gotten scholarships for your program and paid for your flight, but what about other excursions you will want to take while abroad? The cost of travel during free weekends and time off can quickly add up if you’re not careful. When you are only a short train, plane, or bus ride from another city on your bucket list, why wouldn’t you take advantage of it? There’s no need to miss out on weekend excursions due to finances as long as you budget for these trips and use the right resources to ensure you’re stretching your dollar as far as it will go. Here are some of my favorite resources for booking cheaper travel.

• Rome2Rio is an app/website that lets you plug in two different cities and it will tell you the approximate costs of various methods of transportation. Here is an example of what it would tell you for London, England to Paris, France.

• Where as the train might be the quickest way, flying might be more cost efficient.If you have more time, you could consider saving a great deal by taking a bus.When choosing, think about what you want to focus on more, do you want the maximum amount of time in the city?Do you want the cheapest option so you have more money to spend there?There is no right answer of course- only personal preference.

• Look into staying into hostels or Airbnb. Hostels are an excellent way to meet other travellers and save plenty. Hostelworld and Booking.com are my two personal favorite ways to search for them. Airbnb is a great resource also when trying to get a local experience since you stay in an extra room in someone’s house or apartment. You can also get credit when signing up from someone’s link and more when you get people to sign up through yours. Here is my link to save you $40 off your first booking.

• A great idea when you’re traveling with friends is to book different weekends on different accounts.If you book the first weekend using the sign up credit, then your friend can book the second using your code, and then you can book the third weekend using rewards from them! That’s three weekends in a row of discounted stays.

• Booking.com has referral rewards too!Using codes like mine gets you $15 back after your first stay. Unlike Airbnb which gives you credit for future reservations, Booking.com gives you money back.

• Try to find other sign-up discounts and rewards for various websites or places. Some restaurants will give you a free drink for writing them a review. I have gotten a $10 credit from Hostelworld for taking a survey in my email. Pinterest is a great resource to help find blogs and websites will more suggestions.

To find out more ways to make your extra trips cheaper, see what USF students did by reading these interviews.