Budget traveling – planning ahead saves $$$
Well, I still need to share some basics about our trip…like WHY we are doing it! Instead of waiting to get all those thoughts together, I figured I’d just start sharing answers to some of the questions I most commonly get. If you’ve been following my Instagram stories, you’ve seen a lot of my travel prep (most is saved as a highlight over there). I’ve been posting about booking places to stay and finding cheap tickets. There is A LOT about budgets and planning. A common question I am getting right now is related to why I am doing so much planning for our trip.
Honestly, it comes down to budget. If Chris and I were taking off for a few months just us or with a couple kids we wouldn’t do much planning at all. Traveling with 5 kids (4 of which are teenagers that eat a lot and don’t get any type of kid discounts) changes things – unless you have way more financial resources than we do. Traveling long term internationally as a large family on a TIGHT budget can be done, but it does require some planning. Key words there are “long term”, “large family”, and “tight budget”. I’m not planning a trip for a couple or one with endless resources.
Planning ahead can mean the difference of $50 a night to $200 easily. For instance, hotels are not an option for us. In most countries we would have to get 2-3 hotel rooms. In some places in Europe due to occupancy laws it would be near impossible for us to stay at a hotel as a family of 7. As result Airbnbs, hostels, or similar places are essential for us to be able to book cheaply and together. However, say there are 20 Airbnbs in one city and only 5 allow for 7 guests. In most cases only 1 of those 5 works for our budget…so we have to snag those deals in order to make this trip happen. If we wait until a week or so out to wander into a town…we will end up paying 3-4x more and there is no way we can stretch this trip to last a year if we do that.
My goal is to always stay under $100 a night. Right now I’ve booked where we will spend the night June-September….that is 6 countries in Northern Africa, Italy, and Eastern Europe during the summer (high travel season means its more expensive). In those 9 countries I’ve reserved 28 different places averaging $55/night. Staying way below my budget means extra resources when surprises come up or we want to do something extra like a night in the Sahara Desert!
EXTRA IMPORTANT TO NOTE: I only book places that offer free cancellation and full refunds!
Of course there are always exceptions to the need to book ahead for stellar deals (hello SE Asia!), but in general booking where we will sleep ahead of time means a longer trip for us. If our budget was unlimited, we wouldn’t plan at all. All that being said – I’m grateful for our budget. Planning means I already know where we will be at certain times and I get to dream about it now! Or more accurately – struggle to fall asleep because I keep thinking about the Airbnb I booked that day.
I will make separate posts related to how I pick where we stay (the things we look for – hello close bus stops! – and so on) and one specifically about finding cheap flights and itineraries. I have a TON to say about all that…tips for making the most of discounts and traveling from spot to spot. That will be a future post.
In regards to where I am finding the best deals for lodging it is Airbnb.com, Booking.com, and contacting hostels directly. I did find a place in Rome on Expedia.com that was better than anywhere else I looked. I have searched over countless popular websites and deal sites, but those three still get me the best deals 90% of the time.
