Want to know how to get the best bang for your travel buck? Do you want to know how to travel cheap on this day and time? You’ll be glad to know that cheap travel deals are still easy to find if you know where to look!
For example, let’s talk about air travel. It used to be that companies would fly their employees all over the place and never think twice about it. They would even fly first class most of the time! I have a friend whose company took her to Germany 3 or 4 times a year, first class all the way. No budget needed. Now, they do video conferences and conference calls and no more flights, budget or not. The sad thing is that your company could have continued to send employees abroad if they had done a little research and figured out how to cut their costs.
Fortunately, for the everyday traveler, there are plenty of ways to travel cheap. Years ago you needed to buy a round trip plane ticket if you planned to fly. No one bought one-way tickets unless they weren’t planning to return and were really going one-way. Now you can save a lot of money by searching one way fares on different airlines. For example, you can fly to your destination via AirTran and then return via Jet Blue.
So what’s the problem, right? I mean why were roundtrip fares cheaper years ago but not anymore? Well, airlines know that people are very budget conscious these days. There will probably be a tradeoff in that you may have to do a layover and not fly nonstop, but it’s worth it, right? I’d certainly rather save money on a flight that had a short layover than pay a lot more for a nonstop flight.
Well, let’s say you’re not planning to fly, but you still want to take a cheap vacation. No problem! Trains are an amazing way to travel, and you can also bring your own car and not break the bank. Choose a place that is not too far away and go in the off-season if possible.
You might also consider renting a house or condo instead of staying in a hotel. My cousin came to visit a little over a week ago and her family rented a house near Disney World. I have to admit that I love staying in hotels, but it was a great idea for her family. They got to eat breakfast and one other meal at the house (much cheaper) and then eat out one meal a day. This made it very easy for them to take cheap vacations, go to theme parks and still save a lot of money even with a family of four.
