Traveling costs a lot of money, right? It is often claimed that traveling is only for the happy few that have a wealthy family, earn a lot of money or have won the lottery. In my case, none of the three above applies to my situation. I don’t have a rich family, I quit my relavitely well-paid job to follow my writing ambitions and I still have to buy my very first lottery ticket. How I save enough money to start traveling I explained in the post ‘How to save money for your next trip?‘. However, this doesn’t make us having a limitless travel budget. Fortunately we save a lot of money by the way we are traveling.

Use Airbnb

While traveling, accommodation is a large cost in your travel budget. On most trips we spend lots of time in the outdoors or traveling with our VW bus, but for our trips to Myanmar, Belize and the UK we needed several places to spend the night. Hotels can end up to be very expensive and we consider them rather impersonal. Where possible we opt to book a room via Airbnb. These often are a lot cheaper and they are a great way to meet locals.

Try out Airbnb with this 35€ discount 

Cook your own meals vs restaurants

When staying in hotels while traveling, breakfast is often included in the price. But where will you grab some lunch and dinner? There is no kitchen available so your sole option is visiting a restaurant. Needless to say that restaurant visits will shrink your travel budget quickly. Travelers who prefer spending that money to fun activities (ballooning in Bagan, PADI course in Belize or a ghost hunt in England), will save a lot of money by choosing an Airbnb with kitchen or – like us – spend your holiday in the outdoors where you can cook your own meals with a gas stove.

Arrange your own adventure

Booking a trip via an organisation costs a lot of money. Offcourse, they need to get a living from it as well. You will save a ton of money by arranging your whole trip. I myself love the challenge to plan adventurous journeys, and it saves us a lot of money as well. Why book a canoe trip when you can rent one at your location. I know what you think. ‘But how?’ The main problem for travelers is that they don’t know how to start planning their trip. Fair is fair, not everyone wil manage to set up a kayak expedition in Svalbard or a 5-day paddle trip on the Scottish lochs without a guide. Because you don’t know how. That is why I’ve started writing adventure e-guides that help you plan that specific adventure you’ve always wanted to do. Not convinced of your capabilities? Why not travel with us to learn the necessary outdoor skills?

Check out our offer of e-guides

Into the wild

Traveling to Sweden or Norway is one of the most expensive trips. You’ve probably heard that before? For the traditional tourist, that will undoubtedly be true, but for Linsay and I, Scandinavia is one of the cheapest destinations. Why? Well, Scandinavian countries have a rule called the Allemansrätten or All Men’s Right. This is the right for everyone to enjoy nature and what it offers. As long as you take good care of it. This right allows us to camp into the wild during our outdoor journeys. Nothing is more satisfying than enjoying a campfire in the evening while having a barbecue before crawling into your sleeping bag. And it’s free!

Travel slow

The more distance covered, the more expensive your trip gets. Those who have the time and travel for a long time, can opt to travel slow. This way, you keep your daily budgets to a minimum. It’s how we are traveling with our Volkswagen camper for a longer period. Not only are we living as digital nomads to earn some money on the way, but we travel slow as well to minimalize our costs.

What do you do to save money while traveling?