Visit Rubahs and bring money. Next time, bring some lobstars too.
PS: if you wait 3 weeks to travel by bus the cost is ridiculously cheap. What was it, a 90$ bus ride from Toronto to Arkansas? Ridiculous I can barely go 1000 km for 90$.
Visit Rubahs and bring money. Next time, bring some lobstars too.
PS: if you wait 3 weeks to travel by bus the cost is ridiculously cheap. What was it, a 90$ bus ride from Toronto to Arkansas? Ridiculous I can barely go 1000 km for 90$.
Originally Posted by ShlupQuack
Del Murder and I do most of our vacations on a fairly tight budget. There's lots of ways we're able to do this. First, we live lives conducive to being able to take advantage of last minute deals. He has a lot of vacation days at work, I'm self-employed, we don't have kids, and we don't go to work. So the last time we heard about $500 roundtrip tickets to South Korea (crazy smurfing deal!), we were able to jump on it that day and leave within weeks. If you go to school, or can't get off work, taking advantage of sweet deals like this would be harder. But if you can be flexible, then you can find amazing deals.
I'm signed up for email and Twitter for TravelZoo, and they send regular updates on great deals on flights and hotels. I also sign up for hotel newsletters just in case they have a special deal I can take advantage of. A lot of hotels have a promotions section on their website that has deals, especially for off-season. That's another way to get great deals, go in the off season to wherever you're visiting.
Trip Advisor has a search function that allows you to search specifically for well reviewed budget hotels. Take advantage of this! You can find a diamond in the rough this way. If you're traveling to Europe, taking advantage of the hostels there is a great way to save money. Hostels are basically like budget hotels, you still get your own room but probably have to share a bathroom. Youth hostels are the ones where you have to share rooms with other people, and if you're ok with that, those are even cheaper.
One of the best ways to save money on a trip is to avoid eating at tourist trap restaurants. The food will almost always not be great, and it will always be super expensive. Do your research by looking at forums or websites for the place you're visiting and get recommendations on where locals like to eat. When we visited Playa Del Carmen, there was a forum that provided really great recs, and we ate some of the best food of our lives, for super cheap. Chowhound and Trip Advisor forums are also great places to get food recommendations, both for "cheap eats" and for quality local restaurants. It was one of these websites that turned me on to eating at Pinotxo tapas bar at the Boqueria Market. It was extraordinary. It's this little stand in the middle of a bustling marketplace. And they serve affordable and delicious tapas. I had one of the most profound food eating experiences of my life there.
Once we've decided where we're going to go, the next step is to get a great deal on airfare. After that, a great deal on hotels. Try and avoid all-inclusive vacation packages because they give you very little freedom, and you're probably going to eat crap food! After we have the two big things (hotel & airfare figured out), I plan an itinerary. I make a list of places to visit and things to do, and then separate them by location, and number of hours or days I want to spend for each location or activity. Once the daily schedules are roughly laid out, I look into yummy places to eat around those places. If there's time, I'll try and google map the daily routes we'd be taking.
We're not really museum type people. We like seeing cool things, but we like DOING cool things more. So we try to do things that are special to that region. Like ziplining in the jungles of Mexico, or taking a boat tour along the Han River in Seoul. These things are probably the most expensive part of a trip outside of hotel and airfare, but it's worth it to at least plan one or two activities that are super fun. Passively enjoying the sights is one thing, actively engaging yourself is another.
After that, look into local stuff like how the bus or subway systems work, various customs like whether tipping is appropriate or not.
All this takes a lot of time and effort. It would be easier just to do something all inclusive, but that = less adventure, worse food. Or hiring an agent to do it for you, but that = more money. One day, when we're rich, I'm seriously just gonna hire someone to do this for me and also to book super fabulous hotels, and fly first class.I can't even tell you how much I loathe flying sometimes. I do not like being squashed. If you're flying coach, you're going to be squashed. But right now, budget is the way to go, and in order to do things on the cheap, it requires a lot of research and careful planning.
Right now, we're waiting for a good deal on flights to New Zealand. We're gonna go see hobbits and go zorbing!
I fly roughly 6-10 times a year internationally. Bring entertainment to the plane if you have a long flight!
Oh and make sure you can equalize, especially if its a small crappy plain.
While you guys are awesome and I am totally bookmarking this thread, I will say that of all of the places i have plans to go thus far, I will be driving. lolz
I'm not really to the financially stable point where I can travel out of the country, but someday I want to do so. I have been using Trip Advisor quite a bit and I'll definitely be checking out these other links. For my trip to Cocoa I've actually been looking into beachfront properties and housing swaps or boarding rooms. They tend to be closer to the beach and the same price or cheaper than most hotels, and way cuter.
I've flown before and I found the whole process not very stressful at all. I remember laughing and asking my flightmate why the heck people freak out about flying. We got there about an hour and fifteen minutes early (to fairly busy airports) wandered through security (his toothpaste was confiscated) and got on the planes. I'm sure it can be worse, what with cancellations and what not, but I think I'll probably travel smarter. At least, that's the hope with this thread!
Signature by rubah. I think.
Don't forget to calculate your gas then. I flew from CA to OK and my friend drove (23 hours!) and the cost wasn't much different.
I have to note that all of the places you listed are on the lower east coast, so I'm assuming your somewhere mid-east or north east?
Tip 1: Travel snacks. It's always nice having snacks and drinks on hand.
Tip 2: Bring a friend. Trips are alot better when you have someone to talk to along the way.
Tip 3: When adding up travel costs such as gas, food, lodging don't forget the spending money.
As far as vacations go I've always driven, but should you go airline the earlier you get your ticket the cheaper. And if your driving through raleigh give me a ring, it's nothing fancy but there are a few things to do while your on your way.
I took a trip to St Louis and had a blast site-seeing, though I spent most of that vacation with my grandparents down in Cape. A really nice couple of cities.
Cape Hatteras is nice. The whole outerbanks are just awesome to go down and chill. It's kind of weird looking at the ocean on either side of the highway for miles. Should you go out that way you might also want to check out kittyhawk and the aviation museum. It's been a while but I remember it being really interesting.
I must admit that I prefer traveling by plane, rather than driving. For some reason, I am always able to fully relax and actually sleep incredibly well while traveling by plane.
I have traveled quite a lot, as we have also have a house in the Philippines. I live in Denmark, and that is an exhausting 24-hour trip by plane, and not a whole lot of fun.
My advice is pretty much the same as everybody elses. But wearing comfortable clothes, is really the most important thing if you ask me. I once decided to wear a suit as we had seats on 1st class, and that was intensely uncomfortable.
Wow. I flew to Tenerife which was 4 hours and I got off the plane and was like NEVER AGAIN as, to me, 4 hours was waaaaaay too long xD I'm very impatient.
My longest flight was from NC to Germany... on the way there I just wanted to jump off the play and try my luck swimming, coach international really sucks!! On the way back I took 2 ambien and it was an awesome flight!
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