CHEAP holiday IDEAS: 8 budget holiday offers
Last Updated: 6/16/21 | June 16th, 2021
While lots of of us dream of traveling the world (or at least taking a few months off from work in pursuit of adventure), it’s not always practical — even for those with the best of intentions. A lot of things can get in the way.
I frequently talk about long-term travel and round-the-world trips, but I know that realistically, not everyone can or wants to take pleasure in this style of travel. I don’t think traveling the world is hard, but I also know that what I do isn’t for everyone.
On the one hand, travel is a privilege not everyone has access to.
On the other hand, some people just want to go on a cheap holiday for a few weeks. Not everyone has the time or interest in taking an prolonged trip.
So what do you do when you only have a short amount of time and a short amount of money?
What are some budget holiday ideas that aren’t about traveling the world?
Even if I won’t find you backpacking Cambodia for three months or walking the Camino de Santiago, there are lots of ways to get on the road and see the world without breaking the bank! here are eight cheap travel ideas if you are cash-strapped and/or time-poor:
Cheap holiday idea 1: Be a local Tourist
How often do you visit the vacationer sites in your own city? hardly ever, right? I know new Yorkers who have never seen the Statue of liberty and Bostonians who have never walked the freedom Trail. I once took a Dutch friend on a excursion of Amsterdam because, despite growing up there, she had never seen the local attractions that lure millions of visitors to the city every year.
We’re all guilty of this. It took me five years to see the Jim Thompson house in Bangkok (even after living there), and I’ve still never been to Bunker hill in Boston despite spending the first 24 years of my life there.
We always put it off until tomorrow, because when we live in a city, we think there is always a tomorrow.
We get so caught up in our daily lives we forget that we can have a cheap holiday in our own city. We don’t have to go anywhere!
If you’re short on schedule and money, there’s no better way to spend some complimentary time than to wander your own city. No matter what its size, it has a number of wonders that you’ve never seen or even known about because you just haven’t explored it like you would somewhere far-flung and “exotic.”
Explore your city the way you would explore it if it were half a world away. Be a traveler in your own town and look at it with new eyes. You might just be surprised!
Check and see what special activities you can do that you wouldn’t do otherwise. For example, EatWith can be found in cities all around the world. It uses unique, locally-created culinary experiences. You’ll get to try new food and meet new people — all while staying in your own backyard!
Additionally, check and see if there are any walking or cycling excursion companies in your city (or nearby cities). Take Walks and Fat Tire trips both run fun, detailed, and insightful trips in cities all around the world. I always book a excursion with them when I want to get underneath the surface of a destination!
Moreover, if you live in a large city, be sure to go to your local tourism office and get a city tourism pass. These cards allow you to see a large range of local attractions for complimentary or minimized prices and can be your way to see your local sites on a budget. They aren’t just for outsiders!
Important tips: When you become a local tourist, check out of your house and into a hotel, hostel, or guesthouse. It’s crucial to get out of your familiar environment because if you stay home, you’ll find something to do around the house and create reasons for why you can’t sightsee. moving to a different location can help give you that feeling of adventure, excitement, and unfamiliarity.
LEARN a lot more —> Staycations: 5 ways to embrace Your next holiday at Home
Cheap holiday idea 2: Travel Regionally
Travel brings to mind faraway and exotic destinations. It invokes images of all the places we’ve dreamedt of and seen in movies. because of that, few people look in their own backyard for adventure — as my Aussie friends always tell me before they jet off somewhere, “Mate, you’ve probably seen a lot more of Oz than I have!” — but it uses just as lots of places to travel.
I could say the same thing as my Aussie friends. I grew up in Boston, and from there, I could visit new Hampshire, the woods of Maine, the bed-and-breakfasts of the Berkshires, or the farms of Vermont. new York was a four-hour car ride from home. how often did I do that? Not often enough!
Exploring your own region is an underrated and often overlooked aspect of travel. It gets the occasional lip service in magazines, but driving across the united states made me realize how much our own countries have to offer us and how often we ignore that for some foreign place.
There’s something special about being a stranger in your homeland and realizing you really don’t know much about it as you thought.
We think because we’re born in a place we understand it but every country has regional differences that make it special and, unless we travel to see and experience them, we’ll never fully understand the place we call home.
Driving across the us taught me a lot about it. It provided me a deep appreciation for it, the people, and the diversity within its borders. It broke down stereotypes and misconceptions I had about the different regions in the US.
My time exploring my own backyard was just as crucial to my growth as any trip to a foreign country.
If you’re on a limited budget, can’t afford a flight or a trip to exotic lands, or just want to do something different, don’t forget that you can always travel your own country. It can be just as powerful as checking out another country.
Budget-friendly bus companies like FlixBus can help you travel your region on the cheap. They have routes around Europe and the US, with tickets starting at just $5 USD!
LEARN a lot more —> how to road trip across the USA for $50 a Day
Cheap holiday idea 3: Go to national Parks
The great outdoors present a great chance to go somewhere on the cheap. Camping, after all, costs very little money. camping fees in national parks are as little as $15 USD per night in the United States, $15-40 CAD in Canada, $10-60 AUD in Australia, and $17-22 NZD in new Zealand.
And in Europe (especially Scandinavia), you can camp on public lands for free.
Additionally, you go camping stocked with all your own supplies and lodging (i.e., a tent), so you don’t have to worry about spending lots of extra money. Your food bill can be whatever you spend on groceries and nothing more.
You don’t need to love camping to spend time in the national parks, either. Personally, I dislike camping. I’m not the camp-in-a-tent kind of guy; I need toilets, beds, and hot water. Luckily, lots of parks supply cabins. While hiking the Grand Canyon, I stayed at a national park lodge at the bottom. I had a room in a dormitory, but for a few nights, it was the cheap lodging I needed.
There’s nearly always a park nearby and spending a few days with nature is not only good for your purse but also good for your soul.
Looking for a a lot more special experience? Campspace is a web site that lets people camp in someone’s backyard, garden, parked camper, andprivate land for a small fee. It’s like Airbnb but for special camping spots.
Want to do a tiny road trip around your region? use RVShare to lease an RV from a local for cheap!
LEARN a lot more —> how to plan a successful RV Trip
Cheap holiday idea 4: book a last-minute cruise (or book far in Advance)
Cruises are usually very expensive, affairs with a seven-day Caribbean cruise costing over $1,500 USD per person for a small interior room.
And, if you’re traveling alone, you often have to pay the price of two people considering that not lots of cruise lines offer single traveler rooms!
But, if you’re the last passenger running onto that ship, you can find some sweet deals.
Cruise lines always offer extraordinary last-minute deals. No cruise company wants to entrust to half the cabins empty. If you wait until a few weeks before departure, you can normally find some really fantastic offers as cruise lines scramble to find passengers. Plus, cruise operators always throw in some onboard amenities, complimentary upgrades, and cash vouchers to sweeten the deal.
The web site CruiseSheet often has cruises as low as $50 per day! (It’s the best cruise booking web site in the world!)
Conversely, if you book over a year in advance, cruise lines also offer fantastic low fares for early birds.
Cruises are the one form of travel for which I recommend checking out a travel agent if you’re part of a big group. They have terrific working relationships with the operators and can score better bundles than booking online.
After you book, keep an eye out on prices, because if they drop, you can often call your travel agent or the cruise company itself to get a partial refund or vouchers to use for dining and alcohol on the boat.
The cruise industry was significantly impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic. a lot of cruise lines lost billions of dollars, which indicates there are some fantastic offers out there if you’re wanting to plan a cruise.
That said, lots of passengers ended up stuck in quarantine on cruise ships as well. cruise ships, while fun, can easily turn into floating petri dishes, so make sure if you book a cruise that you’re vaccinated and that you have detailed travel insurance that covers cruises in case you get sick or an outbreak occurs on your boat.
LEARN a lot more —> Click here to read my guide to finding incredibly discounted cruises (and how to save money once you are on board.)
Cheap holiday idea 5: Think outside the Box
Forget Mexico and go to Guatemala. skip Paris and head to Budapest. DiTch Olaszország és látja Görögországot (ez nagyon olcsó!). Felejtsd el Brazíliát, és inkább vegye be Bolíviát. A lista folytatódik. Számos olcsó lehetőség és költségvetési úticél létezik szerte a világon!
Utazási számláló az uralkodó trendhez.
Zig, amikor mindenki zag.
Ha az emberek nyáron mennek, akkor tavasszal vagy télen megy. Hagyja ki a népszerű úticélokat, és induljon egy kicsit a legyőzött ösvényről.
Az ellentmondásos utazás megtakarít egy csomó pénzt. Olyan, mint a fordított ingázás. Miközben mások reggel a városba indulnak a forgalomba, a forgalomba kerülnek, az ellenkező módon gondtalanul szellőzik. Ugyanez vonatkozik az utazásra.
Minél sokkal inkább ellentmondásos vagy abban, ahol – és amikor elmész -, annál jobb lesz a pénztárca. Ráadásul sokkal többet fog élvezni a rendeltetési helyeken, mert kevesebb tömeg lesz. Senki sem szereti a tömeget!
Tudjon meg sokkal többet -> 10 úticél a költségvetés látogatásához
Olcsó ünnepi ötlet 6: Foglaljon le egy last-minute túrát
Csakúgy, mint a körutazások, a kirándulásokat a legjobban lefoglalhatják. A kirándulási társaságoknak ugyanúgy meg kell tölteniük az üléseket, mint a hajózási társaságok, mert amint az utazás indul, még mindig ugyanazok a költségek vannak. A last-minute kirándulási foglalások ugyanúgy működnek, mint a hajózási foglalások.
Miért olyan olcsók az utak last-pillanatra? Nos, gondoljon arra, hogy az emberek hogyan tervezik a vakációkat. Megkapja a munkavégzést, lefoglalja a nyaralását, megkapja a repülését, és elmész. Tekintettel arra, hogy az emberek előzetesen foglalnak, az árak magasabbak a fejlődésben, mivel ezek a vállalatok megértik a foglalási mintákat, majd ennek megfelelően az árat.
Az indulási idő közeledtével a vállalatok tudják, hogy az emberek nem valószínű, hogy felbukkannak és könyvelnek az indulás napján, ezért édesítik az árat a foglalások növelése érdekében. Tehát szánjon időt a munkából, várjon az előző hétig, nézze meg, mi az olcsó, majd menjen.
Kedvenc társaságom, az Interid Travel, gyakran 15–30% kedvezményeket használ az utolsó pillanatban.
Tudjon meg sokkal többet -> 8 módszer a legjobb kirándulási társaság kiválasztásához
Olcsó ünnepi ötlet 7: Legyen házirend
A szállás a nagy idő költségeibe enni lehet. Lehet, hogy repülési megállapodást kap, de a szállás – még ha olcsón is megtalálja – az utazás költségeit megfizethetetlen területre ösztönözheti.
Egy út az, hogy valahol ingyen maradjunk. Miközben szeretem a Couchsurfing -ot, ezt két hétig nehéz megtenni anélkül, hogy bosszantja a házigazdát. A megszabadulás különleges módja ennek a házaknak, ha valaki nyaralása alatt van. Ingyenes szállást, konyhát kap a főzéshez, és esélyt kap a rendeltetési hely mélységének felfedezésére. Ez egy nagyon különleges út az utazáshoz, és egy olyan, amit tudom, hogy sok világutazó kihasználja. Ezt a saját régiójában is megteheti, hogy csökkentse a szállítási költségeket.
A legjobb módja a biztonságos háztartási koncerteknek az, ha kicsivel kezdve felépíti az áttekintési portfólióját. Keressen lehetőségeket a közelben, olyan biztonságos néhány véleményt, mielőtt elkezdené versenyezni a népszerű helyeken, mint például a NYC vagy a Párizsban (mivel ezek sokkal versenyképesebbek). Ha készen áll a házak készítésére „kevésbé népszerű” úti célokon, könnyen megtalálhat lehetőségeket.
Tudjon meg sokkal többet -> Hogyan válhat háztartássá
Olcsó ünnepi ötlet 8: ragadjon meg egy olcsó járatot
Manapság nem kell kitalálnia, hol lesz a legolcsóbb járat otthonából. Megnézheti a járatok teljes listáját (a legmegfizethetőbbektől egyre sokkal drágábbig) egy olyan webhely segítségével, mint a Momondo vagy a Google Flights.
Ezekkel a webhelyekkel beírhatja a „(a legközelebbi repülőteret)” beírást az indulási városához és a „Mindenhol” rendeltetési helyére. Ezután a legolcsóbb járatok listája megjelenik a szeme előtt, így választhatja ki, hová lépjen a költségvetésén belül. Így döntöm el, hová menjek, amikor nincs egy bizonyos helyem. It’s a great tool!
Here are some other great airline booking sites where you can find deals:
Skyscanner-A Skyscannernek nagyon intuitív platformja van, amely lehetővé teszi a nyílt végű utazás keresését. If you’re not 100% sure where you want to go (or when) then start your search with Skyscanner.
Kiwi – Kiwi recently updated their search platform, making it much a lot more intuitive and u