HOW TO: Travel The World on a Budget!! Our Honeymoon to Bali..

If you are like me, you would rather spend a work bonus or tax return on an experience like traveling than material things. However, we don’t make a ton of money, so when we want to travel we have to do it on a budget.

I have done a lot of research, most recently for our honeymoon to Bali, in order to have an amazing trip without breaking the bank. Of course, this is all relative, however I will give you my top 5 tips to being able to travel to places on your bucket lists, even when you thought you may never be able to.

Top 5 Tips for Traveling on a Budget

1. Preparing for your trip: This is one of the biggest tips I will stress, because I know we all fall into the trap of buying new things for a trip (clothes, shoes, luggage, even toiletries). I know it is exciting! However, I am going to save you hundreds, if not thousands, if you are a big spender.
   --- My first piece of advice: borrow, borrow, borrow! If you do not have luggage, going out and buying a new set can be upwards of $500 for a good quality one. Instead, ask a friend or relative to borrow their luggage! My family and I have passed around our luggage so much I am actually jealous of all the places my luggage has been that I have not (ha!). I have also borrowed other items like noise canceling headphones (BOOM $100 saved!), a carry on bag, books, clothes, hats, and even magazines (just buying 5 magazines at the airport can cost you $30 dollars, at least).
   ---After borrowing what you can, I highly recommend you don’t buy a single toiletry for your trip if you can avoid it. Buying all those travel sized products can rack up a $60+ bill at the store. Bring what you can from home, you probably have 99% of what you will need for a trip already! You can purchase travel containers at the dollar store to meet TSA standards if flying without checked baggage. The only thing special I bought for our trip was bug spray! I also leave things at home that I know the hotel will provide (shampoo, conditioner, soap, hair dryer, etc.). As a tip, you can call or email the hotel ahead of time and ask what they stock the rooms with (often you will find it will include other things too like Q tips, cotton balls, a toothbrush, mouthwash, a nail file, mending kit, shoe mitten, etc.). We stayed in one hotel that provided plastic sandals, I used them every day for the beach!

2. Flights- this can be one of the most costly parts of traveling, as we know airlines can get away with charging flyers a pretty penny to get to top vacation destinations. So, my first tip is to use some apps to track the best times to fly. I like Hopper, you can also Google Flights, which is really easy to do, especially If you get the app. You can track different places and dates at the same time too, so you essentially can compare what is more affordable, traveling to Costa Rica or Thailand at a particular time. Others include Kayak and Yapta. Doing this research ahead of time, we were able to find our flight to Bali was less than a flight to Hawaii (from LA)! Who would have thought?!

3. Seasonality- everyone wants to travel in Summer or around the holidays. I highly recommend looking out of season, or just at its conclusion to find the best deals! For our Honeymoon, we did our research and found out that if we went to Bali in November, it was $350 LESS than in the prime Summer months. That is essentially another flight to somewhere in the US we can now take. Remember to check the weather in those places out of season. We went in the rainy season, but knew we were in a tropical place and were okay with this fact (it ended up only raining only 1 day out of the 10 we were there anyway).

4. Member rewards- I also recommend when traveling to look into member perks from things like AAA, your credit card company or with travel sites you are a part of. We almost always book through Expedia, so typically our flights or hotels are discounted from other sites, this may only be the equivalent of $15-$20 a night at a hotel, but you add that up over the course of the week and that's an extra night in the hotel! Also, sign up for credit cards that offer frequent travelers perks or miles. Look at nerdwallet.com and you can find the best cards for travel. I received enough miles for signing up with one credit card that I took a free flight to the East Coast.

5. Budget when you arrive- The flight and hotel should be the most costly part of the trip. Knowing this, I do extensive research to find the best places to eat and the best activities to do on the cheap (or even better, that are free!). To do this is rely on Trip Advisor and blogs I find online.
   ---When going to Bali, we planned out our meals ahead of time at local stalls, walk up counters and small restaurants. Sometimes this can be scary in a new place, but looking up everything on Trip Advisor first made me confident in the places we were eating at (and for only $5 a lunch!). We also only booked hotels that had free breakfast offered. So that was one meal every day we did not have to pay for! Lastly, think of the activities you can do with little to no cost; beach days, hiking, waterfalls, visiting local markets, museums or religious sites and things of that sort. Remember you are in a new place, so it will all be exciting no matter what without having to pay for the $100 guided tour. Just do your research on how to get there, often public transportation will get you everywhere you need to go on the cheap!

Well, that's all folks! Happy travels!

Check out our Honeymoon in Bali video below!

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