If quarantine has you filled with incredible travel ideas you want to check off your bucket list but you don’t know how you’ll ever afford your trips, you’ve come to the right place. Here are some useful tips for how to plan a vacation on a budget!

Travel in groups 

If you’re looking to take a trip, consider getting a big group of friends or family to go with you. Group rates for flights, hotels, tours, and packages are often discounted and you may get a better deal (and a super fun group vacation) as a result! 

Travel during off season 

Avoid booking your travel arrangements during peak tourist seasons. Typically the shoulder seasons, spring and fall, offer better rates for everything from flights and hotels to restaurants and nightclubs in your destination. Because there isn’t as much tourism during off season, these destinations are desperate to get any business they can, and they’ll lower their prices as a result.

Skip the hotels

Opt for hostels, Airbnbs, try couchsurfing, or rent a campervan and drive to your destination as cost-effective alternatives to staying in expensive hotels. These options often provide a more local and authentic experience than you’d get in an overpriced hotel, anyway! 

Stick to your travel budget

The best way to keep yourself traveling within your means is to make a travel budget and stick to it! The more organized you are the better, but if you’d rather enjoy a bit more spontaneity on your vacation, just make sure you set a daily spending limit for yourself and try not to go over. If you do end up spending more one day of your trip, just offset it by spending less than your daily budget the next day and it should all even out.

Take shorter trips

Though this isn’t always the most desirable option when it comes to traveling, taking shorter trips may afford you the opportunity to take more trips than you typically would! Spending less time in a destination inevitably means you’ll be spending less money overall. 

Use a travel rewards credit card 

Travel rewards credit cards are great tools for planning a vacation on a budget. There are tons of great travel rewards cards out there and regular use will really start to pay off when you can redeem your points for travel credit! 

Set notifications for travel deals

There are several ways you can set up notifications for travel deals. Check out apps like Hopper or head to Google Flights and enter in your preferred dates and destinations and forget about it. When your travel prices drop, you will get an email notification alerting you to the best time to book to ensure the cheapest prices. Subscribing to Scott’s Cheap Flights will also notify you of incredible deals on cheap flights if you’re feeling a bit more spontaneous!