The travel industry has taken a hit over the past few months, but it’s found its feet and is ready to serve countless mommies going on family holidays. If you’re looking to punctuate 2020 by visiting a new place or even some distant relatives, make sure you employ these money-saving tips!
1.) If You Can, Be Flexible
If you have to fly on a certain day, you might be allowing yourself to be price-gouged if many other people have the same idea. Remember that other people are more likely to want to fly the day that you initially want to fly – that’s just a statistical probability. If you can be flexible and compare flight prices across a whole month, you will be able to snag a great bargain. This is more possible than ever with some schools and employers turning to remote working solutions.
2.) Consider How You’ll Get to the Airport
It happens to many people across America – they find a great bargain on a flight, book it instantly to grab that deal and then realize that it costs more to get to the airport than to fly to their destination! Trains can be very pricey, but as can airport parking. It’s a good idea to compare – for example, you can compare Orlando airport parking rates from more than 200 parking lots using ParkOn. Then just make sure you include fuel costs and pick whichever option is cheapest.
3.) Take Your Own Food on Board
If you have the option to say no to flight food, go for it and make your own plane food. It’s almost guaranteed to be better than airplane food, and it gives you a chance to tend to fussy kids while saving money in the process – it’s a win-win solution.
4.) Forex Savings
There are a lot of opportunities to lose money when you’re transferring your money into a different currency. Banks typically offer terrible foreign exchange rates. As do physical foreign exchange locations (especially at the airport – avoid them like the plague).
There are many digital banks like Revolut that offer instant money transfers. For many currencies, their rates aren’t great (they make a lot of money by making foreign exchange so easy), but they do offer a free virtual wallet in any currency. You can use this to your advantage – transfer money to that wallet from a very low-cost online foreign exchanger (like Transferwise) to get the best rate possible.
5.) Keep Reading the Financial Section
There are many countries where their currency suddenly plunges and one dollar gets you significantly more bang for your buck. When deciding where to go abroad, keep looking through the financial section of the newspaper to see if there are any countries that are experiencing a bit of a currency collapse. Britain became much cheaper to visit after Brexit and Sweden became much more affordable in 2018 when its Krona sunk to the lowest level since 2011.
This carries an extra benefit – it opens you up to the possibility of exploring new places that wouldn’t have come to mind.