How to be a Smarter Traveler

Most of us who have traveled before will say that traveling is a lot of fun. Traveling is a great way to experience something different than what we usually do with the 9 to 5 routine that so many of us are familiar with. Traveling enables us to experience a change of scenery that so many of us need from time to time.

The biggest challenge to traveling for most of us is that of cost. A lot of vacation plans can set people back, which is why most people do not travel nearly as often as they would like. Fortunately, there are some nifty ways to reduce your travel budget to a level that you can afford.

Getting paid to Spend

Many of the best travel credit cards today provide perks such as miles, cashback, lounge access, and many more. In essence, such a card allows you to travel smarter and cheaper. Now, every card is unique and has its own special perks, but there are a few general tenets to all of them.

Once you have your hands on a travel rewards card, you can use it to purchase anything from groceries to shopping sprees and everything else in between. You will start to build up a pile of rewards points based on how much you spent using the card.

You can then turn around and use those rewards points for all sorts of travel expenses. First and foremost, you can use them to pay for your plane tickets. Depending on the card company you have signed up with, you can also use those rewards points to cover some of your lodging and even your food costs.

Some more established rewards card companies have been able to establish relationships with vendors in many locations around the world are able to make deals with them where they will accept travel rewards points from their customers and the company will reimburse them later.

Packing Light to Save on Headaches

Packing way more than you need might sound like a prudent thing to do, but when you consider the way most airlines charge their passengers, this might not turn out to be prudent after all. Most airlines do charge for extra loads of luggage. Some airlines allow for one carry-on while some budget airlines charge for just about everything.

So, if you booked a flight on a budget airline, but decided to over pack just in case, you might get charged for that extra luggage and actually negate the savings made by using a budget airline. This is why it is so important to pack just the essentials for your trip.

As a general rule, pack as many pairs of underwear and socks as the number of days of your trip, because you have no choice in that matter. It is also advised that you have one item of upper body clothing for every day of the trip as well, especially if you are vacationing somewhere hot and humid.

The lower body is where you have some potential for flexibility. If you are not planning any arduous hiking trips, you might be able to get away with packing as little as two pairs of pants or skirts for each week of travel. Obviously, if you sweat easily, or are going to do strenuous activities, you should pack accordingly. This is just to give you the idea that there are items you consider essential that are actually not. Worst comes to worst, you can always buy a missing item on site, which will also double as a souvenir.

Beating the Crowd to Save Money

Many popular vacation destinations have the habit of changing their prices as they go from peak season to off season. From hotel operators to tour guides to theme parks and even many restaurants participate in these price fluctuations between the seasons. While this makes perfect economic sense to do, it nonetheless presents a problem to those who wish to keep a shoestring budget.

Fortunately for those who can, there is a simple way around this, and that is to go there during the off season. If your calendar has this flexibility, it is highly recommended that you use this to your advantage and head to these vacation spots when no one else wants to. You will even encounter lower airplane ticket prices to these places as long as they are not commercial hubs.

In many cases, the prices at these popular seasonal locations can be multiples higher than the off season prices. On top of saving a tremendous amount of money by going during the off season, you will also have to deal with a lot less people than otherwise, which, if you are an introvert, is just even more icing on the cake.

Getting Out There Without Abusing Your Wallet

If you went on a trip that set you back financially to the point where you will be spending months paying it back to your credit card company, would the trip have been really worth it? Not only does traveling on a financially conscious budget make sense, but the lack of debt will also give you a peace of mind so you can actually enjoy the trip, which was the whole point all along.

Traveling is not something you can do by looking through a brochure with pictures of the place. You need to be there taking those pictures yourself and soaking everything in to get the full rejuvenating experience. Doing so as a smart traveler helps elevating that experiences, leading to a better time for yourself and your companions.