Finding Creative Ways to Save Money While Traveling

If you don’t think you can save any more money while traveling, you will be pleasantly surprised to learn otherwise. You may know some of the most common means of saving money, such as traveling off season, but there are so many more discounts that can be found if you know what to look for.

Airlines, hotels, and car rental agents don’t simply offer discounts for no reason, so by knowing what to ask, you can save a lot of money and use it for other fun vacation activities.

Checking it out Yourself

By taking the initiative and looking for your own travel discounts you will not only have a great time, but enjoy doing so by spending the least amount of money possible without sacrificing enjoyment.

One way to coordinate your own discounts is through the airlines. Instead of taking a flight non-stop, consider one that makes a stop somewhere along the way. If the flight transfers planes, you save even more money. Better yet, you can transfer twice and really save.

It may even be better to change airlines when you switch flights. If you live in a small city and have only one way out, then you can make one plane reservation to a major city and change planes to take another flight to your final destination.

By booking different airlines, you nail down the least expensive flight possible without the trip taking any longer than changing flights on the very same airline.

Staying Open to Other Alternatives

Another way to enjoy a discount vacation is to travel to locations that are beautiful but have a lower cost of living. For example, the Philippines may not be tops on many preferred vacation lists, but they have some of the best sightseeing in the world.

Since the cost of living is lower, you will spend less on your vacation and easily make up for the higher plane ticket. So, do not overlook a destination simply because the airline ticket is higher, because chances are you won’t even spend half of what you normally would if you travel to a high tourist area.

Creative Hotel Considerations

When it comes to hotels, you may want to ask if they have extended stay discounts for renting longer than a week. By inquiring, you may even get a free day or two and be able to extend your vacation. Also, hotel food is expensive and eating out is even worse.

It is more cost efficient to locate a hotel with an in-room refrigerator and microwave so you can buy food to keep in the room with you to avoid the need to eat out for every meal. As an extra bonus, selecting your own food will likely be healthier.

Finally, a travel agent may also be able to find ways to get discounts as well. So if all else fails, speak with a travel agent who may turn out to have even better packages than what you can find on your own. If not, it has only cost you a phone call.

Reflections: Living every day with passion

Three years ago I decided that I had grown tired of dreaming my life away! My passion was to be a globe hopper and a writer. I had traveled Europe twenty years ago with my brother. We stayed in London and traveled all the way down the coast and eventually ended up in Scotland and looked upon the mysterious waters of the Loch Ness River.

The next year after returning to the U.S. I traveled to the Philippines and somehow found my soul-mate and the love of my life and settled down and married. We were a young couple and didn’t have much money. We both got jobs, the kind of jobs that paid the bills, but were dull, lackluster jobs that sufficed, but didn’t inspire.

My short stint as a world traveler had come to an end. The bills always dominated our finances and we seemed to be making enough to survive but not thrive. There were so many things, so many dreams left unfulfilled!

I wasn’t living an impassioned life, but a muddled existence and hadn’t even realized it. One day was just like the rest and passed in a barely recognizable blur. Each week was nearly as dreary as the next, and every month was a photo copy of the last.

I was restless and depressed and didn’t understand why! My marriage was a happy one, and we were still crazy in-love after nearly two decades.

I realized what was missing in our lives, something that we were both so passionate about, traveling! Also I hadn’t seriously written anything in years. I jump started my enthusiasm for writing again. Also we started planning a trip back to the Far East.

We scrimped, saved, cut corners, and managed to come up with the funds to make our dreams of touring breathe and live again.

In January of 2006 we landed in the Philippines at Manila International Airport. We started island hopping! We visited my wife’s native birth place a little city called Jimenez, just minutes away from Pantalon Beach.

We visited the world famous resort in Aklan called Borracay resort. We reclined on the white sandy beaches listening to live music and sipping tropical drinks while the warm breezes gently blew!

What a wonderful and relaxing experience. What an inspiration and joy it was to be once again in the land of eternal sunshine and paradise.

The world seemed new and fresh again. Gone was the stale endurance we had been calling life. Our ardor for each other and the world had exploded before our eyes.

It’s amazing the kind of life you can endure! The unbridled joy and passion smothered by the endless days of blaaa blaaa blaaa!

The dark days are gone forever. We have since traveled to Hawaii, Canada, been to Hong Kong, stopped over in Korea and Taiwan, and also back to the Philippines. Our delight for life had been rekindled.

Also, my other fervor in life ,writing, has reemerged with a vengeance. I can’t stay away from my keyboard! I’m currently writing a novel, short stories, and have found amazing success writing articles for magazines.

I am living the blissful years the way I had always imagined. Missing are the restless dreams that haunted me and that would evaporate before my eyes like mist or fog on a chilly London night.

I woke up and took a hard look at my life, and cringed at the image I saw. I had the courage and the drive to want the zest back, to be excited about life again.

I’m still no threat to Stephen King, but I’m working on it! My writing career is blossoming nicely. The sky is the limit and I’m walking on steps made out of clouds.

I am truly and finally living every day with passion!