When it comes to how we spend our money, it’s usually a matter of limits and prioritizing. On one hand, we are usually bound by our respective financial situations, but on the other, we often still have a lot of choices to make.
Ever since I was old enough to make and save money, I always prioritized traveling. However, I do set limits within that as well and make choices and priorities on what is worth (for me) spending money on.
It‘s all a matter of personal choices. Some people like using travel agencies and are willing to spend money for someone else taking over the organizing part. Others have favorite hotels or prefer traveling extra comfortably. It’s not really a question of good or bad choices. But nevertheless, I feel we should make conscious choices in these cases as well and maybe come up with a financial priority list beforehand in order to avoid horrific surprises and huge regrets when every single cost is added up at the end of a trip.
4 things I never spend money on when I travel
Business class and flight extras
I’ve flown business class before, and I’m not gonna lie, it IS great. Especially on long-haul flights, that upgrade in comfort, space, and extras make the whole thing a lot more bearable. But anytime I flown business, it was actually for a business trip and thus not paid by me. To be honest at my current financial situation I just cannot justify spending that much more on having these extras. Especially as nowadays the longest time I spend on an airplane is 2-3 hours, and for that I’m not willing to pay double the price.
Very fancy and too expensive hotels
The same reasoning as with business class. I always set a budget and a threshold of how much I’m willing to spend on a hotel. No extremes for me – I don’t go for overly cheap, but I’m not paying too much either. Especially, because we really only use it for sleeping; I’m not the type of person who lounges around the hotel on vacations. Sure, if my financials will vastly improve, I’m not opposed to very nice hotels, but right now I prioritize other things. While I’m not the biggest travel hacker, I can usually still score very good deals even on Booking.com (definitely register for the genius deals and make a lot of research).
Taxi or Uber
I think there’s no better way to explore a city than on foot. But even when we have to cover longer distances, I always opt for public transportation in a foreign city. You can save a lot of money that way, and often, especially in big metropolises, like New York or London, it’s a lot faster as well.
City cards
City cards or passes are seemingly a very good deal. Usually, a lot of the major tourist attractions are included, along with fast-track entries and sometimes public transportation and you only have to pay one time for the card. However, the deals are often only good at first sight. Major attractions or museums are often not included or you only get a small discount and you still have to wait in line. A lot of venues are included however, because they are less popular and this way they are hoping to attract more people.
To be honest, I think there’s practically no way to get the maximum value out of the card. It doesn’t mean it’s completely useless, but I always evaluate them case-by-case. Yes, I’m the type of person who makes a rough plan (OK, a quite detailed plan) of what I want to visit in a new place. I write down all the opening hours, entry fees, transportation costs, and then make a calculation and a comparison of whether a city pass is worth it. Sometimes yes, you can save some money, sometimes it’s really not worth it.
5 things that I spend on instead
Direct flights
Another old and trusty way to save money on traveling: sometimes you can score tickets with 1 or 2-stop flights for a fraction of the price of a direct flight. Once again, it all comes down to prioritizing. I hate airports, am terrified of flying, so extending that experience is simply not worth it for me. I’d much rather spend a little bit more money, but gain valuable vacation time, instead of spending that on an airplane.
Checked-in luggage
You can score a lot of great budget flight tickets, but you must be aware that it usually comes with very limited luggage options, often only a handbag. I pack quite smartly and travel quite light, but I do like to set aside space for potential purchases and I don’t like having to decant my contact lens cleanser to meet the bottle rules. We usually also pack together with my fiancé, and one bigger checked-in luggage is way more comfortable (especially for me, as I can strut around the airport fashionably with a small tote, while he deals with the bigger luggage:)).
A hotel with a central location
While I don’t like spending on fancy hotels, I do spend on hotels with a more central location. When I was younger the way I saved money when traveling was finding the cheapest accomodations, often well outside the city center. Nowadays I prioritize saving time, and not having to spend hours after an exhausting day traveling through the whole city or switching transportation 3 times is definitely worth the extra cost for me.
Eating out
For me trying the local cuisine is just as much a part of exploring a foreign place as visiting a museum. I just refuse to go for very cheap fast food options (especially as I don’t eat fast food), so if I see a nice place, I’m willing to spend on that for the experience.
Programs and experiences
If I travel somewhere, I always start out with the assumption that it might be the only time I ever visit it. So I try to make the most out of all my trips and that definitely includes spending money on experiences, like eating out, cultural visits, a boat trip, a musical or theater, or whatever fun and interesting things the city offers. Here are a couple of my recommendations on how to make the most of a trip.
What are your travel spending priorities? Is there something you never spend money on when you’re taveling?
For me, it’s hard to resist eating out at nice restaurants when I’m travelling, as I count it as an experience. And business class flights I only pay for with points. I also tend to not spend money on tourist experiences that don’t seem that authentic. We went to Hawaii this year, and I chose not to pay $100 plus per person for a luau experience. Instead we spent our time going to free beaches, driving around, and going to national parks.
I don’t value fancy hotels, either. If I stay at a hotel using points, it’s a different story, but I find it hard to believe that any hotel is really worth spending $1,000 per night. Plus, I’m a super active traveler so just use the hotel for sleeping purposes. I’m also super paranoid about airlines losing my luggage so I never, ever check it. Carry on or die!
Totally agree with you about eating out as an experience. Local cuisine is such a big part of a culture, I’d rather save at home leading up to a trip, but no way I’m saving on that. We are also picky about the experience part and tend to not pay for organized trips and rather explore and discover everything by ourselves. It’s sad when something that used to be authentic and a part of a culture gets over commercialized for tourists.
Thankfully, I never had to deal with lost or damaged luggage – I hope it’s not a matter of time:) And I understand all the advantages of a carry-on, but for some reason, still prefer the checked-in. It’s also because I like buying food and stuff like that as souvenir and wouldn’t like to risk the liquid rule.
And you must write more travel hacks posts – I’m absolutely clueless about them:)
I totally agree that walking around is one of the best ways to see a city!! But I like using public transportation because you’re often walking around all day long so I don’t want to be too tired by the afternoon and I find that by using public transportation, I can pretend I’m a local haha It gives me a sense of the city from a different angle because you see locals heading to and from work so it’s interesting!
Fancy hotels – I’m only sleeping there so as long as it’s safe and clean, I’m good!! Location is more important. At the very least it has to be close to public transportation and ideally to a few cute cafes or restaurants in case I want to wander in the evening and head back for an early night.
I’ve never traveled Business Class! I’m not going to lie, I’d love to try at least once… I think I would splurge on it if I did a 12-hour or more flight (which I’ve done and … not the comfiest haha).
Eating out – YES yes and YES!
I also like buying something special that’s local – a special treat that I can take back home and enjoy with my family. Something else that I do is to collect antique teacups and saucers when I travel so I have a cute collection of mix and match from around the world! I don’t always find one and that’s okay, but I try to find one!!
http://www.elleisforlove.com
Oh yes, I think food is the best souvenir and pretty much the only kind of gift I take home. It’s good because that way you can share some part of your travel experience with your family.
You must share that antique teacups collection sometime, I’d love to see how they look!
And yes, I did business class on both short flights and an overseas trip, and it definitely makes the latter a lot more bearable, but on short trips I’m not sure it makes that much of a difference. I do a lot of shorter flights, in Europe nothing is really that far, so for that I’m not sure I’d splurge either.