Adventures on a Budget
- aishacassiewilliam
- Apr 6, 2023
- 10 min read
Updated: Apr 11, 2023
I think the whole point of this lil blogging adventure is to really highlight how to travel for as long and as cheap as you can. I'm planning on writing about each of the individual places we went, highlighting cheap activities, places to eat, where to stay etc. But, I guess a good place to start would be to just share my general tips and the things we did to keep our budget low and our trip long!
Let's do this.
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Accommodation
First things first - where am I sleeping?
Hostels. I promise, they aren't like the horror film series! We've stayed in mixed dorms in most places we visited. Its definitely not a luxury option, sharing a bathroom and bedroom with a load of strangers, but more often than not it's your cheapest option. At this point I've lost count of the number of hostels i've stayed in, but i've never paid more than £23 for a bed for the night (weirdly specific that I can remember that?) They may seem a bit daunting at first - but you can get some really lush places and its the best place to make friends while travelling! (psst. If you're really freaked out by the idea of staying in a hostel, you can often get cheap private rooms in hostels meaning you get the social side, but your own bedroom!)
Camping. For the outdoorsy folks! Some countries will be more geared up for camping - the Greek islands for example had LOADS of campsites. Sometimes you can even rent a tent from the campground (however this can be more expensive than hostels). Be weary though, that tent will add to your luggage weight which can mean some extra costs if you're flying at all.
Hotels. Sometimes you can get some real bargains, especially if you're travelling as a couple/group! Couples splitting the cost of one room can often be cheaper than two beds in a hostel. However, this may not be the best option if you're travelling solo. It can also be a lot more difficult to meet people/make friends!
AirBnb. Surprisingly, this will most likely be your best option if you're travelling as a group! It can sometimes even work out cheaper than getting individual hostel beds.
Couchsurfing. We never tried this but ultimately it is the cheapest accommodation out there! You can stay for free with local hosts and generally we've heard lots of good stories from people who have done this! You can sign up on the Couchsurfing website if you're wanting to try it out!
Travel
Not from a budget perspective, but a logistics side - we LOVE Rome2Rio.com for planning our journeys. You plug in your departure city and destination and it'll tell you the different methods of travel, including the companies that run transport, rough costs and travel times. We don't necessarily use it for booking, but find it useful for the planning side of things!
Flights. Skyscanner will be your best friend. You can search for flights from your chosen airport to anywhere and anytime, and sort by price. You can get some insane deals if you're flexible, but it will also help you find your cheapest airline if you do have a destination in mind! (just keep in mind baggage costs on budget airlines!)
Trains. This depends on where you are. Generally rail travel can be more expensive in western Europe, so you may want to get an interrail pass - I've written a whole blog about this here. In Romania and Bulgaria trains were surprisingly reliable and cheap!
Buses. Generally buses all over the world will be your cheapest mode of transport. The caveat being that the journey times are longer, bumpier and overall the least comfortable. We have taken some MAMMOTH journeys in both Europe and Asia and can tell you that Asian buses are superior by a million miles. But still - if travelling by bus extends the length of the trip, we'll do it! In Europe you can use Getbybus, Flixbus, Megabus or National Express. In Asia, you can use Bookmebus, 12go.asia or just book through your hostel!
Public transport. This is a no brainer when it comes to travelling within cities (when the distance isn't walkable!). Getting to grips with the bus/metro/train/tram networks within a city can save you loads compared to getting taxis! Airports will more often than not have a shuttle bus service to the city centre if you are flying in! Google maps will be your best friend when planning public transport routes. Top Tip! avoid the inevitable stress at the airport when you're trying to find your way to your accommodation and download the google map before you arrive! It also helps to have your route from the airport to the accommodation screen-shotted in case the wifi at the airport isn't great!
Food and Drink
Let me guess, you're gonna suggest instant noodles...
Utilise hostel kitchens as much as you can! Most European hostels will have kitchens and cooking utensils free to use. Doing a quick shop at a supermarket and making your own food is a lot cheaper than eating out.
Bakeries! I have eaten so many pastries at this point I am turning into one. Bakeries have been our ole reliable all over the world for a cheap, tasty little breakfast.
Picnics! We LOVE a sunny picnic in a park or on the beach. Make your own food at the hostel or pick something up from a supermarket and you're good to go! Grab a couple of beers or a bottle of wine and make it a party if you like (just make sure to check the laws on drinking in public first!)
Supermarket deli counters/ready meals. It's no secret that Asian 7 Elevens are the Mecca of instant meals. With microwaves and hot water on hand you can get a meal on the cheap at any hour and most even have a seating area to enjoy your delicacy! But lots of European supermarkets will have a hot food counter too, so you can pick up a hot meal on the cheap. Nothing beats the famous Thai 7 Eleven cheese toasties though.
INSTANT. NOODLES. Definitive guide of the worlds best instant noodles coming soon.
Luggage
Here is possibly where we made our biggest savings! We initially started out with a small 'personal item' sized backpack each to use as carry on, and one large 80L backpack between us. This meant we were only checking one bag into flights, which saved us from either checking two carry on bags or two checked bags when travelling Europe.
However, Asian airlines tend to include hand luggage for free - so we switched out our one big and two little backpacks for a carry-on sized backpack each (pictured below!)! This saved us SO much money in Asia as we didn't have to account for baggage charges and we took a lot more flights (believe me! You can fit enough stuff in these sized bags, especially in hot climates! Just be a little more savvy with packing and get some packing cubes!). Our bags were £35 each on amazon and served us well - you can buy them here! (Top tip! Always check in online to avoid getting your bags weighed, mine was almost always over-weight but no one checked, cheeky x)
Activities
This is, of course, more specific to where you're going - but in general, you can do the following in most places you visit for free/cheap!
Free walking tours. This is one of our fave things to do when we first get to a new city! We book onto a free walking tour which will give us a few hours to get to grips with the layout of the city and get some handy recommendations from the guide (who are often locals and experts in places to eat/drink/activities). You will normally need to book onto a walking tour, but you can easily do do on Guruwalks.com. Note, whilst the tour is technically free, the guides aren't paid and rely on tips from attendees - so make sure to have some cash on you!
Museums. There are tonnes of free museums and galleries, especially in Europe! Have a google before you go to get an idea. Many attractions will also have a free entry day/time too! I'll make a note of these in the individual city guides I'll write up!
Wandering/exploring. Bring your comfy shoes and go explore! Brad and I have spent countless hours getting lost in cities finding monuments and tourist attractions. This is honestly the activity we do the most - if the weather's dry go explore! You'll stumble across so many.
Apps
These are the apps we couldn't have lived without - They'll certainly help with sticking to a lower budget! We found that having these apps downloaded meant that we didn't need to buy a sim card for the countries that we didn't have data and we could rely on wifi connections (which we never really struggled to find!).
Hostelworld. For booking your hostel accommodation. You can book both dorms and private rooms, sometimes campsites and guesthouses, through Hostelworld all over the world. You can even check reviews and ratings before booking on the app and it now has a chat feature so you can connect with others staying in that hostel/city before you arrive! Top tip! It can often be cheaper to book direct with some hostels, especially in Europe! Google the hostel and book direct through their website (if they have one) for the best deals/rates!
Booking.com. For more expensive hostels/accommodation, check rates on both Booking.com and Hostelworld. The rates can sometimes be lower on Booking if you have an account and you're earning rewards/Genius points! You can book all sorts of accommodation through Booking.com and the app is just a little nicer than the mobile site!
Skyscanner. For finding cheap flights. Again, the app is nicer than the mobile site!
Google Maps. Delete Apple maps right NOW. It sucks. Google maps doesn't. Remember you can also download maps on google maps so it'll save you if you have no data/wifi! Top tip! There is a search function to filter bars and restaurants by price! Your single £ sign places are your cheapest, and often most fun places to go! My family ALWAYS give me a look when I'm dragging them to one of my one pound sign bars, but they always enjoys them! We even did this in New York and found some cracker places!
Google translate. Obvious reasons! Again, you can download languages so you can translate without Wifi/data and the translate images function is a life saver - especially if the language doesn't use a latin alphabet!
XE. This is just a currency converter app - always handy when you're using a billion new currencies in one trip!
Banking
Just a super PRACTICAL thing to think about. Don't go running around using your normal bank card - most transactions/payments are gonna incur some kind of fee - not ideal when you're saving money! Get yourself a travel debit card/open an account with a bank with no overseas charges. There are loads available now which are super useful and intuitive! (and no, you don't need to get cash at a travel agents before you go! The rates are always rubbish and we're not in the 80s anymore besties) x
Monzo. I think most people have a Monzo card now anyways! But they convert according to the Mastercard rate (i.e. the best rates); their app and customer service (from our experience) is great; you can super easily transfer money; you can easily open a number of 'pots' if you're hyper organised and like to have your money separated into different accounts (*cough* me). Accounts are really easy to open and you can even create joint accounts super easily if you're travelling as a couple/pair! Note, on the basic account you can only withdraw £200 a month overseas (outside of EEA) at ATMs (anything over incurs a 3% fee), so make sure to bring a few different cards if you're withdrawing a lot of cash (in south east Asia this is often the case!).
Revolut. Pretty much the same deal as Monzo; Mastercard rates, great app, easy transfers etc. This was our backup card of choice! The £200 overseas withdrawal also applies here on basic accounts, but any withdrawals over your £200 overseas limit incurs a 2% fee.
Starling. I personally haven't used Starling, but would have opened an account to have another card if I'd had the time! I've heard good things - again, it uses Mastercard rates and the app looks good - but the best thing is that there's no overseas withdrawal limit?! I'm getting one of these next time!!
Just a final note on banking - ATMs!
Most ATMs and some card machines (e.g. in supermarkets when paying by card) will give you an option at the end to withdraw the cash in the local currency or your currency. Always withdraw in the local currency! This will ensure that the conversion will be based off the Mastercard rate (the best rate).
Many ATMs will have their own withdrawal fee, no matter if your card doesn't charge any fees. Have a google before you set off of the best ATM to withdraw from. Some banks are better than others, some may even be free! But, as a rule of thumb, AVOID Euronet ATMs, they are always the most expensive option! (they're the blue and yellow ones!)
Our Budget
The one thing I think is always missing from travel blogs is transparency when it comes to overall costs, how much people spend, how much they saved etc. I'm always pretty curious! I'm an open book and always more than happy to share how much we spent if it means helping others in planning a trip!
We saved up hard after finishing uni, both putting away a large proportion of our wages toward our travel funds because this really was our dream trip and we wanted to be away for as long as we could. By the time we left, after buying our initial flights, interrail passes and travel insurance we had just about £20,000 between us in the bank.
How far your money goes totally depends on where you go and when you go, but I'll roughly break down how much we spent and where below:
Location | Total Spend (per person, per month) |
Western Europe (Spain, France, Germany, Poland, Slovakia, Hungary) | £1,100 (£1,300 including interrail pass) |
The Balkans (Serbia, Bosnia, Montenegro, Macedonia, Albania) | £750 |
Greece (Athens, Ionian Islands, Cyclades islands) Peak season | £900 |
Eastern Europe (Romania, Bulgaria, Albania and Istanbul) | £750 |
Southeast Asia (Bangkok, Cambodia, Vietnam, The Philippines) | £750 |
Japan (Excluding flights in/out) | £750 (for 12 days) |
I'll really emphasise that this is ROUGHLY what we spent, and for the most part we stayed in hostels, ate cheap and stuck to as low a budget as we could. Total spends include transport, accommodation, food, drink and activities.
Note, these amounts don't add up to £20,000 because I've left off spending on visits home, family trips to the USA for 3 weeks and Serbia for New years, Festival tickets we purchased, flights to/from Asia and money we kept back so we weren't totally skint coming home - just in case anyone is confused by the maths that has gone on to make this table!
TLDR - What are your top tips?
Stay in hostels! They're cheap, often social and if you're nervous about sharing a room, you can get a private! Book direct with the hostel in Europe to get the cheapest rates.
Pack comfy shoes! You're gonna do a lot of walking - whether thats getting from A to B, or just exploring the city!
Take free walking tours! You can book them through Guruwalk.com. They're the best way to learn more about the city and get local recommendations! Remember to tip your guide though!
Utilise hostel kitchens! and if theres not one, supermarkets often have hot food options for a cheap meal!
Buses are cheapest! Though often longer and less comfy, buses are more often cheaper than travelling by train or plane.
Use the '£ sign' search filter on Google maps! You'll find your cheapest food/drink options and places with the most character!
Get a travel debit card! You can use them in the UK too, and get the best rates abroad with no fees!
Avoid Euronet ATMs! They suck. End of.
Use Skyscanner to find cheap flights! Be flexible on dates and location and the opportunities are endless!
Use public transport! and check if they have any tourist passes - these will often be multi-day tickets that will save you money if you're travelling around the city a lot! Google maps will help with planning journeys via public transport.
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