We can’t deny that sometimes there is an illusion about travels when it comes to its price. Not everything is expensive as it seems and you really CAN travel without much money. In the past few months, I got some questions like ‘How do you afford all of that?’ which got me quite uncomfortable, because everything was literally on a small budget. You just need to know how to plan it wisely!

That’s why I decided to share with you some of my tips & tricks for smart traveling!

I will divide them in 2 or 3 posts, so it can be more readable.

First of all,

TRANSPORT

AIRPLANE:

Nowadays, almost everyone already knows about these low cost air companies such as Ryanair, Wizzair, Easyjet, Vueling, etc… however, even there you can save more money on your airfare.  How?

1. BE INVISIBLE:

How many times have you wanted to buy a plane ticket, and it said “2 seats left at this price”? And after you checked it for the 3rd time, the price was already 10€ higher.

When you check the prices on their sites, each of them uses cookies, so they can track you. If they realize you’re interested in that particular flight, the prices will definitely go higher asap.

So, what I do is – HIDE.

I usually search flights on my mobile phone or any other available device from which I WON’T PURCHASE my ticket. The best way to search is from a totally different device that is not connected to your home Wi-Fi.
That’s how you’ll avoid airlines to track your IP adress. After concluding the search for the best deal, use your own computer to purchase the ticket.

Example: I wanted to buy a plane ticket for Paris, and the site said there’s no more seats at that price, so I checked it on another computer, and bought it for  the ‘old price’. Some travelers say that you can also only use Incognito mode on your browser, it can be your alternative, but I’m still not so sure about that one.

2. FAKE YOUR CURRENT LOCATION

Airfares are sometimes cheaper when you book them from the departure or arrival country. Example:  If you are traveling from Serbia to France, your ticket is going to be cheaper if you book it from either one of these countries. But, it can be more expensive If you buy it from Germany for example. This could work very well for Serbians, who travel a lot from Budapest or Timisoara. That’s why you can trick a site, so it seems like you are somewhere else. It works best if you have a credit card that is free of foreign-transactions. You can try it by only changing currency and location manually on your booking site, OR using a slightly better way – downloading VPN plugin for your browser, for example ZenMate, which allows you to fake your location, so website will “think” that you are somewhere else. Voila!

3. MIX AIRLINES

If you fly with low cost companies, you should know that there is no discounts on round trips. You pay two single tickets with their original price always, which means you should always check single tickets on every site. You can depart with Easy Jet and get back with Wizzair, because sometimes it can be more expensive to go on a round trip with the same airline.

My tip is to use search engine www.kiwi.com , which shows you the best price with mixing airlines!

4.DAY IS IMPORTANT

OTHER WAYS OF TRANSPORT:

5. BE COMMUNICATIVE, USE BLABLACAR

Why would you pay transport from the airport to the city center 15€ when you can pay it 8€? Examples: Paris BVA airport is more then one hour away from Paris. The official bus ticket is about 15€, and if you use blablacar.com or its application, you can save almost up to half of the original price.  Bus from Granada to Malaga is 12€, whereas blabla ride is about 7€. I really saved a lot by just using BlaBlaCar, plus I met some really cool people while riding! If you travel in Spain – I recommend you to use application called AMOVENS, which is way cheaper and better than the first one!

6. BUSES OVER TRAINS

However, if that’s not your cup of tea, you can use standard ways of transportation. My favorite site to check for cheap buses and trains is GoEuro.com. Keep in mind that in opposite to Serbia, trains in Europe (Renfe for example) are way more expensive than buses. Yes, it’s definitely slower, but you can save by avoiding trains.