Travel can get expensive especially when airfare, car rental and hotels are involved. Every penny counts when planning and executing a trip so let us help stretch those dollars further!
Here are our top travel hacks to help you save money on your next adventure.
Don’t miss our other travel hacks on How to Reduce Hotel Expenses.
1. Sign Up for Airfare Alerts
If you have a rough idea of where you want to go and when, sign up on Airfarewatchdog or Orbitz for airfare alerts. Once you enter the information, these sites will email you when the airfare drops.
Disclaimer: This post contains some affiliate links, if you book through our link we will receive a small commission at no additional cost to you. Thanks for supporting the blog.
2. Turn on “Private Browsing” or “Incognito Mode” to save on airfare
The minute you get on an airline website and start searching, they are tracking you. Make it impossible for them to increase the airfare prices based on your history by using private mode or incognito mode.
Learn more here: The Ultimate Guide on How to Find Cheap Flights
3. Use Shopping Portals
Shopping portals like Rakuten, BeFrugal and TopCashBack give you MONEY BACK when booking through their sites. It works not only for travel but shopping online as well. Remember that nifty tip during the holiday season! For the inconvenience- which is not really inconvenient at all- of just a few extra clicks, you can be earning cashback on every booking.
Start with Cashbackmonitor.com to see which one is offering the highest percentage back.
4. Don’t forget about Groupon
As I am writing this, we are on a road trip and our next stop is Charleston, South Carolina. So often, people forget about Groupon so I want to remind you!
I pulled up Cashback Monitor (as mentioned above) and Ebates showed 9% cash back. Naturally, I started there and clicked through Groupon to see if there were any restaurants or places to see in Charleston. The plantation we are visiting – Magnolia Gardens, which happens to be on the pricey side – popped up. Ebates let me know about the coupon code for the 20% off sale going on, another perk of the program, so we saved $16.70 off the total $40 admission cost for two. Here’s the breakdown:
$32 Groupon Rate – $6.40 (20% Groupon sale) = $25.60 cost x 9% Ebates cash back = $2.30
Total cost = $23.30 vs $40.00
Total Savings = $16.70
5. Public Transportation
Additional expenses like taking a taxi or Uber can add up so we only use them if we are in a time crunch, otherwise, we utilize public transportation.
You’d be surprised how many people overlook this opportunity. Take Vegas, for instance, the airport is only 2-5 miles from the strip depending on where you are staying but a taxi ride costs anywhere between $14-$20 one way. If you choose a hotel on the south end of the strip-like MGM, Excalibur or Tropicana there is a public bus -Westcliff Airport Express- that shuttles for only $2 one way with no tip necessary.
6. Take Advantage of Hostels
Hostels are not just for college kids. Seriously. There are definitely party hostels which I would avoid if you’re not looking for that kind of thing. However, many hostels are budget-friendly, offer private rooms, in great locations, and offer a community kitchen to make your own food which also saves on money. Download the Hostelworld App and make sure to check reviews before booking.
7. Take Free Walking Tours
Most big cities like San Francisco, New York, Madrid, and Paris, for example, offer free walking tours. Freetours.com has tours listed by city with duration and reviews. Most of the time the guides are enthusiastic locals or gung-ho college students. For a tip only, you can join in on possibly one of the best experiences the city has to offer.
8. Get Off the Beaten Path
It’s hard to imagine that “off the beaten path” exists anymore but it does. Maybe visit a quieter state park-like Kodachrome Basin in Utah versus a national park like Zion. There are many cities that have surprised us over the years that aren’t on most people’s radar like Akron, Ohio or Winthrop, Washington.
9. Travel during Shoulder Season
If you are traveling with a family this may be hard to do but if possible try to book in the off months. If “the best” weather is said to be June – August, try to go in May or September. We are headed to Shenandoah National Park and although it is stunning in the fall, we are taking advantage of fewer crowds and cheaper prices in the spring.
10. Use Credit Cards to Collect Airline Miles and Hotels Points
Playing this game can get addictive and confusing but it is so worth it. The two we utilize now are the IHG Rewards Club Select Credit Card and American Airlines AAdvantage Credit Card. We like IHG because their rewards program is not only generous with quarterly bonuses but also has the most hotels. The credit card has a $49 annual fee, but includes an annual hotel stay and complimentary Platinum status. Points on both fronts offer free cancellation and perks like late checkout and free checked bags.
11. Free Days (or Nights)
Make sure to check websites for free days or nights at attractions you are planning to visit. The art museums in Madrid, for example, offer free admission a few hours in the evening on certain days. We had to wait in line for about 45 minutes, but it saved us thirty euros. I’d say that’s worth the wait.
12. Book a Room with a Kitchen
Eating out adds up so if you are not a foodie and can handle skipping out on the “must-eats” then book a room with a kitchen. Airbnbs or hotels with kitchenettes like Candlewood Suites are perfect for this.
Tip: many hotels will provide you with a fridge and/or microwave upon request even if your room does not initially come with one.
13. Make a Budget and Stick to It
It is unreal how much easier it is to stay on track in regards to a budget when you track your expenses. Spending happens fast when traveling. It’s difficult to keep a running total in your head so do what we do: sign up on Personal Capital for free and download the app to automatically track your expenses.
Start Here: How to Easily Track your Travel Expenses and More.
14. Save on Gas
Taking a road trip? There are a few ways to save money on fuel. If traveling in the United States or Canada, always use GasBuddy to find the cheapest gas prices along your route. You can also sign up with Fuel Rewards to save a minimum of five cents a gallon off at Shell Stations. Combine the rebate with a fuel credit card and you can earn an additional three to five percent cashback on top of that.
15. Let the Best Car Rental Rates Find You
Autoslash is the middleman for renting cars. They find the cheapest rentals by searching for coupons and deals with all available discounts such as AAA, AARP, and credit card programs. They don’t stop there; up until the day of your trip they are searching for lower prices and will email them to you.
What are your favorite travel hacks? Tell us in the comment section below!
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Dana Howard Freeman
Using Incognito is such a great tip! I try to do that as well. Bookmarking your post for all of my future travel. Great tips.
Erica Edwards
These are great tips! I use most of these, but I’d never heard of the shopping portals before, so I’m definitely going to have to look into that! Searching incógnito is one of the best pieces of advice for booking flights, and Groupon is such a great resource for booking restaurants and activities – I’ve used it for whale watching tours, paragliding, surfing classes and more!
Delisa Zak | Destination: Overlooked
Great tips, especially using Incognito mode and booking a room with a kitchen like an Airbnb. Always works for us!
Dang Travelers
Thanks Delisa
Melody Pittman
YES, I love travel hacks! And these are really good ones. I really like that you let people know about GasBuddy and Ebates. I use both of those and can’t believe more people don’t know about them. I’m also always telling people to research their travel information in private browsers and they all think I’m crazy lol. Thanks for sharing these!
Dang Travelers
Haha! Totally agree. “What do you mean they are tracking me?”
Michael Hodgson
Incognito is not as invisible as one might think. A great travel hack is using a VPN, even from home. And as they say, clear your cookies frequently and often. Also, you can use a VPN to see if buying a “local” fare — say from one country to another in Europe — lists more cheaply for someone shopping for it in Europe vs the U.S. Airfare alerts are also fantastic, and we use them once we have booked IF you book directly through an airline. Reason being? Most people don’t realize, but if there is a significant price drop (where the savings is more than the change fee would cost) it become worth it to contact the airline and change that ticket. Great post!!
Dang Travelers
Absolutely right, we address and expand on all of those in this post: https://www.dangtravelers.com/how-to-find-cheap-flights/
Shruti Prabhu
Some great travel hacks right here. The incognito mode/VPN tip is sheer genius! Thanks a lot for compiling this list.
Have you heard of Skiplagged? It allows you to book so-called “hidden city” flights. For example, let’s say you want to travel from New York to San Francisco but it’s really expensive. Skiplagged will show you flights from New York to other destinations (say Seattle) via San Francisco which are cheaper. You board at New York, get off at San Francisco and never take the San Francisco to Seattle leg! An obvious downside is that you can’t check luggage but if you’re traveling light it may be a great way to find cheap flights.
Steven on aFabulousTrip
Nice article, going incognito is always the best thing to do ! Never thought of using Groupon before, I’ll keep that in mind now. Also to “get off the beaten path” is a way to make sure you don’t get scam or get charge excessively because you’re in a very touristic place.
Carol Colborn
I’ve done a lot of these, including GasBuddy for road trips in America but the tip about going incognito and Austoslash are good ones. Thanks!
Erica Edwards
Great tips here! I actually use all of these, I must be a pro 😉 Incognito is such an important one when booking flights, and I’ve had some GREAT experiences using GroupOn while travelling for cool activities like whale watching, parasailing, kayaking and more. Great post.
Renata Green - www.byemyself.com
I’m already doing many of these things – like public transportation, collecting free nights and – and that’s a really important thing – look for flights from different browsers.
Regarding the ‘free’ walking tours: I feel very bad seeing people joining the tours, walk along almost till the end…and then just split; I find that extremely rude and unfair to the guides – no matter how enthusiastic they are. I always pay the equivalent of a museum entrance or about 10 Dollars – at least.
Chris Behrsin
It’s amazing how much you can save travelling with a little pre-planning. There’s some really good tips in here and I’ve never thought of using Groupon to look for travel deals. Thanks for the post.