Traveling light may also mean traveling on a budget. In most cases, there aren’t a lot of opportunities where you can plan your dream vacation and make it become reality. Most people don’t have the budget for this kind of spontaneity or frivolity. However, just because a certain dream vacation doesn’t fit your budget, it doesn’t mean that you can’t tailor and customize your dream vacation so that it does fit. Sure, you may not get the expansive villa and you may not fly to your destination first class, but you will get to enjoy the sights, sounds and smells of a particular city that you may have always wanted to visit. Here are five budget-friendly international travel tips.
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Do your homework. Many people plan a trip, but then don’t do the proper research and wind up spending a fortune. However, if you search budget friendly travel in Italy or cheap ways to fly to France online, there is a good chance that you will find more affordable deals. Why waste a perfectly good trip, all because you didn’t put in the research time?
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Devise a spending budget. Most people don’t devise a budget when they travel internationally and then realize that they spent much more money than they expected. However, if you set a cap to how much you are going to spend on a trip, you will save yourself a significant amount of money. Also, you want to make sure that you account for currency exchange rates in your budget.
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Purchase plane tickets at least three months before the departure date. Travel industry insiders and agents recommend that individuals purchase their plane tickets multiple months in advance. This is the time when there are more seats available on a plane and due to the laws of supply and demand, you can get a much more affordable plane ticket. Also, you may want to refresh your browser history and check for prices every couple of days or so – some prices may go down.
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Be open and flexible. If you really want to save money, you want to go with the flow. Sometimes a better deal will come up – it may not be your dream destination, but if it is significantly more affordable, you may be able to quench your wanderlust and save money at the same time. Being able to keep an open mind when you travel is a great way to stay within a certain budget.
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Have a strict shopping budget. When you are traveling, you may have a really hard time not splurging at the local shops. So, when you are looking for places to shop in Italy or Japan – or wherever else you may be traveling – make sure that you keep a tally. Not only do the items cost money, but you may have to pay extra baggage and shipping fees to bring them back home. At the end of the day, stick to only a few items that you can easily fit in your bags.