If one of your plans in 2020 is to travel more whether it is solo, with your partner, friends or if like me you also plan to take your kids, you will love this post! One of our family goals last year was to explore a number of countries together and we did just that without pinching pennies nor being wasteful. We saved a lot of money due to careful planning and we had a great time! If you follow me on Instagram, you most likely saw the photos/ videos I shared on social.
You can always see the HIGHLIGHT on my IG page, to see what we did in every city we visited. We were gone in June for over 3 weeks in total and got back home in early July. We hit up London, Paris, Amsterdam, Naples, Amalfi Coast (Amalfi, Positano, Praiano) & Capri.
5 Ways to save on a long vacation
Travel off-peak/offseason
One way we saved on our trip to Europe was to leave the US early enough to avoid the high ticket season which is usually in July & August.
You will find your best flight prices to Europe in June & September if you still want to enjoy the warm weather.
You can always find cheaper prices towards the end of the year and early parts of the year but the weather isn’t usually the best.
Fly out of a major city
I live in Atlanta and while technically it is a big city, it is the home to Delta airlines and no other major airline, so finding the best deals usually is a miracle, LOL. Don’t get me wrong I have found great deals (case in point my trip to PFW & Marakkech) I found an amazing deal but it isn’t usually the case. If you don’t like layovers and want to save, use Google Flight to track potential trips. I saved on an upcoming trip with google flight alert, ticket prices dropped over $100 in a span of 8hours and I took advantage of the deal.
By flying from NYC we saved over $1800 on our ticket price. I recently saved over $100 on an upcoming trip.
My favorite city to fly out of is New York, you can find flights to most cities around the world at phenomenal prices from NYC. It is a 2.5-hour flight from Atlanta too. Chicago, Boston, LA & Miami are also great places to fly out from.
Have a plan, don’t wing it
When I travel, I always have a plan for every single day of the trip which sometimes includes doing absolutely nothing! It is the best way to make the most of your time away and also not waste money.
You save time when you book the museum ticket in advance, you save money when you book the theme park visit in advance and let’s not forget $$ you save on hotel!
Not sure how to start, Tripadvisor is an awesome tool. I love that other travelers share what they do from traveling with kids to solo, etc. The list of top things to do is also right there at your fingertips and the best part you can save yourself time and money if you simply spend a few hours reading through this material or just do a quick search on my past trips (I always share what to do.)
Take advantage of your time in Europe and visit multiple places!
Europe is one of the easiest continents to explore so if your goal is to explore more of Europe or even other countries outside Europe. So plan to hit up multiple stops on one trip.
I love flying into Paris or London I found them to be great spots to explore other parts of Europe. The train system in London is amazing!
I find London to be generally more affordable (I lived there years ago so I know different ways to save money) and a fantastic place to find affordable flights or train tickets to other parts of Europe. Our flight from London to Naples cost us under $180 each and we didn’t even fly a low-cost airline. Paris to Marrakech is just a 3-hour flight, it was the way I convinced my friends to visit Morocco on our girls trip.
Book hotels, Airbnb, etc well in advance
Europeans don’t play with their vacations, so you need to work on booking your accommodation as soon as possible or else you would be left with not too many options. Case in point when we visited the Amalfi Coast & Capri (I started looking for hotels in March for a trip in June and I didn’t find a lot of options!) I was able to find an amazing Airbnb and hotel eventually but I know better now, LOL. You also save hundreds of $$ when you book well in advance, so don’t leave money on the table.
One thing to remember… you can start saving today
One way to travel without the stress of worrying about $$ is to start saving now. I use DIGIT app to save money for my trips without even knowing it. It is a safe app that allows you to create money goals and does the work for you. I use it for big-ticket purchases too. You can learn more about it HERE.
Not sure of where you want to explore, got questions about any of the places I have visited, please send me an email. I would love to help:-) I plan to start sharing more detailed tips and even travel deals but only to my NEWSLETTER subscribers, so if you’re not signed up, do so now so you don’t miss out!
My Amalfi Coast recap will be up next week, so stay tuned. Thank you for reading.
Great article and tips. We are headed to Italy (Naples, Amalfi, Sicily) this September. I am looking forward to your Amalfi detailed post as I would love some ideas.
That’s so awesome! It will be up by Thursday.
Titi, I really appreciate your thoughtful and insightful post about traveling. I just set up Google flight alert and yes flying from Newyork is cheaper. I did the comparison of some flights from DC comare to JFK..