Be SMART and Enjoy Your Holiday

nikensmartini December 25, 2017 2 Comments

Having a great holiday is always a dream for most people. All of us need the peaceful and attractive moments during our holiday with less worry about the common thing that usually appear without any plans in advance. That is one of the reasons why people spent lots of money for their holiday and do their savings when they come back into routine. Actually, there are some tips to reduce the travel expenditures but we still enjoy the holiday without any limitations. Just Be SMART and keep enjoying!

1. Do the savings every month
It is better if we plan the holiday months before. It means that we can still have time to spare the money for traveling every month. It will be hard if we start savings only 1 or 2 weeks in advance, especially if you plan to go overseas. There are some amounts that we need to bring and don’t forget to bring the contingency budget. The contingency budget is needed to prevent if something happen and you need to add extra money, such as extra baggage, hotel deposit, adding the travel insurance in the airport or if you have to buy extra luggages because you do too much shopping!

2. Check the transportation ticket and accomodation minimun 6 months in advance

I know that it will be too early to check the ticket for any types of transportation as well as the hotel. However, it will give you lots of benefit if you do that. Usually, many travel providers offer the best rates if we do the transaction months in advance and some of them also give a large discount or a cashback. There are some hotel offer the special booking that you are able to pay when you have arrived at the hotel. It means the expenditure will be done during the arrival instead of on the day you are doing the booking.

3. Reduce the Expenditure on the things that can be saved

Without you never knowing it, there are some things that can be saved during the holiday. It won’t reduce your happiness but you will have extra money for buying the more interesting stuffs, such as clothes, skincares, gadgets or even you are able to book the tour to the tourist destinations that are located in out of town.

Food and Beverages

I used to plot the budget for foods and beverages for budget safe. However, it can be reduced to half of the amount and I still can survive happily. How can I do that?

1. Ensure that your hotel has already include breakfast and you have to be full of breakfast before starting the journey. So, you are able to cut the breakfast budget.

2. Always check the restaurant or mini market trends in the country of destination. For instance, in Japan most supermarkets or mini markets offer half prices on selected foods and beverages after 6 PM. So, you are able to buy some foods for dinner and for breakfast if you don’t have breakfast at the hotel. Those are still fresh though. So, you don’t have to worry getting the expired foods. The seller just need to finish the stocks to have the space for the stocks in the next day.

3. Do some sharing on some foods. It does ‘t mean that you reduce the food portion just for saving. In some coutries, they usually have the big portion for one person. Rather than you throw the food away, we prefer do some sharing on foods with your travel partner. If you are still hungry, you still can buy the extra foods but trust me, the amount won’t exceed the first portion that you had at the beginning.

Transportations

In order to reduce the transportation budget, I used to use the bus or train transportation during traveling by deleting the budget for taxi. In some countries, they provide best quality of bus and trains, which can be accessed very easy and the cost also very cheap. Based on my experience, I feel more safe if I used other public transports instead of taxi in some countries. Because, there are the police offices that are located nearby the station.

3. Prepare the travel itinerary long before departure

This is my powerful tool to save my travel expenditure. Why is that?

I can arrange the desired destinations that need payment for entrance as well as free destinations. Instead of booking for tour, I will have more destinations to visit and reduce the unimportant destinations. For instance, if we joined the tour, we will be taken to the place that we have less interest at, such as an expensive restaurant, souvenir shops, parks and other places. If we arrange our itinerary, we will be able to organize the travel based on our interests and absolutely can reduce costs.
On the first day and also on the last day, always allocate the time to visit the places nearby the hotel. It will save the money and also the enery. Without you even knowing it, our bodies need some rests after flight, especially if you have a long flight. Actually, it will be waste of money if you travel that required public transportations on the first day because you will only have half day to have a long journey. This also applies on the last day if you have a flight after lunch or even at night.
By having the itinerary, you will have the expenditure base that will guide you in spending the money out during the traveling. You will also be able to limit the expenditure based on your needs.
The knowledge of the desired destinations will be another advantages. You will be able know the story about the places before the departure and it will give you more enjoyable feeling.

Those are my tips that I used to apply everytime I go for traveling. How about your tips?

Have a great holiday and thanks for reading.