I thought about how I wanted to write this post several times over. But it still keeps coming out jumbled and not as organized as I’d like it to. I wouldn’t say that I’m a travel expert by ANY means but I do get this question a lot and I want to help in any way that I can so hopefully something on here helps you.

Being flexible is key for traveling frequently and cheaply. Whenever I am looking to book a trip I add 3 days before or after on Expedia and make it so any nearby airport is included in my options. I just booked flights to Scotland recently and I got a one way flight to Edinburgh for $190 by booking at a different airport than the one I had initially planned on. It was a smaller airport and a little further away but it was completely worth it. Another website that works for this is Skyscanner. This is an awesome website because you can pull up a whole month and look at when the cheapest flight is. It will tell you what destinations are the cheapest to fly to so if you don’t have a set destination you can find a different new place to go to that fits in your flight budget. Another one I recently found is Pomelo travel. I don’t pay for a subscription so I miss some of their deals but they just recently sent me an amazing deal for a roundtrip to Sweden and I have friends that booked their flight to Rome on it. You can also sign up for flight alerts on a number of different websites so when the flight you want drops in price you are one of the first to know about it. Skyscanner, Airfarewatchdog and Tripadvisor to name a few. A lot of times you can snag amazing online deals on Black Friday or Cyber Monday. Another way you can catch good deals is by following your local city travel instagram. I don’t know if every city has them but flightsfromhome.slc is the Utah one and she is always posting amazing flight deals but you have to be flexible because they are only for select times/months. I know the same woman does one for LAX and Vegas too. I am sure there are similar grams that do the same thing and sometimes our travel destinations change because of these good finds.

Being frugal is another big factor. To start off get a credit card that gives you points towards free flights. THIS IS HUGE and probably my biggest advice. The way we flew round trip to Spain and Portugal this Spring was through our free points. If you are interested in traveling around the states your points will go a lot further and you can travel more. It can take a lot of points to travel Internationally but we put everything on our card. I honestly hate using cards and would prefer cash but Lyle is always saying it helps to build credit and get us points. We have the United Mileage Plus Chase Visa Card. I’m sure there are a lot of good cards out there just make sure you look into blackout dates and how you earn points. Look for one that has a sign up bonus and then put your initial flight on there and it could help you get a free flight back. Some people say they can’t afford to travel but stop and think about how much “extra” money you spend in a week. How often do you go out to dinner or grab Starbucks or anything not necessary. It helps if you pick a destination and work towards it. Start by seeing how much things cost in the place you want to go and deciding how much you need to save and go from there. It’s crazy how expensive eating out can be and you don’t realize how fast the little things add up. If you don’t eat out and are already really frugal think about asking for travel for you birthday or Christmas. Asking for money can be awkward but we are at the point where we don’t really need anymore junk so for Christmas and Holidays we just say we are saving for a trip and we asked about Expedia vouchers (although I don’t even know if that’s a thing) and we just got money instead. We put all that money towards travel. If you want somewhere local then tell everyone you are planning a trip to Disney and people can help towards tickets or a hotel. If you are married instead of giving gifts you both can save money and work towards a trip instead. This is something Lyle and I have started doing and we want to do this with our kids too. Experiences are so much more meaningful than things. I once met this woman who discouraged family members and friends from getting her children toys and material things but instead wanted them to do an activity or make a memory with that child and I think thats a really cool idea.

Hostelworld, Airbnb and Expedia are the different sites we use to book places to stay. The most familiar one we are with is hostelworld and you can book a room for as little as $10 a night in some locations! You can pay a little more for a private room or you can pay for a shared room. They do rooms for 4 people all the way up to 24 in some places. Lyle and I tried this out once and paid for two people in a twelve person room and we ended up having it all to ourselves. We have done a 6 person room too and everyone was really nice and it’s fun to stay in hostels because you meet really cool travelers who give you good tips and inspire you. Typically we do a private room but we have tried other rooms too. I had a friend tell me she wanted to go to Europe when she could do it the “right way” and stay in super fancy places and I just want to tell you if you are traveling through Europe you don’t want to be cooped up in a fancy hotel room, you want to be out exploring and meeting people. That is doing Europe the “right way.” You are opening yourself up to meet new people and make connections and it’s awesome. We met the coolest girl from Ecuador while we were in Thailand and she told us we can stay with her when we make it down that way (which is hopefully soon) and we told her she can stay with us when she comes to the states. Staying in hostels is a really cool experience. We are always up early exploring all day and come back to just sleep and then we are up and out again. We have an account through Expedia too and we book a lot through there and we get special rates and discounts because we have an account with them so that saves us a lot of money when we are traveling too.

If you are wanting to save money travel with friends or family. When Lyle and I travel together I absolutely love it. There is something so exciting about being in a new city and not knowing a single person but him. However when we travel everything we spend comes from one account; our account. If you can convince some friends or a sister or any family members then you split the cost of everything. If you are traveling around Iceland with three other friends thats four people splitting the cost of a cars, ubers, hotels and even food! Convincing friends can be the hard part but if you know anyone who travels like this even if you aren’t super close ask them about their next trip and see if you can join in or ask around. Find people who have similar passions and interests to you and tag along. I am sure they won’t have a problem having someone split the costs with them. 😉

Traveling right before busy season is another huge money saving tip. The prices are significantly cheaper if you travel right before or right after busy season. For example, Europe would be cheaper in April or May than in July and August. I honestly prefer traveling before or after anyway because I think the weather is better and it isn’t as crowded. I don’t like to go in the complete opposite season though because if I am paying to go somewhere I want to be able to enjoy it but you could save a lot if you go at the opposite time.

Take Advantage of Time… If you are in high school, travel. If you are in college, travel. If you just graduated then travel. If you are younger than this part will specifically apply to you. If you are in high school then you probably don’t have any bills. Get a job and travel during the Summer while you have the ability to save a lot easier. If you are in college I know it’s a bit harder if you are doing most of it yourself but take advantage of grants and scholarships and study abroad where you can knock out credits and see the world at the same time. If you can’t afford both then take a semester or two off before starting college. Don’t tell your parents I am encouraging that though haha. School is really important but as we can tell from my track record I like to take breaks for travel and I think it has actually helped set me apart as a student and not hindered me. College will be there but life is too short to assume that you will always be able to travel when you’re older. Take advantage of the time before you start your career or have children if you can. Time is a lot of reasons that people give me for not being able to travel. Teaching is an awesome career if you love to travel because you have Summers, you can take a leave of sabbatical and they have a lot of programs you can enter into that will allow you to travel for free.

Take advantage of connections or make connections yourself. Get a job working for the airlines or use it to your advantage if you have a family member who gets buddy passes. Even if you paid them some money for them it would be cheaper than buying the flight on your own. Do you have any family members or friends who work for a hotel chain? Don’t be afraid to ask them for the friends and family discount. If you are traveling to a new city or place ask people if you can stay with them. Most of them would be thrilled to let you stay with them. Use pinterest and travel blogs to do your research on where you are going to. They are the most helpful to me whenever we travel. I find out mistakes others made and tips they have on saving money and how to make the most out of your travels. I went from fashion blogs to food blogs and lately I have been obsessed with travel blogs. I love following people who respond to my questions and help me navigate the stressful waters that are traveling. I linked the instagram tags of some of my favorite travelers. Haylsa (she responds to my questions and is so helpful not to mention her pictures are super dreamy), amberfillerup (she responds to questions on twitter and answers a lot of helpful travel tips, especially helpful for traveling with kids), and doyoutravel for some SERIOUS travel inspiration. I swear they have lived out all my huge travel dreams. Find people that inspire you and ask them questions.

I hope some of this helps you guys. Everyone’s circumstance is different, I understand that. Lyle and I have pretty flexible jobs and do anything we can to make travel work. There are things that I have sacrificed too because I would rather make time and money to travel…not for instagram or to cross it off my bucket list but because you fall in love with places and the people that live there. You humble yourself and become a better person. You learn things that you could never learn in a classroom and you grow in so many amazing ways. Make it a priority and start planning your trip and I promise the rest will fall into place. Pick a spot and slowly start paying for it as you go along. Having payments to make as you go along helps you to stay focused on your goal and you have time to work out each piece of the trip. You will be hooked though, don’t say I didn’t warn you.

If you have any extra questions that I didn’t answer please message me.

If I add more to it as I continue thinking I will let you know as well.

xx Cait