What makes travel so grand? Is it the new location? A different culture? Or just the possibility of getting away from the day to day stress. Read on to discover how to travel on a budget.

Tip #1: Create a budget.

When planning a trip, sit down with yourself or your significant other and determine how much money can be spent on your trip. Give yourself some time to consider: transportation, hotels, clothing, food, etc. Be sure to include how many people are traveling with you. You might learn what a ticket cost for one person but then you will need to multiply that cost by how many are in your travel party.

As I will state later in the post, research will be a big help to your planning. I found this article during my recent research for our upcoming trip to Greece. I love that the author gave a variety of budget levels for traveling to Greece. Once you have created your budget number, now it’s time to list out all your wants.

I love to travel! You can find other tips and advice I have given on a previous post, here.

Tip #2: List your wants.

While considering your travel budget, make a list of all your top wants in a trip. What is the most important to you? Great food or a great hotel? Which would you prefer to do more of: lounge in your hotel or be out and about with the locals? Write your travel priorities in 1, 2, 3 format and allocate the most funds to your top priority.

For me, I want my family to have as many experiences as they can while on a trip. As far as money goes, I am willing to eat cheaper or reserve a standard hotel room if it means we can rent a sailboat and tour an island or if we can take an old fashioned train ride up the mountainside. For others, having a grandeose suite is the hilight of their trip. Only you can determine which part of a trip is the most important to you and therefore, deserves the greatest allotment of your budget.

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After you have listed your wants, now begins the research. Research allows you to match your wants with your budget.

Tip #3: Research, research, research.

With the world wide web at our fingertips, you have ample oportunities to research any travel destination. Pinterest, Instagram, YouTube, and blogs offer a plethera of ideas for where to stay, what to do, and what to eat. Depend on the real life experiences bloggers or friends and family share with you regarding your desired travel destination. Please do not rely on only one person’s review. Spend time reading or viewing several reviews of a restaurant, resort, or travel experience.

Once you have completed your research, create a travel ititnerary that list where you will go each day, where you will eat, and where you will stay. An itinerary can help reduce impulse spending and keeps your entire travel crew on track. For our trip to Wales, I used Rough Guides travel guide to Wales. Here is one for Greece. (As an Amazon Associate, I may earn commission off any viable links. This is at no extra cost to you.) My travel guide book gave me an abundance of information and really was beneficial during my trip and I needed a quick reference to an area or a recommendation for food.

With careful study of reviews, I have utilized the following sites for hotels and overnight stays: Airbnb, VRBO, and Booking.com Google can offer great reviews on restaurants and experiences. Yelp is also another review site for restaurants; however, blog reviews of restaurants for overseas trips might be most beneficial.

For more tips on how to travel on a budget, check out this link.