While we were prepping to travel for a year, one of the most frequently asked questions was how we were going to afford this. When planning to travel, the high costs are usually the driving factors in making the important decisions of booking. There are many ways to save on travel, and here are some that have been helpful for us!

Lodging

• AIRBNB – Join Airbnb and get $40 off your first stay! Once you join Airbnb, you can refer people with your link, and get $20 when they book their first stay, or $75 if they host their first guest!
• BOOKING.COM – Save with Booking.com, Planet Earth’s #1 Accommodation Site. No booking fees ever! We were able to save a lot of money on this site on our trip to Thailand, and other places where Airbnb was not as available. Highly recommend it! You can also use booking for flights, cars, and more!

Airfare

• KAYAK- Find some of the best flight deals on our favorite site, Kayak! What I also love about the site is they track the trends of the flight prices, and will let you know if the trend might go down or up, and when to buy. You can also sign up for alerts for price changes if you are not quite ready to purchase a flight. You can also book lodging, cars and more here!
• SOUTHWEST RAPID REWARDS – Why oh why did we not find this sooner? The Southwest Rapid Rewards Credit Card is the best deal around! When you book a flight, hotel, car, etc using your Southwest Rapid Rewards card, you get double the points. Use it anywhere else? Get 1 point for every dollar you spend. They also have excellent sign-up bonuses that give you a boatload of points right off the bat! Get to 110,000 points and you will be granted the companion ticket, which lets a companion fly for FREE with you!

Getting Around

• LYFT – New to Lyft? Sweet! Get $5 off your first ride! Once you sign-up, you can also refer your friends to save even more! We found a great coupon for this app when we were in San Diego and Vegas, which saved us a TON on taxi rides!
• UBER – Get $15 off your first ride! After that, you know the drill, refer a friend and get money back! Uber is super trusty, and they have it all over the world! We even used this in Chiang Mai, Thailand for super cheap! A one way, 30 minute ride cost us about $5. Win!

Shopping

• IBOTTA – Ok, you don’t have to be travelling to save here, anyone can use this bad boy. It is simple! Download the app to get cash back when you go shopping! Once you get the app, look at what deals are being offered, go to the store, purchase the item, scan your receipt, and get cash back! I got over $30 back in my first 2 weeks using it! When we travel, we like to buy groceries instead of eating out every day, and this app lets us save even more!
• GROUPON – I’ve always been a huge fan of Groupon, but it is super helpful while travelling. I have been able to take yoga classes, get cheap massages, go on whale watches, and visit museums at a fraction of the cost. They often have special deal days where you can save more. ALSO, if you access Groupon through the Ibotta app, you can get up to 10% cash back as well. Deals on deals on deals!!

Staying Fit While Travelling

• WORKOUTS AND TIPS – Stay fit while travelling in my new book, The Female Vagabond’s Guide to Staying Fit on the Road. I wrote this book while travelling for a whole year which includes how I was able to stay in shape, including workouts, nutrition tips, and more! The price has recently dropped and it is only $4.99 on Kindle, or FREE if you have Kindle Unlimited!

• YOGA VIDEOS – Not able to  get out of the house or your hotel room or have a hard time affording an expensive yoga membership? Check out these yoga videos to do at home!

This travel adventure that we are on has been an ongoing learning experience. We are always finding new ways to save, new places to visit, new people to learn from, and so much more! What are your favorite ways to save money while traveling?

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