Last Updated: 6/16/21 | June 16th, 2021
While lots of of us dream of traveling the world (or at least taking a few months off from work in pursuit of adventure), it’s not always practical — even for those with the best of intentions. A lot of things can get in the way.
I frequently talk about long-term travel and round-the-world trips, but I know that realistically, not everyone can or wants to take pleasure in this style of travel. I don’t think traveling the world is hard, but I also know that what I do isn’t for everyone.
On the one hand, travel is a privilege not everyone has access to.
On the other hand, some people just want to go on a cheap holiday for a few weeks. Not everyone has the time or interest in taking an prolonged trip.
So what do you do when you only have a short amount of time and a short amount of money?
What are some budget holiday ideas that aren’t about traveling the world?
Even if I won’t find you backpacking Cambodia for three months or walking the Camino de Santiago, there are lots of ways to get on the road and see the world without breaking the bank! here are eight cheap travel ideas if you are cash-strapped and/or time-poor:
Cheap holiday idea 1: Be a local Tourist
How often do you visit the vacationer sites in your own city? hardly ever, right? I know new Yorkers who have never seen the Statue of liberty and Bostonians who have never walked the freedom Trail. I once took a Dutch friend on a excursion of Amsterdam because, despite growing up there, she had never seen the local attractions that lure millions of visitors to the city every year.
We’re all guilty of this. It took me five years to see the Jim Thompson house in Bangkok (even after living there), and I’ve still never been to Bunker hill in Boston despite spending the first 24 years of my life there.
We always put it off until tomorrow, because when we live in a city, we think there is always a tomorrow.
We get so caught up in our daily lives we forget that we can have a cheap holiday in our own city. We don’t have to go anywhere!
If you’re short on schedule and money, there’s no better way to spend some complimentary time than to wander your own city. No matter what its size, it has a number of wonders that you’ve never seen or even known about because you just haven’t explored it like you would somewhere far-flung and “exotic.”
Explore your city the way you would explore it if it were half a world away. Be a traveler in your own town and look at it with new eyes. You might just be surprised!
Check and see what special activities you can do that you wouldn’t do otherwise. For example, EatWith can be found in cities all around the world. It uses unique, locally-created culinary experiences. You’ll get to try new food and meet new people — all while staying in your own backyard!
Additionally, check and see if there are any walking or cycling excursion companies in your city (or nearby cities). Take Walks and Fat Tire trips both run fun, detailed, and insightful trips in cities all around the world. I always book a excursion with them when I want to get underneath the surface of a destination!
Moreover, if you live in a large city, be sure to go to your local tourism office and get a city tourism pass. These cards allow you to see a large range of local attractions for complimentary or minimized prices and can be your way to see your local sites on a budget. They aren’t just for outsiders!
Important tips: When you become a local tourist, check out of your house and into a hotel, hostel, or guesthouse. It’s crucial to get out of your familiar environment because if you stay home, you’ll find something to do around the house and create reasons for why you can’t sightsee. moving to a different location can help give you that feeling of adventure, excitement, and unfamiliarity.
LEARN a lot more —> Staycations: 5 ways to embrace Your next holiday at Home
Cheap holiday idea 2: Travel Regionally
Travel brings to mind faraway and exotic destinations. It invokes images of all the places we’ve dreamedt of and seen in movies. because of that, few people look in their own backyard for adventure — as my Aussie friends always tell me before they jet off somewhere, “Mate, you’ve probably seen a lot more of Oz than I have!” — but it uses just as lots of places to travel.
I could say the same thing as my Aussie friends. I grew up in Boston, and from there, I could visit new Hampshire, the woods of Maine, the bed-and-breakfasts of the Berkshires, or the farms of Vermont. new York was a four-hour car ride from home. how often did I do that? Not often enough!
Exploring your own region is an underrated and often overlooked aspect of travel. It gets the occasional lip service in magazines, but driving across the united states made me realize how much our own countries have to offer us and how often we ignore that for some foreign place.
There’s something special about being a stranger in your homeland and realizing you really don’t know much about it as you thought.
We think because we’re born in a place we understand it but every country has regional differences that make it special and, unless we travel to see and experience them, we’ll never fully understand the place we call home.
Driving across the us taught me a lot about it. It provided me a deep appreciation for it, the people, and the diversity within its borders. It broke down stereotypes and misconceptions I had about the different regions in the US.
My time exploring my own backyard was just as crucial to my growth as any trip to a foreign country.
If you’re on a limited budget, can’t afford a flight or a trip to exotic lands, or just want to do something different, don’t forget that you can always travel your own country. It can be just as powerful as checking out another country.
Budget-friendly bus companies like FlixBus can help you travel your region on the cheap. They have routes around Europe and the US, with tickets starting at just $5 USD!
LEARN a lot more —> how to road trip across the USA for $50 a Day
Cheap holiday idea 3: Go to national Parks
The great outdoors present a great chance to go somewhere on the cheap. Camping, after all, costs very little money. camping fees in national parks are as little as $15 USD per night in the United States, $15-40 CAD in Canada, $10-60 AUD in Australia, and $17-22 NZD in new Zealand.
And in Europe (especially Scandinavia), you can camp on public lands for free.
Additionally, you go camping stocked with all your own supplies and lodging (i.e., a tent), so you don’t have to worry about spending lots of extra money. Your food bill can be whatever you spend on groceries and nothing more.
You don’t need to love camping to spend time in the national parks, either. Personally, I dislike camping. I’m not the camp-in-a-tent kind of guy; I need toilets, beds, and hot water. Luckily, lots of parks supply cabins. While hiking the Grand Canyon, I stayed at a national park lodge at the bottom. I had a room in a dormitory, but for a few nights, it was the cheap lodging I needed.
There’s nearly always a park nearby and spending a few days with nature is not only good for your purse but also good for your soul.
Looking for a a lot more special experience? Campspace is a web site that lets people camp in someone’s backyard, garden, parked camper, andprivate land for a small fee. It’s like Airbnb but for special camping spots.
Want to do a tiny road trip around your region? use RVShare to lease an RV from a local for cheap!
LEARN a lot more —> how to plan a successful RV Trip
Cheap holiday idea 4: book a last-minute cruise (or book far in Advance)
Cruises are usually very expensive, affairs with a seven-day Caribbean cruise costing over $1,500 USD per person for a small interior room.
And, if you’re traveling alone, you often have to pay the price of two people considering that not lots of cruise lines offer single traveler rooms!
But, if you’re the last passenger running onto that ship, you can find some sweet deals.
Cruise lines always offer extraordinary last-minute deals. No cruise company wants to entrust to half the cabins empty. If you wait until a few weeks before departure, you can normally find some really fantastic offers as cruise lines scramble to find passengers. Plus, cruise operators always throw in some onboard amenities, complimentary upgrades, and cash vouchers to sweeten the deal.
The web site CruiseSheet often has cruises as low as $50 per day! (It’s the best cruise booking web site in the world!)
Conversely, if you book over a year in advance, cruise lines also offer fantastic low fares for early birds.
Cruises are the one form of travel for which I recommend checking out a travel agent if you’re part of a big group. They have terrific working relationships with the operators and can score better bundles than booking online.
After you book, keep an eye out on prices, because if they drop, you can often call your travel agent or the cruise company itself to get a partial refund or vouchers to use for dining and alcohol on the boat.
The cruise industry was significantly impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic. a lot of cruise lines lost billions of dollars, which indicates there are some fantastic offers out there if you’re wanting to plan a cruise.
That said, lots of passengers ended up stuck in quarantine on cruise ships as well. cruise ships, while fun, can easily turn into floating petri dishes, so make sure if you book a cruise that you’re vaccinated and that you have detailed travel insurance that covers cruises in case you get sick or an outbreak occurs on your boat.
LEARN a lot more —> Click here to read my guide to finding incredibly discounted cruises (and how to save money once you are on board.)
Cheap holiday idea 5: Think outside the Box
Forget Mexico and go to Guatemala. skip Paris and head to Budapest. Ditch Italy and see Greece (it’s really cheap!). forget Brazil and take on Bolivia instead. The list goes on and on. There are numerous cheap options and budget destinations around the world!
Travel counter to the prevailing trend.
Zig when everyone zags.
If people are going in the summer, you go in the spring or winter. skip the popular destinations and head off the beaten path a bit.
Contrarian travel will save you a bundle of money. It’s like reverse commuting. While others heading into the city in the morning for work are stuck in traffic, you breeze the opposite way hassle-free. The same is true for travel.
The a lot more you are a contrarian in where — and when you go — the better off you’re purse will be. Plus, you’ll take pleasure in destinations a lot more because there will be fewer crowds. no one likes a crowd!
LEARN a lot more –> 10 Destinations to visit on a Budget
Cheap holiday idea 6: book a last-minute Tour
Just like cruises, trips are best booked last-minute. excursion companies need to fill the seats just like cruise companies, because once that trip departs, they still have the same costs. last-minute excursion bookings work the same way as cruise bookings.
Why are trips so cheap last-minute? Well, think about how people plan vacations. You get the time off work, you book your vacation, you get your flight, and you go. considering that people pre-book, prices are higher in development because these companies understand booking patterns and then price accordingly.
As departure time nears, companies know people aren’t likely to turn up and book on departure day, so they sweeten the price to increase bookings. So take the time off work, wait until the week before, see what’s cheap, and then go.
My favorite company, Intrepid Travel, often uses 15–30% discounts on last-minute tours.
LEARN a lot more —> 8 ways to choose the best excursion Company
Cheap holiday idea 7: Become a house Sitter
Accommodation can eat into the cost of a trip big-time. You might get a flight deal, but then lodging — even if you can find it cheaply — might push the cost of your trip into unaffordable territory.
A way around that is to stay somewhere for free. While I like Couchsurfing, it’s hard to do that for two weeks without annoying your host. A special way to get rid of this is to housesit for someone while they are on vacation. You get complimentary accommodation, a kitchen to cook in, and the chance to explore a destination in depth. It’s a pretty special way to travel and one that I know a lot of world travelers take advantage of. You can even do this in your own region too, to cut down on transportation costs.
The best way to safe housesitting gigs is to build up your portfolio of reviews by starting small. find opportunities near you so safe a few reviews before you start competing for housesitting gigs in popular places like nyc or Paris (since those are a lot more competitive). If you’re ready to do housesits in “less popular” destinations you can easily find opportunities.
LEARN a lot more —> how to become a Housesitter
Cheap holiday idea 8: Grab a cheap Flight
Nowadays, you don’t have to guess where the most affordable flight from your home would be. You can look up a whole list of flights (from most affordable to increasingly a lot more expensive) using a site like Momondo or Google Flights.
With those sites, you can type in “(the closest airport to you)” for your departure city and “everywhere” for your destination. then a list of the most affordable flights appears in front of your very eyes, so you can choose where to go within your budget. This is how I decide where to go when I don’t have a certain place in mind. It’s a great tool!
Here are some other great airline booking sites where you can find deals:
Skyscanner – Skyscanner has a very intuitive platform that lets you search for an open-ended trip. If you’re not 100% sure where you want to go (or when) then start your search with Skyscanner.
Kiwi – Kiwi recently updated their search platform, making it much a lot more intuitive and u