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Travel Tips: How To Budget For Your Next Trip | Hacks & Tools

As part of my series on travel hacks & tips, i shared a few tips in a blogpost here on practical ways to fund your travel goals. I highly recommend checking it out if you missed it or need easy, practical steps to funding your travel plans and goals. 


In this follow up post, i share five (5) useful steps & tools for putting together an effective budget for your travels-be they regionally or internationally. 


1. Research and decide on a travel destination


The first, most important step in budgeting for your trip is beginning a search for the ideal place for your next vacation. Inspiration for this can be found in travel guide books which offer detailed information on places, accommodation options, options for transportation and activities, maps etc. to guide your stay in specific regions. 


Another equally useful option is to utilize Travel Blogs which offer more personalized travel information and experiences, travel guides for specific countries /states, cost breakdown and more! 


The first, most important step in budgeting for your trip is beginning a search for the ideal place for your next vacation.

2. Identify big ticket items eg: Air Ticketing


Once you have narrowed in on a travel destination, the next important step is to identify your big ticket items and budget for them accordingly. For most travelers especially those within the Global South, airplane tickets make up a huge chunk of our travel cost / budget. Two useful resources for finding cheap flights are: www.skyscanner.com and www.googleflights.com (hacks: browse in incognito mode and select options for weekdays rather than weekends)


For each of these sites, you have an option of finding out the cheapest month and day to fly out of your location. You have the option to also set pricing notifications for preferred flights and dates, and you will be notified of price rises or falls pertaining to your flight option. 


3. Research cost of living in your travel destination


Because different countries and regions exist within different economic landscapes, researching the cost of living for your travel destination is a step you cannot miss.


Travel guides serve as a good resource for finding information on this, as most travel guides offer a fair estimation of cost for specific countries, activities and accomodation, among others. Another equally effective resource is our very favorite search engine-Google! A simple search of the engine will provide some great information on how much you are likely to need per day in your desired destination. 


4. Budget for key items such as Accommodation, Transportation, Feeding & Activities


The next items to tick off your budgeting list are the relatively smaller to medium ticket items. These may include accommodation, transportation, feeding and activities.

Find below some resources I have found useful in budgeting for each of these items on my travels. 


5. Leave room for other expenses eg: visa fees, travel insurance and vaccination


It's always advisable to leave some room within your budgeting for other expenses which may come about as a result of your location (visa expenses), emergencies (travel insurance) or circumstance (vaccination/testing cost as part of countries’ COVID -19 travel policies). Leaving room for other expenses allows you space within your budget for comfort, as well as sense of security while away from home.


Happy wanderlusting!

As always if you find these tips useful in your travel planning or budgeting, be sure to drop a comment below or send an email at info@shesuthman.com with your feedback/experience. I would love to hear from you! 

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