Susanne 2. Travel during off-season
– Travelling off-season can save you a pile of money. Flights are cheaper, hotels are cheaper, service staff are much friendlier during the less popular travel seasons. I suggest visiting Europe in the spring, from about mid-March to late June, and in the fall, from about late August to mid October. The weather is usually quite good and not overly hot, and you are avoiding the annoying tourist crowds and traffic jams that afflict Europe during prime travel time in July and August.
3. Make money on the road
– Many people, particularly those who travel long-term, need to make money on the road to finance their travels. There are a number of options to earn money while travelling. Young people under 30 in particular receive work permits for different countries quite easily.
– Many people work in the hospitality industry while they are travelling abroad, some become multi-lingual tour guides, or even scuba diving instructors.
– If you are a freelancer in a computer-based field you can continue that while you are abroad. Careers such as writing, computer programming, web design, advertising and copywriting, translations and online language teaching can be continued from anywhere on the road, as long as you have the proper computer and Internet access.
– This year I earned a few hundred Euros myself by teaching a seminar at a Pedagogic University in Austria. I had been invited as a special lecturer by the continuing education department of the high school teachers’ university and taught a seminar about Canadian Cultural Studies. I have already been invited back to teach again next year. Even though the seminar involved a ton of preparation (500+ pages of research) and 5 months of nervousness leading up to it, teaching this full-day workshop ended up being a great experience and I ended up really enjoying it. The audience seemed to have a great time and based on the feedback, the seminar is going to be offered again next year.
4. Change your priorities
– Re-evaluate whether upscale accommodations, individual transit (taxis, rental cars) and fine dining are really that important to you. To save money if you are travelling for a longer period of time, travel inexpensively 80% of the time, and treat yourself 20% of the time. You will see that you will actually enjoy your luxury experiences more when you have them only occasionally.
– Is it really that important to buy all these expensive trinkets and souvenirs? People often spend a lot of money, add a lot of extra weight to their luggage (which they often have to pay surcharges for), and add to their clutter at home. I generally only pick up a few light-weight souvenirs for my friends and I have stopped buying mementos for myself completely since I don’t want to fill up my house at home with trinkets from abroad. All I take now is photographs and video clips, and those provide the best memories of my trips.
I hope these tips will help you save some money on your next trip to Europe and inspire you to try some new forms of travel that you might not have tried before. Feel free to send us your unique travel money saving suggestions – we will feature them in a future article and promote them on Facebook.
Check out our 2010 trip to Rome, Frascati and Orvieto.
Here is our 2010 trip to Madrid, Salamanca and Segovia.
These articles are from our 2010 trip to Asturias.
Here you can find our 2009 trip to Mallorca.
Have a peek at our 2009 trip to Prague.
Here are the articles from our 2009 trip to Austria.
Here is an article about a 2009 day trip to Slovenia.
This link will connect you to our 2008 trip to London.
Here are the articles for our 2007 trip to Austria.
This link will take you to our 2007 trip to Sicily.
Check out our Facebook fan page for photos from our 2011 trip to Andalucia (Seville, Granada, Cordoba, Cadiz, Costa de la Luz), Austria and Berlin.
