If you’re used to going on holidays with your family and getting everything paid for, then going on a budget holiday might be a challenge for you. Sooner or later, it’s going to happen, whether it’s a trip with your friends from university or just something you decide to do on your own which doesn’t involve your parents’ money anymore. You might have to cut down a little, but that doesn’t mean you can’t have a great holiday. Here are a few tips for going on a budget holiday for beginners.

Adequate Accommodation

When looking for the right type of accommodation, you’ll have to forget the luxury you usually get if you’ve been traveling with your parents or if you’ve been going on business trips where the money isn’t from your own pocket. You can go on various travel sites such as Agoda, TripAdvisor and Trivago to find best deals on accommodation. The adequate accommodation should be clean, should have a clear route from and to the airport or where ever you’ll be arriving and leaving, should be located in a central location that is near to everywhere you want to visit or at least has an easy access to public transportation, and should have great reviews. Don’t only look for hotels, as these can be the most expensive type of accommodation. Look for bed and breakfasts or opt to rent an entire apartment or house on AirBnB. If you insist on staying at a hotel, there are lots of great three-star hotels that should be enough to accommodate your holiday.

Pack Your Lunch

Eating in a restaurant for both lunch and dinner can cost you a lot of money. We won’t even advise you to take a hotel room that includes breakfast, which is usually more expensive than those without. We recommend visiting the nearest supermarket the first day that you arrive and getting food supplies that you can pack as lunch and eat for breakfast.

For example, if your accommodation has a fridge, you can get milk and cereal for breakfast. If not, you can get baked goods every morning or buy instant oatmeal and fruits. Then, you can get loaves of bread, cheese, lettuce, and sliced meat to make sandwiches for lunch. This will save you a lot of money, and think about enjoying your packed lunch while looking out at a scenic view! It can’t be too bad. Splurge your money on dinner instead, and go to local restaurants that offer various cuisines, or explore the local street food stalls.

Utilize Public Transportation

Forget renting a car or calling taxis every time you want to go somewhere. Renting cars does offer you more freedom, but the deposit is usually a lot. It could cost you twice the price of renting the car, and even though you’ll get it back, that’s not until the end of your trip.

Taxis are much worse, there are a lot of cases where taxi drivers will drive in rounds on purpose to increase the price on the meter. Tourists won’t know that the drivers do this, unless they have a GPS with them. The cheapest option would be public transportation such as buses, trams, and subway trains. You can usually purchase a public transportation card that can be used for all types of transportation for a limited amount of time, depending on how long you’ll stay.