Posts Tagged ‘Plan’
Great Guides to Help You Plan Your Travel Budget
There are literally hundreds of guides on budget travel to be found on the Internet and in bookstores. Some are useful, some are not. It really depends on what you want and where you are going. Many web sites offer email subscriptions and regular updates on where the best deals are. So how do you decide which ones are the most useful? A lot of the sites are confusing, so how do you find the ones that are going to give you the information you need?
Online bookstores have sections on travel guides. Try Amazon or specialty travel book stores like the Globe Corner Bookstores. They have an amazing array of guide books for the traveler on a budget. The most important thing to keep in mind about published guidebooks is that once the information is printed, it is probably out of date. Although most of them are updated annually, you cannot take what is written as set in stone. Internet guides are preferable in this area because their information is updated sometimes on a daily basis so all the deals on offer are available when you see them.
The best guides seem to be the ones that give you specific information on either your choice of destination or the type of holiday you will be taking (family vacation, backpacking, students, seniors, etc). There are the well known guide books/web sites like The Lonely Planet that will give you information on just about every destination you can think of. Or you can contact the embassy of the place you want to visit or go to the library to find out more about your choice of destination. Most web sites will also have links to travel deals that are from the site sponsors. Some of the deals look great but research them. Compare to other sites to get the best deal for you.
Some guides worth having a look at for the budget traveler are:
* ‘The World’s Cheapest Destinations’ by Tim Leffel
* ‘Europe on $70 a Day’ by Arthur Frommer
* Any guidebook from the Lonely Planet ‘Shoestring’ series
* Any guidebook from the ‘Cheap Eats and Sleeps’ series
Budget Travel Tips for Those Who Plan
Copyright (c) 2008 Kaye Dennan
If you are planning to travel on a budget and have the holiday of a lifetime, there is no reason why you cannot. Budget travel still makes exotic locations available and affordable.
Budget travel is more than just booking a cheap fare somewhere, it is also about the best value for your dollar. Budget travel is about compromising certain parts of your travel to get a better deal, about selecting one particular offer over another, depending what the package is and similar decisions like this.
You can only make these decisions if you thoroughly research your destinations. As we all know it is a great big, big world out there and to catch the tourist, operators have to be inventive in their promotions and at certain times will lower costs or add in extras to get the customers. These are the little things that can make a difference when travelling on a budget.
Your research will help you find these facts and figures and when you have the answers you are searching for, then you can go ahead and book.
By researching everything in the area you are planning to go to, you can establish if there are any special events on at the time you are arriving, which of course will elevate the cost of accommodation and blow out any idea of budget travel. Such changes can cost you extra money that you had not allowed for.
Be careful when booking ahead and read the fine print on anything that you are paying. It is often in the fine print that there are extra charges. Examples that I can think of are, being charged extra for a room with a balcony, extra costs for toiletries or car parking, to name just a few.
In certain places like Aspen for example, you are going there for the snow and the fun, so you could probably have just as much fun living in cheaper accommodation, whereas if you were going to a place like Ibiza you may wish to be able to have a room with a view and cut back on other costs.
It is all relative as what sort of holiday you are looking for, and what your travel budget is at the time.