It’s been more than three years since we took the plunge into a life of travel, and we’re doing what we always dreamed of doing. When we were working steady contracts and living in one spot, all we wanted to do was travel more! Whether you want to go adventuring full time, or just fit in more regular trips, it is absolutely possible to make your globetrotting dreams come true. Keep reading for our top tips on how to travel more!
Save Up
If you want to travel more, it’s time to start saving up! Put yourself in a position to be ready for adventure whenever the opportunity arises. That doesn’t just mean saving money, but saving up hotel nights and airline points too! Here are our top tips for saving up for travel.
Get a travel rewards credit card. Seriously. This is our number one piece of advice for EVERYONE who wants to travel more. Use the card on everyday purchases and regular monthly expenses, and start racking up those points to use on flights and hotel stays! Depending on which country you’re based in, you will have different options for travel cards. Do some research on the best travel rewards card for you.
Join frequent flyer programs and do everything you can to earn points. If your travel rewards card is associated with a program, you can earn even faster! If you’re in Canada, we highly recommend the Aeroplan program, which is what we use. You can earn extra points by going through the Aeroplan E-Store when shopping online. If you’re in the US, we recommend the Delta Skymiles program, which we also use. Delta points never expire and you can earn extra points every time you book an Airbnb by going through the skymiles portal!
Develop a savings plan and start putting money into a travel fund. It’s a good idea to have both a short-term savings plan, and a long-term savings plan! For our short-term savings, we use Tangerine because it’s a direct bank with no fees and high interest rates. For our long-term savings, we have investment portfolios and retirement savings plans with Wealthsimple.
When you have something to save for, it feels a lot easier to put the money aside. You might be surprised at how easily you start saving once you decide to grow your travel fund with zero negotiations. It’s also worth taking a look at your relationship with money, and seeing where you can cut expenses and maybe even grow your income. This year we made a large real estate investment, and it had us get very serious about our personal finances. We’ve been tracking our expenses much more closely, and diversifying our income streams to bring in more money. The biggest game changer for us has been leveraging our property to earn us extra income.
Make the Time
When it comes to fitting more travel into your life, a big barrier can be finding the time. Whether it’s a full-time 9-5 job, or one of the many other things that keep us at home, it can certainly be difficult to fit in globetrotting adventures. The best way to find the time, is to MAKE the time. Here are our top tips for making the time to travel.
Use your weekends, long weekends, holidays, and annual vacation days to travel, and make the most of them! Try tacking on vacation days to either side of a long weekend, or use them in-between a weekend and a national holiday. Get creative with your scheduling to give yourself more days off to enjoy a trip!
Take advantage of any time you have in between work contracts or in between jobs, or consider asking for a short unpaid leave from your 9-5. Use any and all days you have off from work to travel!
If you ever travel for your job, add on some vacation days to the start or the end of the trip. Or you can try arranging your business travel close to a weekend, so you can have the extra days to explore. Turn your business trips into an opportunity to travel!
When we learn to make use of the time we do have, we realize how much time is really there. Remember, you are in control of the time constraints you have to some degree. If you wish your job gave you more flexibility, find one that does! Look into other options in your field. Consider contract work, freelance work, or work you can do remotely. Think about additional income streams, as well as passive income. When we wanted to have more time to travel, we made the time, we gave up our steady work contracts and started working entirely for ourselves. We have never had so much freedom to travel, and we’ve never looked back!
Spend Less
If you want to travel more, start spending less on your trips! This means your money will go further and you will be able to go on more adventures. There are plenty of ways to save on your travel expenses, and people do it all the time. Here are our top tips for saving money on travel.
Plan effectively. Compare costs, and research the best prices! If you’re flexible with your dates and destination, it’s much easier to find flight deals and inexpensive accommodations. If you’re NOT flexible with your dates and destination, book as far in advance as possible!
Get creative with your accommodations. Expensive hotels are not the only option! Try looking at apartment rentals or vacation homes. Consider a home exchange or house sitting arrangement. We have a full blog post all about booking smart travel accommodations.
Cash in your flight points, or redeem a free hotel stay for your trip. Allow your money to go toward experiences and activities once you’re in your destination! Travelling in the low season and choosing less expensive destinations will also allow your money to go much further.
Travel doesn’t need to be expensive or out of reach. And spending less doesn’t need to mean having a “budget travel” experience. There are SO many different ways to do it! When you start looking at all of the options out there, you might realize how accessible travel can be. With a bit of extra research and planning, you can spend far less on travel than you think you need to. The more you do it, the better you will get at spending less!
Do you have any tips for fitting more travel in your life? Let us know in the comments!
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