There’re little tips that you can use when you travel abroad to help you save money. Traveling can be costly, but that doesn’t mean that you can’t employ a little financial savoy while traveling to help you save up a lot of money over time.
Don’t visit the currency conversion kiosks that they have at the airport
If you’re exchanging currency that you already have, that’s one thing. However, if you’re trying to get money, just use an ATM once you get to your country of choice. The kiosks at the airport charge you the exchange rate and then they mark it up as well to make a profit for themselves. However, if you use an ATM then you’ll get charged an ATM fee, but you’ll most likely get your money close to the market exchange rate and sometimes, ATM’s abroad will allow your bank to do the conversion instead.
Take public transportation
Public transportation domestically and abroad is cheaper than taking Uber or renting a car sometimes. Depending on where you are, sometimes renting a car is best just to save time. However, if the location is metropolitan or near a metropolitan area, taking public transit can save a lot of money, keep you from worrying about different laws regarding the road, and can help save money from looking for parking along with a car rental.
Cook your own food
Go grocery shopping whether you’re traveling domestically or abroad. Also, it’s a great learning experience and you might get turned on to new foods that you can’t find in your own country. One of my favorite things to do in France is to go grocery shopping. There’s a nice selection of items in there that I can’t find in the United States.
Eat street food
This may be scary for some, but street food is super inexpensive, you’re putting money in the locals’ hands, and it’s delicious. Obviously use discernment and proceed with caution. I have gotten sick a few times from eating street food, but it’s a rare thing and once it did happen, I just knew not to go back. However, 9/10 street food is where it’s at. Whether it’s the taco stands in Mexico or the Halal stations in New York, I love some street food. It doesn’t break the bank.
Link up with other travelers and locals
There have been times where I was traveling solo, and people made it a point to link up with other travelers. Doing so allows you to group up and go to different destinations together which most likely means paying less or nothing at all, depending on how generous the people around you are.
All of these have saved me hundreds if not thousands when I traveled abroad. It may not seem like much, but everything adds up.