In this post, you will find tips on how to convert your currency, how to buy cheap air tickets, how to save money on visa and health insurance, how to commute around and between cities, where to eat out, go shopping, rent a car and how to choose to the house in your adventure travel.
Hotel – Hostel – Apartments
Many hotels decrease their prices on rooms that are not taken. A good online service – Hotel Tonight might come in handy for the best sales.
Restaurants with panoramic views
The entrance to the observation deck in the skyscraper can cost more than a couple of cocktails in the panoramic bar on the floor below.
Look for best offers at European RW
The most popular is Deutsche Bahn which sells any ticket to Switzerland for 29 euros.
It can be twice cheaper than a Swiss rail pass. You can also use this ticket for the famous Bernina Express.
You may use the paid-up money which is left on the German ticket in Switzerland as well.
Buy tickets in advance. They might cost more at train stations.
Keep euros on Master card and dollars on Visa
Master card converts money through euro, Visa through dollars to avoid double conversion. The rest is simple: use a dollar card for dollar countries, use euros in Europe. Make sense to keep several cards in various currencies.
Free museum entrance
Some museums like Prado in Madrid allow visitors without any money one-two hour’s prior closing. The ticket to Louvre in Paris has a valid all day an unlimited number of entrances tickets. So ask anyone who has already been inside for a ticket and go see Mona Lisa.
Many American museums issue tickets in exchange for a ‘recommended donation’, but you can pay less than the indicated amount. Hermitage in St. Petersburg has a free entrance every last Thursday of each month.
Use the card offline in your phone
Some navigators and guides for smartphones download maps in advance and can work offline: for example, Sygic, Google Maps, 2Gis, Atlas app, etc.
Buy tickets for flights with a transfer in parts
If you need to get to a small regional airport or some exotic country in the middle of the ocean, separate tickets can cost much less than a direct flight. To secure yourself, just give yourself 3-4 hours in advance. If you are late for the next flight, no-one is going to compensate you for the lost money. Check out the Sky Scanner website for additional flight strategies.
Fly business class at the cost of the economy
Almost all major airlines sell more tickets for the flight than the seats, keeping in mind that someone will not show up. In the case of overbooking, it is easier for them to transfer you to the business class for free, than to pay compensation or to send them off to competitors.
The highest changes to fly away in business class at the price of the economy are among those who pass registration last, the lowest are those who have ordered food in advance.
Look for local free WIFI
Download the WiFI Finder app that helps find open hotspots and gives passwords to locked hotspots.
Ask for the bank about discounts in Rent-Your-Car places
Such discounts are mostly given to holders of MasterCard cards in Europe. Also, preferential tariffs apply to members of airline loyalty programs.
Turn a one-way trip into two/three-way adventure trips
Let’s say you found a cheap ticket to Bangkok Vietnam Airlines with a transfer in Ho Chi Minh – and want to take a couple more days to ride the boat on the Mekong Delta? Many long-distance tickets with a transfer allow you to stop on the way not only for 24 hours but at least for the entire period of validity of the ticket.
Such a stop is called a stopover and can add only 1000 rubles to the ticket price at the expense of additional charges at the airport, and can cost $ 50-100 – in any case, it is the cheapest way to look at another country.
Check out hotels in a nearby city
It is cheaper to live in Padua than in Venice, in The Hague than in Amsterdam, in Malmö than in Copenhagen. The road on local trains, which run almost around the clock, will take less than half an hour.
Receive compensation for the delayed flight
If your flight is late and you are flying a European airline (or non-European, but from Europe), then, most likely, you can expect compensation. To receive such compensation, many services will do everything for you for a small commission in case of success.
Use museum benefits
If you can count on discounts at the entrance – for example, you are a student, a journalist or a museum worker, – prepare an international document before departure to show it at the checkout (student ISIC, museum ICOM).
Set a restaurant app to find the best places to eat out
Use Foursquare, Yelp or Trip Advisor to search for decent restaurants nearby. Or buy yourself an application Michelin, if it is in the city or country you need. Try to find out which of them is more often used by residents. Foursquare, for example, can advise beautiful places in Rome but do not help in Riga.
Search for secret hotel deals
There are services like Hotwire, in which hotel networks offer numbers of the cheaper room. Much cheaper than the amounts they announce publicly on their website. The catch is: you will find out the name of the hotel only after booking (but there are no bad hotels).
Get a US visa to adventure travel around Latin America Flight
Flights to most of the continent with a transfer in New York will be much cheaper. Even if you did not even think of going to the city between flights, without the US visa you won’t be allowed to board the plane.
