My husband and I have been able to travel quite a bit since we have been married even though we are both teachers. We still have so many places on our bucket list! The #1 thing people are always surprisedabout when I tell them about our travels is how much we spend, or rather, how much we don’t spend. Today, I would like to share the tools I use to plan our trips. *Note, I do NOT get any sort of affiliate benefits from any links shared here unless stated. These are the real tools I use and I do not have any partnerships with any of these companies.
The husband and I just got back from a two-week vacation in Europe. We visited Barcelona, Paris, Venice, Florence, and Rome and had an amazing time (Although we sadly got a stomach bug the later half of the trip. More on that in another post.)!! One of the most intimidating parts of traveling can be how to plan and afford it all. I have never used a travel agent and have mostly taught myself everything I know through extensive research, going on an EF tour with students and observing a ton, and the interactions I have in travel groups on Facebook. All of the tips and prices I am sharing here are based on a couple traveling together, but could easily be applied to a family or larger group of people, or even a solo trip.
Flights (I always book these first)
I always use Google Flights to find the best deals. Since we are both off in the summer, I keep the dates of our trip open and search for the best time to go to our destination. We usually try to leave as early in June as possible. I also usually search for and buy one way tickets as I have always found this to be less expensive. For this trip, we flew into Barcelona on Norweigan ($580) and out of Rome on Air Italy ($665). My biggest takeaway here is to be open to flying on pretty much any airline. We had never flown on either of these before and they were both good. Actually, Air Italy was fantastic and I would actively try to fly on there again. Timing is also crucial. For June 2019 travel, I found the best prices in January 2019 during the sales after the holidays.
Accommodations
The next thing I look for once the flights are booked is accommodations. To do this, I will print out a calendar and mark the days of the trip on it. Getting the dates right for check in and check out is critical and I did mess this up once in 2016 in London when I didn’t account for travel time. Marking it all on a calendar helps me see it. Calendar in hand, I use Airbnb(<– that is my personal referral link) to book all of our stays.
I know that sometimes people are apprehensive of Airbnb, but I have been using them for about four years and have only had good experiences. In total, we spent about $1300 on five Airbnbs for the two weeks. We prefer to stay in apartments versus hotels because we get more for our money and we enjoy having more of a “home” feel. I cooked us breakfast every morning of our vacation, which not only saved us money, but allowed us to take our time in the morning before leaving on the adventure of the day.
Here are some things that help me:
- Look at reviews and if you can find a listing with a “superhost,” even better. Superhosts are verified by Airbnb to have amazing service in their listings. It is not easy to become a superhost, so when you see one available, you should probably book it.
- Also, I always look for strong wifi, some sort of outdoor space if possible (like a balcony), and proximity to the city center and/or public transportation. If a listing is close to a metro stop, for example, that helps a ton. We also look at the neighborhood and if there are grocery stores nearby.
- For two weeks in Europe, we knew we were going to pack light since we would be moving around so much, so I made sure some of our Airbnbs had washers so we could do laundry.
- Book early. I booked our Airbnbs within two weeks of buying our plane tickets to ensure the most availability and best prices.
Travel in and between cities
After we had the Airbnbs booked, I knew we needed to get to each city, but I had never used to train system between countries in Europe before. The confusing thing to me was that you could buy a “Rail Pass” online, but then the rail pass still required you to pay for your seat on certain trains and required a reservation. I found it easier and ultimately cheaper to buy most of ours as individual tickets on Rail Europe because we had exact dates and knew exactly where we were going. If you were planning more of a flexible trip, then the rail pass might be better for you. We bought directly from the Thello website for our overnight train from Paris to Venice because Rail Europe didn’t have the option we needed. In total for the four trains we took, we paid about $830.
- Note, the overnight train from Paris to Venice was a little pricy, but flying and then having another night in an Airbnb would have more expensive and the least amount of airports and flying we have to do is better IMO.
In every city that we visited except for Florence, we found public transportation to be easy to use. Barcelona and Paris have great metros that take you all sorts of places. Venice has a good bus and water taxi system that will take you where ever you want to go. Rome’s metro only has two lines, but they go to all the main spots, and taxis are ever present and inexpensive. In all of our cities except Florence, we bought a metro pass for the number of days we were there and were good to go. Florence has no reliable public transports. Taxis don’t stop at the taxi stands and buses never seem to come, so make sure you stay close to the city center because walking seems to be the only way to get anywhere.
Travel Insurance (yes, you need it)
Yes, some credit cards give you protection when you travel. Both of ours do, and yet we still buy travel insurance. Why? Because the coverage you get with your credit card is limited and we like the peace of mind. I have been using Amex Travel Insurance for years and I love it. You don’t have to have an Amex to use it either. For the entire trip for the two of us, it was only $260. Worth every penny. Their website makes it easy to choose the coverage you want.
Tours/ Experiences
My husband and I have a mixed style of travel. We like some planned activities, but also the freedom to explore and find things not on the travel guide. For this trip, there were definitely some super touristy things we wanted to see, like the Eiffel Tower, and we usedViatorto help us with that because travel to Europe in the summer has gotten crazy popular. The tours we took were well priced and always went really well. And when my husband and I got sick, Viator also helped us cancel two tours that we couldn’t make and gave us full refunds.
For museum tickets, like the Louvre in Paris and the Uffizi in Florence, I booked directly on the museum’s website. Just make sure to do it early because theywill sell out in the summer.
As I said, we also like to have more authentic experiences when possible. In addition to our own exploring and recs from friends, we used Airbnb Experiences to book some unique experiences. In Paris, we used the service to find a bike tour given by a local. In Venice, we took a walking tour off the beaten path through the streets of several neighborhoods and learned so much from a 19-year old whose family has lived there for over 300 years.
Traveling will always be a priority for me, and by doing a lot of research and investing time, I have found that I can find great deals within our budget. If you would like someone to do the work for you and are okay with paying more, use a travel agent. But if you have the time, you can absolutely make a trip like this a reality on a smaller budget. After planning several trips like this in the last few years, I have also learned that I really enjoy trip planning! This last trip was the longest one we have done and had the most places. Now, I feel very confident to plan our next adventure.
