There are many ways to travel. You can either travel on a budget or if you have the extra means, you can even travel luxuriously! But hey, we millennial always have the disadvantage of having not enough money. So, tadaaa this post serves to share with you- 5 solid ways to travel on a budget and yea, this is mostly based on my experience too!

1. Why do you travel?
First thing that you need to ask yourself, why do you travel?  Is it for relaxation i.e. to get away from the normalities and the mundane day to day desk bound job that is squeezing the sanity out of you?  Or are you planning to go somewhere and make new friends? Some of us may even travel to find ourselves, to refine who we are  and finding again our identity.  The purpose of your travel could determine your budget.

2. Choose: cheap room or cheap transport?
You have to choose between booking for a cheaper room or book a cheaper flight. This way, you could at least get a bit of luxury in your trip and not having to sacrifice everything while at the same time following strictly to your budget.

3. Choose the cheapest destination 
Unless you have decided on the destination that you want to visit, if you haven’t determine the destination but you do have the savings already set for travel, then browse through the airline website and check out for the latest promotion or cheapest destinations. Heck, it doesn’t even have to be international destinations ! You can  even travel domestically in Malaysia. Just 1 night stay from you, will make you a traveller.

4. Make a budget
Right. This may sound like a cliche but hey, for us who owns a certain paycheck, we have to budget well before travelling. When budgeting, you should relate back to number 1.

OK, if you travel just to relax and mainly stay at a nice hotel and most of the time spend time to read books at a cafe, picnicking at a park and go for leisure walks….then the budget should be allocated mostly on paying for the accommodation, f&b and transportation to get there. and back

But, if you plan to visit the tower of London for instance which may cost you about 63£ plus the audio book  (around rm340) and then do a bit of shopping at Primark then your budget should cover accommodation, shopping/souvenirs, transportation (going  to,  within the city & back), sightseeing and f&b.

5. Compromise with yourself.

This final bit is the most important. You need to assess how much money you could spend for travelling that year. Swiping your credit card wouldn’t be advisable if you can’t make the full payment on time. Especially for those who plans to get a house loan etc…we must always be cautious to not make our non-budgeted spending affects our credit scoring.

My final word is… don’t be too hard on yourself,  if the budget is not enough for the Leaning Tower of Pisa this year, there’s always Teluk Intan clock tower awaiting.

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Written by: Zulaika Zakariah
Date: 26 Oct 2018

Featured image: My personal photo taken at Shalimar Gardens, Lahore, Pakistan in January 2017.