Two of my most frequently asked questions are:
How do you afford to travel?
How do you save for my travel?
When I started Gophari.com, I was working full time as a chemical engineer and would use savings from my salary to fund my trips. I managed to travel a lot of South Africa and do international travel each year.
In this article, I have shared how I would save for travel and cut travel expenses. It all comes down to good travel planning. Read on to learn more…
Have a Travel Plan
I would plan out my entire year of travel at the start of the year. This was never a detailed itinerary but an outline of the destinations with a rough idea of the dates of travel.
Having your year planned out has a number of benefits which will become more clear as you continue to read this post. One of the obvious benefits is that it gives you an idea of how much money you will need.
I find it best to set up my plan on a calendar template with the public holidays marked out. The year can fly by so quickly so plan plan plan.
Save monthly
I had a separate account dedicated to saving for travel. It was a joint account with my travel buddy. We each would make a fixed monthly contribution to this account.
Having a joint account with someone you trust helps to keep you accountable and stops you from being tempted to use the money on other things.
Take advantage of travel sales
I love a good bargain. I follow every airline on social media so as to not miss out on flight sales. I retweet these sales on my Twitter page, @GophariTravel. You benefit most from sales if you have your travel plan in place. Flights are the biggest expense for international travel so you definitely do not want to miss out on great flight deals.
Remember to check the weather during the flight sale dates – they may be cheap because you will be traveling during rainy season. Flights during off peak season are cheaper and off peak does not necessarily equate to the worst time to visit. For example, travelling to Greece during off peak (End of summer) meant less crowds and lots of sales but on the downside we did not get to experience the parties in Mykonos. Weigh your options and check the weather forecasts but overall it is great advice to travel during autumn instead of summer.
Improve your travel planning skills
Planning a trip yourself versus buying a travel package gives you more opportunity to save. For example, read my blog post on how I planned a trip to Greece to see the cost breakdown. When you purchase a package you usually need to have a lump sum of money ready to pay all at once. However, when you plan everything yourself you can pay for flights this month and then accommodation later etc which eases the financial strain.
Read travel blogs
You can learn a lot from following travel bloggers and reading travel blog posts. Take advantage of the lessons learnt from our travels – they could save you money! Checkout these female South African travel bloggers.
I am obsessed with paying as little as possible for travel and I share all of my travel lessons here on Gophari.
To get the most value out of this platform I highly recommend subscribing to Gophari.
Be flexible
Some destinations are pricier than others. You may have written your travel plan and included a 7 night stay in New York but after checking flight prices find that this is way out of your budget. Be flexible enough to consider a destination that you can afford more easily. There are certain destinations which are less heavy on the pocket and just as thrilling. I have listed some on a previous blog post about VISA free, Rand friendly destinations
Travel Locally
Make the most of what is near to you. Take some time to discover the attractions near your home. This way, you can have travel experiences without the expense of a long distance journey.
I have particularly enjoyed living in and exploring South Africa. While working full time, I would maximise on local travel by doing road trips over weekends. Mpumalanga and Eastern Cape come to mind when I reflect on my favourite adventures in South Africa.
I encourage you to plan a road trip with friends for a weekend away, split the petrol costs, book an Airbnb and enjoy your country affordably this way.
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I’m inspired dts all I’m gona say 🙌🏾
Really love the Airbnb tip – my friends and I used it to plan our girls trip and we had an incredible host.