Travel Tips for Dummies
DETERMINE THE LENGTH OF YOUR TRIP
I’m sure you’ve heard the expression Keep it Simple Stupid before. Well, we’re going to focus on keeping it short for right now. Shorter getaways might garner you as much value per trip in terms of time away to flight-cost ratio, but what they DO is allow you to get away on a shorter budget. So for all intents and purposes, we’ll focus on trips between 2-5 days in length but you can certainly apply these principles to trips that are longer than this.
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CHOOSING A DESTINATION
The obvious and easy choice is to choose the one place you’ve always wanted to visit. Not always a bad idea, but sometimes, a quick trip to Oslo isn’t always easy. Instead, go based on your hobbies. Like beer? Check out the area surrounding a brewery you like! Into thrifting and repurposing? How about the world’s longest yard sale (spanning 690 miles from Alabama to Michigan. ). Maybe dance is your thing –try to find a list of dance festivals, contests or exhibitions and plan a trip around that. I know you’re smart; you get the idea!
Maybe you have friends in high (or in this case, far) places. If you have buddies that live somewhere far far away, reach out to them and see if you can pay them a visit. Not only will they know some cool local places that may be off the beaten path, but you also get a travel companion for the weekend (and you might get from free housing too!)
Remember, your destination doesn’t always have to be glamorous, or popular. It all comes down to what you do with your time while you’re there!
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WHEN TO GO
This one is entirely up to you! If you’re looking to travel for a specific purpose –ie. Going to Austin for the Austin City Limits music festival, or Orlando for Epcot’s food and wine festival, then you’ll be traveling in October. But if certain dates aren’t an issue, then consider traveling during a destination’s off season. Traveling during the off season usually means lower accommodation prices and cheaper flights due to decreased demand.
If you’re flexible about dates, give the “weekend” feature on kayak.com a try. Take a look! It allows you to choose a departure day of the week and a return day of the week and then it gives you options for multiple weekends allowing you to choose weekends based on price without having to run searches upon searches.
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HOW TO GET THERE
Oh. You can’t teleport? Awkward. Well depending on the duration of your trip and how far your destination is from where you live, flying is probably going to be the most efficient way to maximize your time. But you’re probably thinking… “But AJ, airfare is SoOoOo expensive!” And I won’t argue with you there. Plane tickets are expensive AF. But sometimes you can get a steal of a deal. Right now, as I’m writing this (November 22, 2018), I’m finding deals for $250 round trip from New York to Dublin Ireland for January 2019. So how is that Possible?
1. As mentioned above: shop the off times. Traveling to desirable destinations in times of the year when there aren’t as many visitors is always a great way to cut down on costs. For example, somewhere like Newport, RI is probably going to be a LOT cheaper in the fall/ winter than in the summer and spring. Which is fine if you’re only going for the automotive museums and Christmas lights.
2. Shop the sales: It pays to have an account with all of the travel websites and receive their emails. This goes for airlines as well! Sometimes I’ll get a 20% coupon for hotels.com or a deal for $400 off for flights from NYC to Australia through Qantas airlines. Sometimes these sales line up with my timeline to take a trip and sometimes they don’t. But its good to know they the sales DO exist.
a. Tip: If you don’t want to be inundated with emails for sales, make a separate email account designated for these travel alerts to keep your personal inbox from getting clogged up.
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WHAT TO BRING
Alright, so you’ve got the destination of your dreams: or at least one you can afford picked out. You know how long you’re going to be there, and you know where you’re staying. Now it’s time do decide what to bring. I’m in the camp of bringing as little as possible –especially when it’s only a weekend trip. I usually bring a carry-on, and a personal item… and that’s it. This way I don’t have to worry about waiting at the baggage claim, the airline losing my luggage (again!), or lugging all these bags through a city trying to get to my destination.
If you’re traveling by air, it also might be more costly to check a bag, however airlines like Southwest don’t charge for checked bags, while Frontier and Spirit charge you for everything INCLUDING carry-ons.