If you ever had one of these questions, than this is the right place for you!
Tips and Tricks
Little details that can make any trip the best trip you ever had! Take a look at our personal strategies which will help you save money and time.
Where to go
You want to travel but you don’t know where to exactly go or what to do?
It happened to us a milion times. Sometimes you just feel like travelling, or maybe you have some days off from work and you wanna use them to go somewhere. But where?
Well, the first thing you want to ask yourself is: which kind of activity am I looking for?
Maybe you are in the mood for a Capital City trip: a classic trip in a big city, visiting museums, gardens, villas, and old churches. Embrace the culture and the history of a place which over time became symbol of a country, walking through the old town and taverns.
If that is the case, then the best time frame would 2/3 days, so maybe you can make i fit in a long weekend.
A good idea would be to go to a city which has an airport (that will save many hours, which in a 3 days trip can represent a significant slice of your time).
Our favourite platform to find flights is the well-known Skyscanner.
It is reliable, quick to use, cookie-free (which is nice because you don’t have to worry about price increase due to the number of times you log into the website). It also has the nice features of filtering per country, choosing a flexible date, and choosing a flexible destination (if you are really undecided).
If instead your mood is more adventurous, then you can think about different itineraries. You could jump into a wild Roadtrip, renting a car and exploring all the remote natural (or not) attractions that a country has to offer. Driving along amazing landscapes, enjoying the freedom of stopping at any point and any time. You will be able to see the little towns and the deep canyons, taking advantage of your flexible schedule.
We personally love these kind of trips because they make you fully see the territory, getting rid of busy cities and discovering some hidden gems which are more difficult to reach for an ordinary tourist.
If that is the case, we recommend you to keep scrolling and take a look at our little guide on How to roadtrip, or check our Itineraries to get inspiration!
How to get cheap tickets
Let’s say that you found a destination, that’s great! But now you are thinking: “When should I buy the tickets in order to get the best deals?”
Well, there can be different strategies, so here you are some tips we would like to share!
Flights
We already mentioned above our favourite website to compare flight fares, which is the beloved Skyscanner. But how do you know when to buy?
We like to monitor our flights 2/3 months prior the hypothetical date of departure, for at least 1 or 2 weeks, just to see what are the trends. The earliest doesn’t necessarily mean the cheapest, it’s all a chess game between you and the companies.
You can search for flexible dates, in this way you instantly see what day of the week is the best, and which week of which month is the cheapest.
Try to book on week days (Tuesday is said to be the best) since the prices will be a bit lower.
We always prefer to book with on the company’s official website, but some third-party websites are still reliable (e.g. eDreams)
Another simple trick that can help you save money is to look at near-by airports. Many times, flying from airports just 2 o 3 hours further will make you save tens of euros (don’t miss the cities just behind the border!).
During purchase, give up on any comfort that they propose to you! Especially if you are leaving for few days only, surely a medium bag will be more than enough. Be minimalist, bring only few clothes. Don’t buy extra luggages, nor the Priority, and absolutely never buy things like Fast track or Food on board (just bring a snack in your bag!). Ensurances are not necessary, especially because usually they cost as much as the ticket itself.
Save as much space as possible filling pockets with accessories, and wearing more clothes (you can’t wear 2 trousers, but you can always travel with your extra jumper wrapped around your waist).
Many airports these days are implementing free water tanks behind the security check, so just bring your reusable bottle.
Train
Here instead, it’s real the rule: the earlier the cheaper. Trains can be fast and comfortable alternatives. A night train bought with far advance can cost as much as a flight, without all the jazz of security, check-in, and transport to reach the airports.
Don’t miss the promos! Sometimes train companies will offer particular fares valid all over the country (or the state) which can be very convenient (e.g. Deutscheland ticket)
Many times anyway, buses do the same job but cheaper.
Bus
Probably the cheapest way to travel on land, we highly recommend it in Europe. There are tens of companies, and the prices can be very low. Surely it’s the slowest among the ones we talked about, but if used over night they can be a smart way to travel without wasting time and money.
We have used tens of times Flixbus, which offers a very nice service in Europe. They stop almost in every city, and you can also use student discounts (e.g. with Unidays or ESNcard).
Tip: when booking with Flixbus, change slightly departure or arrival stop (like a bit further or a bit closer). You will find out that the prices can be significantly different sometimes! Try also to split your trip in 2 parts: buying a bus A to B and B to C separately can be cheaper (don’t ask me why) than buying A to C, even if the bus is literally the same!
How to find/choose the attractions to see
Now it’s time to schedule your time! How to do it? What is worth to see and what is not?
Well, the first thing you want to ask yourself is: how much productive am I?
Your schedule will be strictly depending upon your rithm and your interests. If you have a slow pace then maybe you can try to look for clusters of attractions: in every place there are always some areas which have a much higher density of attractions.
If instead you love the idea of exploring every single square centimeter of a place just to satisfy your unstoppable energy, then you will surely prefer to make quick visits, hopping back and forth between the landmarks.
Whatever type you are, it doesn’t really make a difference about how you can find those places.
The quickest and easiest way is to use Google Maps. You can easily find attractions and landmarks (marked by their own pinpoint icon), and tell yourself if you like it or not by looking at the reviews and the pictures uploaded by the users.
You can also try to google ready-made itineraries for that particular destination. Just putting “what to see in destination” in the search bar you will find tens of blogs and guides with a lot of useful (not always) hints. Our suggestion is to never copy and paste an itinerary, but look at many of them and build up your own.
For this reason, don’t miss out our trips! Maybe you could find inspiration 🙂
Timing is also important: maybe one particular attraction would be more beautiful at a certain time window (e.g. going on top of a view point at sunset instead of midday), or maybe some places could be closed (e.g. museums or castles are not open early or late in the day). For this reason we suggest to prepare a rough itinerary, also keeping in consideration transport between a point to another, and time to take pictures (of course!).
An old trick which also always works is to go and get a coffee at the nearest café and ask to the people there: they have all the interest in making a tourist happy.
Don’t try to be overproductive! Some things don’t really deserve your time. They could be boring or overrated, so try to not give them more than what they need.
Pico do Areeiro at sunset, Madeira
Where to sleep
This question can be answered in totally different ways depending upon your trip.
Unless you find entertainment in staying at the hotel half of your day, our suggestion is to always go for the cheapest option, but not without a criteria, of course!
If you know that you will be using all your day walking several kilometers, from early morning to late evening, then we suggest to just get the cheapest accomodation: there is no point is staying in an expensive place where everything you are going to do is to faint as soon as you get in.
Of course, the closer is the accomodation to landmarks, the higher the price. That is why we prefer to get an accomodation which is further from the main attractions, but still well connected (e.g. bus, metro, tram).
Depending upon the kind of trip we are doing, we like to rely on different platforms to find our place, but some websites can come in handy, comparing all the different options, like cozycozy.
If you are travelling with you car, on a road trip, then surely the best option is to take advantage of it and sleep far from the main attractions, maybe in a near-by town (not only it will be cheaper, but probably also prettier and less chaotic).
P.S. try to always find a place with a private parking included! Not only it will be less stressful, but it can also save you form unpleasant accidents.
In conlusion, we also say that even if a low price can be appealing, don’t let it fool you! If an accomodation is fair too cheap for the local standard, without reviews, and only 2 dodgy pictures uploaded, then it is likely to be a scam. If you are not sure about your choice, we suggest to contact the owner and inquire.
How to roadtrip
We finally got on the hot part of this page. This is by far our favourite way to travel and explore. It is the only way to truely experience everything that a place has to offer, without missing a thing.
A roadtrip will allow you to see the forgotten places, those that you can’t easily reach. You will enjoy driving along the little roads, stopping at any view point. This kind of trip is much more intimate than any other, and makes you feel like a real adventurer, especially if you are a nature-lover like us!
So, if you want to road trip, here you are the fundamentals:
Always rent the cheapest car
Many agencies will try to sell you cars with more accessories, or slightly bigger, or with the GPS, or Wi-fi. The truth is that most of the times it’s all useless. Unless you are flying to a very remote area, you will probably be able to use GPS and Wi-fi with your smartphone these days. If you can’t, then download offline maps and use them instead. Big cars mean more difficult parking for double the price, so stay away from them.
To find the best deal, we like to use Skyscanner as well. They have a dedicated section.
Remember to buy the Full Ensurance
Even if you are the best driver, accidents still happen and you don’t want one day to pay to the agency hundreds of euros for a little mistake, especially when the ensurances usually cost few euros per day. Get them from the rental website, they will be cheaper. The catch is that if anything happens you will have to take care of providing all the documents, instead of letting them do all the job (which is a fair compromise to us).
Sleep in the car
This one is not strictly necessary, but we did it many times and we will keep doing it. It’s so convenient because you can:
– Save the money of the accomodation
– Park on top of a mountain and wake up with the most beautiful sunrise
– Create a cozy and comfortable place, with just few precautions
– Be even more flexible on your schedule
– Have a lot of fun and make precious memories
Everything you need is a sleepingbag and a bit of courage, but be careful where you park! It could be forbidden to stay overnight in some areas , so be prepared. For that purpose, we love to use park4night. It provides a lot of reviews from other people who did the same, mentioning also the presence of facilities like public toilets or water fountains.
