Hi all!
I'm thinking of taking a gap year next year, and am being completely overwhelmed by all the different stuff out there… when you're flexible with travel dates and where exactly you end up, there are so many choices with accommodation and airlines that it's hard to find the best deal.
Does anybody know of good websites to use/look at, or any other tips?
First figure out where to go and what kind of gap year you want to have, and the ballpark cost of it per day. Compare to your resources, alter your expectations or budget, and iterate until they roughly coincide. Then go find the bargains within your price range and consider any savings a bonus which will allow you to do more. But the main thing I'd say is to go somewhere you like. No point having a great bargain fare if you don't like the destination.
The way I did it was book a flight in and out of London, and my first night accommodation. While there I would decide where I wanted to go next, and find a cheap place to stay. Note that I was there in winter, which makes a big difference.
Advantages:
- Flexibility to stay as long as you like in any place or move on
- Able to book last minute rates for planes/accom
- Able to adapt as you learn how to travel (may decided you prefer/dislike certain types of places to stay)
Disadvantages:
- Things may be booked out, resulted in higher cost (shouldn't be a problem in Winter)
- Some people are uncomfortable with the lack of planning, so it won't work for them
If you are under 26 there are many museums and other places in Europe which are free if you are there at the right time (for example the Louvre was free Friday nights … many years ago anyway)
Note that if you buy 1c flights (usually about $20 after other fees) they usually flight in/out of obscure airports with expensive trains/busses to get into the city. Still often a saving, but be careful of this.
I also got a bulk prepaid europe train ticket. Not convinced that it was any cheaper for me, but it did provide good flexibility.
Lastly, pack a lunch when you go out and walk everywhere. Walking through the cities is half of what I travel for anyway.
Make a couple of sandwiches from the (usually) provided breakfast and steal some fruit, if its available, for lunches.
Belongs in travel forum.
I travelled on an ultra-budget for 2 years but not in a way that would suit most people. As I had a base in London I would find random one way flights out of London for $9-80 with Ryanair/Easyjet etc and go in a random direction from there. As time went on I found it was much cheaper to fly in Europe than to catch trains or buses so I ended up missing a lot of the smaller cities in between, which you may regret.
I used Skyscanner sorted by price and would often check for trips in reverse if I had an ultimate destination in mind. e.g. If I wanted to go to India from London I would check India to anywhere in the world and find the cheapest way to get to anywhere in Europe, hoping there would be a cheap flight to this country from London (so I found Air Arabia flies cheap via Turkey). But other people have been lucky with round-the-world tickets and random deals.
When you're in a lot of poor countries you will have to haggle or you will overpay - guaranteed. Unfortunately this is a frustrating sacrifice needed to travel for a long time. You will see short-term holidayers (…especially us money-packed Australians) paying $10 extra a night without blinking but that is a lot of money over a year. For richer countries you will hopefully stay in mostly hostels that can often be booked on-line at special rates (e.g. hostels.com, hostelbookers.com, and there are comparison sites now).
The Lonley Planet forum can be extremely helpful to save money. http://www.lonelyplanet.com/thorntree/index.jspa
I found out I could get a yellow fever injection for free in Buenos Aires (and actually most of South America) while it cost $120+ over here. I found out I could get a Brazilian visa overnight in Iguazu Falls, Argentina instead of paying more money in Australia and having to wait for a few weeks or waiting longer in any other city(of course I had to plan my holiday accordingly, so there are sacifices). I found out how to circumvent the Brazilian Webjet airline rules by creating a fake Brazilian ID so I wouldn't have to pay foreigner prices (this is no longer needed) and how to book TAM flights as a Brazilian to avoid paying hundreds more (via booking agencies and on-line rebookers). Note that common scams to look out for often appear on Wikitravel and of course in Lonely Planet guides (which I downloaded to my phone). Speaking of phones, you MUST carry a smartphone these days to save money in the long-term (such as my $49 LG Optimus Spirit). McDonalds Wi-Fi will become your best friend when you're lost and don't speak the local language.
In Europe you will have to eat at supermarkets a lot of the time if you want any form of affordable nutrition (supermarkets are generally cheaper than Australia world-wide and you can shop around to find the discount supermarkets, which you will recognise over time).
Pretty much half of my travel money goes towards travelling from A to B. You can live all over the world like a king/queen if you never moved, and this is something that is hard to avoid in a practical sense. I tried hitch-hiking and killed a lot of time and ended up spending just as much money since I travelled slower and had to pay for accommodation in between in remote places (where there a less options). In expensive countries and for some special experiences you can try couchsurfing (staying at stranger's houses for free, e.g. couchsurfing.org). In safe countries in appropriate seasons you can also go camping (this may save you TONNES during high-season) note that I camped illegally because it was still to expensive :) Some countries might let you sleep on roof terraces for a lot cheaper as well (e.g. Morocco and India).
Note that I travelled alone for most of my travels and this itself was a major extra cost. A lot of countries charge you for a room not a person so you end up sleeping in a room with an extra bed you don't use! Same goes for renting motorbikes, taxis and making your own food. So if you find some sidekicks it could save you some money along the way.
Go and get a Citibank Debit card today. It will save you a tonne of money in ATM transaction fees. Make sure you have at least one other debit card in case you forget yours in an ATM somewhere. Avoid changing large sums at airports unless absolutely necessary (you're pretty much making a huge loss in every case).
Lastly, using the toilet can be a lot more expensive in Europe, a lot of parts of Asia and South America. This adds up if you go often (highest price I've seen is 10 Norwegian Kroner in Oslo i.e. $1.67!).
And if you're a smoker/alcoholic/drug-addict/shopaholic/fancy-nightclubaholic/luxuroholic - now's a good time to quit :)
Good point about money. Work out what currencies you will need and how you are going to get them. I am not familiar with current offerings but when I went my best option was a fixed ATM fee, so it was best to draw out the limit in a single go. The catch here is not to be left with extra cash that you have to convert. Any time you are converting money you will loose a lot.
I don't normally lurk in the forums to promote my site Adioso, but your post caught my eye when I visited to answer a question about us in another thread…
when you're flexible with travel dates and where exactly you end up,
there are so many choices with accommodation and airlines that it's
hard to find the best deal.
This is exactly the problem Adioso is seeking to solve.
We've been doing it for several years with low-cost airline flights, and in just the past week we've extended the functionality to full-service airlines on trans-continental flights.
We're the only flight search site in the world that supports searches like these:
Soon we'll be completing full-service airline coverage across all routes, and adding an equally-flexible hotel search feature.
Hope the post doesn't come over as too self-promotional post; we've generally been very well-received here at OzBargain in the past, and it seemed to be pretty relevant to the question.
Cheers,
Tom
I think the plane hints are covered, but here's some of the "survival tips"
Travel light, it makes you more flexible, if you have to leave your luggage it's cheaper, you can squeeze onto transport etc.
Take a spork and a cup - this can be as simple as one that folds flat - it means you have something to eat with breakfast with, something you can use to make up coffee, eat noodles from etc
Take a towel, it need not be big just something that can dry you at a push
Take a collapsible water bottle
Take a sleeping bag liner
Take earplugs!
I use skyscanner.com.au to search for flights. You can select an entire month when searching for dates if you're flexible.