A good friend asked me today for advice on traveling cost-effectively so that he can spread out his travel budget over more trips. “Cost-effective” and not “cheap” is the word because you’re on vacation afterall. It’s utterly pointless to make yourself miserable by penny pinching on e.g. food by eating instant noodles and stale bread when you can be enjoying the local cuisine and knocking back a few margaritas. So here are my top tips on how to roll back on the excess and make use of your limited budget more effectively:

Ditch the hotels and embrace the hostels

After the age of 25, we tend to turn our noses up at hostels. Well, think again because many modern hostels are so well managed that they are no different from a cozy B&B. Sure, it’s nice to spend a few days at a luxurious seafront resort but most of the time, you just need a clean, safe and quiet place to crash. Private rooms are available at hostels for a fraction of the cost of a hotel room (Caveat: In my experience, this is true for Europe, US, South Africa, Australia and New Zealand. Not always true for South America and Asia). The trick is to book way in advance as there are usually only a few private rooms available (the rest being dorm beds). With reviews on Tripadvisor, Google and Facebook, it’s easy to separate the top-end hostels from the dingy ones. Which brings me to my next point.

Always research accommodation, tour providers and airlines before booking 

Researching accommodation, tour providers and airlines before booking allows you to select only businesses you (and others) trust, potentially saving a lot of headache during the trip AND costs due to e.g. vendor defaults, unacceptable lodging situations and airline schedule changes. Sure, there are a lot of “rant posts” on review websites that only reflect the peculiar experience of one individual. The crux is to identify patterns and key messages among the list of reviews in order for you to make your own decision on whether or not a business is to be trusted.

Stretch your mileage 

I enjoy collecting airlines miles on my credit cards and frequent flyer program and enjoy redeeming them to get major savings on my flights even more. But that’s not always the case. You still have to pay airport taxes and surcharges after using your miles to redeem the ticket fare and with airfares at an all time low, sometimes you only end up saving a measly $300 after spending tens of thousands of miles. Use your mileage to redeem flights for which there is a low airport tax to airfare ratio and which still works out to be better off for you financially compared to your next best alternative flight option.