How To Make Your Travel Budget Extend Further When Travelling Solo

When travelling solo, your travel budget can be stretched much further than when travelling as a group or with another person.  

For instance, staying in a hotel is no longer the rate of the room divided by two – which means you might find yourself either forking out a lot more cash or staying in hostels, which aren’t everyone’s cup of tea.

Similarly, when it comes to finding cheap car hire, even the cheapest deal is going to be a strain on a solo traveller, as unlike travelling as part of a group, where you split the cost – the full amount is paid only by you.

Read my thoughts on Things To Keep In Mind When Planning Your Next Travel

Therefore, it’s particularly pertinent to look at ways to make your travel budget extend further when travelling solo.

Check out my guide How to plan your Europe trip on a budget in 2021 if you plan a trip to Europe.

Travel offseason

One of the largest benefits of being a solo traveller is that you get to work around your schedule, meaning, you don’t have to consider the time off your partner has and conform to their restrictions or only travel in the school holidays.

This flexibility is your best friend when it comes to saving money, as travelling out of season has to be the number one tip for squeezing the most from your travel budget.  When you consider how much more expensive popular holiday destinations become in peak season, versus the shoulder season or off-season, you can quickly see how much money you can save.

Stay in Hostels

The downside of hostels is that they don’t tend to be as comfortable as hotels, and there’s always the risk of having a bad night’s sleep on the basis other guests might be snoring or coming in late – disturbing your slumber.

Yet, at the same time, few people enjoy travelling solo when they feel lonely and isolated.  Most people hope to meet other travellers, and hostels are a great way to do just that.

Book in advance

Hotels and airfares both tend to go up in price the closer to the travel date you get.  

Of course, the idea of turning up to a destination and negotiating with local hotel owners can be appealing in countries such as India or Asia where bartering is common practice, yet, in most countries, the cheapest rooms available are found online – and therefore, booking in advance, can be a lot cheaper as well as a lot more convenient.

You would think that hotels and airlines would drop the price of their seats and beds, the day of travel, on the basis an empty seat or room is lost revenue and it’s better to get something than nothing – yet, that doesn’t tend to be the case.  

The reason for this is that travel companies feel they are able to squeeze those that need a particular ticket or place to stay, as they are likely to be in a state of desperation.

Read more on Travelling doesn’t require loads of money

Therefore, booking things well in advance makes sense if you are trying to squeeze the most from your budget as a solo traveller.  It also makes life a little less stressful and uncertain.

PS: Here’s a list of things and tools to use if you are planning to travel cheap to Europe.