I’ve been asked many times how do I finance my trips. Before I show you the 2 cents on my bank account, let me tell you first how do I manage to find the best deals to travel to the most beautiful destinations that you see on my blog.

Be very flexible!

First rule: be flexible. It helps find the cheapest flights and the best deals but also makes the trip cheap once on the land.

I personally want to travel the world and I’m not picky about where I want to go so I follow my heart and my budget… I found myself sometimes travelling to some places just because I found extremely cheap flights there. I don’t care where I go, for sure, I’ll find something interesting to see there!

By being flexible, instead of taking a flight you could take a bus… that’s exactly what I did between London and Paris and guess how much I paid for the most uncomfortable 11 hours of my life on that damn bus? 1 symbolic euro. Because I found this great sale, the 11 hours of back pain in the night bus become very enjoyable once I arrived to Paris.

beirut place de l'étoile

Find the cheapest flights

I’m quite lucky that my father is a pilot which means I get to travel to up to 80 destinations on the airline he works for, just paying the ticket taxes. But when I travel outside the 80 destinations the staff tickets cover for me, I need to pay like everyone else. In that case, I put so much efforts into finding the cheapest flights!

I rely on Secret Flying and Holiday Pirates who share some great deals on flights and holidays. You never book directly on those websites as they only provide links to great deals they find!

Also, because I’m very flexible when it comes to my destination choices it makes it much easier to score a good deal. For that, I use Skycanner. I set the departure airport as London (but you can do any airport in the world) and arrival as Everywhere, I usually leave the dates open to Anytime. It is very surprising to find very cheap return flights to some great places like when I visited Basel for only £20 return.

IMG_8577

I must say that being a very flexible traveller makes travel become very cheap. I went to Copenhagen, Malmo and Warsaw for as low as £22 return. I did Podgorica-London for only £20.

Sleep anywhere where it’s decent!

For accommodation, it all depends on your budget and your own definition of “decent” so I will consider a bit all types.

IMG_9499

I stayed in the heart of Copenhagen for free. Indeed, Couchsurfing is a great platform made for travellers looking for a place to stay for free anywhere around the world. However, it must not be used as a hotel but as a way to exchange culturally with your host and return the favour to other travellers visiting your city.


 

Couchsurfing has long been my favourite way to travel. I met so many great friends and saved so much money. Why don’t you Stay With Local Hosts on Couchsurfing?

https://instagram.com/p/sc9vE4J8fI/

 

For a slightly higher budget, hostels are a great way to meet people and have fun while sleeping in a dorm for a couple of euros. I use hostelworld to find the most convenient hostels depending on their location and reviews but I always go with the hostel providing free wifi on top of the other stuff! I need to stay connected!

A much higher budget, you could go for luxurious 5 stars. But it doesn’t mean they are expensive. Finding a cheap 5 stars hotel is possible. Check out deals advertised by hotel directly and check out Holiday Pirates as they share some great deals too!

I personally love combining all sorts of accommodation to fit my budget and trying them all. In Hong Kong, I stayed in a boutique hotel, a 5 stars hotel, a guest-house and a hostel (when I ran out of money). All during one week! Moreover, I sometimes get sponsored to stay at some hostels and hotels around the world, which is great – and I write a disclaimer on articles where appropriate. So why don’t your become a travel blogger too?

IMG_8071

Try not to be a tourist

It’s not so easy to try not to be a tourist when you visit for only a couple of nights. But there are few tips that would save some money. For example, I avoid eating at restaurants where the menu is in English/French/German/Spanish… That means it’s targeted for tourists and the price will usually be higher than the standard and chances are the quality isn’t that good either. Getting a bit lost in a city doesn’t necessarily come at a cost but I find some great places to visit and eat away from the touristy crowds.

I got lost in Moscow once and I freaked out! But it turns out that I ended in a nice area called Arbat where I found cheaper Matriochkas (Russian dolls) to take home as souvenir.

kotor bay

Meet locals

Knowing a local is really a life-saver for me when I travel. I rely on their advice and position as a permanent resident to hear what is best to do. It’s a great way to save money as they know better tricks on what’s cheap/free in town and how to avoid being trapped as tourist.

https://instagram.com/p/r1Fkk3p8VA/

 

I use Couchsurfing to meet locals but also Meetup. Social media is really helpful and some new apps like booola are useful to meet other travellers and locals quickly.

Avoid visas…

It’s quite sad that Moroccans need a visa for a huge number of destinations. But there are some that welcome us with open arms without visa. I must say that you save a couple of dirhams from the visa fee but the flight ticket would be very expensive… that’s when you need to put efforts to find cheap flights to far destinations as I explained above.

IMG_3128

Since Morocco is very close to Europe, it is quite understandable that most cheap flights are there but sadly we need a Schengen Visa. If you are lucky enough to get a multiple entries visa, then make the most out of it! The latest Schengen Visa I got was for only one entry and for 7 days only… but I still made the most out of it by combining two trips to Barcelona and Porto so that I see more than one place in a short time.

If you need some inspiration, check out my articles:

IMG_7502

There are so many other tips and tricks to travel cheap but I have never used them. Although it’s good to share them.

Hitch-hiking seems more appropriate for long land trips it saves money and it’s a great way to meet people. I want to give it a try someday, tell me how it goes if you had done it before!

Work or Volunteer abroad: it looks like so many people are doing it with small organisations or bigger ones. AIESEC is a great way to get you started on that in Morocco and everywhere.

If you have any other tips on how to travel cheap, please feel free to share them with me!

Join me on Facebook and Instagram.

I’m on Snapchat too under the username Volubilis26.

Pour plus d’informations en Français sur comment voyager moins cher, consultez Le Guide des Voyageurs Marocains.

Disclosure: Some of the links in this post are “affiliate links.” This means if you click on the link and purchase the item, I will receive an affiliate commission. Regardless, I only recommend products or services I use personally and believe will add value to my readers.