hacks

One Reddit user recently posted six travel hacks they said “made my trips way cheaper and smoother”. The tips covered topics ranging from booking flights, to finding your way around and eating

Travel, whether it’s a relaxed few days on the beach with a cocktail, a fast-paced city break, or an exciting adventure exploring a foreign land, can be an enjoyable and rewarding experience – but it can also be very stressful. Whether it’s making sure you’ve packed everything you need, sorting out travel to and from your destination, and of course, remembering your passport, there are a lot of things to think about before setting off.

Thankfully there’s a wealth of handy tips online to help make any trip easier. One Reddit user recently posted six travel hacks they said “made my trips way cheaper and smoother”.

The first of these is to book flights online using your internet browser’s incognito mode. This allows you to browse the internet without storing history or data, meaning sites you visit won’t have any information about you and adjust prices accordingly.

The Reddit user said: “Check the same route on your phone’s browser, prices sometimes differ.” To access incognito mode on Google Chrome, click the three dots in the top right and click New Incognito Window. Others browsers operate in a similar way.

The second tip was: “Save the offline version of your Google Maps area before you even leave home.” This will allow you to navigate using your phone without relying on having internet access, and without using data abroad, which can be costly.

The next was: “Carry a cheap carabiner, hangs bags, locks zips together, secures stuff in hostels.” And the fourth tip concerned one of the most important parts of travelling. The user said: “Eat your big meal at lunch – same food, half the price in most cities.”

Something leaking in your bag can be a nightmare, and this can be doubly frustrating while travelling as you might not have a way of containing it or cleaning it up. The Reddit user has a solution for this. They said: “Always pack a ziplock bag: wet clothes, snacks, leaking toiletries, you name it.”

The final tip read: “Last one: When you arrive somewhere new, take the first hour slow, no rushing, just orienting. Saves mistakes and money.”

Reddit users added their own tips in the comments. One said: “Always bring safety pins! They can fix so many different problems and/or help other travellers.”

Another wrote: “My essentials case is small sewing kit (I collect the ones from hotel rooms), 5cm wide cotton adhesive tape (find it more versatile than duct tape), and superglue. Can fix almost anything with that.”

Someone else said: “Keep all important information in a small notebook. Key addresses, directions, passwords, etc, in case your phone battery goes dead, or your phone is lost or stolen. Have heard so many stories of people having major travel problems due to a dead or missing phone.

“Saves a lot of time, money, and stress. If traveling with a partner, never keep all wallets and phones in one bag in case one is lost or stolen. I’m a huge fan of traveling with Ziploc bags, packing blocks, bandannas, small fabric shopping bags.”

And a different user added: “Book hotels that offer breakfast if you are in an expensive city such as Reykjavik, Iceland. I stuff myself with good, delicious food that last me for the day.

“In between, I have tasting samples of baked goods or something very light to snack on. It’s well worth it since breakfast can easily cost about £22 ($30) per person anyway.”

Planning ahead of time could make your holiday much, much more affordable

Regardless of whether you’re planning a quick getaway this winter or later into next summer, you will more than likely be looking for ways to save some cash. Fortunately, one of the easiest ways to shave off money on your holiday is by cutting costs before you’ve even booked your flight.

A variety of things could factor into the upfront cost of your flight, such as what time you book it, what seats you get, and what time you plan on jetting off. However, more often than not, it’s always a good idea to book your flight in advance to save some cash.

Generally, it’s best to book your flight between three and nine months in advance to get the best price while also avoiding booking one last minute, as you may find your costs go up significantly.

Cheapest time to book flights

Your flight price may change significantly depending on what day of the week it is set to depart. According to data from Skyscanner, Fridays and Sundays are generally the most expensive days of the week to fly out of the country.

Meanwhile, Tuesdays are generally the cheapest day to book a flight. However, if you’re determined to have a weekend flight, it may be slightly cheaper to fly out on a Saturday instead of a Friday.

Different airport both departure and arrival

You may find that you save money signifiacntly by arriving at a different airport, generally the lesser popular one, according to Which?. This is because higher-traffic airports tend to be more expensive for arrival flights rather than smaller and quieter airports.

However, you may find that the cheaper airports will be a significantly longer distance away to your hotel than the closer, more expensive one. Overall, you should calculate how much transport to the hotel will cost you at both the different airports and compare that to how much you’ll save on your ticket to see if it’s a big enough saving to take the extra time commuting.

Avoid hidden extras

While budget airlines tend to provide a cheaper upfront ticket cost, you may find that costs will pile on from all the extras being offered, some of which you may believe were initially included in the upfront ticket price. For example, you may be charged extra for carrying any luggage that doesn’t fit under your seat – which may cost much more than you think.

While this is a common practice at airlines like Ryanair and easyJet, other airlines such as British Airways and Jet2 don’t commonly charge for cabin luggage but may have a higher upfront cost as a result.

Avoid airport rush hours

You may find that the cheapest time to depart from any given airport is in the early hours of the morning. You tend to be offered cheaper prices at this time as the airport will generally be less busy than the peak daytime hours.

Otherwise, if you’re not the type to wake up super early, you can still save some cash by departing in the later hours of the night. In fact, the industry tends to call flights heading out at this time red-eye flights and your itinerary may even have a red-eye logo which shows that your flight is heading off during this money-saving period.

Compare flights

If you want to quickly find the cheapest flight possible for any given location, it may be a good idea to use a comparison site such Skyscanner or Kayak can provide all the prices for flights heading to where you want go. Furthermore, many of these sites can allow you to add extras to help you better calculate your costs, such as adding a car hire or hotel. Many sites also allow you to add nearby airports so you can potentially save money by heading to the same area but a different, cheaper airport.