David Ning, the blogger behind MoneyNing, has a passion for travel. He’s down a fair amount of traveling himself and collected tips and tricks for keeping expenses under control while you’re on the road. That information has evolved into a book, The Little Budget Travel Book
The Little Budget Travel Book
is arranged in three separate sections: “Before You Even Start Your Journey,” “Once You Arrive” and “The Final Stretch.” Within each section is a whole stack of short types: think short blog posts giving you a little insight into how to cut costs. Some have examples of the tricks in action, others have stories about David’s travels or his friends. All of them are written in a casual fashion that make the book easy to read quickly you can breeze through it one sitting quite easily. However, you’ll find yourself coming back and looking over the tips again and again.
The book’s focus is on helping travelers planning short-term trips — a week here or there. In particular, I was surprised at the sheer number of frugal tips David offered for transportation, both to and from your vacation, as well as within individual cities. Many of those tips translate quite well to longer trips: David has several suggestions regarding package deals that got me thinking that while a package deal of airfare and a couple nights in a hotel might not be the best option for someone planning an extended stay, it’s an easy technique for a visit home or a way to check out a the next place you’re considering heading off to.
Particularly valuable was the set of mini-website reviews David included in The Little Budget Travel Book. At the end of the book, he offers quick looks at a whole list of different websites useful for booking travel and finding deals. This isn’t a simple resources list, though. David gives a brief review of each site, explaining what it can be used for and well as describing his own experiences and opinions.
If you want a copy of The Little Budget Travel Book, you may be in luck! I have two copies to give away. As usual, I’m happy to pay shipping within the U.S, but if you win and need me to send the book to an address outside of the country, I will need you to cover the difference. To enter the giveaway, leave a comment with your favorite tip for keeping travel costs down. I’ll randomly select a name on Friday (Sept. 4).
Not interested in waiting around to see the result of the giveaway? You can purchase The Little Budget Travel Book
One of my favorite ways to keep travel costs down is to find a vacation rental: it’s cheaper than staying at the hotel, more comfortable (you’ve got a whole appartment! often a small one, but still!), and it comes with a fully equipped kitchen, so you can splurge on some nice restaurant meals while still saving on food expenses by cooking some of the other meals. Doesn’t get much better than that!
[...] Working Your Way Around The WorldWhat: Book: The Little Budget Travel BookHow To Enter: Leave a comment on the giveaway/contest [...]
Ship ahead a box containing snack foods, boxes of cereal, pop-tarts, granola bars – anything your family loves. Saves cost of a meal or two and also saves from buying high priced snacks in convenience stores.
Sometimes my friends and I swap vacation rentals halfway through our rentals if we are staying with in a few hours from each others travel arrangments.
Favorite tip for keeping travel costs down? Travel with a friend. Not only is it more fun to be exploring new things with someone else, but you can usually split the necessities like gas, food and lodging. It works on small trips: Going home for the weekend, your friend pays for the gas, you pay for the food (hopefully to be provided by mom and dad), and for big trips: three friends and I split one double room in Venice and paid a quarter of the price.
Bring a tent. Most European countries have campsites that cost very little and are located close to necessary amenities.
Oh I am totally entering!
I may just be a bit of a weirdo, but I like to treat grocery stores and open air markets (especially in other countries) like museums. I love looking at all the unusual regional products. While I’m there I like to get food to make easy on the go meals, like sandwiches, etc.
[...] want to check out David Ning’s The Little Budget Travel Book. Thursday Bram presents a good Review of this book posted at Working Your Way Around The [...]