Travel Asia on a Budget – How we only spent 10€/day!

We are no travel experts but we do consider ourselves very good at saving money while traveling (we call ourselves ”the cheap m—er f—ers”). In this post, we share our top tips for Asia on a budget.

During our travels, we are often asked how we manage to travel so much. Do we have rich parents? Or do we rob a bank each time we want to travel? Hmmm… None of them! Honestly, there are no miracles… If you want to travel more often or travel longer there are only 2 things you can do:

• Earn money while you travel.
• Spend less.

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We chose both! There are thousands of people working while traveling and we had no idea. Some people find temporary jobs in some places to support their travels but the most interesting are the ones who find a way to work online and finance their travels only through their laptop! How cool is that?

When we left for Asia we had a limited budget, so we had to master the art of spending as little money as possible! We only spent 3000€ each in 8 months of traveling (including food, transportation, accommodation, domestic flights and extras) and we did live comfortably. We even bought our camera and many other luxuries with that budget!

With this, we decided to come up with our top tips on how to travel on a budget and here we are sharing them with you so you can use them on your next trip!

Look for Cheap Destinations

This can seem obvious because it is. Being in a cheap place is the best thing you can do to your wallet while traveling. And trust us there is always a cheap place that will fulfill your needs. (Check this post to see our cheap Maldives alternative – photo below)

Good Search of Flights

Sometimes we spend HOURS searching flights. Trying different combinations, different stopovers, airline companies or even destinations. Everything to find the best deal! Some of our tricks are:

• We use Kiwi for intercontinental flights and radio search (game-changer);
• We use Skyscanner to find the cheapest airline for a determined route or to use the ‘To: Everywhere’ feature;
• After determining the route and airline companies, we compare prices between search engines and the company’s own site.
• We always search in private mode and we try different days of the week (there are a lot of theories on this).

Travel in the Shoulder Season

Shoulder Season is basically the period before and after the high season. Normally in this period, the weather is as satisfying as in the high season and the crowd and prices are MUCH lower. We didn’t know how important is this, but it was vital for us and it can cut your expenses to half.

Related: Bali Guide – Our personal recommendations 

Travel Slow

WE LOVE SLOW TRAVEL. The slower you travel, the cheaper it gets. Mid and Long-term accommodation is cheaper than short-term. When you stay longer in places, you start to know where to eat, where to drink, and how to move in the cheapest way possible. Just like a local! Plus you get the chance to enjoy the places on a deeper level.

Set a Daily Budget

This was probably one of the most important points overall. Set your daily budget including all expenses and stick to it! We set our daily budget to 10€/day each and if by any chance we had to spend a bit more one day, the next day we would spend a bit less to keep loyal to the budget. We know it is hard to keep track of everything and it may be exhausting after a while, but… That’s the price of traveling on a budget!

[instagram url=https://www.instagram.com/p/BldVMnmH9PH/?taken-by=travelb4settle hidecaption=true width=500]

Credit or Debit card free of charge

Those fees you pay every time you withdraw cash or make any payment with a card, really add up at the end of the month! Wouldn’t it be nice if you could cut off those expenses? Now it is possible! Some companies like Revolut are digital banks that allow you to have a multi-currency account, which you can use free of charge almost everywhere!

We failed hard on this one since we didn’t search much before leaving Portugal. However, we did use another alternative. We used International Money Transfer companies, like Money Gram and Western Union, to pick up money transferred from Portugal. These companies’ fees are lower than withdrawing money from an ATM. Money Gram has even lower fees but is harder to find in each place.

Cheap (sometimes FREE) Accommodation

Accommodation is probably the biggest slice of the traveling expenses at the end of the month. However, it is also the easiest slice to reduce. For that reason, when we decided to travel full-time we also decided to spend the least possible on accommodation and in fact, we saved over 600€ in accommodation in 8 months of traveling. Options we use:

• Couchsurfing – A travel community where you can stay at a local place or host travelers for free. (Read: ”Couchsurfing: What, Why and How?”)
• Work Exchange – Working a few hours doing any type of task in exchange for a bed and (sometimes) food. Check WorldPackers,  you have to pay a symbolic subscription fee, but through this link you have 20% off.
• House/Pet Sitting – Our absolute favorite. While the owners are away, you stay at their place for free in exchange for keeping their pets happy. A temporary home just for you for the price of some tasks. Awesome! (Get 20% off your 1st subscription at TrustedHouseSitters here)
• Last minute deals – When we want to stay in a Hostel or Hotel we use Booking.com and when we want our privacy we get a fully-equipped apartment in AirBnb.

Planning is OK, but avoid pre-booking

We hate plans and we are totally against pre-booking things. When you pre-book things you are killing your flexibility, if you hate a place and you want to leave sooner, or you love it and want to stay longer, you’ll probably lose money or opportunities. So relax and study the situation only once you arrive there!

Transportation Hacks

Transportation is also a big expense. Always consider public transportation or transportation apps like Uber (worldwide), Grab (South East Asia) or Ola (India).  These apps are cheaper than local taxis and way safer! For longer trips consider night trains or night buses so you save that night’s accommodation.

Related: 20 Travel Tips for India Beginners

Street & Local Food are your friends

Don’t be afraid of street food or local restaurants. We eat it everywhere we go and we just love it! The street food markets were our best friends around Asia! Of course must have the minimum conditions but it won’t kill you and your wallet will thank you. Plus, it is delicious!

Take Advantage of Free Activities

There are always free activities you can take advantage of. Free walking tours are very popular in some places (especially in Europe) and you can find interesting meet-ups in Facebook Groups (just type the city you’re in and search for ‘groups’ on Facebook) or in apps such as Meet-Up.

Grocery stores all the way

Instead of eating out, just buy food in grocery stores and either cook at home or go for a picnic somewhere with a nice view! We ended up eating avocados every day in Bali when we went for this option, and we couldn’t have been happier!

However, notice that in countries like Thailand/Malaysia, we found cheaper eating out, street food in the markets (1€/meal), than buying at the grocery store!

Alcohol is an Enemy

We know people when traveling tend to party more. That’s your choice, but trust us, alcohol is a terrible enemy of your wallet and not the best friend for your health. Choose wisely the occasions you drink and reject it completely on the other occasions.

Cheaper Hydration

Stay loyal to your water bottle (preferably buy a reusable one and avoid buying plastic!) and refill it anytime you can. Some places have refill stations with purified water or you can buy your own purifier and drink any tap water! Like this, you can stay hydrated, save money, and help the world!

Travel Smarter Between Countries

If you are changing countries soon, make a deep analysis of what you may need, electronics, clothes, or any item, and buy the cheaper one. This is a basic principle but it happens to everyone! For example, on the islands, usually, it’s more expensive than inland, so you should buy everything you may need to buy before you go!

Bargain, Bargain, and… Bargain!

This is not possible everywhere, of course. But in some places, you can bargain for everything! It can be exhausting but if you learn the basics and apply your bargaining skills it will mean a lot of money at the end of the month!

And that’s it, guys! We know we didn’t get too deep into any of the points, but this is a brief explanation of all the budget travel tips we used throughout our travels. We hope it helps you in some way!

Is there any other tip you know or that we missed? Let us know in the comment section!

Was it helpful for you or do you think it might be helpful for someone you know? Please share it!

The more you travel the more experienced you become. The more experienced you become the cheaper you travel. The cheaper you travel, the more you travel! Such a happy cycle haha.