International Travel on a Budget: Tiffany’s Tips for Affordable Trips in 2024
In this episode, Tiffany Grant shares her 2024 travel tips. After returning from her vacation and celebrating her birthday, Tiffany dives into how she manages to travel on a budget without compromising her financial goals.
From budgeting and finding affordable accommodations to tips on booking flights, exploring local activities, and managing currency exchange, Tiffany’s travel wisdom will inspire you to plan your next adventure without breaking the bank.
So, tighten those purse strings and prepare for some invaluable travel advice from Tiffany.
Connect with Tiffany
Website: https://www.moneytalkwitht.com
Facebook: Money Talk With Tiff
Twitter: @moneytalkwitht
Instagram: @moneytalkwitht
LinkedIn: Tiffany Grant
YouTube: Money Talk With Tiff
Pinterest: @moneytalkwitht
TikTok: @moneytalkwitht
Timestamps
[00:00] Budgeting is vital for celebrating life milestones.
[05:14] Flexibly plan trips using calendar and Google flights.
[06:28] Options for flights from North Carolina airports.
[11:06] Avoid tourist hot spots, cook at home.
[13:02] Benefits of immersing in a new culture.
Key Takeaways
- Budgeting for Travel: Plan ahead, set limits, allocate funds.
- Affordable Accommodations: Airbnb, local connections, cost-sharing with others.
- Smart Flight Booking: Flexibility, layovers, airline points, multiple airports.
- Cost-Effective Activities: Local experiences, street vendors, homemade meals.
- Currency Considerations: Exchange rates, using local currency, staying informed.
- Immersive Travel: Engaging with locals, cultural experiences, avoiding tourist hotspots.
- International Travel on a Budget: Stretching funds, value for money, exploring abroad.
Additional Links & Resources
- Google Flights
- YNAB
- Ask Tiffany Your Money Question
- Making Travel a Financial Priority with Danielle Desir
- 2020 Travel Tips | Ep. 27
- The Grown-Up Gap Year With Stephanie Perry | Ep. 20
- Buy or Transfer United MileagePlus Miles
- Buy, Give & Transfer Hilton Honors Points – Hilton Honors
- Buy, Gift & Transfer Southwest Airlines Points
- Buy or Gift World of Hyatt Points
- Buy or Gift Marriott Bonvoy Points
Copyright 2024 Tiffany Grant
Transcript
You know what it is. That's right. It's time to talk money with your
Speaker:money nerd and financial coach. Now tighten those purse
Speaker:strings and open those ears. It's the money talk with Tiff
Speaker:podcast. Hey,
Speaker:hey, and welcome to another episode of Tiffany's take, where I answer
Speaker:your money questions right here on the podcast. So if you want your question
Speaker:answered, go to
Speaker:comaxtiffany, and I'll be more than happy to answer
Speaker:for you. So for today's episode, first of all, I
Speaker:apologize for not getting a Tuesday episode out to you all.
Speaker:I was actually on vacation. I just got back this
Speaker:week, and I had a ball. My
Speaker:birthday was also Friday, March 15, so happy
Speaker:birthday to me. But that's why I've
Speaker:been a little ghost. So I apologize, because I know you all be waiting for
Speaker:your episodes, but that is one reason why I wanted
Speaker:to do this episode today, which I talk about
Speaker:travel tips. So sometimes people are like, dang, tiffany.
Speaker:Like, you just be traveling and got all this going on, and
Speaker:nobody will hear about it until I come back. I do that purposefully
Speaker:because I don't want people to be like, oh, she know, whatever.
Speaker:I'd rather wait till I come back to do all the posting. And so usually
Speaker:when I come back, they're like, dang, I didn't even know you were gone. And
Speaker:I like it like that. But I also travel on a
Speaker:budget, and I have found a way where I
Speaker:can enjoy travel and do as much traveling
Speaker:as I want, and it doesn't get me off track from my financial
Speaker:goals. So let's just hop right into some things that I
Speaker:do. So, first and foremost, I budget. And I know y'all are probably like,
Speaker:tiffany, why do you always talk about budgeting? Because it has such
Speaker:a huge part in my life. So for this trip, I
Speaker:went to Jamaica, and I thought about this back in
Speaker:January. So one big milestone that happened for
Speaker:me, my divorce was finalized on January eigth. So
Speaker:after how many years? From December
Speaker:2021 to January eigth of 2024, I was
Speaker:going through the divorce process. It's a very long and arduous
Speaker:process, but nevertheless, it was finalized this year. And so
Speaker:I was like, oh, I really want to do something to kind of celebrate that.
Speaker:But then also, I'm like, I haven't been able to travel since I just had
Speaker:the baby and everything. And so I was like, I
Speaker:really want to do something for these occasions.
Speaker:So I decided that I wanted to go to Jamaica. Now, when I
Speaker:decided that, I said, okay, Tiffany, how much would you need
Speaker:to make this trip a reality. And so being that I've been to Jamaica
Speaker:before, I knew that I could get away with
Speaker:probably about 1000 to 1500 and make it do.
Speaker:Now you might be thinking, well, Tiffany, I've been to Jamaica and it cost
Speaker:me way more than that. One of my travel tips is
Speaker:I love being with the locals. Okay? So I'm
Speaker:not a resort person. I prefer to be in an
Speaker:Airbnb or even sometimes in a
Speaker:hotel that's not resort based. And that's one of the ways that I save
Speaker:money. So for this trip, I was able to find an
Speaker:Airbnb. I have a connection down there. Shout out to
Speaker:Cody. If you ever go to Negril, let me know. I'll
Speaker:give you his information, because he can tell you where to go, what to
Speaker:do, how to do things. And so he found me some accommodations
Speaker:where we only paid $1,000 for eleven
Speaker:days. Okay, so that's about $100 a night. You might be thinking, well, Tiffany,
Speaker:that's about how much it costs here in the US. That's what I'm saying.
Speaker:Instead of thinking domestic travel, start thinking of international
Speaker:travel. And so that was a good deal. Then what
Speaker:happened was it was a few of us going. So that's another travel
Speaker:tip. If you are planning to go somewhere, see if there's
Speaker:other people that want to go with you. When I came up with this idea,
Speaker:I was like, oh, I want to go in March during spring break when I'm
Speaker:taking a break from classes. So I reached out to my aunt and a few
Speaker:other people. I'm like, hey, do you all want to go at this time? They
Speaker:decided that they did, and so we were able to split those
Speaker:accommodations three or four ways. And so if you're
Speaker:still with me doing the math, if you take $1,000 and you're dividing it
Speaker:by four, we only paid 250 apiece for eleven days
Speaker:in an Airbnb. So that's why I say it's very
Speaker:beneficial to look at Airbnbs. Verbos.
Speaker:Get in contact with someone locally. If you know someone locally that can help
Speaker:you get some deals. So once that happened,
Speaker:I said, okay, accommodations are covered. I still have quite
Speaker:a bit in my budget, so now I can figure out what the
Speaker:plane tickets and everything else looks like. So I started looking
Speaker:on Google flights. So that's how I usually book most of my
Speaker:flights. And I'll go into some more tips, but I start there. Okay,
Speaker:so I go to Google flights. If you never used it, it's where
Speaker:you can search most of the airlines. Southwest is not on there,
Speaker:but you can search most of the airlines. They have price
Speaker:graphs. You can see a calendar
Speaker:and it tells you how much the flights will be on certain days and things
Speaker:like that. And so that's how I plan my trips, too. So I'm kind of
Speaker:flexible with the dates for the most part, and I look at the calendar to
Speaker:see what's the most affordable time to go. And so once I did that,
Speaker:I started on Google flights, searched up the dates that I was looking
Speaker:for. It was a favorable price, round trip.
Speaker:So another strategy that I use with Google flights too,
Speaker:is sometimes it might be more beneficial to book one way
Speaker:trips versus round trip trips. So that's what happened this time. I looked
Speaker:up the round trip price. I was like, okay, wrote it down. Then I also
Speaker:did one way trips. So one way going from the US to
Speaker:Jamaica and then Jamaica back to the US, and it was
Speaker:about $50 cheaper to do the one way
Speaker:trips. And so that's how I booked my flight as well this time.
Speaker:So keep that in mind as you're looking at your flight. See if
Speaker:it's better to do round trip or one way, because sometimes it
Speaker:just depends on where you're going, when you're going, and the location.
Speaker:So keep that in mind then. Also, another thing I did on Google
Speaker:flights was I always pick
Speaker:multiple from airports. So I live here in North
Speaker:Carolina. The closest airport to me is GSO, which is Greensboro
Speaker:High Point Triad area airport. But I also put in Rdu, which is
Speaker:Riley. And I also put in CLT, which is Charlote,
Speaker:because I don't mind taking the trip down there to fly
Speaker:out if it's going to be significantly cheaper. And I say significantly
Speaker:cheaper because you also have to keep in mind, if you
Speaker:drive out of your city, you may have to pay to park your
Speaker:car and things like that. And I know just from experience
Speaker:that Raleigh and Charlote is more expensive than parking it at
Speaker:Greensboro. And so you also have to take that into consideration as well.
Speaker:So if it's significantly cheaper, I will take the drive in order
Speaker:to get a better flight at a better price. But with this particular
Speaker:vacation, I actually found a really good Greensboro flight. Now, I
Speaker:did have layovers, which is another tip.
Speaker:I don't mind layovers. I know there's some people that's like, oh, I just
Speaker:want to go nonstop straight through, whatever the case may be. Yeah,
Speaker:that's cool. But if I'm going to spend a significant amount of money doing
Speaker:nonstop versus a layover. I'll choose the layover
Speaker:because I don't mind that. One thing that you can also
Speaker:work in if you're doing a trip is that
Speaker:you can pick a layover that may be overnight if you want to explore whatever
Speaker:city you're in or what have you, and then you can get two trips in
Speaker:one. So keep that in mind as well. Sometimes layovers
Speaker:are a good thing. So one more thing about flights that I
Speaker:also do is usually I fly with Delta,
Speaker:American or United wherever I go. And so
Speaker:I have points built up with all three of them. So
Speaker:with this trip, I looked know after I did my search on Google
Speaker:flights, I found who was the least expensive. I also
Speaker:checked my points and seeing if it was better to get it with points or
Speaker:get it with money. It depends on a
Speaker:lot of different factors, but check that out as well because sometimes
Speaker:it might be cheaper to just buy the points and do it with points
Speaker:versus doing it with cash. So I've
Speaker:actually gotten free flights. Like for instance, when I went to Fincon last
Speaker:year, that was free just because I had enough points saved up.
Speaker:So don't forget about your points. I used to be in a bad habit of
Speaker:forgetting about my points, whether it's flights or hotels and
Speaker:stuff. Make sure you check on your points and see if you have enough
Speaker:to get whatever it is that you're trying to do. So
Speaker:make sure you add that to your accommodations and
Speaker:flight research. So we've talked about
Speaker:accommodations, we've talked about flying.
Speaker:Let's talk about activities. So like I said, my budget was
Speaker:about 1500 or so, and I know that I'm staying for like
Speaker:1011 days. So I was like, okay, I already
Speaker:knocked out the flight. I knocked out the accommodations. I
Speaker:still have about $1,000 left. So then I divided that out by
Speaker:the amount of days that I was going to be there, and I came up
Speaker:with about $100 or so that I could spend a day. Now, some days
Speaker:I didn't spend $100. Cool. That rolled over to the next day, and
Speaker:then that helped me with other things. So, like, for instance, when I went
Speaker:parasailing and I went to the blue hole, which is
Speaker:like really nice mineral water, oh my gosh, you
Speaker:all got to go. But doing all those activities,
Speaker:some of them were a little more expensive, some of them were less
Speaker:expensive. So that's why I said it's good to have a
Speaker:number in mind. And that way you can have fun on
Speaker:your vacation without thinking about, oh my gosh, bills. When I get
Speaker:back. So that's why
Speaker:I'm telling you, budgeting is your best friend. So
Speaker:anyway, I stay away for the most part. I stay away from
Speaker:tourist hotspots because they're usually more expensive.
Speaker:They know people want to go, and so they charge you out the
Speaker:wazoo. So for me, I like doing what the
Speaker:locals do as well. And so a lot of my
Speaker:spending or going out and doing activities was at
Speaker:like, local rivers or local falls or going
Speaker:out, enjoying the local nightlife, that type of
Speaker:thing. And so that helped me save money as well. Now, don't
Speaker:get me wrong, I love a good tourist hotspot, too. Like, for instance, in
Speaker:the know, got to go to Rick's cafe. I did actually
Speaker:jump off the cliff this time. I was
Speaker:scared as heck the first time, but I did do it this time. And
Speaker:also they just have a really good fun atmosphere. So I
Speaker:don't mind some tourist hot spots, but
Speaker:for the most part, I kind of stay away from those. Also, another
Speaker:thing to think about. So going back to the accommodations, let's talk about
Speaker:eating, right? So since we had an Airbnb, we
Speaker:had a kitchen, and if we have a kitchen, we can cook some food
Speaker:at home, just like we do at the house. So that
Speaker:also saves us money, too, because we wasn't eating out all the time. We wasn't
Speaker:on a resort or in a hotel where we had to eat their
Speaker:food, which is usually overpriced. We stayed at
Speaker:Airbnb, so we had a kitchen available to us. So we went grocery
Speaker:shopping a few times. And y'all, let me tell you
Speaker:another thing is you may can get locals to cook for you.
Speaker:So in our situation, we have friends down there,
Speaker:but also you can hire locals to cook for you as
Speaker:well. And so we had some people
Speaker:cook for us, and the food was amazing. We cooked
Speaker:ourselves. The food was amazing. I did not have a bad meal while I was
Speaker:down there, y'all. And don't get me wrong, I did eat out
Speaker:occasionally. And when we did eat out, we just went to
Speaker:the local vendors we pulled know in Jamaica,
Speaker:they usually have vendors with their carts and stuff out. And
Speaker:so we just pull up, you might be in the car and be like, oh,
Speaker:pull over, let's get some jerk chicken or pull over, let's know that type of
Speaker:thing. And the food is so amazing. So that's why I'm like,
Speaker:kind of think outside of the resort, living
Speaker:outside of just going to restaurants, the
Speaker:street vendors were amazing. The food was amazing, and it also
Speaker:helps the local community. So just think about that as you're traveling
Speaker:as well. And it was cheaper. I can't tell you
Speaker:all how many coconuts I had. I love coconut water, and
Speaker:getting it fresh was amazing. They had fruit vendors, just all
Speaker:types of vendors. So it's just really awesome
Speaker:when you kind of immerse yourself in whatever culture you're
Speaker:going to. So another thing is currency. So if
Speaker:you're traveling internationally. So one piece of
Speaker:research I did before I left was looking at, if I change
Speaker:my money here, would it be more beneficial than changing it
Speaker:there? Now, luckily, like I said, I know people down there and so they were
Speaker:like, oh, we can get better rates down here. So that's what I did.
Speaker:But do not just go with your
Speaker:home currency. So, speaking specifically about
Speaker:Jamaica, depending on where you're
Speaker:going, so what store you're at, what vendor
Speaker:you're using, whatever, they all have different rates for how they change over
Speaker:us money. And so it's good to have both
Speaker:currencies on hand because then you can ask them, okay, how much would
Speaker:this be in us? How much would this be in Jamaican? And you can make
Speaker:that choice, right? So that's what I highly recommend.
Speaker:Just keep both on you. Because in some instances,
Speaker:it was better to use the US money and in some, it was better to
Speaker:use jamaican money. And so just keep that in mind if you're traveling
Speaker:internationally, try to have both on hand just to see what would
Speaker:be more favorable for you. Now, like I said, it's
Speaker:always great to have a guide if you are going
Speaker:on an international trip or knowing someone there, because they
Speaker:can give you the hookup as well and let you know what's what. And
Speaker:so, like I said at the beginning, if you are thinking about going
Speaker:to Jamaica at all, anywhere in Jamaica, really let
Speaker:me know because I can get you in contact with some of my people
Speaker:down there. I had a ball. I truly
Speaker:enjoyed all the sun, the beach,
Speaker:the water. Just everything was a vibe. And I cannot wait
Speaker:to go back. So thank you so much for listening
Speaker:to this episode of the Money Talk with TIFF podcast. Hopefully these
Speaker:travel tips will help you as you're thinking about your next
Speaker:vacation. When I was having this discussion with my friend last
Speaker:night, she was like, what? So you mean to tell me that's all you
Speaker:spent? I was down there for quite some
Speaker:time, almost two weeks, you all. And I stayed
Speaker:within my budget. So really start thinking about
Speaker:what type of travel you can do with the budget that you
Speaker:have. Not saying that there's anything wrong with domestic, I love
Speaker:domestic travel. I've been to so many states,
Speaker:I think I was at like 30 something or 40. So
Speaker:I've done a lot of domestic travel. So don't get me wrong, love that too.
Speaker:But also think with the budget that you have, what type of
Speaker:international travel you can do as well. I love
Speaker:traveling internationally. It's an amazing experience
Speaker:and it allows you to see stuff outside the US. How are other people
Speaker:doing things? And honestly, I'm like, I
Speaker:really just want to move. I saw a
Speaker:post on social media and it was like the new american dream
Speaker:is to leave America and I feel that wholeheartedly.
Speaker:So anyway, I'm going off on a tangent. Hopefully these
Speaker:tips do help you with your future travels. But thank you so much
Speaker:for listening to this episode of my 2024 travel
Speaker:tips and hopefully I'll see you out there somewhere
Speaker:traveling as well. Now, like I said, if you
Speaker:want your question answered on the podcast, go to ww dot
Speaker:moneytalkwitht.com xtiffany and I'll be more
Speaker:than happy to answer for you. If you enjoyed this episode,
Speaker:please don't forget to like subscribe, share, leave a
Speaker:rating, and a review. All of these things really help the podcast
Speaker:grow and other people like you can find us and get these gems
Speaker:as well. So I hope you all have a wonderful rest of your
Speaker:week. And happy birthday pisces.
Speaker:We the best. Bye. Thank
Speaker:you for listening, joining and being a part of the Money Talk with TIFF podcast
Speaker:this week. You can check TiFf out every Thursday for a new Money
Speaker:talk podcast, but if you just can't wait until next week, you can
Speaker:listen to previous podcast
Speaker:episodes@moneytalkwitht.com or
Speaker:follow TIFF on all social media platforms at
Speaker:moneytalkwitht. Until next time, spend wise
Speaker:by spending less than you make a word to the money wise is
Speaker:always sufficient.