TripleT Tips: What We Learnt Planning a Budget Trip

If you're thinking of going for a trip, be it one for a few months, a week long or even just a few days, here are a few tips you can apply!

From what experienced we have gained for planning this trip, here are 5 tips that you need to take note to make your Budget Trip an amazing one!

1. Choose your Travel Partner/s, wisely 

Be it your boyfriend/girlfriend/best friend/classmates/project mates, etc, make sure you find travel partners who share the same expectations and preferences as you! Oh the number of stories we have heard when a couple travel together only to find out that they were incompatible, broke up and never talked again. The same goes for best friends!

Try to find people who share the same interests as you but if you can't, try making a pact or promise or "whatever-you-wanna-call-it" to make your promises (sounds like a marriage agreement) in black and white to make sure everyone abides by it. 

No matter how much you think you know your travel partner, travelling outside your comfort zone can bring out the best/worst in people sometimes and trying to anticipate every possible problem can be difficult. It is best to both agree that disagreements, arguments and unhappiness may and will happen but if they do, talk them out and resolve them! Don't ruin your amazing trip by losing the relationship you have with the one you travelled with!

2. Money, Money, Money

No, we don't mean the song by ABBA but having a budget is ESSENTIAL and should be prioritised when planning for your trip. With the budget, it sets the stage for the entire trip! Having more money to spend would mean better food, better accommodation and more money to spend on attractions ....the opposite is also true. 

For our trip, the budget was the most crucial thing since both of us have yet to work and don't have much life savings. We changed the budget so many times (grawhhhh) and managed to finally settle on our current budget. Planning with 2 or more people may also be tricky since you need to get everyone to agree on the same amount which may be difficult if everyone have different expectations and preferences (hence point #1)!

3. Time

If only we could travel as far as we want and as long as we want~ This, we all know is untrue! No matter how much we want to travel, apart from the budget, we're also constraint by time. And the fact that travelling cost money (and we don't have that much money) makes it all the more certain that we have to come back home, get back to work and start earning so that we can travel again (yayyy) 

This is why, when planning for your trip, always, always, always, have the mindset that:

"I'll be back!"

(okay...not the revengeful sort - you get what we mean ;))

It'll definitely be difficult to choose the places to go if every.single.destination is so beautifuuuullll (trust us - we rejected so many jaw-dropping places T.T). 

But if you know that you'll be back someday, letting go of all these places will be much easier. Both of us agree that instead of hitting so many cities and locations, it will be better to take our time and soak up what that city/country has to offer! But if you like to hit as many places as you want, go ahead, it's your trip after all! 

4. Be Flexible

Expect the unexpected. Learning from the sharing by our friends who have went for exchange or have done travelling before, there will be times when things will not go your way. Being on a tight budget puts your whole trip at a lot more risk to such 'unexpected events'.

Not all is lost! Being able to adapt to the changes and be flexible with your plans will greatly help make your trip a lot more fun. Besides, such experiences add to the adventurous aspect of the trip and can be taken as learning points and be added to your list of stories that you can share! So, always look at the brighter side of things and who knows, that problem may very well be a blessing in disguise. Then again.. let's all hope nothing bad will happen at all!

5. Plan in Advance!

Finally, we cannot stress how important this is. I'm sure everyone knows that booking your flights and accommodation nearer to your travel dates would be waaaay more expensive compared to booking earlier. And like every other Singaporean, we love getting the best deals. Planning ahead gives you plenty of time to source for such deals or wait for them to come.

If you're going budget, planning would mean researching for the cheapest way of getting from one place to another or even the cheapest place to eat. Throughout our planning, there were several changes to our route where we found alternative ways of reaching the same destination but at a cheaper price. Planning early also ensures that the initial budget that you have set is something attainable and not the impossible.

If you're saving for your budget trip like us, planning early give you the time needed to work/save before your trip. It will also give you more time to research which is always good!

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Being on a budget for your trip won't mean you'll miss out on the finer things in life or that you'll suffer terribly. Being on a budget allows you to enjoy travel without spending out of your means. Being on a budget makes you a smarter traveller as well and it changes your status from 'tourist' to an 'explorer'!

The traveler sees what he sees. The tourist sees what he has come to see. 
-G.K. Chesterton

Happy Travelling!