Home Where to relax Travel life hack. Visa-free regime: what do you need to know to travel around Europe inexpensively? Eat at local establishments

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Travel life hack. Visa-free regime: what do you need to know to travel around Europe inexpensively? Eat at local establishments

There are many “guides” on how to apply makeup correctly, quickly hook up the right guy, or beautifully decorate your home. Do you know about some life hacks used by tourists that will help you travel cheaper and more comfortably?

Buy on Tuesday. Airfare pricing follows a weekly cycle. Everything that is not sold out over the weekend and needs to be sold is thrown away at a discount on Monday; if this is not successful, then “price wars” and forced sales begin on the night of Monday to Tuesday. The conclusion is this: buying tickets from midnight to 15-00 on Tuesday is the most profitable.
"1 passenger." If you are flying with your family or just a large group, look for tickets for one person. Airline websites will try to sell a ticket in a higher class if you typed 2 or more people into the search bar. The difference in price is not always obvious, since you only see the amount for all the tickets and may miss the fact that one or two tickets are of a higher class at a higher price. Type "1 passenger" into the search bar. Find out the minimum price and then make sure that the price of each ticket is exactly that.
The GateGuru app will tell you everything about all airports in the world: where are the ATMs, what Duty free shops are there, where you can have a snack or relax.

Museums. Almost every museum has a free day, which you can find out about on their website. On such a day, it is better to come to the opening to avoid queues.
Buy incognito. If you went to the site just to look at a ticket for the desired date, you liked it and you went to get a payment card - in 15 minutes it will become more expensive. The point is not that all the tickets have been sold out - it’s just that the airline already knows that you came in, were interested in this ticket, it is very necessary and, probably, you are ready to pay more. All this can be avoided if you search for tickets in incognito browser mode. This way, you won’t leave traces on the Internet, and the airline won’t know who “came” to them to buy tickets.
Correct it. If you are traveling and are on a budget, correct mistakes in the menu of a local restaurant. Usually you will be happy to be treated to a delicious lunch.
Save on luggage. Pour liquids into 100 ml bottles, roll clothes into tubes, buy a foldable travel bag. It will take up little space in your backpack, and on the way back you can bring numerous purchases in it.

Save on housing. Stay low with apartment owners found on AirBnB.com and stay for free with couchsurfers. You can check them out at CouchSurfing.com or BeWelcome.org. Be prepared to socialize a lot and stock up on souvenirs.
Take a picture all documents and upload them to Dropbox.com. This way they will be accessible from any device connected to the Internet.
Free wifi at the airport the combination ?.jpg will be provided after the address of any website. You can find hotspots in the Wi-Fi Finder app, and passwords in FourSquare.

Traveling wisely: cool life hacks for tourists

Traveling takes us out of our comfort zone and immerses us in a completely unfamiliar environment, full of new experiences and adventures, sometimes even extreme ones. And so that only good memories remain from them, we have prepared the most interesting life hacks for tourists that will help you, for example, start a fire without matches, make a spoon from improvised materials, and even heat up popcorn without a microwave.

We pack things compactly

There is almost never enough space in a suitcase or backpack - a typical situation, especially for the fair sex. To compactly fold your clothes and make room for other important things, you should remember these life hacks for tourists:

We unfold the T-shirt on the table.
We place the underwear on top, then fold the sleeves of the T-shirt towards the middle.
We fold the left side of the T-shirt over the right side, and then fold the right side over the left.
Place socks crosswise at the top of the folded T-shirt and begin to roll the T-shirt.
We turn the remaining ends of the socks inside out and put them on the roll one by one.

This is a trick for tourists to note - how to compactly fold three things instead of one!

Lamp for a tent

If you don’t have enough flashlight at night to illuminate your tent well, then you can use the following life hack for tourists. Take a canister or a small white plastic barrel and hang a switched-on flashlight on it. The light will begin to reflect off the white translucent canister and turn it into a larger, brighter light source.

Heating popcorn without a microwave

You went on a picnic with vegetables and kebabs, took a movie with you to watch it outdoors, and popcorn for the movie... which still needs to be prepared. But how to do this without a microwave? And here life hacks for tourists help: take two identical squares of foil, pour popcorn onto one, and place the other square on top. Go along the edges of the squares, wrapping them outward into a round frame so that the popcorn does not fall out and the foil cover does not let out air. Now all that remains is to put the foil on the coals, hold it there for literally 2-4 minutes - and the popcorn will cook no worse than in the microwave. Enjoy!

DIY dry closet

To relieve yourself in a civilized manner in the wild, without fear of desecrating the surrounding nature, you can take with you a few things from which you can very quickly make an improvised dry closet with your own hands. You will need a bucket with removable handles, a large thick trash bag, a soft toilet seat and a roll of toilet paper. Place a roll on the handle of the bucket, place a garbage bag inside the bucket, securing it to the edges of the bucket, and put a soft circle on top so that you can sit comfortably later. Ready!

Where to hide the most valuable things

It seems that it is easier to carry a safe with you when traveling than to find a secluded place among travel items where you can hide money and other valuables as securely as possible. But tourists have already come up with their own life hacks in this regard: take a large package of wet wipes with you! Take napkins out of it, and place money, keys, a bank card or other important little things inside. That's all, from the outside it looks like real packaging, but the thieves have not yet had time to figure out such a hiding place, and prefer not to rummage through the napkins.

T-shirt bag

When traveling or on a camping trip, you may always need an additional bag or backpack to accommodate all kinds of souvenirs, purchases, and finds. Therefore, it would be nice to learn in advance how such a handbag can be made from an ordinary T-shirt:

Cut off the sleeves of the T-shirt and trim the neck a little.
Cut the bottom of the T-shirt into vertical strips, making only parallel cuts, covering both the bottom and top sides.
Tie each bottom and top strip into a strong double knot.

How to make a fire without matches

One of the most useful skills for tourists is the ability to make a fire even when you don’t have matches with you. Experienced travelers have come up with clever life hacks for tourists:

Instead of wire, you can take steel wool, or even easier - a thin piece of foil.

Spoon from a bottle

Forgot to take disposable tableware with you? Interesting travel life hacks will come to the rescue! All you need is a plastic bottle, a marker, a knife or scissors, and a lighter. All you have to do is draw a silhouette of a spoon on the bottle with a marker or felt-tip pen, and then cut it out of the bottle, as shown in the picture below. To give the spoon softer edges and a curved shape, melt it in the right places and along the edges using an ordinary lighter.

So that it doesn't leak

If your lotions, tonics and other cosmetic and even food liquids constantly leak in your suitcase, we recommend the following life hacks for tourists: take cling film, put it on top of the neck of the bottle and only then screw the cap on top. Done - nothing else will leak!

Collecting annoying insects

Those who love to go hiking and picnics know how annoying midges can be in nature, trying to stick to our clothes. But you can quickly get rid of them if you find an old, clean paint roller or a small rolling pin. Simply wrap the item with double-sided tape and remove the protective film. Now run the roller over your clothes and see for yourself how many midges you collect on the tape. Fast and convenient!

Mini versions of cosmetics

To avoid taking heavy bottles of your favorite cosmetics on a trip, you can learn interesting travel life hacks! You will need some soft plastic tubes, a clip, a marker and a lighter. Cut the tube into shorter pieces. Place a clamp on the edge of such a short tube and fuse it with a lighter to close the hole. Using a syringe, draw gel, shampoo, etc. into the tube, and then fuse this hole too. Write the name of the product with a marker directly on the tube so as not to get confused later.

You will see even more life hacks for tourists in this video:

Take it for yourself and tell your friends!

Cheap train tickets

The cheapest train tickets can be found approximately 45 days before your travel date. If, say, you know exactly what dates you will have a vacation on, make sure to buy tickets in advance.

In Europe, train tickets go on sale 12 weeks before the departure date, so if you plan to visit several cities as part of your trip, it makes sense to purchase tickets in advance. Try to break your route into parts: sometimes two tickets with a transfer can be more profitable than one direct one. Use your imagination and test different combinations. Plus, if you have time in the transfer city, you can see the local attractions.

Car rental or transfer?

If you want to create a complex itinerary during your trip, renting a car is the best choice. If you do not have a driver's license or are not ready to drive a car in an unfamiliar country, use the service to order a transfer. Sometimes renting a car with a driver between cities can be cheaper than flying or train, especially if you are traveling in a large group.

Sometimes part of the journey can be flown by plane, and part of the journey can be driven by car. For example, you can get to Tbilisi by direct flight from Moscow - or by flying domestic airlines to Vladikavkaz, and then take a transfer to Georgia along the stunningly beautiful Georgian Military Road. This way you can, on the one hand, save money, and on the other hand, enjoy the beauty of nature.

In this case, you need to take into account the following: if you negotiate a transfer at the airport upon arrival, you will be told an amount that takes into account the benefit of two, and sometimes three, weasels of different sizes who distribute orders between themselves and taxi drivers. As a result, the driver will receive the minimum payment and will tell you all the way that he has nothing to feed his family, and you will pay several thousand rubles more. Therefore, it is better to book a transfer in advance on specialized websites such as GetTransfer.

You can save as much as possible on housing when traveling around Europe using Booking, Airbnb and hostels. Many people ignore hostels, avoiding shared rooms with snoring foreigners, but there are also private rooms for one or two people - such accommodation is often even more comfortable than rooms in inexpensive hotels, and a free breakfast is provided with your overnight stay.

In Asian countries, it is worth renting housing on the spot, choosing from private advertisements (and be sure to bargain). If you are planning a seaside holiday, choose a hotel on the 2-3rd line from the beach. As a rule, a room there will cost less, and an extra few minutes of walking never harmed anyone.

How to save on food

You can find the most delicious, cheapest, freshest food wherever you are in the local markets. In addition, restaurants usually offer set lunches, which in Europe are called “menu of the day” and cost about 15-20 euros.

In tourist areas, the number of different restaurants per square meter is off the charts, in such a situation it is easy to get confused. To avoid wandering down the street hungry in search of a bargain lunch, take the time to search the Internet for good restaurants near your hotel and main attractions - Tripadvisor and Forsquare are great sites for searching.

Free excursions and entertainment

Many entertainments, such as street festivals, concerts, dances, etc., are completely free to attend. To do this, read advertisements on street posters or type in a search engine the phrase “Free entertainment in...”. Also, a walk through the park will not cost you anything - there are beautiful parks and gardens in almost every city.

In addition to this, most museums have free admission days, for example, on the first Sunday of the month you can go to the Louvre for free and see the Mona Lisa. If you're lucky enough to be in Rome on the last Sunday of the month, you can save on tickets to the Vatican Museum. Almost every tourist European city has free excursions (although usually in English, but in Finland and Eastern Europe they can also be in Russian) - you just need to find out the time and place of collection in advance.

A few more ideas for the perfect leisure activity are to stroll along the River Thames in London or climb to the ancient Czech fortress of Prague Castle: without paying a cent, you can enjoy wonderful views and take great photos.

The main thing is travel planning

When it comes to travel, every step will cost more if you don't think about it in time, so the main life hack is to take care of everything in advance: when and how to get there, where to live, eat and have fun. Therefore, first of all, take a notepad, diary or laptop to write down your travel plan in as much detail as possible.

Comment on the article "How to relax inexpensively? 5 life hacks for budget travel"

Air travel

Bilet.ru is a website with the ability to book a flight and receive your reservation by email without payment.
The bank of last-minute tours and charters is located on the tourdom website, section “exchange”, and last-minute tours are on tourstanok.
RTW tickets from three airline alliances do not include the company's low-cost airline. Therefore, a trip around the world will be significantly more expensive.
Access to business lounges at 600 airports around the world (120 countries) with a Priority Pass card. Shower, snacks free.
500 rubles discount on any air ticket/hotel using promo code VLADIMIR9813 on the onetwotrip website.
Get a free Aeroflot ticket by collecting miles for reviews on tripadvisor.
Do not drink coffee before or during the flight. It will only increase panic and heart palpitations.
The GateGuru app will tell you everything about the world's airports. Where are ATMs located, what Duty Free stores are there.
Drinks on board the plane, unless it is a low-cost airline, are unlimited. You can ask for two glasses of juice and then another for dessert. You can always get free plain water on low-cost airlines.
Cling film is cheaper than baggage wrapping services at the airport.

Safety

Rename the contacts of relatives/important friends in your phone to English. If something happens to you, doctors or police will know who to call. “Mom”, “Dad” are more understandable for an English-speaking employee of the Ministry of Emergency Situations than “mom” and “dad”.
Take out an annual insurance that includes all countries of the world and a period of stay abroad of 90 days. Wherever you suddenly escape, you will always be protected.
Upload scans of all important documents to Google Drive. If you lose the originals, you can print at least copies in any Internet cafe in the world.
Take 3-5 bank cards with you and store them in different places. If you have lost your main card or had it stolen, calmly block it, transfer money to a second card and continue your journey.
Make yourself a “covering” letter in English/Spanish with a stamp (can be typed or fake) and your photo, just like in your passport. Write who you are, where you are going and why you are good. In any situation with the police, this will greatly simplify your life.
Do you want street barkers in all countries of the world to leave you behind? Learn the phrase “I’m here for work” in the local language, and voila - they will quickly lose interest in you.
When renting a car/motorcycle, take photos of all scratches and defects on your phone directly in front of the owner.
Download the mobile application from the Russian Ministry of Emergency Situations. By pressing the SOS button in the application, your GPS coordinates will be sent both to rescuers and via SMS to your friends’ phones.
Bring a wide range of medications with you to your first aid kit. You never know what exactly will happen to you.
Take an external battery with you on your trip. Then you will always stay connected, even if there is no electricity near you for a whole week.

Leisure

Almost all museums in the world have free admission days. Find them out and put reminders in your calendar.
If you are transiting through or, don't forget to sign up for the free sightseeing tours.
What to see in the new city? Read articles on the Internet “City in 1 day” - they already contain the most important and interesting places.
Food spotting is a mobile app that allows you to see what a dish looks like and portion sizes before placing an order.
Excursions from a tour operator are 2-3 times more expensive, and are carried out by the same companies with which street agencies cooperate.
The best offline travel guide is the Triposo app.
Get up at dawn. Then you will see the sights without huge crowds of tourists and enjoy their grandeur, and not the noise of children and conversations of guides.
Buying tickets for excursions/attractions via the Internet is a sure way to save on average 10% of the cost and avoid queues.
Make a route for visiting interesting places and attractions one after another, so that it is convenient to explore them sequentially, and not meander from one end of the city to the other and back.
Go to a couchsurfers' party or go to a popular hostel - both there and there you can find new acquaintances, as well as ways to have an interesting evening or the next day.

Movement

When hitchhiking in Europe/America, you can use signs with the inscription of the nearest city. This will speed up your movement. But if there are many villages between foreign cities, and especially in Russia, it is better to vote without a sign.
Try to buy tickets for night buses/trains/flights. This way you will save a lot on housing.
From any airport in the world you can get there economically by bus rather than by taxi. Look on Google to see which bus companies run to the city center and where to look for a stop.
Free guides and city maps are available in many hotels at the reception or at separate counters. The more stars, the more chances you have to get them for free.
The best offline maps - maps.me.
All the world's subways in one MetrO app.
In Russian Railways compartment cars, choose seats 37 and 38. Then in the compartment you will have only two seats instead of four.
The Rome2Rio app will help you plan your travel itinerary and give you options on how to get to your destination, how long it will take and how much it will cost.
When traveling around Russia, Yandex.Transport will show you when your bus will arrive. When traveling around the world, Google Maps with its bus schedule will come to the rescue.
Sign up for promotions on your favorite airlines to be the first to know about big sales and really save. This is how you can buy a ticket for $1.

Accommodation

In hostels, you can agree to spend the night in exchange for cleaning or other help.
Get 8 nights in Bulgaria for free - just participate in the loyalty program from ayda.ru
The cheapest place in the Maldives is Maafushi Island. 3 star hotel for $48. And there are similar places at all resorts. Spend more time preparing and you will be rewarded.
The cheapest cities in Europe: Bucharest, Warsaw.
Participate in loyalty programs of various hotel chains. Free nights and a free upgrade to a luxury room are nice bonuses.
Housing on 2-3 lines from the beach costs 2-3 times cheaper than on the first line. Walking to the beach is not only economical, but also healthy. And if this is not a popular hotel, but housing from a private owner, then it will even be 4 times cheaper. Just walk around the city looking for “Room for rent” signs.
If you have housing that can be rented out, you can make great money on AirBnb, receive money directly to your card in dollars during your trip. It's convenient and profitable.
If you are traveling to a warm country, do not take a tent with you. Take a modern hammock. It weighs 100 grams, and to tie it you need any two support points at a distance of 2 to 5 meters. And the awning, which weighs exactly the same, will save you from the rain.
When choosing between an 8- and 10-bed room in a hostel, prefer the more expensive option - a 6-bed room. It is almost always empty, because those who save money usually stay in a 10-bed room. And so there is a chance to be alone in the room.
When using couchsurfing, look for registrations 2-3 weeks in advance, no later. Because on average the response time is 4-5 days, and in order for you to definitely find your entry, you need to start looking for it three weeks before your trip.

Other

Participate in all competitions where travel is awarded. I've already won three trips.
Buy an inflatable neck pillow. It will take up much less space in your luggage than its balloon-filled counterpart.
Do not take battery-powered gadgets (including a mouse) with you. This is the additional weight of the batteries, and if they are batteries, you will also have to take the charger with you. Take universal equipment that charges via USB.
You can take part in the Rio De Janeiro Carnival by simply purchasing a costume from special companies. And to participate is not to watch from the outside. These are completely different emotions.
The best offline translator is the Yandex Translator application. The best online translator is google translate. Translates both your speech in real time and captions from photos.
Supermarkets in America, Thailand, Hong Kong and other countries offer discounts of up to 50% on perishable foods 2 hours before closing. Eat delicacies at a discount.
Free Wi-Fi is available all over the world in libraries and universities, not just in McDonald's.
Take things with you that you don’t mind throwing away. In any country you will want to buy something new. And so - throw away the old thing, and a new one will take its place. Your back will thank you.
Use Groupon. It is available in 40 countries around the world
If you left home for a long time, for example, on a trip around the world for three months, then upon your return you can recalculate the cost of housing and communal services. All you need is boarding passes/tickets.
All exchange rates in one Currency application. It’s very convenient and helps you avoid getting scammed when a Vietnamese taxi driver asks you for 3,000,000 dong, and you look at the app and realize that he’s scamming you and the trip should only cost 300,000 dong.
Don't forget about Tax Free if you buy electronics.
Create a blog/website. The VKontakte group is also good, but you won’t get far with it. This is a great springboard for making money.
Install the Clashot app to earn income from mobile photography.
Use Gransjoy's travel delivery service to boost your karma and maybe earn a little extra money along the way.

Maria Bystritskaya

30.09.2014 | 1251

Are you dreaming of a vacation, but don’t believe that a budget vacation is real? We'll tell you how to save money and travel cheap.

Many married couples do not go on vacation for several years in a row for one simple reason: the prices for tourist packages “bite” and force them to choose a summer house. In fact, traveling doesn't have to be an expensive endeavor, especially if you try these smart ideas.

1. Travel by car

The times when an airplane was considered the most economical way to travel long distances are long gone. Today, when airlines are trying to include as many mandatory fees as possible in the ticket price, the cheapest way to travel is by car.

If you are going to spend your entire vacation traveling, you can plan a road trip of several thousand kilometers and have time to see several countries. Otherwise, choose vacation spots relatively close to your home.

2. Be flexible

If you do decide to fly, don't try to find flights for specific dates. This will reduce your chances of finding cheap flights. Start looking for tickets several months in advance to find the best travel dates.

The most expensive days to fly are Friday, Saturday and Sunday. Try to travel during the week.

3. Rent a motorhome

Believe it or not, a caravan, or motorhome, is an economical holiday option. Caravans have long ceased to be a curiosity that can only be seen in foreign films. Now they can be rented for a very reasonable price.

Please note that the motor home has not only sleeping places, but also a refrigerator and, preferably, a small electric stove. If you have to cook outside, this will only add to the charm of the trip: imagine that every evening will end by the fire under the starry sky.

Travel in your own vehicle

4. Take a vacation during the low season

Everyone knows, like twice two, that beaches are popular in summer, and mountains in winter. Try breaking the rules:

Ideal time for holiday at sea– May and September-October. Prices are sometimes several times lower than in summer, and there are practically no tourists.
If you are not going to snowboard, but just want to breathe in plenty of clean air, go to mountains in summer or warm autumn. At this time it is no less beautiful there than in winter. And, besides, the weather is conducive to hiking.
Are you going to excursion to a major city? Go there for a weekend in the summer. Most often, at this time of year, hotels are occupied mainly by those who come on a business trip. On weekends, hotels are usually empty. By planning a trip on Friday-Sunday, you can find favorable discounts on accommodation.

This, of course, does not apply to the most famous tourist destinations, which do not lose their popularity all year round. For example, Prague or Paris.

5. Rent a home with a kitchen

If you want to really save money on your vacation, cook your own meals. It’s no secret that the main expense item after travel and accommodation is food in restaurants and cafes.
There are plenty of options for accommodation with a kitchen: this can be a rented apartment, aparthotels or hostels, which often have a fully equipped kitchen (if you are traveling as a couple with your spouse, you may be offered a room for two).

The most convenient option is, of course, a rented apartment or aparthotel (which is essentially an apartment building with a reception desk on the ground floor). In this case, you can expect many bonuses: from a balcony and patio to your own pool in the yard.

6. Try camping

Are you in the mood for a real adventure? Then try staying in campsites. Modern tourist sites (especially when it comes to European ones) offer all conditions for living: a bathroom, electricity and even the Internet. And all this for a reasonable price!

If you wish, you can rent a cabin on site or come with your own tent and sleeping bags.

Agree, waking up and falling asleep in nature is much more pleasant than in a noisy city!

7. Stay away from tourist areas

Accommodation in cities popular among tourists can cost you a pretty penny. That is why it makes sense to stay in nearby settlements, where prices can be two or even three times lower. If you are traveling by car or there is a well-developed transport network between cities, an additional half hour on the road will not create any inconvenience.

Try staying in campsites away from major cities

8. Buy souvenirs in advance

If you are used to bringing souvenirs from your trips to friends and relatives, it is not at all necessary to buy them in the most expensive tourist places: in the city center or in an amusement park. Let's be honest: most of the souvenirs we take home are made in China, so your friends won't feel any difference if you buy gifts online in advance.

If the fact that the souvenir belongs to the place you visited is important to you, try going the other way: don’t buy postcards, but make them yourself - from your own photographs taken on the trip. Your loved ones should love this!

Well, or at least try to buy souvenirs away from places favored by foreigners. For example, buy postcards not on the main tourist street, but at the post office.

9. Travel together

Seriously consider going on vacation together with a couple you know: relatives or friends. The more people, the more pleasant experiences, right? In addition, this will help reduce expenses on housing and food, because you will be able to divide all expenses equally.

Tourist entertainment is, of course, very exciting, but always very expensive. Explore local forums and the press, ask for advice from your landlord or receptionist to find out about little-known places that are loved by locals. The prices are lower there, and the atmosphere is unforgettable.

11. Look for free entertainment

You won't believe how much free entertainment you can find in popular destinations!

Almost every major city offers free walking tours of the historical center. As a rule, they are conducted in English.
All museums have free days, and some do not charge admission at all.
Don't forget to check the cultural poster of the city you are visiting. During this time, festivals or folk celebrations may take place there with free admission.

Don't be afraid to travel, because you don't have to have a lot of money to do it!

Based on materials from sheknows.com