Travelling is a vital form of education. Students should therefore embark on trips every now and again but financial constraints often pose a challenge. Regardless of cost implications, it doesn’t matter if it’s cross-country, trans-regional or intercontinental. In fact, the farther the merrier, although the costlier. This article therefore details the best affordable travel hacks for students in 2024 to help you travel without breaking the bank.
These strategies or hacks entail meticulous planning and making savvy decisions that are grounded in research.
Before delving into the best affordable travel hacks for students in 2024, let’s look at packing strategies. This is critical because it is one hack students can leverage on to avoid excess luggage bills.
Hacks on the packing of baggage are veritable budget travel tips for students in 2024 as they avert the nightmare that comes with forgetting to travel with an essential personal effect.
Packing Hacks for Affordable Student Travel in 2024
Packing effectively is vital and considered among the best affordable travel hacks for students in 2024. Proper packing ensures a smooth trip and prevents unnecessary expenses. This is because education tourists must before settling in or in the course of the trip buy those items they forget to carry along.
Imagine arriving late in the day only to discover that you forgot to pack your pyjamas. It is to avert such regrettable omissions that great care, systems and processes must be adopted to ensure that what needs to be packed is in the suitcase.
For starters, you must know the specific travel bag size that works for the airline you intend to travel on. You need this information because different airlines have their own unique measurements for baggage. Thankfully, major retail stores like Amazon enable you to shop by airlines’ specifications when attempting to buy suitcases. This way, you can go for super roomy boxes and backpacks as big as your preferred airline can allow.
Having a “Pack this!” list is a must. At least two to three days in advance, the student who intends to travel in 2024 should spend some time really thinking about everything they need. Put all that comes to mind in a handy prefilled notepad or the Notes app on your phone. Then proceed to check items that have already been packed.
How to Pack Your Bag and Baggage
You would be saving a lot of space by rolling your clothes. It has been proven that folded clothing takes more space than its rolled counterparts. This technique also helps because when adopted, you can easily find individual items without having to mess up the other content of your box.
Keep your non-foldable hats in shape while travelling by laying them upside down and stuffing them with soft materials like underwear and socks. The same can be done with shoes which can be used to pack jewelry items like sunglasses, wristwatches and other smaller items. This way you would be sparing your suitcases of the badly needed extra space.
To avoid incurring extra costs shipping things to their home country, student who wants to embark on an affordable trip in 2024 must spare some space for souvenirs in their suitcases. You will surely be looking forward to bringing more stuff on your way back home therefore should spare some space for the items you can only find at the local shops in the country of visit.
Affordable travel 2024: Areas students can hack to cut cost
Budget Accommodation Tips for Students
An affordable travel hack for students in 2024 is to find affordable lodging in hostels, homestays, and through work exchange programs. An add-on benefit of this has to do with the students easily connecting them with peers and contemporaries.
Websites like Hostelworld and Booking.com offer extensive listings and reviews which come as affordable travel hacks for students to secure the best deals.
Apart from their cost-cutting benefit, homestays and couch surfing meet the accommodation needs of foreign students and enable them to experience local culture. These are platforms that connect travellers with local hosts who offer free accommodation. On homestay.com for instance, education tourists can find affordable lodging with natives of the city they are visiting.
Since students embark on their travel during academic vacations, there are chances that schools in the country they are visiting would be on academic breaks as well.
What to do?
The student can check if local universities in their destination rent out their dormitories to travellers at a fraction of the cost of hotels. Using such a service will surely go a long way in making travel affordable.
Work exchange services are reliable hacks through which skilled students can make their travel in 2024 whereby their accommodation and feeding needs are well catered for. They can scour web pages like Workaway and WWOOF to find opportunities to work on farms, hostels, or community projects in their destination.
NOTE: Students need to know their visa type and its visa restriction, this is because some countries do not allow students to work while studying.
While they may be taken in as volunteers, these students will be provided free or low-cost accommodation and meals in exchange for their services. Acquisition of unique experiences comes as add-on benefits. Students can make their travel in 2024 affordable by checking out HelpX or VolunteerHQ.
Similarly, if the educational trip is in Asia and South America, the student who is proficient in the use of English can go ahead to teach locals the language and be rewarded with competitive salaries and perquisites, including accommodation.
Cost-effective Transportation Option
Public transportation is the cheapest and safest way for students to explore new cities and this has been considered to be among the best affordable travel hacks for students. Cities like London, Paris, and Tokyo have extensive public transport networks that are not only efficient but economical.
An affordable travel hack for students in 2024 would therefore be to invest in city transport cards or passes. This facility provides unlimited travel at a low cost.
Students on budget travel should embrace ride-sharing services like BlaBlaCar rather than ride on costly trains and buses. This intra-city shuttle is comparatively cheaper, especially for long-distance travel.
The fact that the visitor gets to share the ride with others, splitting the cost, makes it an economically sound decision. More so, this creates room for interaction that would enable the visitor to better understand their destination and its people.
One major affordable hack in this regard is for the student on a trip in 2024 to take advantage of the various free walking tours led by knowledgeable local guides in various cities of the world.
These tours operate on a tip basis, through which visitors after paying what they can afford will be guided to trek through shorter routes to spots in the city that would cost money going by buses or train. Students who utilize this hack wouldn’t even know when they arrive at their destination, thanks to the guide regaling them with insights into the city’s history and culture.
Smart use of technology can equally help in this regard. Through apps like Citymapper and Rome2Rio, student on international travel in 2024 can easily find their way via the highlighted local transportation options.
Affordable Educational Trip Hack
Now, if the educational tour is the type that would take the student to different European countries, then they can latch on to Eurail Pass as the hack that would make their travel in 2024 affordable. The Pass is a cost-effective option that allows unlimited train travel across multiple countries for a set period, providing flexibility and savings.
Another hack that makes educational trips affordable is prepaid travel cards. This will allow the student to load multiple currencies while offering favourable exchange rates. These cards are widely accepted in various cities of the world and are geared towards helping tourists effectively manage their budgets.
The visitor will be well advised to avoid Airport currency exchange counters while travelling. This is because the counters usually have poor exchange rates and high fees. The hack is for the student who wants affordable travel in 2024 to use ATMs or local banks to withdraw money at better rates.
Affordable Eating Tips for Student Travelers
Eating at local markets and cooking your own meals in hostel kitchens are foolproof means of saving money on food while travelling. Several countries of the world particularly Thailand, Mexico, and Vietnam have these street food stalls and roadside bistros where visitors are treated to local cuisines.
Since hostels and budget accommodations are enticing enough options recommended above, the student can use the inherent kitchen facilities to cook their own meals. This would require shopping at local grocery stores providing the opportunity to try out local ingredients and dishes.
The student who wants their travel in 2024 to be affordable feeding-wise should carry lots of snacks. This guards against them buying pricey munchies on the go. The snacks can simply be a trail mix of nuts, seeds, dried fruits, and chocolate or granola. Some good money will be saved when these ingredients are bought in bulk.
Apart from this hack, the international student who wants his travel in 2024 to be affordable can patronize restaurants that offer student discounts or set menus. If in university towns, you will likely find eateries that cater to students with budget-friendly prices.
If hard to find, the tourist student can resort to online platforms and travel apps which would always reveal local favourites, so as not to be exploited by touristy, expensive eateries.
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Conclusion: Best Affordable Student Travel in 2024
Affordability hacks as discussed above have knocked down the widely-held notion that international travel is only for super-rich students. The not-so-rich can equally enjoy the privilege, and even earn in the process, courtesy of work exchanges.
Strategies that make for affordable student travel in 2024 are inexhaustible. For instance, by simply booking flights and reservations in advance, the student will be making significant savings. Another hack would be to travel off-season like by visiting Europe in late autumn or early spring rather than in the summer.
Then, while in the country of destination, the student who wants an affordable vacation should rather head to smaller cities or towns near major tourist sites. There, they can be sure of lower prices on accommodations and food.
Tagging along with a group makes for affordability because you get to team up for day trips, share taxi rides, share the financial burden of feeding and even split the cost of guided tours. With these expense-saving hacks, the average student can plan and go on to enjoy affordable travel this 2024.
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