Hi. Kia here. If you follow me on social media, you will know how much I love to travel. In the last year, I've been to Spain, New York and Zanzibar. But while we all love to visit new places and have a break from the daily grind, money inevitably plays a big part in how elaborate our plans are. So whether you're a solo traveler or holiday with others, going on travel adventures is a big expense, especially these
days. We want to find clever ways to head abroad without it feeling too much of a splurge. Welcome to another episode of A Little Bit Richer, brought to you by my friends at Legal &; General. Here to help our money go further is the woman behind Big World Small Pockets, Steph Parker. Welcome to A Little Bit Richer, Steph.
Hi. Thanks for having me.
Thank you for coming on. Right. So I want to get straight into this. As you heard, I love travel, but I want to start by asking you what sort of holidays offer better value?
I think there's two ways to think about this. So I think you've either got one option, which is stay in the UK so you keep your actual travel costs down, but you've probably got a bit of a pricier accommodation. Cost of living is a bit higher. Or you splurge a bit more on a plane ride and you go somewhere else where the cost of living might be
cheaper. That's one key way to do it. The other thing to remember is that the more research you do, the less you pay. So for example, I tend to avoid using tour operators. Instead, if you can plan your flights, your accommodation, your airport transfers yourself, you're going to save a lot of money. And then if you still want to do some tours to particular sites when you're
in a destination, that's totally fine. There's loads of sites like Get Your Guide or Via Tour that offer day or multi- day shorter trips, and that is a great way to keep your budget down then going with a tour for the whole of your holiday.
Absolutely, and I agree with what you said, booking it separately. As someone who's traveled a lot like you have, you can see the difference in the price when you book a package versus splitting it up and you see you save a lot more money when you actually go and seek out, let's say the flights and the accommodation and the transfers separately, it can all add up when it's all in a package.
Absolutely. Because you're happy to do your research. It does take a bit of time, but you can find some real deals. And don't forget, you're cutting out the middleman cost. If you are not using a travel agent, you're not having to pay for them. So doing research yourself, using price comparison websites, they're great ways to save on holidays.
Absolutely amazing. This is a question that I'm sure you get a lot because I'm going to ask you, is there a best time to book a holiday to get the best deal and can you suggest some ways that people can find the best prices?
When you're thinking about going to a destination, the first thing is forget school holidays. If you don't have kids-
Oh, out the window.
If you don't have kids and you don't have to travel in school holidays, don't. They're always much more expensive. I also really love traveling in what I call the shoulder season. So that kind tends to be the couple of months either side
of the peak season. So when we are thinking about Europe, might be May, June, September, October time because normally the weather's still good, but there's way less crowds and prices are cheaper
as well. So shoulder season for the win. And then when it comes to booking flights, yes you might find a flash sale down the line, but by and large you are always going to get the cheapest flights by booking as early as you can say two, even three months in advance, especially for long haul. The reason is airlines have tiered tickets, so once they sell out of the cheapest tier, those seats are gone and you move
up to the next tier in the pricing ranking. So doing it early is always better. With hotels, it's the other way round, which is a sneaky tip because say your holiday's coming up in a few weeks' time. If those hotels have still got rooms available, they want to
shift them. They want to sell those nights. So booking as last minute as possible that you feel comfortable with when it comes to hotels is definitely the best way because they'll start dropping their rates the nearer it gets to the time that you want to stay there. So hotels late, flights early is the best combination.
That's the best combo. Do you know what? When it comes to booking hotels late, I'm glad you said that. I think the latest I've ever booked it, which did give me anxiety, I want to put it out there, so I wouldn't recommend it for people, was when I was in the airport about to get my flight and I had no accommodation. This when I was going to Thailand, I had no accommodation booked and I was out there for 11
days. I had no plan whatsoever and I was traveling with my friend and I said to her, " I'll handle it. I'll do the accommodation." So we got to the airport, she said, " Okay, where are we staying?" I said, " I have no idea. I have no idea." So we were trawling online, literally like an hour or two before I had to board our flight, but I got a really good deal.
Well, there you are. I was going to say, did you get a bargain?
But, I will say, it was a bit prickly.
Yeah, that's bold. I think I might've done that when I was younger. Now not so much. Yeah. And if you've got the luxury of time, say you're backpacking for longer or traveling for a few months, yeah, you can be a bit more flexible. If you've got a week, you might-
I was pushing it. I was pushing it. I was very much, and I can hold my hands up. I was definitely pushing it so I wouldn't recommend it, but like you said, last minute's always good. Maybe a couple of days before, not the day of. That's what I-
A couple of days sounds reasonable.
A couple of days is good, yeah. Okay. And what about ideas to consider when actually looking for accommodation? You mentioned obviously you want to book as often as possible to get the best deals, but when you're actually looking, there is so much choice out there now. Before it used just to be you got to book a hotel, but there are so many
different variations of accommodation. What should people consider when they're looking for accommodation?
I think you really need to think about the type of holiday that you want to have. If you're happy to self- cater, which can be a great way to save money, then Airbnb's apartments awesome choice for you. There's actually a new company called Vrbo. They're like Airbnb. You might have find some better deals on there as well.
Hotels, if you really want to relax. If you don't want to do the washing up, if you don't want to go to the supermarket, think about that because if it's your holiday of the year and you want to have a good time, it might be worth spending a little bit more to go in a hotel if you don't want to do all the other tasks, cooking and cleaning and all those sorts of things. House sitting's great
if you're on a longer trip. So if you're traveling for perhaps a few weeks or even a few months, then house sitting can be a great option as well. People will give you their house to look after for free if they've got pets or they just want someone to stay there and they're verified. There's review systems. It's that kind of process and you can do that all
online as well. So it's really about thinking about the type of holiday that you want to have and matching accommodation for that and thinking that sometimes when you spend a little bit more, you might get more of the experience that you're looking for and that is actually good value.
Absolutely. I think it's not all just about the numbers. This is the cheapest and we're going to go for that. It is like you said, do I want to relax? Have I had a stressful time at work and I just want to put my feet up? Maybe Airbnb and figuring out breakfast, lunch and dinner isn't the way to go. Maybe I will go for a hotel. Like I said, it is personal circumstances. I've done pretty much all of them and they've
all offered different experiences. It's just figuring out what kind of holidays do I want.
Exactly.
So for anyone looking to get a good deal, what about price comparison sites?
Always use a price comparison site to start. They're a great place to begin your research for budget travel. When it comes to flights, top tip, remember to use an incognito browser when you're searching because it is true that they track your cookies and the prices go up the more
you look so incognito browser. And if you're flying with a budget airline, I always go direct to their website because it's cheaper to add baggage on at the end of the booking process rather than one of the packages that you get priority boarding and all these things that you don't need to add on, just add the luggage and it's best to do that for budget airlines direct with them.
Amazing. What about hotels?
Hotels, I use it for research. So I always look on a price comparison website like booking. com or hotels. com to find the kind of hotels or places that I want to stay. Lots of them do Airbnbs or apartments now as well. But then I go direct to the hotel. And the reason is the hotels have to pay these price comparison sites a commission, so that can
be up to 17%. So if you go direct, you can normally negotiate a discount of around 10%.
Wow.
And everybody's doing better on that. So yeah, give them a call or an email and you can normally work a better deal with hotels straight.
Amazing. So what's some of your favorites but more affordable places to discover?
Long haul if you're looking for a Safari, which I think is probably on everyone's bucket list-
For mine as well.
And it's one of my favorites too. South Africa is a real bargain right now. There's parks there where you can do south drives that make it really cheap, but otherwise cost of living there is quite affordable and it's such a diverse and amazing country to visit. Park entrances are cheap. So if you were looking for a budget Safari, South Africa is my tip. Across in Asia, Sri Lanka is one of my absolute faves.
Really? Okay.
I went there for the first time last year and I was blown away. And again, super affordable. If you're say looking for a luxury honeymoon, you can get five star hotels there for a fraction of the price that you would in Europe. There's beaches, the food's amazing, there's tea plantations, epic train rides. It's an all- round gem. So yeah, Sri Lanka, highly recommend.
Wow. Now I have to ask you, Steph, what are some of your personal favorite places to visit?
I'm going to give you my top five.
Okay. I want your top five. I'm ready for the list. Let's go.
It's Ethiopia.
Okay.
Lebanon.
Oh.
Georgia.
Yes.
Peru and Sri Lanka, which we've talked about.
Yes. That's a good list. But just to circle back, Georgia, we're not talking about the state.
No, right, we're talking about the country.
The country, okay.
Yeah, so on the edge of Europe, just the other side of Turkey. Again, I think I love these countries because they're really diverse. They're a bit off the beaten track, very affordable to travel. Georgia has amazing food and wine, mountains for hiking or skiing in the winter. History.
It's just beautiful. The people are so friendly and it's still in Europe, but it feels quite different and feels a bit unique and it's still a bit undiscovered as well. So get there before everybody else does.
Well, I'm booking my trip after this. I have to get there first now. So thank you for that insights there. Thank you. Travel insurance, how can you make sure you get good value on your policy?
First of all, check if you already get travel insurance with your credit card or debit cards, anything else that you might be a member of if you get travel insurance there. If not, use a price comparison website to shop around and get the best deal. Special offers run all
the time, so hop onto those if you can. Think about your cover, the two main points that you want to make sure are covered are the most common things. So is it your electronics getting stolen? That might be a big thing for you. Is it baggage delay? Make sure the most important things to you get covered. Look
at the excess. No point going for a cheaper policy if the excess is huge because you're going to have to pay that if anything happens so often it's worth paying for a little bit more for a lower excess.
And if you're not heading to the US or North America, make sure you get a policy that doesn't include these countries because that will significantly reduce the price because medical health insurance tends to be a lot more expensive in those countries. So choosing an insurance policy that doesn't include them, it's automatically going to be lower.
Amazing. How can you manage your spending while abroad?
First of all, do not eat in touristy areas. That is my 101. So even if you want to go out to a nice restaurant, often walking just 5, 10 minutes away from where you're staying, you can get a much more local place, much better deal. If you're self- catering, same. Do local supermarkets. Make best use of those. Think about walking, particularly in European cities, free walking tours.
Use Google Maps to get around really easy. If not, use public transport where you can. Don't get a taxi from the airport. There's often transfers or shuttles. You can research that online before you go. And find out if there's any travel card deals. Like you can use public transport for two, three days and you've got an unlimited card. Loads of places do that, and that often works out cheaper as well.
Brilliant. And now what are some of your favorite more affordable places to discover?
I'm a big fan of a budget travel hack. So instead of Croatia for example, which is growing really popular, think about Montenegro. Similar experiences, but for much less price. Same, instead of going to Scandinavia, Norway, Finland really expensive, just a few kilometers away, Estonia, an amazing Nordic country for
half the price. So I always think is there a cheaper country that offers the same kind of experiences, but for less?
So when you're abroad and you come to pay, it's always that thing, right? Do you pay in the local currency or do you go the conversion for example that is offered to you? What's the best thing to do when you come to pay?
Always go for the local currency. So if you've just eaten dinner and they've come over with a card machine for you to tap and pay, do not select pounds. Always select the local currency because what happens is the banks will convert it for you at less good rate. So yeah, if you pay in the currency and you've got a card that has a great conversion rate on it, which you should, that is definitely the top tip.
Amazing. Lastly, I want to ask you, what are your three top tips on traveling smarter?
When it comes to traveling smarter, my three top tips are, first of all, check your roaming charges on your phone. If the country that you're going to isn't covered by free roaming, get an eSIM. They're amazing, work really well. Top hack. Tip number two is check your debit card. Don't use it abroad if there's transaction or bad
conversion fees. Get a card that allows you to take money out from the ATM or spend abroad for free. Take a spare card, leave that in your room in case one gets stolen, and always take a credit card if you plan to hire a car. And the third tip is a filter water bottle. These are so good for just stopping the plastic waste and as well saving your budget a little bit on bottled water that you
keep have to buy. You can fill them up from any tap in the world. They've got inbuilt filters and it means you can safely drink the tap water anywhere. Game changer.
Game changer. I co- sign that one. I've been doing that as well. Amazing. Steph, thank you so much. Travel's on everyone's mind and you've given us some tips and gems that we can take to book our next holiday. So thank you so much for coming on the podcast.
Thank you so much for having me. It's been great.
Next time on A Little Bit Richer, we're looking at scams and what to watch out for. Don't forget you can rate, review and subscribe to the podcast so you never miss an episode. Tell your mates and help them get a little bit richer too. Tell us what you think and get in touch via Legal &; General's Instagram and TikTok channels where you can see some behind the scenes and get
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