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Travel Frugal

Overview

How
to
Travel
Cheap

USA

Get a car and drive. If you fly anywhere, you’re going to have to drive once you arrive anyway. This excludes DC and New York, and TBH I visited both on my solo road trips, you just need to know where to leave your car. Comment below if you wanna see stories for both! This is also ideal for National Parks. As someone who was under 25, driving solo, a rental car was not worth it. The daily price and 25 and under fee was painful, so me and my lil Honda Civic took off East. Then East again, then West…then West again.

Flights

Beautiful for international opportunities. Scott’s Cheap Flights is great for people who are down to buy tickets with a few hours to decide and open to more places. He’s a G for letting you know about mis-priced and cheap deals. Really phenomenal guy to subscribe to the free version. Honestly, I haven’t used him yet, but totally would and my good friend went to Jordan for way less with him. I personally use hubs. This is great for people who have a specific destination and dates only flexible by a few days in each direction. This is knowing JFK is a hub for a number of European flights, ATL is a hub for Delta getting to Central/South America, and WOW being cheap to Iceland and new places every year.

> How to Hub

Example: My flight from STL to Norway (I was open to anywhere in Europe): Buy a round trip ticket STL – JFK with Delta. Buy a second round trip ticket JFK to NOR with Nordic Air. Plan a 12-24 hour layover in JFK both ways to make sure if one flight runs late, you can still make it. Try to enjoy the JFK airport, but pack your own snacks so you don’t loose all the money you just saved! My go to’s are a box of Cheese Its, Honey BBQ Twists, and a large sandwich. Pros: 3 weeks out my tickets were $600 total. Cons: A large Hurricane hit Atlanta on the day I was supposed to fly. When things go wrong, which they always do to some extent, you need to stay calm and think clearly. I got on the phone, and two hours later had my flight rerouted through not Atlanta and set to arrive 2 hours earlier. A longer layover in JFK, but at the time, I had more time than money on my side.
> Trains

Quite popular in Europe. People rave about the EuroRail. Sorry for the upcoming offensive, but people who rave about EuroRail either traveled only 1 country, or didn’t do their research. Better Options: Buses & BlaBla. What is BlaBla? I’m about to blow your mind. PolskiBus – Really cheap and I had great experiences with it

> Buses

Get the apps on your phone and link your credit card before going oversees. It’s just easier. The following are my favs. I stopped using them as soon as I learned about BlaBlaCar.

FlixBus – Classic with the most options

RegioJet – Nicer than FlixBus, fewer drive options, maybe 3 euros more a trip.

GoEuro – Offers you the most expensive options only. Not a fan.

PolskiBus – Really cheap and I had great experiences with it

> BlaBlaCar,

Goodness I LOVE THIS APP. It’s like Uber for long distances. People who are already traveling, let’s say from Budapest to Vienna, maybe for work or to see their families, will post their trips, and offer up the extra seats in their car for 10 Euros (like $10) on average. WHAT?! This is incredible. Why are we not doing this in America?? #BringBlaBlaToTheUSA
> Follow Up

I’ll keep posting as time goes on, but if you want to hear more about something specific, comment below!

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