I realize sometimes our life on social media looks like one trip after another and many wonder how we can afford to travel so often. First and foremost, we prioritize travel over anything else. We drive a beat up old car, we don’t eat out often, and we are all around thrifty. I almost always buy things on sale and since we have moved around so much, we try not to spend money on material things that we can’t take with us.
When we travel, we generally travel on a tight budget. In fact if we are travelling in developing countries, our style of travel is backpacking and our daily budget is $150 all in for our family of 5. We are happy traveling on a budget. I find it allows us to get a better sense of a country and its people. Sure, we might not be able to do everything we would like to at a destination, but it forces us to seek out free activities like wandering the streets or finding the local playground. You read all my tips and advice for family travel planning in this post.
In Australia our travel tended to be shorter getaways since Paul was working. Australia is extremely expensive to travel in and since we had income coming in and didn’t travel full time, our Australian travels were more mid-range. If we went on short getaways from Melbourne, we choose to camp, which kept costs down.
Read my full post on how you can travel more as a family. And if you need a reminder about why you should travel with your kids, check out this post about 7 benefits of family travel.
After 15 years of travel, 10 of those with kids, here are some of our tips for family travel on a budget.
Family Travel on a Budget
Travel Off Peak
I know many people worry about taking their kids out of school for a family vacation, but I say just do it! We have found teachers to be really supportive of our travels with little concern. Obviously this depends on the country you live, but in Australia and Canada, we have had no difficulty traveling during school terms and for extended periods. We have also visited many countries in low or “green” season and have found good savings. In the tropics, it rarely rains all day and we don’t find an hour of rain each day affects our holiday. Recently we traveled to India in the green season and in addition to cheaper prices, we didn’t have to book accommodation in advance.
Choose Active Activities over Attractions
When we travel we prefer to wander the streets of a city, explore the parks, or go for a hike. These cost us very little. We splurge occasionally on a tour or attraction, but try to do free and active activities whenever possible.
Choose Destinations with a Lower Cost of Living
We love traveling in Asia because it is so affordable and it was a great choice when we were living in Australia. Now that we are back in Canada, getting our family to Asia is very expensive and we are focusing on closer destinations like Mexico and Central America.
Don’t Try to do it All
There are usually lots of ways to experience and spend money at different destinations. We try to find the balance between splurging on a few items that we really want to do and tempering that with lots of free and active activities. That is why we love traveling in Asia because the culture and people are so interesting to us, that we don’t need to pay money for more manufactured experiences.
Collect Experiences, not Things
We do sometimes buy souvenirs, but we prefer to spend our money on unique and interesting experiences, rather then things. I do not like clutter and although there are lots of interesting things to buy when on holiday, I try to think practically about where they would go and what I would do with them.
If we do buy mementos from our trip, we try to buy directly from the artist. Some of the great travel keepsakes we have at home are a table we bought in Malawi in Africa for $20. It is intricately carved and we met the artisan making the piece. We shipped it home while on a 6 month trip and it definitely has a special place in my heart, even if it isn’t the most practical item. One item I often buy are Christmas tree ornaments as they are small and we can remember our travels when we are home decorating the tree. I also really like to buy consumables while traveling, like a special coffee or spices or home made soaps.