So. Now that you’ve answered the when and where, what next?
For me usually this is where I did a rough budget and here’s why. If you’re like me and can’t save up to save your life, here’s a ‘trick’. Rather than saving for a big lump sum, I split my ‘saving’ into 2 parts.
Now I’m not going to tell you how to save, that part you need to figure out yourself. Figure out which part of your lifestyle that is not essential (believe it or not, you don’t need expensive coffee every single day!) you can reduce/eliminate so as to spend less. In this post I’m going to write about stuff you need to be saving for.
I’d say one thing though. I find it helpful to separate my savings for travel. When I have my savings in a savings account, it won’t stop me buying something I want ‘now’ when all I had to do is take my card and swipe it. So if you’re like me and have impulse issue, I suggest you keep your savings in cash and put it in an envelop with ‘TRAVEL $$$’ on the front. This way, when you ‘had to’ take money from it, you’ll know you’re taking money that you could’ve used when you’re traveling.
BUDGET
If you’ve read part 1 (which I hope you did, otherwise I might not make any sense ;;), you’d know I started planning my trips very early. This is actually part of the reason why I started so early… Once I decided on a where, I’d do a rough check on how much the flight would cost and start saving just for that. This way, it won’t take too long for me to save up enough for my flight Then once the flight on the days I wanted was sold, I will immediately bought it (this is after doing price comparison which is now so easy to do on google).
Note: don’t save that exact amount you saw!!! Always save more as prices for flights will definitely differ – e.g. if the flight you saw was $532 then target $600 or even $700. This is so in case there’s a surge on the pricing, the amount you needed to top up won’t be too unafforadable.
For those who haven’t discovered this google function yet: just type flight (your city) (destination city) on the search bar on google and click on the flight tap or the show flights tap at the bottom.
And this will show up:
They actually lists all possible flights for you and you can just book from their respective websites. Of course, if you already have a trusted site that compares flight prices and know you can get cheaper flights from there then by all means!
Tip: prices for a national airlines are usually expensive on the country itself e.g: booking SIA from Singapore but I find that generally it’s cheaper when I book other country’s airlines. Like for example, when I wanted to go to Seoul a few years back, a flight with Garuda (Indonesia’s national airline) cost cheaper when I book the flight in Singapore than when I book from Indonesia! I initially thought that if the price really is cheaper from Indonesia, I can always take a budget flight to Indonesia and take the flight to Seoul from there. But even with an extra flight (Singapore – Jakarta) it’s still cheaper to book from Singapore than straight from Jakarta. It adds to travel time, but I think it’s quite worth it as it saved me more than SGD200.
OK, now back to the topic. Once you got your flight and booked it, the next step is obviously accommodation. Now I know, there are some of you that are so adventurous that you leave the booking last minute or even book it as you travel. I’m not like that. I understand the trill and I did see some people saying they found hidden gems that they wouldn’t found otherwise. If you’re one of those people, then by all means! Unless you’re planning on visiting some rural village which may have very limited accommodations, I don’t see why not. There’s sure to be lodging available last minute. But if you’re like me and you love to know where you can rest the whole duration of the trip, then go to booking.com.
And before you asked, no this is not a paid advertisement :p
Why I love booking.com in particular:
- The filter function
Once you fill in your destination area, number of persons, room and dates, the filter list (it’s a long list!!) would be on the left hand side. It’s super complete and you can definitely get your pick but the one I used the most is ‘free wifi’ under the hotel facilities. XD - Each room comes with full description of the facilities available + photos!
This is especially handy when I want to know how the actual room looks like for the particular room I want to book.
3. The map, their most useful feature of all.
You can immediately see where your hotel is located in the map AND they have all their properties/accommodations listed:
Note: the biggest pin would be where the hotel of your choice is + the price of the number of night you input. They would also have a small window with a brief description of the accommodation of your choice. This way, you can immediately do a price comparison with other available accommodations in the same area. Also, note that those that are marked red (without any price next to them) are accommodations that aren’t available (fully booked) on the dates you requested.
TIP: if you like a property but it’s marked red on the site, don’t be discouraged just yet! This just means that the room bookings that are reserved for booking.com’s customers are maxed out. You can still try to google the accommodation to double check with other booking sites or even the accommodation’s official site (if any) to try your luck.
Btw, this map feature is especially useful when I travel with my parents.
Why?
I’m glad you asked 🙂
My dad always wanted accommodations that are near the central train station. This is so that our travel from the train station to our accommodation of the day while carrying our luggages is a short one. This would also mean that we would be close to any place-of-interest we wanted to visit as the central station will always be located at the city central. He would be persuaded on trying on the more interesting accommodations only when we rent a car (cos then our luggages would be in the car).
So what I’d do is first do a quick google search on where the central station is located then just pick a random hotel in the site and just move the map around until I found the station and just take my pick. The best is of course if we can get those hotels that are attached to the station. But within a 2 block walk is still acceptable (for my dad).
This does help a lot especially when first arriving from the airport (and we don’t know where to go) and when we are leaving (cos of all the ‘souvenirs’ 😉 that we have with us). Having to walk less while carrying so many items sure make it bearable…
4. Free cancelation (& no prepayment needed)!
Most accommodations listed have a free cancelation policy. Some have a shorter deadlines, but some are generous enough to make the day before the booking as the deadline for cancellation. Some also comes with a ‘no prepayment needed’ so you would only had to pay when you’re at the site. This is especially handy when you managed to find a better/more interesting place to stay at as you do more research for your trip.
Why do I get my flight & accommodations booked so early you asked? It’s actually a sign of commitment. Once you have your flight booked, it’s less likely for you to cancel the trip isn’t it? I find this especially helpful when I planned a trip with friends. This turns the ‘someday’ to ‘next year for sure!’.
Aaaaaaand since I’ve written quite a lot on just flight and accommodations, I will continue on the second part of savings on the next post! Please do let me know if this helps in any way or if you have a master tip to share!
How to Plan for your trip links:
#1 destination & duration
#3 budget – part2 meal & everything else
#4 itinerary – building a rough itinerary
#5 itinerary – it’s all in the details!
daytimedream 
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