Your love of travel may be directly at odds with how much traveling can cost, from the airfare or other form of transportation to lodgings to fun activities you hope to do once there. And that doesn’t even touch upon the many surprising expenses that crop up when you travel.
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Fortunately, experts have a lot of unique hacks for how to save money when you’re booking travel or are already on the road. Here are our top 10 tips.
Search flights in incognito mode
If you want the best chance to find the lowest price on airfare, Rax Suen, a travel blogger, podcast host and founder of Nomads Unveiled, said, “Always clear your web browser cache or use incognito mode if you are checking flight prices multiple times. Some airline websites track your browsing history and will show repeat visitors a different and higher price to cause FOMO (fear of missing out).”
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Use a local sim card to reduce roaming
Since roaming charges for your mobile phone can add up quickly if you don’t have a package, and if you’re not interested in purchasing one through your provider, consider, instead, getting a local sim card for wherever you’re traveling, especially internationally, Suen said.
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Credit card points
Of all the ways to get cheap flights and other travel deals, Alene Laney, a travel writer at Pennies to Paradise, said, “There’s not much that can beat travel hacking with credit card points.”
You can take advantage of flexible point systems like those from Chase, American Express and Citi, and combine them with sign-up bonuses from you and a significant other and end up with free flights and hotels, she said. “I’ve traveled to Paris, The Galapagos, and Bora Bora using points in the last couple of years all on a one-income…