‘We travel not to escape life, but for life not to escape us’– Robyn Yong.
This quote is very much true and I’d encourage you to travel as much as you possibly can! Travelling is part of me and I cannot wait to explore more of the world, and try to visit new places as much as possible. In 2019, I travelled to five countries as well as taking many micro gaps, but how did I manage to travel so much?
This is something that people ask me all the time and I’d like to point out, I’m not made of money (unfortunately!). I get the standard 21 days annual leave (with Bank Holiday’s on top) and all of my travel in 2019 was in Europe. So, without further ado here are the reasons I managed to travel so much, and some tips for you, on how to travel more!
Use Annual Leave Wisely
One of the things I look for when I’m booking a city break is the flight times. I’ll try and find a flight which leaves early and arrives back late, even if it means travelling with different airlines and may cost a fraction more.
Even though I had late flights back, sometimes meaning I wouldn’t get home until 1 am, I wouldn’t book that day off work. I’d suffer through that eight hours feeling super tired and fuelled by coffee, but have an extra day of annual leave!
Utilise Weekends & Bank Holidays
All of my trips lasted between two and four days, with them all being based around utilising weekends. Two of my trips, Paris and Geneva were over Bank Holiday weekends, meaning that I had to take minimal annual leave.
Split The Costs
Another thing that comes into travel is the money aspect. My first recommendation is budget, budget, budget! I don’t usually book package holidays and tend to split the costs as much as I can.
For example, I’d book flights first, accommodation the month after, activities the month after that and then put money into my Monzo account for spending money. This way I still had money to shop, eat, pay bills and rent!
Think About Accommodation
I’m also not too fussed about accommodation, I’ll look at Airbnb and find some which are reasonably priced with good reviews and look up hotels. It is somewhere to sleep at the end of the day and as I’m out exploring most of the day, I’m not too worried if the place is pretty basic as the whole point of travel is to see the destination!
Don’t Travel Afar
As I mentioned, all of the places I travelled to in 2019 were in Europe, meaning I could make it a weekend break and didn’t require hours of travel. My plan at the moment is to see more of Europe, which makes it easier for me to travel more.
This will be different if you want to travel further afield as it would likely cost more in flights and in time. This isn’t me saying don’t travel further, by the way, just a hack for travelling to more destinations!
And there we have it, my hacks on how to travel more! I do plan on going further afield this year, which means I may not get to travel as much as I’d like, but by continuing to use my tips listed above, I’ll travel as much as I possibly can!
Do you have any other travel tips you’d like to share? I’d love to know in the comments!
