Saving on travel is all about flexibility, says the anonymous editor-in-chief of the luxury travel site Andrew Harper. He told Lifehacker about a few reliable ways to watch for discounts on luxury travel, one of which will make you feel like a complete master of the universe, which you already know because we spoiled it in the headline.
[referenced url=”https://www.lifehacker.com.au/2018/01/five-of-the-best-ways-to-find-cheap-flights/” thumb=”https://www.lifehacker.com.au/wp-content/uploads/sites/4/2017/08/planes-1-768×432.jpg” title=”6 Ways To Find Cheaper Flights In Australia” excerpt=”If I could have any superpower, it would be the power of flight. But I can’t. So I have to fly in a plane like a regular human being and sadly, that costs money! But it doesn’t always have to burn a hole in your pocket.”]
The editor endorses the usual tactics: Travel in the “shoulder season” on either side of the peak season (in the Caribbean, he says, prices drop over half from peak to shoulder). Keep your dates flexible, and look for flights in the middle of the week. He loves the trend of “premium economy” seats on international flights.
As long as your dates are flexible, you can save a lot of money by setting many alerts for infrequent discounts. And even the most glamorous hotels, he says, occasionally offer a free third or fourth night.
[referenced url=”https://www.lifehacker.com.au/2018/07/10-hotel-hacks-for-a-cheaper-holiday/” thumb=”https://www.lifehacker.com.au/wp-content/uploads/sites/4/2015/12/Hotel.jpg” title=”The Secret To An Affordable Holiday: 10 Expert Tricks” excerpt=”As Hotels.com’s regional director for Australia, NZ and Singapore, Katherine Cole knows a thing or two about the hotel industry. Travelling on a fortnightly basis, she’s stayed at hundreds of hotels and has learned a few tricks along the way.”]
But our favourite hack is timing your holiday to the country’s currency exchange rate. If you have long-term goals of visiting certain expensive countries, keep an eye on the exchange rate and try to buy your tickets during a dip, or even to time your whole trip during a favourable year. Japan, the UK, and Argentina have all gotten cheaper for travellers as their currencies have fallen against the US dollar.
Time your trip right and you can get a 10 per cent discount or more just from the exchange rate. Combine that with the above strategies and you can knock a lot off your travel prices without changing your actual experience.
The point isn’t to go somewhere with a consistently lower cost of living or developing economy, but to go somewhere when life is pretty much the same for the locals, but temporarily weakened when compared to your own country’s economy. Try to lock in your prices before the rate swings back and you’re suddenly just a poor tourist stuck in an expensive country.
[referenced url=”https://www.lifehacker.com.au/2017/10/this-site-shows-you-the-cheapest-days-to-vacation-in-popular-cities/” thumb=”https://i.kinja-img.com/gawker-media/image/upload/c_lfill,w_768/xrnffzszmera2pns26ps.jpg” title=”This Site Shows You The Cheapest Days To Holiday In Popular Cities” excerpt=”Over the past two years, two of my close friends have gone on holidays to Italy. At first glance, their multiple European holidays made it look like they were rich. Turns out, the key was when they were travelling: during the off-season.”]
Comments
One response to “To Travel Cheaply, Watch Currency Exchange Rates”
This has to be the strangest advice on Lifehacker for quite a while.
If you think you are so clever that you can ‘time’ currency fluctuations to save money on travel, then you really should consider a career in currency trading or palm reading to make so much money that you can travel wherever you like whenever you like. Good luck with that.
Any major currency swing that is likely to affect your cost of travel is probably going to be well publicised such as UK with Brexit, Venezuela, so you don’t actually have to ‘time it’ or monitor fx. It’s hardly a ‘hack’ to realise a country’s currency (including your own) made travel to it cheaper, sort of basic I would have thought.
Wll, going to Turkey now is pretty cheap as their currency is going down down down very fast (which is also sad..)