Proper planning is the key to a lot of things and it often pays to take that diligent approach when you are sorting out your travel plans.
If you don’t create a budget for your travel adventure you run a much greater risk of not only running out of cash in the middle of your vacation coming home to face but the prospect of an alarmingly high credit card bill.
Here are some tips to help avoid those scenarios and give you greater control over your money, including how to plan every aspect of your trip, why it pays to pay upfront for some things, and how to budget for unexpected costs.
The logistics of transportation
When you are putting together your travel budget and working out exactly how much you need in total for the trip you need to ensure that you cover every single aspect of your adventure and look beyond the cost of the airfare.
Cabs, trains, car hire, buses, all eat into your money and if you don’t factor all of these costs into your budget estimates, it could drain some of your travel cash and leave you with less than anticipated.
If you are applying for a personal loan to cover the cost of your dream trip you need to know exactly how much you actually need to cover everything. Even if you are paying for the vacation out of your existing resources the same rules apply, so don’t forget to factor in all the transportation costs.
Expect the unexpected
Budgeting for a travel adventure is not an exact science and you are on holiday so there are bound to be some unexpected opportunities and expenses that will cost money you hadn’t planned to spend.
A good tip would be set aside a bit of extra money in your travel budget for unexpected costs.
It might be a local tour excursion you like the look of or just some incidentals that you need during the trip, so if you include a small amount of extra money in your travel budget, you stand a much better chance of covering those unexpected expenses.
Spend before you leave
A number of savvy travelers like to book and prepay some of their excursions and costs, especially if it saves money.
It can be a good way of budgeting for a travel trip to pre-book some excursions and events that you want to go to when you arrive at your destination.
Once you have booked your flight and accommodation at your destination, consider what you can pay for beforehand, as this will give you the chance to stretch your travel costs over a longer period and it gives you more confidence that the money you take with you won’t be needed for a trip because that’s been done already.
Think of a number
Once you have written everything down that you need to cover your travel trip you have a budget target to aim for.
It is always a good idea to have a bit of flexibility when it comes to travel plans, so add a bit extra to the number that you have come up with and it will be less likely that you resort to using your credit card in an emergency, which could be painful when you get the bill.