All of us have our bucket lists of places we’d like to visit before we die, marry, start working or run out of our first salary or or or or……before you go absolutely broke. Here’s where we come in.

But most of us also just leave it at dreaming about these places rather than actually making a conscious effort to planning and executing a treat for our senses.

Why?

An independent study points out that 9 out of 10 travelers quit before even planning a trip due to the expense of their trips. (We’re only just kidding with those figures, we’re not going to make this article sound like a research paper)

We at Brokelings, have overcome that fear and anxiety of planning that totally pocket friendly, instagrammable, sensually tasteful trip -we want to share with you guys, how we do it. How we manage to see and experience the best things at the expense of just our pocket money or savings?

Presenting to you, 11 pro-tips to plan the cheapest version of your trip ever.

This is how we do!

Air fares first, destination next!

All smiles after landing a two way ticket to Warsaw from London for a mere 17 GBP

Your travel costs adds up as one of the major parts of the trip expense. Never start with your destination in mind while planning your budget trip. You gotta surprise yourself by going to where the cheap flight ticket wants to take you. This will help you open your eyes to corners of the world that you never imagined seeing. Skyscanner has the best possible methods to help you find THAT cheap air ticket. It allows you to explore ticket prices from your source to anywhere around the world. Beware of budget carriers also taking you to the side airports of major towns, like London Stansted is a long drive from London CBD and it could cost you a lot. So, first find the cheap air ticket before deciding on your destination!

Also, travel light, most of the times, an extra luggage could cost you more than the flight ticket!

Stay in the city or out of the city?

Second in line of your trip expenses are the places you’re going to sleep in. You need to be really smart when choosing the best place to stay at (that goes without say). More than the picturesque-ness of the place, we recommend you to work the expense to distance from city centre ratio out. If you’re getting slightly expensive place to stay in the city centre, take that as you will spend a lot on your inter-city travels for example Madrid. But, if you’re getting a super cheap place out of the town and there is good & cheap connectivity to the city centre, pick that- which again goes without saying (We’d do that for London, since it’s metropolitan travel is ah-mazing) In essence, it’s not worth staying in a fancy place in the city as opposed to well connected and economical outside the city place. AirBNB maybe your best friend here, apart from us. Booking.com is a boon at times as well, it gives you options to cancel at your will without losing a single buck!

We have examples of both living in the city centre like we did in Bratislava to staying somewhere epic but out of town in Krakow. We’d love it if you always book your hostels with our affiliate link and also influence your friends to book theirs with our link as it’ll help us climb up the blogger ladder and drive-in more quality content. This is the link!

Time is money, spend it wise!

A printed map, a diary and a phone filled with notes, that’s the way to go!

Time is one of the currencies you spend while travelling. You don’t want to spend it sleeping-in and researching on where to go when etc etc. Do your research and make notes on what places you’d want to go to and when. This will help you have a better experience of the place you decide to visit to. It is also good to always get local advice, but a preliminary vague idea is always good to have! Don’t hesitate to shoot out a message to us, or to anyone who travels on Social Media. Some of the advice that we and other fellow travellers can give are gold.

We the Brokelings, like travelling absolutely without a plan because it has a thrill of it’s own as well, but the concept of wasting time and sleeping-in is a serious no-no in every case. See how we ended up sleeping in the store-room of a guest room in Cherrapunjee all thanks to our zero-plan trip.

Get ahead of others, start your day early.

Still sleepy, but determined to smash that free breakfast!

Every blogger will recommend this. But it’s important to rise early and get ahead of others. This way you’ll have -a better breakfast at the hostel (they run out of the good stuff most of the times) and the places of interest will be less crowded. Plus, you can get that perfect Instagram shot in front of the posterboy. You’ll also end up having more time to spend at places you enjoy as the day progresses rather than having a rushed day. In that manner, you’ll also be able to catch early sunrises in certain parts of the world like we did in Oman!

D-O-D-I (Drink outside- Dance inside)

Szimpla Kert- Szimply amazing!

The last thing you’d want to do while on a budget vacay is to pay three times the actual value of the product. Bars-Pubs and Clubs are definitely going to mark up the price of the booze, but you can always buy at MRP to Drink outside- Dance inside, or you can just be high on the vibe!

How much would you pay for a view like this?

We did something crazy in Budapest, DM us and we’ll tell you what!

Public Transport Zindabaad! (Long-live public transport)

The cheapest, most amazing, most experience-rich means of transport in any part of the world. While writing this, I just realised how amazing it would be to write a post with all the instances of meeting people, having conversations and whatever that leads to. They say, it’s the easiest to socialise at a pub/cafe, but I feel, the coach of a metro train is no less. Apart from that, it’s the cheapest and most sustainable way you can travel to the interiors and exteriors of the city!

How travelling by public transport could’ve gotten us – Banged up Abroad!

Most of the cities like London, Budapest, Vienna etc. also have a very convenient travel card that can be used for all sorts of public transport like the train, buses, trams etc.

The 24 hour city travel card in Vienna- epitome of travel convenience.

Take overnight buses to save on accommodation and time!

For me, a bus seat is equivalent to any bed of the world- good to be a heavy sleeper right?

Chindi (find meaning here if you don’t know it) is what you gotta be while pulling a stunt called “budget-trip” out. So Chindi, that you plan in a way that you’re taking overnight bus/train seats as your bed. You’re not only saving on that dough that you’d have spent on paying for a bed, but also saving a lot of day-time travel time!

Making friends at 3am waiting for a bus in an unknown town : Check!

The hostel common room is for you, utilise it!

Always a great time to check into hostels!

No hostels will throw you out if you turn up late night or early in the morning while your check in time is only the afternoon of that day. Utilise the common area and save on that moolah while you can and make a few friends from New Zealand and Estonia at the same time!

Carry your comfort food & eat local!

Nothing can stop Kunal from devouring his snack from home in the middle of the night!

I always carry my comfort food/snacks with me, it’s an essential for days when I want to save up on money that I would otherwise spend on some fancy looking meal or a dirty cheap meal. Your comfort food could also help you connect with travellers of different nationalities while you cook in the hostel kitchens. I always used to carry Rasam (a spicy south-indian soup) premix to relish on tiring days and also give my new friends a taste of Indian culture!

A hearty local meal would obviously be cheaper than having something not from the region in a fancy restaurant. It’s going to be healthier and fresher than the dirt that these multinational companies sell. So eat local!

Try to fit in a day trip!

There are a few towns that you’d just want to visit for a day while heading to somewhere else. Plan a day trip over there and travel around the city with your bags on you. You could also work a deal out with a cafe or some place like that to safeguard your bag while you’re on your day out, though the latter is a very difficult deal to work out owing to security reasons. The Tourist information centres of every major city will help you out with such situations. See how we managed to see 11 things in Vienna in 11 hours with our bags on us while travelling from Bratislava to Berlin!

Itinerary* (Too lazy to go back and edit the creative haha)

Explore by foot & indulge in free walking tours

Extreme Street-ing could be addictive!

There is no better way than exploring a town by foot. The random aromas in the air, the feel of the cobblestone streets under our foot and the random chatter of the locals would all be missed if you were to take a vehicle around town. The Brokelings love this sport called “Street-ing” which basically involves wandering around the streets of a town without any destination or goal. You should try it too!

Getting to know the Dragon of Krakow!

All of Bratislava- on foot!

Majority of the towns have voluntary companies where in the locals pitch in their time to show you around the towns. Nothing get’s better than exploring the towns with a local. At places, there are very curated experiences as well, like a street art tour that we had in Berlin, a food tour we had in Milan, a communist tour of Bratislava amongst the many. All you need to do is walk along for a few hours, buy your entry tickets etc and in the end tip your guide with whatever respectable amount you feel like! You can also then become a walking tour guide yourself in your own hood. Just like how our homie Kunal shows people around Mumbai with Slice of Mumbai!

Safety First

Decision reviews like these, are a must when travelling with the homies!

Though we recommend travelling in the most quirkiest ways possible, it’s important to note that their should be no compromises in terms of keeping yourself within bounds. It should be made a regular practice to do your research on that countries emergency services (Police, Ambulance, Fire Brigade etc) should anything go wrong, god forbid. Having said that we also do not endorse any sort of activity that exploits legal loopholes and other loopholes that might get you out of trouble once or twice. Stay safe and smart, fellow travellers.

These were just a few tips that we thought would be worth sharing, like how best friends share their notes before an exam. There’s obviously a lot more that goes into planning a vacation. We know that you guys will have a lot more points and we’d want to master our planning with inputs from you, so please share them with us?

We’ll give out some really cool Brokelings merchandise to the best tips, promise!

We’re also looking for stories and experiences from you guys to post on here and make this the best crowdsourced travel story blog. Share, like and subscribe like always.

Make your friends travel raw too!