How to Travel on a Budget 2024: 13 Best Tips to Maximize Your Adventures

Do you have a deep desire to travel but feel limited by your budget? I’ve been there.

I went from waitressing for 10 years, paying off college debt, and traveling whenever I could to now finally working remotely and creating content as my full-time gig. (:

It wasn’t because I started with money and time that I traveled… When my budget and time were tight, I learned how to travel well and afford it because it was my number one priority.

Juggling a full-time job, student loans, and bills like everyone else, I aimed to make the most of my limited free time.

If you’re wondering how to travel on a budget, here are key lessons that turned my budget-friendly travel aspirations into real adventures.

Travel on a Budget: Maximize your 2 days

You don’t have to take a big trip or multiple days off of work to have an amazing time! Learning how to maximize your weekends is the first step to budget travel.

I like to draw a radius around my home on Google and write down in a list of everything there is to do in “under an hour,” 1-3 Hours away, 3-6 hours away, etc.. that way, when a weekend comes up I can start exploring right away! I love to google local blogs for town/city activities and research on Alltrails for all hiking and waterfall exploring. I even write down what cities my local airport flies to with direct/short flights!

Knowing exactly what you can do with your time off will help you create a budget for your adventures.

How to Travel on a Budget: Choose Vacation Days Wisely

Depending on your job, you might get certain holidays off. Look for those weekends or days in your work calendar and add an extra day off on one side of that weekend. For example, taking off the Wednesday before the 4th of July actually gives you 5 days to travel. Now your 3-day holiday weekend just became a 4 or 5-day vacation!

Travel On-Budget: Get Your Packing Done Beforehand

The day before I leave…let’s say Thursday evening, I pack my car or my gear up so I can go straight from work Friday afternoon to the mountains. That way I can wake up already at my destination. This makes your two-day weekend feel a lot longer than 2 days. It cuts down on the time you would spend waking up in the morning, packing your car, and the time to drive there as well. This helps you have two mornings at your wonderful campsite or destination!

Budget Travel: Finish Up Your To-Do List Ahead of the Weekend

Getting my life in order during the work week is extremely important to maximize a fun weekend. Get your laundry, cleaning, any chores or tasks around the house, and meal prepping done during the work week. That way I’m free to leave as soon as I’m off work Friday.

Here’s the thing: I know life is busy and tiring, but if doing my laundry or making phone calls after a long day of work means my weekend is free to explore…then you can bet that’s what I’m gonna do. Turn off that show, or leave your phone in a different room and get your weekend “chores” done during your work week!

Savvy Travel Tip: Squeeze the Most Out of Your Days

Start your day with the sun! You’ll be surprised with how much extra time you have if you start your day at 7 a.m. instead of 9 or 10 a.m.! You’ll be able to get so much more in with those extra morning hours. It’s also a great way to beat the crowds. If you’re going to a popular trail or coffee shop, looking for parking can get tricky during peak morning hours.

Seek Outdoor-Friendly or Remote Jobs

I personally think a great way to enjoy the outdoors to the max, is having a job that encourages outdoor time, and one that you can be passionate about as well. I found that Getoutdoorjobs.com is an amazing place to find a job working for and with people who think just like you about being outside! There are remote jobs, Tech jobs, content creation jobs, and much more focused on getting people outdoors. If I didn’t like my job right now, Getoutdoorjobs.com is where I would be heading immediately.

Travel Without Breaking the Bank

What you do in your every day with your money determines if you can afford to travel. Get clear on your income and daily (and monthly) spending. Prioritizing traveling when you’re on a budget might mean that you’ll have to cut out some of the luxuries.

Do you pay $6+ for Starbucks every day? Do you get your hair or nails done every month? What about streaming services and subscriptions? Can you cut down to just one service for a while?

All of that money can be going towards travel. Figure out how you spend money every day in the small ways, and you’ll learn traveling could actually be cheaper than living the way you are now!

Plan Your Budget-Savvy Trip in Detail

We tend to start spending extra money when we get bored and don’t have a plan—or at least I do, haha. Here are some things to think about: What is the weather going to be like? Where do I want to go? What kind of activities do I want to do?

A great place to find trails is a website called AllTrails. I use the AllTrails Plus app and download their offline map, and it helps a ton. Google search “free activities” near “the place you want to camp.” Instagram location tags are also great for finding fun activities near your destination. Compile your favorite ones and have them ready and researched. Getting really clear on how much you’ll be spending is key when it comes to budget travel.

How to Travel on a Budget: Change Your Mindset About Sleep

Don’t stay in the nicest hotel or Airbnb. Motels can often be cheaper than Airbnb, and campgrounds are cheaper than motels. I often camp at campgrounds or use freecampsites.net to find free camping. If I’m really desperate, I’ll look for the safest free place to sleep in my car(Walmart parking lots, thank you!). For a waitress living to explore the world, my day activities and adventures were far more important than where I slept.

If sleep is an issue for you, consider investing in a nice blowup mattress or backpacking sleeping pad and camping – either in your car or in your tent! There are options that won’t break the bank and will save you a ton of money compared to staying in a hotel.

Prep and Plan Affordable Meals Ahead of Time

Pack groceries or meal prep ahead of time so that you don’t need to eat out. When we get hungry, we feel like we need to stop at every restaurant we see or think every meal has to be a treat for ourselves. That is what makes your weekend activities go from affordable to expensive fast.

I’m not a complete stickler for going out, but I try to be smart about it. I love fun towns and like to stop in for a treat at a small bakery or get a coffee at a cute coffee shop at least once on a trip. One thing you could do to break your day up is find a happy hour with cheap apps! But remember that in order to be able to do this all the time, you have to have a tight dining-out budget.

How to Travel on a Budget: Do Free Activities

Outside of hiking, fishing, and swimming…research free activities in that town. There are always free attractions somewhere! Jack and I love free museums and window shopping. You don’t need to do the most expensive experiences. There’s always something to do for free, no matter where you go. It’s key when it comes to traveling on a budget.

Budget-Friendly Travel Hack: Fly Cheap

If you’re going on a far-away weekend trip, picking the cheapest airline is non-negotiable for me when I’m trying to maximize my bank account. I won’t say it’s amazing, but again, I’d rather spend money on a cool activity when I get to my destination than on the flight there.

This trick also applies to any type of travel: opt for the cheapest rental, buses, trains, etc. There are so many ways to save. Turo is a great way to save on rental cars. Frontier and Spirit are great airlines to save on flight tickets. A 14″ by 18″ bag is usually their free personal bag allowance. You’d be surprised by how much you can cram in that.

Travel on a Budget: Go with a Friend

Two is always better than one – unless only one can go. Then you should always go! If you can get one or more friends to join, you can split any costs you might have had before, like gas, a place to sleep, groceries, etc.

Hopefully, this helped spark some motivation to get out and create memories even on short weekends and with not a lot of money! So, how do you travel on a budget? Stop buying your Starbucks coffee, stop getting takeout every week, or do your nails and hair, and soon enough, you’ll have a few hundred dollars saved for an awesome adventure.

Every state and its surrounding states have beautiful destinations. Adventures are the cheapest if all you spend is gas money! I don’t just wake up and have tons of money and free time to adventure… I plan and plan and plan again. Like I said in the beginning, the more you travel, the more you’ll learn to pack meals, sleep in cheap places, and realize making your coffee at home can be fun! By doing that for 10 years, I was finally able to make content creation and travel a full-time job.

Interested in more travel content? Check out my Wyoming road trip post for inspiration!