You see it all the time. People going to so many magical places so often and you wonder how the heck they can even afford it. You could never go there if you saved up for a lifetime, right? Nah. So wrong. You just haven’t researched enough.  

When I told Dylan I wanted to go to Europe three years ago he told me I would have to choose between vacationing to Europe [once] or owning a house. Dylan said it was impossible to do both before we were 30. WELL I wanted to do both. So I did. Oh yeah, and we’re going to Europe again this year (and neither of us are 30). Sooo how about that DYLAN (just kidding love you)?!

I was (and can still be) stubborn, I knew there was a way, or I thought I would make the damn way. I spent hours and hours researching how to travel to Europe for cheap. What I could cut out, what airline to use, what to pack and not pack (because weight restrictions), when to go, etc. It took me about a year before I knew I could commit to booking the trip. March 2016 I sat down with Dylan, told him it was possible, and asked where he wanted to go. He couldn’t really believe that I was prepared to pay for a trip to Europe for the both of us (I couldn’t really believe it). BUT I DID IT.   

So what’s the secret to traveling when you’re on a budget? There’s really no secret but I can share some tips that helped me (and it won’t take you a year to look through them).

First things first, I am not going to tell you the obvious things that can make travel cheaper, like only packing a carryon, because I couldn’t make those things work for me. I needed (wanted) the checked bag for multiple reasons. Plus there’s just things I didn’t want to give up bringing there (or back) if I didn’t have to. 

Flights. This is the number one killer of travel dreams. People look for flights on google or the big major airlines and they see the horror that is $2000+ flights. Yeah not gonna happen, it's possible to fly cheaper and still receive the benefits of flying with a major airline.

My favorite airlines to fly domestically are Southwest Airlines and Sun Country Airlines. 

Southwest!!! They constantly have deals and your bags fly free! So checking a bag is no big deal with them. I've never had a bad experience with Southwest and their staff is always super great. Plus they usually have an anniversary sale in June, crazy good deals (like $49 flights). I usually have to plan vacations a year or more in advance so I always check with Southwest before I book with any other airline.

Norwegian Airlines is hands DOWN my favorite airline to use when traveling internationally. They are the best! Super friendly staff, amazing service, the planes are ridiculously comfortable, I can't say enough good things about them.

 If Norwegian hadn’t been around I wouldn’t have been able to afford our trip to Paris (or I would have had to cut out almost everything I wanted to do there). They fly to pretty much any country you would want to go to in Europe, but the catch is they only fly out of California, New York. Boston, and Chicago (so far), but I’m confident they’ll be expanding across the US. When we flew to Paris they weren’t flying out of Chicago but they are now! 

If you’re not in one of those states then you also have to find a way to get there and catch your Norwegian flight, but trust me it’s still cheaper than the alternative (we scored tickets to Ireland for $100 per person and tickets to the Norwegian airport we fly out of are around $200 per person... but I haven’t booked those yet because I’m waiting for the Southwest sale). Keep an eye out for Southwest deals when you’re looking at booking Norwegian so you can take advantage of two cheap flights! It’s a little complicated at first to get the hang of things but after a few times it’s really easy, or if you’ve flown before it should be pretty easy for you to line up those deals. 

Hotels. Hotels suck. They suck you dry of all the money you were going to use on your trip, $500+ a night to stay in a decent part of Paris? No thanks. AirBnb is where it’s at folks. If you’re not familiar with it, AirBnb is a company that allows people to rent their homes out to travelers. It’s so cool. 

I was worried about the safety of AirBnb when I first looked into it but reviews are really helpful. I never book someone without good reviews. All of the hosts (in my experience anyways) are super friendly and informative which helps out a lot and gives you the local inside scoop which is pretty cool. 

You also get to live like a local while you’re there! Most hotels are right around everything touristy (makes sense) so that’s the only thing you really get to experience. But homes are all throughout the cities you’ll be staying in. When we stayed in Paris we were about 2 miles from the Eiffel Tower. Doesn’t seem like a lot, does it? It is. But it was my favorite part about it! We were right across the street from a huge park that nobody would know is right in Paris and our favorite breakfast spot was about a block from the apartment. These are things we would have never even knew about had we stayed in a hotel, so I'm very thankful for AirBnb. 

Those two things alone (flights and hotel) can make or break your trip, they alone could cost you $5000 (for two people), at least that's what my research found without booking through AirBnb and the airlines that have better deals. So instead of $5000 I paid $1500 (that was for both of us, round trip airfare, and 10 days of vacation). 

Buy as much as you can before you go on your trip, anything I was sure we were going to do I paid for ahead of time (museum entrances, train tickets, etc.). Research what you want to do there, what deals land on what day (like in Paris the museums are free on Sundays), etc. The more you do before you go the better it will be when you get there. 

Buy a huge suitcase. Seriously. I only checked one bag to save money, so I made sure it was a huge bag. We shoved everything we could in there and still stayed under the weight restrictions, it's a small thing to mention I guess but it really does help. To me there's no point in multiple people each having one suitcase to check when the big one costs just the same.

Okay! So there's my travel tips that I've found the most useful and if I've inspired at least one person reading this to follow their travel dreams then I'm happy.

Thanks for reading, 

Mallory