How I Cut My Overseas Travel Costs in Half
I'm sharing this after my two-week trip to Europe last year, because friends kept asking how I managed to cut costs so much.
The key was not booking flights and lodging separately, but first setting a total budget and putting a cap on each category. I set a budget of 3.2 million KRW and split it into flights 1.1M / lodging 900K / food 600K / transport 400K / misc 200K.
Frankly, that's all there is to it. If you go over the cap for one category, you just cut from another.
Practical tips:
- For flights, buying while checking price data compared with the same month last year really saved money. Looking at the graph, you can clearly see it's expensive right now.
- For lodging, hotels are often cheaper than Airbnb, especially if you go outside the city center.
- For travel between cities, night trains are the way to go. You save on lodging and travel time.
- For food, I cut it in half by grocery shopping locally and buying supermarket lunch boxes. I ate local food only for lunch.
- Always check museums' free open days. If you look carefully, you can even do two in a day.
In the end, the total came to 3.07 million KRW. Everything was covered within budget.
Honestly, if you travel too frugally, it stops being fun, so I think it's important to clearly decide "where to save and where to spend." I didn't skimp on cafes at my destinations—those were the most enjoyable moments.