Posts tagged: Tips

Our country – the Philippines have various pristine islands with extensive history and culture is one of the best places to visit because it’s beautiful and cheap. If you are traveling on a budget, I’m sure you would love my top money-saving tips so you can still save some more even if it’s already cheap.

Travel in off-season
All places around the world have an ideal time of year,  but you can even save more if you choose to travel during the off-season.
Usually, accommodations like hotels, airfares, and guided tours offer great deals during the off-season to encourage more tourists to visit their place and of course to win out their competitors.
Philippine destinations are usually in peak season during November, December, April, and May. These months have long holidays and vacations, try to avoid and choose other days to visit our place so you can enjoy your vacation and save a lot more.
Before making a plan for anything, double-check that the place you want to visit if it got an off-season.

Eat like a local
Usually, when you are in a different place, you would look for restaurant recommendations or we sometimes rely on our friend’s suggestion and website review. The food in the Philippines were all tasty and filling, you would be able to find it from corner to corner.
To save money from your meals I would recommend that you like a local. Go out and find authentic food, they often call it here like “turo-turo”, “kerinderia” or eatery. You would be able to find them offering various The price would range around $1 to $2 a meal with rice and drinks. Sometimes a bit higher than that but trying this one out will definitely cut your meal expenses around 75%. Don’t be a total stranger and rely on restaurants and fast-food chains, enjoy your trip by appreciating what the place has to offer.

Travel with Friends
The more, the merrier and the cheaper. Enjoy your adventures when you travel with your friends or buddies. You don’t just get to enjoy but doing so will make your journey less expensive simply because you have someone who will share the expenses and split all the bills.

Make an Itinerary
Before going on a trip, it is recommendable that you create a travel itinerary especially if you will be traveling on a budget.
Use the power of the internet to do a bit of research on your destination. Create your DIY itinerary and if possible the amount of money you would need to spend on each trip. Now you can go find a travel agency and see if they provide a similar offer to what you have created and compare. I bet the one you created would have so much difference.
Following your own itinerary would be fun and fulfilling. Apart from saving from a bunch of fees, you get to have a chance to maximize your time because you already have an idea what to do and where to go. Enjoy your tours as you will be in control of everything.

We got various choices when it comes to booking flights. We have a lot of resources but it would often depend on your preferences. The same thing applies to book hotel reservations. It may just be hard at times which are the most reliable and which say it right, who’s just promoting?

Here are my top tips for booking hotel reservations online. I wrote these based on my experience. I will share a few but the decision is always up to you.

Go get some research done. 
When booking online reservations check the location of your accommodation. See to it that the place is accessible and can is very close to common transportation like bus, trains or taxis. It would also be great if the place will have a close supermarket or restaurants. This will help you save a few bucks in transportation when you got that midnight craving.

Compare in between your resources
To save more money, don’t just rely on one booking site. You often have to compare between two or three resources to see which offers the best package and price. I often use Booking.com as this gives me the most number of the search result.  It often offers a healthy mix of hotels, apartments, and even hostels. If you’re not a fan of it you can just remove it through a filter. I love using this site as I can already see the prices and packages right upfront less the tax.
But wait let’s not stop from there, try comparing the best price with Agoda.com. This one started offering services focusing on Asia but now offers worldwide choices.
What I usually do is I check through these two sites and compare which offer the best price and package for the same hotel.
Almost done? No, we don’t stop there yet! Now you’re done comparing between the two try getting a quote directly on the website of your hotel choice (if any). These will totally ensure that you got the best price and package around. Sometimes if you book directly on their hotel’s website, you get to have a discount but some others don’t. So let’s be resourceful and get some research done as this will help you save a lot.

Read the booking guideline. 
Alright, you’re almost there, you got your best choice, rate, and package now you’re ready to book it. Before taking this step, ensure you read their booking guideline.
Try to look for cancellation guidelines, it’s way better if they will allow at least 3 days of cancellation and check how much will be the refund rate. This will help you in the future in case something unexpected happens and you will need to cancel your booking.
The second thing you may want to check is the check-in time.  Ensure this will match your arrival time so you won’t have to stay outside for too long just waiting for your room to be available. It’s better if they allow early check-in, some allow this just don’t be afraid to ask.
Also, if you will be arriving late, ensure you check with them if they allow late check-in, like in the super early morning around 2 AM. The majority of them allow this and you won’t have a problem at all, but some others have this kind of locked-door policy that you won’t be able to get into your accommodation’s door especially to hostels.

Get your accommodation’s contact number. 
Getting the hotel’s accommodation contact number would be my last trip. This would be very helpful at times you feel kinda lost or forgot what to ride to get in there, you can easily get in touch with them if it seems you can’t follow the directions provided to you through email or chat. This way you can save a lot of time figuring out how.

So there you go, some useful tips I have been using whenever I book an online reservation. I hope you find it pretty helpful too, keep in mind it’s better to ask than to regret you have not. Cheers and safe travel!

When we said traveling it often sounds exciting. But the fact relies on the truth that traveling is one task that is very challenging. So to avoid getting any hassles, I  am sharing with you my key steps in making your travel worth it.

Plan Ahead
If you would go on a journey I would say you start planning a few months in advance. Do a little research about the area that you will go or the country that you will visit. Check for any documents that you might be required to present. For international travels, ensure your passport will have a validity of at least 6 months.
Reading some blogs and reviews would be helpful so you would have an idea of what to expect in the place that you’re going to visit.

Set a Travel Budget
One of the key things about having a successful trip is setting your travel budget. This will have a say what are the areas that you can go into and the type of accommodation that you should choose. You may also want to check the accommodation if they will provide free breakfast, most hotel accommodations have one but if not make sure you include a budget for your breakfast meal.
Pick up places you will visit that would suit your budget. Setting a budget will not just limit you to the things that you can do in any place that you can visit but it will help you spend your money wisely when you are traveling.

Have an Itinerary
Create an itinerary for an organized travel flow and transfer. Choose to visit places that would fit within your resources. Consider the time that you would spend going to that place and as mentioned earlier it should fall within the budget. You can enjoy most of your travel trip if you will have hassle-free transfers so you may want to include the kind of transportation that you would use. This will help you save a lot of time and will make your transfers flawless.

Watch how you behave
Sometimes when you go to a different place you would notice that they may have a different culture. It is important to understand that the locals might have different beliefs, behaviors, or manners. To avoid any trouble just act like a local and respect their culture and tradition.

Pack Light
Going to another place for few days might require you to pack things that you would need during your stay. Ensure you pack only the essentials, the ones that you would need most like few pairs of underwear, shirt, and pants. If you love to make up don’t bring the whole thing, choose to bring only the necessary items such as lip balm, powder, and blush. Don’t forget to bring chargers for your mobile and bring an adaptor just in case your chosen destination will have a different plug.
Most often hotels would provide towels and batch essentials you can just leave those behind. Keep your things packed light so you will have a bit more space to bring something home for your family or friends.

So there we go, not so much but for me, this works. I hope you’ll find this article helpful. Enjoy your coming trip!