TOP 4 TRAVEL TIPS FROM THE GROOTENBOERS .
Ireland, the Emerald Isle, and Scotland, filled with the most lovely people, were absolutely incredible! I can’t wait to share more of our trip with you all later. Eric and I love to travel and explore new places together, and when you are young and travelling the feedback is not always positive. Do not let that keep you from travelling, always, always be financially smart, but there is absolutely nothing wrong with travelling if you have the finances. Travelling is not for everyone, but if you are open to and like to, travelling can be such a rewarding opportunity and an amazing way to experience the beautiful world that God has created all around us. Travelling does not have to be stressful or expensive. I will share some of our biggest travel tips to save you money, but still see all of the sights you want to see and have that dream vacation you have always wanted!
First things first, the most expensive part tends to be the airfare. There are so many amazing apps out there, but Hopper is our favourite, you can set price alerts and you can also see on the calendar the cheapest months and days to fly in and out of to your desired location, all on their convenient app. Also, booking ahead and having flexible dates is an even more perfect combination, but that isn’t always the case, but then just book ahead and look ahead and you can save yourself a lot of money.
Secondly, we stayed at all Airbnb’s while in Ireland and Scotland. It is significantly cheaper, and you get to meet the locals and learn all of the pristine local insight from them. They live in the area, they know the best of the best that is around them, and usually it involves less tourists, which lets be real, some tourists are just annoying to have to be around. The tour buses, fanny packs, and visors, it is just too much sometimes. There will always be places that are just a must and you just have to make the most of the visor packed places. There is a reason that some of those places are popular, and they are definitely worth seeing. Also if you plan ahead and book your plane ticket and trip ahead of time, you can get some amazing airbnb places! They do book up fast, so it is best if you can do it ahead of time, because there are so many incredibly adorable and beautiful airbnb places! Plus then you pay for those places as you book them. When the time of the trip comes, those accommodations and the plane ticket are already paid for the by the time of your trip. Perks of planning ahead if you can, saves a lot, and makes vacations that much more affordable.
Eating out, for Eric and I, eating out is a must, especially when you are travelling. What better way to get to know a culture than to try their food. Eating out can however become very expensive, especially if you are gone for more than a week. Split meals, or if you’re a soup lover, eat a lot of soup. Soup is a personal favourite of mine, and they are such a filling and cheaper option for meals, and not to mention, always delicious. I almost always try their different soups as my lunch option! The other perk of Airbnb’s is that most places tend to have your own separate kitchen or a shared kitchen, so then you can cook your meals too. Vacation is not meant for cooking all of your own meals, but it definitely can save you a lot of money if you don’t have to eat two meals out every single day. But don’t certainly cook all of your meals, dive into the culture and try out their foods. The best place to try those foods is in their home country.
Fourthly, if you are going to do a lot of sightseeing and plan on seeing a lot of national parks or national trust parks, then I would look into getting a national trust park pass. Often times you can get them for a cheaper rate, and then you have access to any park and parking for free, which is definitely worth it, it all adds up after you go to a few places. So if that is the type of vacationer you are, I would highly recommend that. That is something that Eric and I did not do, and we wish we would have, would have saved us money on all of the different places that we visited. Learn from your mistakes and then share with others. So you're welcome for learning this mistake for you!
Travelling is always worth it, it doesn’t have to be across the world from where you live, you can even travel a few hours from you. Travelling is just a beautiful experience, Eric and I tend to save our money for experiences instead of things, so we usually don’t do big birthday or anniversary presents, we save up that money for weekend trips and other bigger vacations. So it is up to you, but if you have the time and the money saved up, I highly recommend traveling, experiences that you will never forget, good or bad, they are memories that cannot be bought.
