how to plan a grad trip on a budget 💸🌟

Hey pals! ive been on two trips with my friends thus far and both trips have been pretty wallet friendly.

For context i recently went on a trip to Perth with my friends and we all spent anywhere between $800-1.1k on this trip (difference in cost is due to how much we individually shopped). I also went on a trip to Seoul last year after my A Levels and the trip cost me a whopping 1.6k and i shopped prettttyyyy excessively(whereas my friends typically spent between 1.2k to 1.4k). I do think the cost of my trips are relatively affordable as compared to my friends who ive heard spent as much as 2k-3k on their trips 😅.

Here are some tips that i’ve amassed that helped me to go on (semi) affordable trips.

Flight Tickets ✈️ 🎫

- Use Google Flight to monitor the prices of your flights !!!!! Sometimes there’ll be a CRAZY dip in prices (I once saw tickets to Seoul for $240)

- Book when theres a SALE 🏷️ My friends and I managed to get return tickets with insurance to Perth for $399

- Hot take BUT budget carriers will be your bestie when you’re travelling on a budget. I get that SQ will be able to provide you the comfort and luxuries that airlines like Scoot wouldn’t but the couple of hundreds of dollars that youve saved can be repurposed for other things. Know your priorities and get them straight.

- all about CHECK IN LUGGAGE 🧳: I used to be someone who required 20kg of checked in luggage for myself 😰 however, after my trip to korea in winter where i only brought only a carry on, ive learnt how to pack more efficiently (so as to save $$). In order to be as cost effective as possible, my friends and i decided to share the cost of one checked in bag on our return flight from korea given that we had shopped quite a fair bit. This definitely made the cost of check in baggage alot more wallet friendly 😅

Accommodations 🏠

When choosing a place, decide whether an Airbnb or hotel or even hostel would be the best option.

On my first ever trip overseas with my friends, we decided to stay in a hotel because we felt that it would be safer. Furthermore, the prices of Airbnbs as well as 3 star hotels in Korea were rather comparable. We ended up getting 2 hotel rooms for $220 per person for 8 days.

On my trip to Australia, we decided to book an airbnb as we felt that it would be a better option (financially speaking). Additionally, our parents were also comfortable with us staying at an airbnb.

When booking your accomodation here are two main things to look out for:

1. SAFETY!!! Do not compromise on your safety for the sake of saving a few dollars. choose places that are well lited and NOT SKETCHY so that travelling back to your accomodation at night wont feel unsafe 😅

2. ACCESSIBILITY: Sometimes spending a few more dollars for a place that is accessible would be more financially wise in the long run as you get to save money on transport. My friends and I chose to get an Airbnb that was located in the CBD area so that we could use the free CAT bus services in Perth. After calculating, this helped us to save money that would have otherwise been spent on transport. Additionally, choose a location that suits your itinerary as well (eg if you’d like to travel to alot of places, choosing a place that is rather central and well connected would be more ideal)

Food 🌮 💸

As I am a Muslim, I require halal food and I am infinitely grateful that my friends are so willing and ready to accommodate :”) That being said, halal food tends to be a slightly bit more expensive in countries with lower concentrations of Muslims. Hence, heres my MAIN tip for my muslim girlies~

1. Pre plan where youd like to eat. This helps you to better estinate the cost of food as well. For example, some halal places are more expensive than others 😅 Additionally, not all locations/neighbourhoods have halal food in the first place.

OKAY food tip in general!!!!!

1. Find a food budget that works for your entire group. For both my trips, my group and I settled on $30 per day. This helps you and your friends to be weary of what budget works for everyone as well as how to ensure that you stay on budget.

2. Australia is notorious for EXPENSIVE FOOD. A meal on average would cost 30AUD. Hence, given that we were on a budget trip we opted to cook at least one meal a day. This helped us to save ALOT OF MONEY (our dinners would typically cost us 3aud to 5aud per person). Furthermore, knowing that food cost ALOT OF $$$ we opted to stay in an airbnb as it would allow us to save money by cooking at home instead of having to eat out.

Itinerary 🗺️

Maybe this is a hot take but being on a budget means that you have to be more strategic with your money and you have to PRE PLAN!!!!! Don’t be lazy and start researching on the cost of the activities that youd like to do in the country youve chosen.

This tip has IMMENSELY helped my group. For example:

1. We opted not to go to Busan and Jeju and instead concentrate on exploring Seoul as their airfare/train fare was a bit too expensive for our budget. Furthermore, theres no way that our (8 day) trip would have allowed us to explore the entirety of Seoul. Hence, we felt that travelling to other states was not entirely worth it. Instead we opted to go on a day trip to Sokcho and the bus ticket had only cost us 38SGD!

2. Certain places ARE REALLY EXPENSIVE and might not be worth it 🙇‍♀️ We really wanted to go to Rottnest Island but after more research we realised that it would have cost us more than $100 each just to go to rottnest + cycle 😰 Hence, we decided to restructure our itinerary. That being said, some places are truly worth the money. Thus, this is why pre planning is important as it would help you to figure out what is worth it and what isn’t based off your interests and budget.

Maybe my next post will be on tips when it comes to traveling as a group 🐇

#perthaustralia #perth #travel #traveltips #seoul #koreatravel #budgetfriendly #travelhacks #gradtrip