It’s the end of the year again and indeed time flies! How are you going to spend your time for your year-end break? After a whole year of working hard and busy with the daily routines, it’s the time for us to relax with families/loved ones and get a well-deserved holiday. Hmm…we assume that perhaps normally parents will try to plan a holiday trip for their children. Spending a quality time with your families is a MUST. Most of the time, family members will find a suitable time to gather and plan for a family day/trip. In fact, young millennials will also take this golden opportunity to plan a trip with their friends for a year-end holiday.

Nevertheless, are you worried that you might end up breaking your bank for your holiday travel?  If you are not sure on how to plan and concern about the expenses and budgeting, here are a few helpful tips for you on how to save money while enjoying your holiday trip.

1. Plan your holiday very well

Before deciding to choose a holiday destination, firstly you need to PLAN your holiday appropriately.

a) Make a budget

Do create a budget for your holiday trip by checking your current savings. It is good if you already created your own holiday saving account. You don’t have to rack your brains to allocate the amount of money you need for holiday trip purposes. Generally, budgeting includes the amount of daily expenses that you need while travelling.

b) Choose a destination

You don’t have to go far for a simple holiday trip with your families/friends. What matters most are the quality time spent and happy moments that you will get throughout the holiday trip. Select a holiday destination that is affordable for your year-end vacation and of course, it shouldn’t be over your budget.

c) Decide the duration of your holiday trip

You need to decide on how long you will spend for your holiday trip. The more days you plan for a holiday vacation, the more amount of daily expenses that you need to allocate for expenses on transport, food, accommodation and activities.

d) Schedule proper dates and time

It is important to find the right dates and time if you want to get the best hotel deals for a holiday trip. You just need to discuss with your family members/friends and for sure you need to ensure that no one is left behind to enjoy the holiday break.

2. Compare prices and look for discounts on accommodation

Have you ever heard about the hotel search sites such as Trivago, Agoda, Kayak and Booking.com? It is vital to look for the best hotel booking sites for comparing prices. Suffice to say, you need to compare prices from various sources including the hotel’s website. This is because, hotel booking sites usually will offer your preferred hotel room at affordable prices with the best hotel deals and this will surely save you a lot of money. However, if your preferred hotel is not in the list of hotel search engines/sites, you need to contact the hotel or its reservations line!

3. Travel with family members/extended families/friends

You can still save your money if you wish to invite your family members or close friends to spend this holiday break with you. You can split the entire costs of the holiday trip appropriately. If your holiday destination is quite far from your home/place, you can try carpooling! By carpooling, you definitely can save your money on tolls, fuel and reduce the hassle of driving.  At least there is someone or a few persons to accompany you all the way to your holiday destination. The more the merrier! You can spend quality time and bond with your family members/friends.

4.  Choose a holiday destination that closes to restaurants and interesting places

You need to make sure that your holiday destination is nearby to the restaurants and fascinating places, and surely, do search for places that can offer you with reasonable prices. This can save your holiday cost, especially on fuel as you don’t have to drive far just to search for a good restaurant and interesting places. Moreover, with the advancement of technology nowadays, you can easily look for mouth-watering and affordable eats, cafes, parks and historical places around your destination area by using these popular apps, Waze and Google Maps. For instance, if you are looking for a good coffee shop, you can always use these apps to track the nearest location and to look for the list of your preferred choices on awesome places. Do make full use of these two apps because these apps can save your time too!

5. Prepare snack packs

Actually, there is a way to save budget on food when going for a holiday trip. For example, you can bring snacks from home, purchasing snack packs at groceries stores where you stay or R & R areas. All of us surely have favourite snacks such as nuts, fresh fruits, chocolate bars, crackers, rice cakes, chips and others. Preparing and bringing snack packs at least can help us from getting starving, especially if it’s a long distance trip. In other words, you can still have something to nibble on like snacks when you are on an excursion.

6. Plan your activities

You need to plan on the activities that you would like to do for your holiday trips. List out the main activities you want to enjoy with your loved ones/families/friends. Most importantly, you need to do budgeting on how much these activities will cost you to ensure that you have sufficient money. This will also guide you to make preparation if you need to arrange on buying tour tickets or make reservations for your selected holiday trip activities.

7. Use food delivery apps

Apart from dining out and looking for better cafes or restaurants, you can always order online by using food delivery apps such as Foodpanda, Dahmakan, GrabFood and many others. These food delivery apps allow you to order any kinds of meals from your favourite or local restaurants and enjoy discounts on their selected food and beverages. Hence, you don’t have to find the time to get ready and dress properly to go out or having lunch/dinner at your splurge restaurants. This is because you can still order online to eat good food and this definitely can save your money and time!

8. Asks the locals

Asking the locals is also one of the important tips that you need to apply while having a great time during your holiday trip. The locals know better about the best places to visit and local restaurants that can give you great prices on scrumptious meals and how to get the best bites around. Anyway, sometimes you probably need to venture outside the tourist/visitor zone for less expensive meals and souvenirs.