5 Tips for Traveling Like a VIP on a Budget

These days it is easier than ever to travel like a celebrity on a very limited or shoestring budget. No longer do lavish accommodations and feasts fit for kings and queens have to be relegated to, well, kings and queens. With enough savvy, anyone with any income or socioeconomic background can travel with a first class attitude. Moreover, with enough resourcefulness you can travel anywhere and explore any continent. If you are serious about traveling, but have a small budget, this is the only way to cure that wanderlust itch you might be having. Here are 5 tips for traveling like a VIP on a budget.

1. Don’t stay in hotels. Hotels are designed to suck your money from your wallet and into their coffers – it’s just the way the industry works. Not only do you have the room cost, but also taxes, fees, surcharges and incidentals. Not to mention the mini bar, which you would think was full of bars of gold – not candy bars. However, there are a number of vacation rental sites where you can get suite-sized accommodations for a fraction of the costs. Many of these rentals are just extensions of peoples’ homes – people looking to make a little extra money on the side.
2. Flash sales. If you want to travel like a VIP, one of your best options is to take advantage of flash sales. In the aviation industry, flash sales have been de rigueur since you could go on one of the many airline brokerage sites and buy plane tickets, as opposed to going through a travel agent. On many of these sites, all you have to do is enter your email and they will send you updates when various flash sales might be going on. With these kinds of sales, you can get airline tickets for pennies on the dollar.
3. Look for packages. Whether you are looking for Israel tours to see the holy land or you are looking for an African safari to see the aardwolf in its natural habitat, finding packages are a great way to get all inclusive trips, so that you can save money on the little things, like extra nights and even extracurricular activities. By arranging an extensive trip piecemeal, you could end up spending an outrageous amount of money on items that are often included for free with many travel packages.
4. Apps. There are many applications you can get for your smart phone or tablet that allow you the opportunity to take advantage of a number of different discounts – on air travel, hotel accommodations and much more. Many of these applications can give you discounts at up to 50% and more.
5. Bring a friend. Sometimes traveling with your best friend or even a significant other can put twice the spending power into a getaway. This can be a great way to get better seats on a plane and even a bigger room at a hotel. Or you can put this extra budget into the fun things, like dining out, getting massaged or even going on a site seeing tour. More than that, though, bringing a friend will also make your trip more fun.