Below is a guest post by Anna, creator of Bargainmoose.ca, a Canadian blog for shopping deals, freebies, coupons and more. Anna  wants to share some tips on avoiding travel trauma and saving money while holidaying.

The vacation season is looming, and many of you have probably already booked, or are thinking about planning your summer trip. I thought I would write an article about how to avoid troubles when you are travelling and how to save a bit of cash.

Here are the top 10 tips:

1. Book early bird flights: Though flight delays may seem like something completely our of your hands, there are a few things you can do to minimize the chances of problems. If you are booking a short jaunt with the likes of Westjet, Air Canada or Porterair I’d recommend booking a flight which leaves early in the morning. There will be less chance of your flight being delayed due to knock-on effects of delays in earlier flights, or due to mechanical failure. Also, if you book with an airline that has many flights scheduled that day for your particular trip, it will be easier to switch flights if needed.

2. Fly direct: If you can, fly directly to your intended destination rather than stopping half-way at a hub airport. If you must have a stopover, you can check ratings of Canadian airports at flightstats.com. However, you do have to weigh up costs and convenience for this option. A direct flight may not be geographically or economically feasible.

3. Minimize baggage: As many airlines now charge extra for checked baggage, you can try and minimize your costs by reducing the amount you are carrying. For example, if you are travelling in a family of 4, you might be able to squeeze your luggage into 2 cases only. This all depends on your destination and how much luggage you think you will need. There are some good tips for packing light at Onebag.com, such as “parkas aren’t needed in North Africa!”

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As promised, here’s an update on the adventures of youngandthrifty while in Nepal.  There’s not really much financial information in this post that would better your life, but if you want to live vicariously through my trip to Nepal, please read on!

I did a trek in eastern Nepal, called the Annapurna Sanctuary (also known as Annapurna Basecamp trek).  We started the trek out in Pokhara.  We had hired a guide and porters through a local Nepali tour company.  It was a 10 day trek and some people do the trek on their own (e.g. lugging around their own backpacks) because there are tea house lodges you can stay at, so you don’t need to bring all your own heavy camping gear etc.  We were deliberating between the Everest Base Camp trek or the Annapurna Base Camp, but glad we decided on the Annapurna Base camp because the scenery we were exposed to was absolutely amazing.  Every day was a different landscape, from lush tropical trees, to rolling hills, to rhododendron forests, to beautiful mountain vistas, and finally to the Annapurna Base Camp.   We also passed by langur monkeys, donkeys, buffalo, sheep herds, children saying “Hello!!! What is your name?!”.  The view at Annapurna Base Camp was absolutely spectacular- it was literally a 360 degree view of the mountains- we were surrounded.  We woke up early (e.g. 500 am) to enjoy the sunrise and its pink rays shining on the Annapurna South mountain.  We were 4130m above sea level, and despite the thin air, we felt so alive with the beautiful view.  We would walk by other trekkers, or locals at the teahouses, and a familiar and friendly “Nameste!” brought warmth to my heart (even though it was occasionally freezing!).  Nameste means “I salute the God within you”.

Nepal is absolutely beautiful.  Nepali people are beautiful! Everyone is so polite and friendly, now I know why so many people who I met traveling in India said they really liked Nepal.  There is a peacefulness about Nepal…I found that when I was there, I was thinking only of the present, not the past or the future…it was indeed a spiritual journey.  People are so tolerant, there many different cultures of people co-habitating harmoniously in Nepal and it was so refreshing to experience that.

The food was delicious (and more importantly, cheap!) in Nepal.  In Thamel (the touristy backpacker area of Kathmandu) there was Thai, Japanese, Chinese, Middle-Eastern food… the list goes on!  I budgeted about $9 USD a day on food (including breakfast, lunch, and dinner) and I was eating like a queen.  Here in North America, you can’t even get ONE meal eating out for $9, really.  I was a happy camper.

We had booked through a local Nepali tour company and were pleased with the results.  I made sure the references were good (very important you do this!!) before we booked with them.  Because we “traveled on the cheap” and cut out the middleman, we saved about 50% (or $500 USD) compared to booking the same guided trek through a company like Gap adventures.  I am pretty sure it would have been even cheaper had we arrived in Nepal, then found a local tour company in Kathmandu.

Thanks for reading about my adventures, hope you enjoyed it!  Here are some pictures to inspire your cheap-traveling wanderlust!

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Welcome to the last part of “Travel on the Cheap week!”  People reading this who aren’t the least bit interested in travel, I apologize!  I had to get my travel junkie-ness out of my system.

So, back to the post…What did the title just read?

Skip Contiki, Gap Adventures, and Intrepid? But aren’t those considered budget tours?

If you’re trying to have a tour that is seamless, worry free, and want someone to talk to here (assuming you’re in North America) then the above tour companies are for you.  However, if you would still like the convenience and hassle free traveling of a tour, AND you want to save a few bucks, think about cutting the middle man.

You heard me, cut the middle man out.

Gap Adventures and Intrepid Tours although are great pioneers of eco-tourism and sustainable traveling, they do use local tour companies from the travel destination to show you around.  They charge about double the price of what you would find if you went directly with a local tour company.

When I went to Peru with Gap Adventures, we were shown around by a tour guide who was from Cusco and knew the sights well.  It was a great trip.  During the trip, a small part of me couldn’t help but wonder how much cheaper it would be if I had shown up in Cusco, waltzed into the tour shops in the square and booked a tour through a local tour company.

Not only would the local tour company get a much bigger cut than if they were dealing with a North American tour company, you would be able to shop around and choose a tour company that you feel comfortable with.

Well, curiosity killed the cat… I asked how much it was for the same Inca Trail trek and found out it was about 70% cheaper than what I had paid for.

What cost 70% more?  Hmm, lets see:

• Employees from Gap Adventures and Intrepid or Geckos (from your international tour guide to the customer service reps…)
• Internet and social media maintenance
• Advertising (and those awesome “Win a trip to Spain/Morocco/Istanbul contests!)
• Rent in various cities that their travel stores are located in
• Those beautiful beautiful brochures that they make every year, which entices you into wanderlust
• Canadian and US or Australian or New Zealand taxes

Another plus to using a local tour company is that sometimes you can customize your itinerary with them.  You tell them what you want to see, and they quote you a price. You could also have a semi-private tour too, so you wouldn’t have to deal with annoying personalities on your tour.

To book with a reliable local tour company, I would recommend:

1. Going on TripAdvisor and seeing what tour companies other travelers recommend (though be careful, sometimes Trip Advisor has phony ‘travelers’ who are really from the designated country who recommend their own tour company- usually you can tell if their written English isn’t particularly up to snuff).  You can also go to the Thorntree Lonely Planet travel forum for good information.
2. Reading your Lonely Planet or Rough Guide to see which tour companies they recommend
3. Contacting all the tour companies recommended (email is great that way!) and checking their website and asking for three references
4. For me, if their website looks shady and not well maintained, then it’s a pass for me.  If they aren’t able to come up with glowing references, that’s another pass for me.
5. Another thing to consider is often the smaller local companies don’t accept credit cards, so be prepared to wire transfer your money over.

That being said, sometimes finding reliable tours (either online or in person) can be difficult to find in certain countries, so in that case, I would recommend using the budget tour companies (Gap, Intrepid, Geckos etc.).  A vacation is supposed to be relaxing, right?  Getting scammed big time isn’t relaxing!

Also, possibly the cheapest (and arguably the most fun) way to travel (or just about do anything) is just to do it yourself…if you have the time and sense of adventure =)
When you go on vacation, the expenses mount quickly and there is no income going in.  Sometimes people are crazy enough to go to something like a casino to try to pay off part of their vacation (Vegas, anyone?).  This is obviously a risky strategy, and if you do this, it is best to play free roulette for practice before you go risking it all.  However, this may not always work.

Happy Budget Traveling, folks!

Readers, have you used a local tour before? Did you prefer the local tour or a tour organized by a bigger international company?

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When you think of exotic places, you may think of the Maldives (which for your information, costs about $100-$200 a day).  However, there are many places in the world where you can get by per day, for much much less.

With the weaker US dollar, you may think that your dollar doesn’t go that far, but you will be surprised.

There are many countries around the world that are still ridiculously cheap to travel in, even with a weaker US dollar.

Here are some of my favourites (with my personal photos! Don’t laugh at my photography please lol!):

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This week is cheap travel week on youngandthrifty.ca!  Hopefully you’ll be inspired this week to find ways to save money on your future travels.

As a 20 something, I’m sure many of you have considered or even done a big trip to Europe or Asia, living out of a backpack and staying in hostels.

I say take advantage of your non-discerning taste while you can- backpack while you are still young and don’t mind living in hostels and using shared bathrooms and dorm rooms.

Possibly, as you get older, and as your income expands (woohoo, one good thing about getting older), you may decide that backpacking isn’t for you anymore.  Paying $10-$16 a night for shared dorm rooms, possibility of a bed bug infestation, and having to listen to other people snoring just might not be worth it.

Here are some reliable websites to use when booking your hostel.  They come with reviews from other hostelers so you can see what other people think of the hostel, this allows you to make your decision wisely.  Note: When a hostel review says that the place smells like sewage. Believe them.  Learn from my experience! *yuck!!*  That smell infiltrated my nasal passages for days…

• Hosteling International- usually of higher calibre (read- CLEANER), but you have to pay a membership for certain countries in order to book.
• Hostel World- over 20,000 hostels around the world at your fingertips!
• Hostels.com- haven’t used these guys personally, but they have >30,000 hostels to choose from too

Sometimes hostels can be a great place to meet fellow travelers and a good place to trade tips on where to go, what to avoid, and which tour companies to associate with.

Readers, have you ever stayed in a hostel?  What do you think, yay or nay?

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