Kia: Hi. Kia here. If you follow me on social media,
Kia: you will know how much I love to travel. In
Kia: the last year, I've been to Spain, New York and
Kia: Zanzibar. But while we all love to visit new places
Kia: and have a break from the daily grind, money inevitably
Kia: plays a big part in how elaborate our plans are.
Kia: So whether you're a solo traveler or holiday with others,
Kia: going on travel adventures is a big expense, especially these
Kia: days. We want to find clever ways to head abroad
Kia: without it feeling too much of a splurge. Welcome to
Kia: another episode of A Little Bit Richer, brought to you
Kia: by my friends at Legal & General. Here to help our
Kia: money go further is the woman behind Big World Small
Kia: Pockets, Steph Parker. Welcome to A Little Bit Richer, Steph.
Steph Parker: Hi. Thanks for having me.
Kia: Thank you for coming on. Right. So I want to
Kia: get straight into this. As you heard, I love travel,
Kia: but I want to start by asking you what sort
Kia: of holidays offer better value?
Steph Parker: I think there's two ways to think about this. So
Steph Parker: I think you've either got one option, which is stay
Steph Parker: in the UK so you keep your actual travel costs
Steph Parker: down, but you've probably got a bit of a pricier
Steph Parker: accommodation. Cost of living is a bit higher. Or you
Steph Parker: splurge a bit more on a plane ride and you
Steph Parker: go somewhere else where the cost of living might be
Steph Parker: cheaper. That's one key way to do it. The other
Steph Parker: thing to remember is that the more research you do,
Steph Parker: the less you pay. So for example, I tend to
Steph Parker: avoid using tour operators. Instead, if you can plan your
Steph Parker: flights, your accommodation, your airport transfers yourself, you're going to
Steph Parker: save a lot of money. And then if you still
Steph Parker: want to do some tours to particular sites when you're
Steph Parker: in a destination, that's totally fine. There's loads of sites
Steph Parker: like Get Your Guide or Via Tour that offer day
Steph Parker: or multi- day shorter trips, and that is a great
Steph Parker: way to keep your budget down then going with a tour
Steph Parker: for the whole of your holiday.
Kia: Absolutely, and I agree with what you said, booking it
Kia: separately. As someone who's traveled a lot like you have,
Kia: you can see the difference in the price when you
Kia: book a package versus splitting it up and you see
Kia: you save a lot more money when you actually go
Kia: and seek out, let's say the flights and the accommodation
Kia: and the transfers separately, it can all add up when
Kia: it's all in a package.
Steph Parker: Absolutely. Because you're happy to do your research. It does
Steph Parker: take a bit of time, but you can find some
Steph Parker: real deals. And don't forget, you're cutting out the middleman
Steph Parker: cost. If you are not using a travel agent, you're not having
Steph Parker: to pay for them. So doing research yourself, using price
Steph Parker: comparison websites, they're great ways to save on holidays.
Kia: Absolutely amazing. This is a question that I'm sure you
Kia: get a lot because I'm going to ask you, is
Kia: there a best time to book a holiday to get
Kia: the best deal and can you suggest some ways that
Kia: people can find the best prices?
Steph Parker: When you're thinking about going to a destination, the first
Steph Parker: thing is forget school holidays. If you don't have kids-
Kia: Oh, out the window.
Steph Parker: If you don't have kids and you don't have to travel in school holidays,
Steph Parker: don't. They're always much more expensive. I also really love
Steph Parker: traveling in what I call the shoulder season. So that
Steph Parker: kind tends to be the couple of months either side
Steph Parker: of the peak season. So when we are thinking about Europe, might be
Steph Parker: May, June, September, October time because normally the weather's still
Steph Parker: good, but there's way less crowds and prices are cheaper
Steph Parker: as well. So shoulder season for the win. And then
Steph Parker: when it comes to booking flights, yes you might find
Steph Parker: a flash sale down the line, but by and large
Steph Parker: you are always going to get the cheapest flights by
Steph Parker: booking as early as you can say two, even three
Steph Parker: months in advance, especially for long haul. The reason is
Steph Parker: airlines have tiered tickets, so once they sell out of
Steph Parker: the cheapest tier, those seats are gone and you move
Steph Parker: up to the next tier in the pricing ranking. So
Steph Parker: doing it early is always better. With hotels, it's the
Steph Parker: other way round, which is a sneaky tip because say
Steph Parker: your holiday's coming up in a few weeks' time. If
Steph Parker: those hotels have still got rooms available, they want to
Steph Parker: shift them. They want to sell those nights. So booking
Steph Parker: as last minute as possible that you feel comfortable with
Steph Parker: when it comes to hotels is definitely the best way
Steph Parker: because they'll start dropping their rates the nearer it gets
Steph Parker: to the time that you want to stay there. So
Steph Parker: hotels late, flights early is the best combination.
Kia: That's the best combo. Do you know what? When it
Kia: comes to booking hotels late, I'm glad you said that.
Kia: I think the latest I've ever booked it, which did
Kia: give me anxiety, I want to put it out there, so I wouldn't
Kia: recommend it for people, was when I was in the
Kia: airport about to get my flight and I had no
Kia: accommodation. This when I was going to Thailand, I had
Kia: no accommodation booked and I was out there for 11
Kia: days. I had no plan whatsoever and I was traveling
Kia: with my friend and I said to her, " I'll handle
Kia: it. I'll do the accommodation." So we got to the
Kia: airport, she said, " Okay, where are we staying?" I said, "
Kia: I have no idea. I have no idea." So we
Kia: were trawling online, literally like an hour or two before
Kia: I had to board our flight, but I got a
Kia: really good deal.
Steph Parker: Well, there you are. I was going to say, did you get a bargain?
Kia: But, I will say, it was a bit prickly.
Steph Parker: Yeah, that's bold. I think I might've done that when
Steph Parker: I was younger. Now not so much. Yeah. And if you've
Steph Parker: got the luxury of time, say you're backpacking for longer
Steph Parker: or traveling for a few months, yeah, you can be
Steph Parker: a bit more flexible. If you've got a week, you might-
Kia: I was pushing it. I was pushing it. I was very much, and I can
Kia: hold my hands up. I was definitely pushing it so
Kia: I wouldn't recommend it, but like you said, last minute's
Kia: always good. Maybe a couple of days before, not the
Kia: day of. That's what I-
Steph Parker: A couple of days sounds reasonable.
Kia: A couple of days is good, yeah. Okay. And what about ideas to consider when actually
Kia: looking for accommodation? You mentioned obviously you want to book as often
Kia: as possible to get the best deals, but when you're actually
Kia: looking, there is so much choice out there now. Before it
Kia: used just to be you got to book a hotel, but there are so many
Kia: different variations of accommodation. What should people consider when they're
Kia: looking for accommodation?
Steph Parker: I think you really need to think about the type
Steph Parker: of holiday that you want to have. If you're happy
Steph Parker: to self- cater, which can be a great way to
Steph Parker: save money, then Airbnb's apartments awesome choice for you. There's
Steph Parker: actually a new company called Vrbo. They're like Airbnb. You
Steph Parker: might have find some better deals on there as well.
Steph Parker: Hotels, if you really want to relax. If you don't
Steph Parker: want to do the washing up, if you don't want
Steph Parker: to go to the supermarket, think about that because if
Steph Parker: it's your holiday of the year and you want to
Steph Parker: have a good time, it might be worth spending a
Steph Parker: little bit more to go in a hotel if you
Steph Parker: don't want to do all the other tasks, cooking and
Steph Parker: cleaning and all those sorts of things. House sitting's great
Steph Parker: if you're on a longer trip. So if you're traveling
Steph Parker: for perhaps a few weeks or even a few months,
Steph Parker: then house sitting can be a great option as well.
Steph Parker: People will give you their house to look after for
Steph Parker: free if they've got pets or they just want someone
Steph Parker: to stay there and they're verified. There's review systems. It's
Steph Parker: that kind of process and you can do that all
Steph Parker: online as well. So it's really about thinking about the
Steph Parker: type of holiday that you want to have and matching
Steph Parker: accommodation for that and thinking that sometimes when you spend
Steph Parker: a little bit more, you might get more of the
Steph Parker: experience that you're looking for and that is actually good value.
Kia: Absolutely. I think it's not all just about the numbers.
Kia: This is the cheapest and we're going to go for that. It is like you
Kia: said, do I want to relax? Have I had a
Kia: stressful time at work and I just want to put
Kia: my feet up? Maybe Airbnb and figuring out breakfast, lunch
Kia: and dinner isn't the way to go. Maybe I will
Kia: go for a hotel. Like I said, it is personal
Kia: circumstances. I've done pretty much all of them and they've
Kia: all offered different experiences. It's just figuring out what kind
Kia: of holidays do I want.
Steph Parker: Exactly.
Kia: So for anyone looking to get a good deal, what
Kia: about price comparison sites?
Steph Parker: Always use a price comparison site to start. They're a great
Steph Parker: place to begin your research for budget travel. When it
Steph Parker: comes to flights, top tip, remember to use an incognito
Steph Parker: browser when you're searching because it is true that they
Steph Parker: track your cookies and the prices go up the more
Steph Parker: you look so incognito browser. And if you're flying with
Steph Parker: a budget airline, I always go direct to their website
Steph Parker: because it's cheaper to add baggage on at the end
Steph Parker: of the booking process rather than one of the packages
Steph Parker: that you get priority boarding and all these things that
Steph Parker: you don't need to add on, just add the luggage
Steph Parker: and it's best to do that for budget airlines direct
Steph Parker: with them.
Kia: Amazing. What about hotels?
Steph Parker: Hotels, I use it for research. So I always look
Steph Parker: on a price comparison website like booking. com or hotels.
Steph Parker: com to find the kind of hotels or places that
Steph Parker: I want to stay. Lots of them do Airbnbs or
Steph Parker: apartments now as well. But then I go direct to
Steph Parker: the hotel. And the reason is the hotels have to
Steph Parker: pay these price comparison sites a commission, so that can
Steph Parker: be up to 17%. So if you go direct, you
Steph Parker: can normally negotiate a discount of around 10%.
Kia: Wow.
Steph Parker: And everybody's doing better on that. So yeah, give them
Steph Parker: a call or an email and you can normally work
Steph Parker: a better deal with hotels straight.
Kia: Amazing. So what's some of your favorites but more affordable
Kia: places to discover?
Steph Parker: Long haul if you're looking for a Safari, which I
Steph Parker: think is probably on everyone's bucket list-
Kia: For mine as well.
Steph Parker: And it's one of my favorites too. South Africa is
Steph Parker: a real bargain right now. There's parks there where you
Steph Parker: can do south drives that make it really cheap, but
Steph Parker: otherwise cost of living there is quite affordable and it's
Steph Parker: such a diverse and amazing country to visit. Park entrances
Steph Parker: are cheap. So if you were looking for a budget
Steph Parker: Safari, South Africa is my tip. Across in Asia, Sri
Steph Parker: Lanka is one of my absolute faves.
Kia: Really? Okay.
Steph Parker: I went there for the first time last year and
Steph Parker: I was blown away. And again, super affordable. If you're
Steph Parker: say looking for a luxury honeymoon, you can get five
Steph Parker: star hotels there for a fraction of the price that you would
Steph Parker: in Europe. There's beaches, the food's amazing, there's tea plantations,
Steph Parker: epic train rides. It's an all- round gem. So yeah,
Steph Parker: Sri Lanka, highly recommend.
Kia: Wow. Now I have to ask you, Steph, what are
Kia: some of your personal favorite places to visit?
Steph Parker: I'm going to give you my top five.
Kia: Okay. I want your top five. I'm ready for the list. Let's go.
Steph Parker: It's Ethiopia.
Kia: Okay.
Steph Parker: Lebanon.
Kia: Oh.
Steph Parker: Georgia.
Kia: Yes.
Steph Parker: Peru and Sri Lanka, which we've talked about.
Kia: Yes. That's a good list. But just to circle back,
Kia: Georgia, we're not talking about the state.
Steph Parker: No, right, we're talking about the country.
Kia: The country, okay.
Steph Parker: Yeah, so on the edge of Europe, just the other
Steph Parker: side of Turkey. Again, I think I love these countries
Steph Parker: because they're really diverse. They're a bit off the beaten
Steph Parker: track, very affordable to travel. Georgia has amazing food and
Steph Parker: wine, mountains for hiking or skiing in the winter. History.
Steph Parker: It's just beautiful. The people are so friendly and it's
Steph Parker: still in Europe, but it feels quite different and feels
Steph Parker: a bit unique and it's still a bit undiscovered as
Steph Parker: well. So get there before everybody else does.
Kia: Well, I'm booking my trip after this. I have to
Kia: get there first now. So thank you for that insights there.
Kia: Thank you. Travel insurance, how can you make sure you
Kia: get good value on your policy?
Steph Parker: First of all, check if you already get travel insurance
Steph Parker: with your credit card or debit cards, anything else that you
Steph Parker: might be a member of if you get travel insurance
Steph Parker: there. If not, use a price comparison website to shop
Steph Parker: around and get the best deal. Special offers run all
Steph Parker: the time, so hop onto those if you can. Think
Steph Parker: about your cover, the two main points that you want
Steph Parker: to make sure are covered are the most common things.
Steph Parker: So is it your electronics getting stolen? That might be
Steph Parker: a big thing for you. Is it baggage delay? Make
Steph Parker: sure the most important things to you get covered. Look
Steph Parker: at the excess. No point going for a cheaper policy
Steph Parker: if the excess is huge because you're going to have
Steph Parker: to pay that if anything happens so often it's worth
Steph Parker: paying for a little bit more for a lower excess.
Steph Parker: And if you're not heading to the US or North
Steph Parker: America, make sure you get a policy that doesn't include
Steph Parker: these countries because that will significantly reduce the price because
Steph Parker: medical health insurance tends to be a lot more expensive
Steph Parker: in those countries. So choosing an insurance policy that doesn't
Steph Parker: include them, it's automatically going to be lower.
Kia: Amazing. How can you manage your spending while abroad?
Steph Parker: First of all, do not eat in touristy areas. That
Steph Parker: is my 101. So even if you want to go
Steph Parker: out to a nice restaurant, often walking just 5, 10
Steph Parker: minutes away from where you're staying, you can get a
Steph Parker: much more local place, much better deal. If you're self-
Steph Parker: catering, same. Do local supermarkets. Make best use of those.
Steph Parker: Think about walking, particularly in European cities, free walking tours.
Steph Parker: Use Google Maps to get around really easy. If not,
Steph Parker: use public transport where you can. Don't get a taxi
Steph Parker: from the airport. There's often transfers or shuttles. You can
Steph Parker: research that online before you go. And find out if
Steph Parker: there's any travel card deals. Like you can use public
Steph Parker: transport for two, three days and you've got an unlimited
Steph Parker: card. Loads of places do that, and that often works
Steph Parker: out cheaper as well.
Kia: Brilliant. And now what are some of your favorite more
Kia: affordable places to discover?
Steph Parker: I'm a big fan of a budget travel hack. So
Steph Parker: instead of Croatia for example, which is growing really popular,
Steph Parker: think about Montenegro. Similar experiences, but for much less price. Same,
Steph Parker: instead of going to Scandinavia, Norway, Finland really expensive, just
Steph Parker: a few kilometers away, Estonia, an amazing Nordic country for
Steph Parker: half the price. So I always think is there a
Steph Parker: cheaper country that offers the same kind of experiences, but
Steph Parker: for less?
Kia: So when you're abroad and you come to pay, it's always
Kia: that thing, right? Do you pay in the local currency
Kia: or do you go the conversion for example that is
Kia: offered to you? What's the best thing to do when
Kia: you come to pay?
Steph Parker: Always go for the local currency. So if you've just
Steph Parker: eaten dinner and they've come over with a card machine
Steph Parker: for you to tap and pay, do not select pounds.
Steph Parker: Always select the local currency because what happens is the
Steph Parker: banks will convert it for you at less good rate.
Steph Parker: So yeah, if you pay in the currency and you've
Steph Parker: got a card that has a great conversion rate on
Steph Parker: it, which you should, that is definitely the top tip.
Kia: Amazing. Lastly, I want to ask you, what are your
Kia: three top tips on traveling smarter?
Steph Parker: When it comes to traveling smarter, my three top tips
Steph Parker: are, first of all, check your roaming charges on your
Steph Parker: phone. If the country that you're going to isn't covered
Steph Parker: by free roaming, get an eSIM. They're amazing, work really
Steph Parker: well. Top hack. Tip number two is check your debit
Steph Parker: card. Don't use it abroad if there's transaction or bad
Steph Parker: conversion fees. Get a card that allows you to take
Steph Parker: money out from the ATM or spend abroad for free.
Steph Parker: Take a spare card, leave that in your room in
Steph Parker: case one gets stolen, and always take a credit card
Steph Parker: if you plan to hire a car. And the third
Steph Parker: tip is a filter water bottle. These are so good
Steph Parker: for just stopping the plastic waste and as well saving
Steph Parker: your budget a little bit on bottled water that you
Steph Parker: keep have to buy. You can fill them up from
Steph Parker: any tap in the world. They've got inbuilt filters and
Steph Parker: it means you can safely drink the tap water anywhere.
Steph Parker: Game changer.
Kia: Game changer. I co- sign that one. I've been doing
Kia: that as well. Amazing. Steph, thank you so much. Travel's
Kia: on everyone's mind and you've given us some tips and
Kia: gems that we can take to book our next holiday.
Kia: So thank you so much for coming on the podcast.
Steph Parker: Thank you so much for having me. It's been great.
Kia: Next time on A Little Bit Richer, we're looking at
Kia: scams and what to watch out for. Don't forget you
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