We are already three weeks into the new year and most of us have probably already been thinking about the travels we would like to squeeze into our schedule this year. Unfortunately, most of the time it’s not the time we’re lacking, but the money. Especially when you’re young you’d just love to take on the world and visit a new country everyday but we all know how challenging it is to save up money for a single trip, especially when it additionally involves plane ticket. Today I want to show you how I calculate my budget and how I decide, which destinations to add to my travel plan and where to find great deals. 

Calculating your Budget.

Obviously, travel budgets vary from person to person, depending on if someone’s still a student or already working full-time, living alone or still at one’s parents’ house. But I believe saving money when travelling is something every young person would like to do. 

What I tend to do is keep track of my income and expenses and calculate the average expenses I have every month, including rent, food, car insurance and petrol as well as all the bills that need to be paid. Depending on how much is left for you individually, I recommend thinking of a certain amount of money you can spare each month to put aside for travels (or really any other thing you want to save up for). I personally, depending on other expenses that might occur in a month, try to put aside 100 to 200 Euro a month just for travelling, especially when I know that I want to go to a destination far from home. By putting away money in a consistent manner, you will increase your travel budget month by month almost unnoticed and it won’t feel as bad on your bank account once you pay for flights, hotels, hostels or bus and train tickets. 

I also tend to put the money I am gifted for Christmas or my birthday aside, as it’s another really good addition to your travel bank. 

A fun motivation to save up for me is putting the money into fun, lockable money boxes as looking at them everyday encourages me to really pull through and not take the money out to use it for something else. I recommend emptying it every couple months though for rather obvious reasons. No one should have such a big bulk of money lying around in their home. 

Choose your travel time wisely. 

As I am already working full time, the time I am able to go on holiday is rather limited, which is why I need to choose my travel destinations and the dates I am going wisely. I tend to plan one or two bigger holidays a year, depending where I am going, and sneak in a couple weekend getaways more spontaneously. 

The time you travel definitely does make a difference when going abroad, especially when visiting countries who mainly depend on tourism. When travelling to a hot country such as Egypt, Greece or Dubai, it definitely makes sense to choose a date outside the main season as flights are cheaper and hotels often have special offers during that time to fill their rooms. The best time during off season are probably the weeks before and after main season as the weather can still be expected to be warm and pleasant but the prices will have dropped by a lot already and can save you a lot of money. I know that choosing such travel dates is sometimes difficult due to uni or school but when I was at uni and knew I was going on holiday during a normal uni week, I tried to not miss class any other time during the semester so being away or twice was considered absolutely acceptable. 

Make the most of your holidays. 

In Austria people who work full time usually have 25 days of holidays they can use throughout the year. What I tend to do is take a close look at the calendar each January to figure out how to place my holidays best and get the most out of the five weeks of holidays. Obviously, arranging your holidays needs to be properly accommodated with your colleagues but usually it is not difficult to find an agreement. When placed between a national holiday and the weekend, one can therefore easily get a week of holiday out of three days off work. 

Cheap Flights needed. 

Especially in Europe, flights have become very affordable in the last couple years due to the amount of low budget carriers flying to destinations all across the continent. When looking for flights I always tend to use websites such as checkfelix.com to compare prices and figure out the best time to travel as their calendar offers a feature showing you days with the lowest prices. This has saved me a high amount of money when travelling by plane. 

Set yourself a Budget for your trip.

Even though planning a trip beforehand is already highly important, setting yourself a limit when travelling is even more important. It happens too easily that one loses track of the expenses ones they are abroad and come back having spent a lot more money than priorly anticipated. Which is why I suggest that it is important to inform yourself well about the prices in terms of food and drinks, as well as the entry fees of attraction you want to visit at your travel destination. This will give you an overview and an idea how much money you’ll need once you have reached your destination and will prevent you from experiencing bad surprises that would have been avoidable. 

Calculate a certain amount of money you will approximately need to cover daily needs such as food and drinks and you won’t be ending up spending more money than you actually want (and have).

At the end of the day each person has their individual way of saving up for travels and I am just sharing tips and tricks I use to be able to get around the world as much as possible during the year.

In the last couple years I have been to London on quite a regular basis, either for business or simply to enjoy myself in a city I have considered a second home from the first time I visited back when I was 16. Even though I dare claim that I know London rather well already, I still find myself stumbling upon the most picturesque and breathtaking spots and areas, sometimes hidden in the outskirts of central London, which only make me fall in love with Britain’s capital even more. 

I almost spent an entire week in London, visiting a dear friend of mine, catching up and reuniting with friends from my time at uni in Manchester. At this point, going to London has stopped feeling like going on holiday, it has more turned into the heartwarming feeling of returning home. 





Hampstead

Away from the city centre, further up in the North-West of London, behind Regent’s Park and Primrose Hill, when the tourists fade from the street and cute, small town houses with flower beds and colourful doors line the streets, one enters the the district of Hampstead. Independent cafés, tiny shops and independent creatives call the main streets of the area their home. Taking the Northern Line train to Edgware up north, exiting at Hampstead Station, one enters a picturesque, scenic street full of local life, seemingly far away from the rush of central London. 

A 20 minute walk away, one will find Kenwood House embedded into Hampstead Heath, which shapes the whole district. As a former stately home, the building once served as a seat for various aristocratic families and still radiates the same heroic charm of past times. 

(Notting Hill fans will recognise the building because it was featured in the iconic movie from 1999.) Nowadays one can wander around the gorgeous garden areas and enjoy coffee and cakes at the café at Kenwood House. 

Walking down the Heath you feel entirely detached from the vibrating metropolitan life surrounding the wood and grass fields, opening space for nature and its natural sound. The only reminder of the city spreading around the Heath is the stunning view from one of the hills, overlooking London, with the Shard reaching for the sky in the far distance. 

Approaching the Heath from the station Hampstead Heath, you will not only find yourself in a gorgeous street with tiny bookstores such as Daunt Books whose employees have genuine passion for the art of literature, you will also find a small pond connecting residential areas to the beauty of the Heath that unfolds up north from that point on.

After all those years of visiting London and continuously being astonished by the beauty and rich culture of Britain’s capital, I still end up being mind blown whenever exploring new areas of the city I keep dearest in my heart. 

River Danube parts the city that was once part of a kingdom ruling central Europe and was long ago divided into Buda and Pest. With historical buildings dominating the city scape, a centre of culture and religious diversity, Budapest has worked its way back into the spotlight, being praised and loved by people all over Europe. 

Stunning Architecture

With Buda Castle and the Citadella throning on the hills of the city quarter of Buda, overlooking the green forests on the one side and the stunning skyline of Pest on the other, Budapest is an actual heaven for those who admire a great view. Conquering the steps up to the top of the hill, ending up right below Liberty Statue, is definitely worth the sweat and exhaustion of the small hike, just like Buda Castle further north up the riverside. An extraordinary palace that was once home to royals and is now home to exhibitions with artefacts of Hungary’s art history - and the paintings of Frida Kahlo that have been brought to Budapest directly from Mexico for a temporary exhibition. Getting lost in the country’s art is always something I thoroughly enjoy because it is another visual representation of how society and history shaped the country in long lost times. 

Not far away from Buda Castle one of the architecturally most beautiful sights spreads across another hill, Fisherman's Bastion and Matthias Church. The bright white stone almost sparkles in the sunshine and thrones over a part of Budapest reminding the visitors of an old Italian town with streets made of cobblestones and flowers decorating the window sills. 

The city of Hungary can be explored almost entirely by foot as the city centre is rather compact and the most important sites are situated close to each other. Just by walking through the city centre one will stumble across cute cafés, shops offering local specialities and small boutiques selling unique clothes that will make every fashion lover cry of joy. 

Even though the Hungarian currency Forinth does need some time to get used to but compared to average European prices, food and drinks in Budapest are almost ridiculously cheap. The general price for beer is around the two euro mark, which is an absolute bargain. Due to us living in an AirBnB we were able to fill up our fridge with snacks from one of the many grocery shops in our area, which gave us the opportunity to save some money in the process.

Nevertheless it is definitely recommendable to pay one of the many cute, small, independent cafés all around the city a visit as they put a lot of effort and thought into their interior and menu. Our favourite spot was called Zoska and was located in a small side street close to the National Museum. They offered sandwiches, porridge, dips and veggies but also scrambled egg, pancakes and croissants so everyone’s taste buds could get satisfied. Side note: Their coffee was absolutely delish. 

The bar and pub culture in Budapest is a fairytale for the young generation and can

We also had lunch at the big market hall right next to river Danube where farmers sell their food and a part of the first floor is dedicated to food stands that offer local specialities that are mindblowingly tasty.  

Culture & History

We also had a look at the inside of the Hungarian parliament and took a walk through the building, where we were introduced to the vast history and culture of the country that goes a lot further back than just to the point of becoming a part of the Habsburg monarchy. 

Budapest still is an underestimated, hidden gem in the list of Europe’s capital city but is slowly growing to become a hotspot for culture and lifestyle once again. People from all over the world are coming to Budapest to not only embrace the Hungarian culture but also let go of all their sorrows in the blooming night life, enjoying their lives to the fullest. Budapest combines the young, the modern and the old and historical in a unique and mindblowingly beautiful way and all the prejudices one might have beforehand are entirely washed away by the beauty of the former Habsburg city. 

Travelling changes your mind, your perspective and your perception of your own world. Everywhere we go and anytime we explore places we have never been to, we take a part of this place with us and lock it up in our hearts, for eternity to keep. 

Paris is one of those cities everyone puts on their bucket list because you think you’re missing out on something if you don’t at least see the Eiffel Tower once in your life. When you live on mainland Europe you sometimes start to believe that you have all the time in the world to explore those cities that seem so close but are still so far away. It’s remarkable how much we take the “little” distances on our relatively small continent for granted and forget that travelling still takes time. Ever since I came back from Manchester I decided for myself that I would visit at least one place a year that I had never been to. While Scandinavia is rather highly ranked on my list of places I want to see, Paris  had been at the back of my mind for quite a while as well. The French language has always fascinated me and I used to take French classes at uni so I was exceptionally excited for actually getting to know the French capital that I had heard the most magical stories of. 

My expectations were exceeded. Paris is one oft those extraordinary cities that engrave themselves into your mind and make you fall in love with their atmosphere and pure, simple beauty. 

The City.

As a lover of architecture Paris was nothing less than paradise for me. Historical buildings shaping the city grounds, old facades with fascinating embellishments and the dominance of exceptionally fascinating creme coloured brick work made one wonder if one had entered a fairytale, letting forget the dark past of a city that now presents itself as the vibrant centre of a country full of pride. The long lost kings’ love for symmetry, elegance and splendour is still undeniably visible in 21st century Paris no matter if walking down Esplanade des Invalides or strolling through the gardens of the uncountable palaces that are embedded into an otherwise modern metropolitan.

Montmartre.

Entering Montmartre, located in Northern Paris, is like entering a different world. Hidden in the shadows of majestic Sacre Coeur that has been throning on a hill overlooking the city since 1914, Montmartre is a gem that should not be missed. A tiny version of the calm of the Provence resting in the north of an otherwise lively city makes you feel like travelling back in time. Small shops and aspiring painters that are crowded together on a market place and present their art to the public while hiding under sun shades from the burning heat. The houses are colourful and packed with the most exotic flowers tingling your nose with extraordinary smells. Montmartre is a place that you could spend your entire day in, just strolling through the tiny alleyways finding yourself discovering even more of these tiny shops and cafés that have people sitting in front all day. 

The Food.

Even though the French are known for their exquisite cuisine and one might think you might want to splash out on a fancy dinner at some point, you are immediately taken aback by HOW HIGH the prices are. I had heard that Paris was expensive in terms of food and drinks but the prices were indeed horrendous. I wish I could give you a proper review on where to go out for food and which cafés and coffeeshops were cute to enjoy brunch in but as a matter of fact, we didn’t go out for dinner once. I usually don’t look at prices when I’m on holiday but as soon as I have to pay 15 to 20 euros for a simple dish that would cost me a third of said price at home, I am sort of appalled and my appetite is gone. We helped ourselves at the local bakery and supermarket just around the corner of our hotel that offered everything we needed and actually enjoyed trying out local pastries for a reasonable price.

The Small Cafés. 

As France being a wine nation I was able to drink a deliciously tasting, reasonably priced glass of  wine in one of the cafés right around the corner of our hotel. What I love about the French is how much they enjoy their life and how much appreciation they have for being able to spend time socialising. The streets of Paris all day round are packed with people sitting in woven chair

outside tiny cafés having food and drinks. 

The Hotel.

Our hotel was located in Avenue de Tourville right in between Champs de Mars and the Dome des Invalides. The hotel we stayed in was called Hotel Le Tourville, a tiny four star hotel that exceeded all our expectations. The staff was exceptionally friendly and helpful and they appreciated my attempt of speaking French more than I had expected them to (Parisians in general are delighted when you at least try to speak French even if you have to switch to English then, the effort counts). Our room on the fourth floor might have been tiny but the views and the furniture were incredible. We had booked a stay with breakfast included and as it was a tiny hotel everything from breakfast to service felt personal and genuine. A bar in the lobby provided free drinks and snacks all day.

We booked our stay via Secret Escapes, which has always been one of my tips when wanting to travel luxuriously for little money. Even a boat trip was included in our booking. 

The Transport.

The metro in Paris is reliable and enables you to get around the city super quickly as there's a train every couple minutes. I suggest you buying a so called Navigo Decouverte which costs less than the standard tourist Paris visite pass and you can still use the public transport all around the city. All you need is a passport photo as the card will be personalised. 

Another tip for everyone under 26 is a day ticket for 4,10€ with which you can travel around the city for 24 hours on weekends and national holidays.

The Shopping.

Shopping in Paris can be described with a single word: heaven. Everything one could possibly imagine can be found on one of the various shopping streets and centres all across the city. 

When going into Saint Laurent we were treated like actual princesses with multiple staff members offering us drinks while we were waiting for our purchases to be wrapped up in bags you didn’t even want to open because they looked like art themselves. I had never done anything like that before as high street brands like Topshop and Zara have always been my primary go-to but experiencing such special treatment was a nice change for once. 

My Highlights. 

The whole trip was remarkable in every single way possible and I am still so grateful about the fact that I get to experience such amazing things at such a young age and that the world has become so accessible. 

Eating pizza in front of the Eiffel Tower, watching the sunset until the whole tower started glittering at 10PM was one of the most breathtaking experiences I have ever experienced and I still cannot fathom that this actually happened to me. 

I could to immerse myself into the culture and got to witness the ups and downs of Paris in the historical centres and museums all over Paris. What I consider amazing is that you can enter most churches for free and Musée d'Orsay is free for everyone under 26 as well. 

I have fallen in love with the city of love and am definitely planning on coming back. 

Paris, mon amour, je t’aime.

You don’t always need to travel far to experience world’s beauty, sometimes it can be found right around the corner only a short bike ride away. Humans tend to have the urge to get away and leave their homes behind in order to find peace of mind and discover new places. 

Ever since living abroad in the UK I have realised how little we care about the beauty that surrounds us on a daily basis. We start taking our environment for granted forgetting to consciously look at the wonderful place we’re living in because everything inside of us is just constantly urging for the far away lands of unknown mysteries. 

When living in the UK I tried to get around as much as possible because I wanted to get to know the country and its people and encounter things I hadn’t seen before. When talking about my trips with my UK friends, the answer that I most frequently got when asking if they had been there was “No”. This fact made me realise how much we take our home countries for granted. We don’t see the point in exploring what is around us everyday, we don’t make the time for a 30 minute drive to leave the city behind and go on adventures in the forests and mountains we call our home. Instead we make time to plan trips abroad, for the sake of crossing things off our bucket lists and for the sake of telling friends that we’ve travelled the world. 

Travelling is one of the most amazing inventions mankind has ever had. But travelling, in my opinion, does not only involve those trips we look forward to for months and which take us places that are so different from what we are used to, it’s also the trips we spontaneously decide to do. Those trips to castles embedded into the skyline of your own home town that you haven’t come around to visit in five years of living here. 

Travelling far is exciting, and important. But exploring what one calls home is just as important. You develop a newly found appreciation of the world around you and suddenly you notice all the small details that make your home special that have been overlooked for years because our mind has gotten so used to seeing them every day. 

The beginning of the year is usually the time during which people start to plan their travels for the year, which sounds like a rather enjoyable way of occupying oneself as it makes one dream of new destinations that lie ahead and days off spent on some beach where the only sorrow one knows is to not forget to switch from back to belly when tanning every once in a while. 

Well… and then your dreams of stress free booking are crushed by a trillion of websites offering all kinds of different things for every imaginable price level and you and up feeling as if your head might explode. Questions like “What if that’s a price trap?”, “That deal sound kind of fake?”, “Is this website trustworthy?”, “Is AirBnB worth the hype?” and “Wouldn’t it be better to just let someone at a travel agency do this?”

I’ll be answering all these questions today and hope that I’ll be able to not only help you with planning your next trip but also take away a bit of fear someone might have when it comes to booking holidays on the scary place that is known as the internet. 

I have divided this post into sections for better structure. They can all be read together as a whole but can also be read individually if one section interests you in particular. 

1) Research is KEY

Firstly, I am not a fan of travel agencies. They generally generate prices that are a lot higher than what you are offered on the internet for the same value simply because public service in involved. That doesn’t need much explaining. BUT I have to admit that travel agencies have their perks when it comes to trips that involve all inclusive accommodations and travels that go beyond the annual Europe trip to some capital city. If I was going some place like Bali, the Seychelles, the Maledives or somewhere else tropical where I have no clue what is to expect and what to even look for, I’d definitely recommend seeking professional help because no one wants to end up in some dirty, run down hell hole when going on holiday. That would sort of defeat the purpose and I’d also cry over the money that was wasted on a bad holiday. 

City trips however, or general beach holidays, can easily be booked online entirely stress free when you start planning your trips at the right time. I have figured in the last couple of years in which I have not only rather unintentionally become the travel and booking “expert” for not only our family trips but trips with friends as well that starting to plan a trip WITHIN Europe approximately four months in advance makes the most sense - in terms of price AND time management.

Because one thing is essential about the whole booking process when you’re doing it yourself. IT TAKES TIME. AND PATIENCE. You can’t just book a proper trip on one day. It takes time to research and compare prices. You can literally save up to 150€ or more when taking your time to just browse through various pages on the internet. 

My favourite websites to compare prices are booking.com, trivago.at and expedia.at. They are easy to use and give you every essential information you might need. 

2) Finding a Hotel

Now the most complicated part might be finding the right accommodation. I am aware that everyone has individual preferences when travelling and that some people would never stay at a hotel but this is just the way I personally do it. I grew up always staying in hotels and am personally not very keen of camping and hostels as I find it rather gross sharing my bathroom with hundred other people (I have done it before, it wasn’t horrible, but I didn’t particularly enjoy it either and as holidays should be something you enjoy, opt for something that feels right for you). Before I choose a hotel I do my research on which areas in the city I wanna go to are convenient and preferably not too sketchy as I am a coward who gets easily intimidated and a safe area is just something I personally need to fully enjoy myself. When doing research, I tend to inform myself on the internet via travel reviews and blogs but first and foremost I always approach friends of who I know they know what I need and want and who have been to that place before so I trust their tips and recommendations. 

Additionally I inform myself about the transport system, look up where bus lines and underground stops are located and check on the overall public transport system. Most people tend to always want to be right in the city centre, which might be convenient as everything might be in walking distance but also affects the price massively. Therefore I tend to rather choose hotels outside the centre which still have a good transport connection to the centre. I am going to Paris in exactly two months and we have managed to find a 4-star-hotel for 215€ per person with breakfast for three nights. I mean if that’s not a good deal. 

Furthermore, I religiously read through reviews and comments on the hotels as those immediately give away the quality of the hotel because obviously hotels won’t be advertising their flaws on the internet. My favourite website for hotel reviews is holidaycheck.com as people can additionally add pictures to their reviews which raises the credibility of their comments and gives me an actual idea of the quality of the hotel 

I have also come to LOVE a website called secretescapes.de which offers luxury accommodations for small prices as their offers change every week on Sunday or Monday, meaning you have a limited time to book but the value you get for the price is actually insane. I have booked hotels via Secret Escapes multiple times now and I have always ended up paying between 100 and 200€ for a four to five day trip in a 5-star-hotel, breakfast included (and upgrades too sometimes, we went to Vienna once and were upgraded into a suite that was bigger than my flat NO JOKE, the bathroom alone was the size of my living room I legit never wanted to leave that place again) 

So, if you like a bit of luxury for a small price and are spontaneous when it comes to booking, I’d definitely recommend Secret Escapes, it’s honestly worth gold. 

If hotels aren’t for you but you’d still like to enjoy a bit of comfort when travelling I highly recommend AirBnB. I am telling you it IS worth the hype. My best friend and I have decided to never book anything other than an AirBnb ever again after our trip to Amsterdam last year. It was our first time staying at one and I have fallen in love with those kinds of accommodations as it’s an amazing way of feeling just like a local and the prices are rather reasonable as well. Obviously, reading the reviews is yet again the key otherwise one could easily fall for a scam but the website is highly professional and so are the majority of the people offering entire homes or rooms in their own apartments. 

3) Planning a Trip or Diving Straight into It?

Well, I assume the answer to this question highly depends on your personal preferences. I myself like to balance structure with adventure. I don’t like travelling to a new place entirely unprepared as it gives me anxiety and stresses me out but I don’t like trips that are planned from top to bottom either as it takes away the luxury of spontaneity. When doing city trips my friends and I tend to all write a list of things each one of us really wants to do, compare those lists and then decide what  we WANT to do, what we would LIKE to do and things that we could do when there’s time or when it’s convenient. Structuring a trip like this gives you an idea of what lies ahead of you but still gives you the freedom to change things up because you never know what you might stumble across when finally on the trip. 

What I tend to do as well is to look up which sights or spots are in areas close to each other as I think it’s rubbish to travel all across town to cover just two or three spots when you can plan your day in a way you can stay in a certain area and use another day for another area across town. Obviously you want to see as much as possible but city trips are still supposed to be holidays and not some kind of alternate marathon. I mean I would very much like to still be able to use my feet after four days of being away.

4) Hand Luggage or Bulky, Heavy Suitcase? 

I’ll be referring you back to the blog post I did back in June 2017 when I discovered the glorious invention of hand luggage trolleys and the awesomeness of travelling light. Honestly, I will never use big suitcases for city trips ever again. (Trips to the beach or trips longer than 5 days excluded I am still a woman at the end of the day) 

Now that I have properly hyped myself up for my trips this year I hope this has helped you in some kind of way. Feel free to drop a comment on how you travel and where you’re planning to go this year.