We love hostels, and have spent the last 10 years staying in hostels as they are a great way to meet people and fantastic if you are traveling solo. You meet new and amazing travelers from all round the world and some hostels are honestly second to none when it comes to embracing new and interesting cultures. However, as we are now in the slightly higher age bracket (Leo more than me...I'm still a spring chicken ) and our days of sweaty dorm rooms and noisy snorers are over, we are leaning towards Air B n B and Booking.com for the majority of our trip. We will also be volunteering along the way as well and you can read all about that here. These 2 platforms have been interesting and valuable to us in NZ as we find this Air B n B a great way to meet locals and immerse in that culture, whereas with booking.com it's often to find accommodation that includes breakfast or, if a member - a genius discount (more info below) Air B n B – So far into our planning and initial booking stage for the first few months of the trip we have found some amazing deals on Air B n B. The best one recently being in Santiago, Chile where Booking.com was charging $167NZD for a 2-night stay. After some research, contacting the property directly on Air B n B allowed us to book this for $66NZD for the 2 nights. WINNING. This doesn’t happen too often but shopping around is 100% the best, most effective way to save money! We use this site a lot as when we travel we want to experience the location and meet the locals. We feel this results in a highly rewarding experience and more often than not, this is where you find out about those hidden gems – the highlights of most traveler's trips! Allowing us to meet the locals and gain and insight into their knowledge can be invaluable which to us is why this this platform is so worthwhile. If you haven’t already – sign up here and use our link to receive a $50 NZD discount off your stay and $19NZD discount off one of the activity experiences of $66 or more! BOOKING.COM: - Booking.com has to us been our 'go to' for many years and we have used it for Brazil, Easter Island, Ecuador and both Norway and London in the past. It’s easy to use, all the photos are generally great (apart from a few dodgy. blurry ones in South America) and the reviews are from actual travelers so are pretty honest…. especially the bad ones which can be a great read! If you book regularly then you become a ‘genius’ member which unlocks an extra 10% off a lot of properties which can save you heaps a long the way. But as I mentioned before, ALWAYS do your research and compare the properties through both platforms as this alone can save you $$. UPDATED HACK! - So, I just came across this little beauty and now I'm hitting myself as I hope it's new and I haven't been doing it wrong for years! On Booking.com, download the app on your mobile device and when booking there are a lot of properties that offer an extra 10% off - JUST TO BOOK THROUGH YOUR MOBILE PHONE!! I am completely mind blown as I have just booked Auckland Airport accommo. Through the website direct the property was $125NZD. Through Booking.com on my laptop it was $115NZD and on my phone it was $103.50NZD! Every penny counts when traveling so make sure to use this whenever possible! If you are new to booking.com then you can use this link when booking and it will then automatically refund you 10% of your stay after you have stayed in the location which is pretty awesome! Please contact us if you would like any extra info though as we are more than happy to help point you in the right direction and tell you some of our fav's from our trip!
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So...here's the deal, travelling the world isn't cheap. There are ways to save money, of course but between the flights alone it add's up fast! The question we get asked most when our friends see that we have booked another trip to somewhere amazing is ‘how can you afford that?’ or my personal favorite when they blurt out 'you guys must be RICH??' - automatically presuming that we earn millions of dollars in our current Tourism jobs which for those working in tourism will agree this is not quite how it goes. (HAHA…I wish). No, this is not correct, but we are both lucky enough to have very similar values when it comes to money, spending, saving and most importantly our PRIORITIES. A few years ago, we started to adopt the minimalist lifestyle… and no we don’t live off 2-minute noodles and sleep on the floor of a cave. Quite the opposite - we live in a beautiful 2-bedroom rental by the lake in Taupo, NZ, we both have jobs which we love and that do pay the bills but what we spend our left-over wages on is mostly travel. In fact, …it’s about 80% travel. “Reduce the complexity of life by eliminating the needless wants of life, and the labors of life reduce themselves.” —Edwin Way Teale Everyone has priorities and we respect each and every one of these as each person in this world is different. Some people love the newest technology, the best make-up and perfumes, a brand-new car or that expensive bag that has been staring at you as you walk past it on the way to work. We however, just do not enjoy materialistic things (apart from camera equipment, its my kryptonite). We eat in most nights – in the past 2 years I have become a fantastic cook (so Leo tells me) so I cook every night which saves us about $500NZD month at least. Every weekend when we go on adventures within NZ it’s mostly on walks and hikes which in NZ are FREE, and when it comes to clothing and accessories, we are pretty basic and only buy when needed. “The secret of happiness, you see, is not found in seeking more, but in developing the capacity to enjoy less.” —Socrates Now, there is a huge difference between consumerism and materialism and if we had to choose one we would actually be materialistic. Wait…what? Minimalists being materialistic? What an oxymoron… and yes, this is true, as we love the small amount of possessions that we own. They don’t by any means control us, but we will literally keep them until they are deemed unusable. If we were consumerists, then we would continuously buy new things that we really don’t need even when the ones we own are completely usable. However, this is a complex, large subject that we won't go into now but it's always good to ask yourself the question. Joshua Becker describes being minimalist perfectly, and has helped us to learn and explain in depth. See what you think: ''Minimalism, for me, is the intentional promotion of the things we most value and the removal of anything that distracts us from it’'. Sounds easy...and so logical, right? So, with this said if travelling the world is the top of your Bucket-list but you feel you cannot afford it – simply re-evaluate your priorities! What is vitally important to you when it comes to spending money, ie – bills, food and rent and what can be removed from your day to day expenditure and put into the ‘TRAVEL THE WORLD’ fund? If you would like to read more, then this article will certainly give you some pointers and change your perspective about why we should spend our money on experiences and not ‘things’. SIDE NOTE: Not to mention, for all those out there struggling with anxiety, then de-cluttering your life will 100% help. BELIEVE ME, I have tried and tested it, and it works. By adopting a minimalist lifestyle I learned to realize all that clutter I have that had been clouding my thoughts ironically made me think about all the things I didn't have, therefore gradually releasing that sense of panic. By removing the unnecessary, you are forced to really pin point the underlying issue and find your calm, bringing you and your mind back to living in the present. Have you succumb to the minimalist lifestyle recently and love it? Let us know ... |
AuthorHey! I'm Ally. I left the UK in 2011 to move overseas and ended up in New Zealand - my new home. This year we are taking a gap year to loop the world stopping in some AMAZING destinations - and I'm passionate about sharing these adventures with you! Archives
April 2020
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