Do you sometimes feel like you’re missing the boat on the right steps to take to get great travel values every time? Do you feel like you might be paying more than you need to, not for pampering but for overcharging? Well we’ve got some traveling hacks for you that are based on decades of trial and error, so we hope you find some useful advice that will put a few extra Ben Franklins in your pocket.
A well-traveled friend once said to me, “Most things you see listed as a ‘travel hack’ are really just things that person recently discovered.” Then there’s the problem that “travel hacking” generally refers to gaming the loyalty points systems of hotel chains and airlines, with little to do with what happens when you hit the road. We’ve been at this a while though, with this site established in 2007, so we’ve seen what worked before and what’s working now in travel.
So call these travel hacks or call them experienced travel tips, but either way they should make your trip run more smoothly and help you get more for your vacation budget, no matter how high that is.
A Virtual SIM for Staying Connected
Today’s digital world makes staying connected crucial, especially while traveling overseas. Internet connection without high roaming fees is a major concern for tourists, with some carriers charging $5 or $10 per day on top of your regular plan at home for international roaming. The answer? Consider a virtual SIM for your next trip. This technology allows you to use local data rates and stay connected without a physical SIM card you have to insert in your phone.
Download an app to find a package that meets your needs in your destination country. This saves you the effort of getting a local SIM card upon arrival and keeps you connected from the start. There are also multi-country ones available if you’re doing a major adventure in Brazil, Argentina, and Chile, for instance, or exploring multiple countries in Europe.
Traveling Hacks for Flight Searches
One-way business class fares from Chicago on Google Flights
Finding the best flight deals is like finding treasure. You can save a few hundred bucks on economy fare just by being flexible and searching the right way. If you’re flying business class, the difference can be four figures between a lousy deal and a great one. Flights from North America to Mexico, Central America, and South America can be surprisingly affordable on many routes through Copa Air, LATAM, or Avianca, so go ahead and check all the boxes (except the dreaded “basic economy”) when performing a search.
Google Flights is especially useful if you’re not dead-set on a specific destination. By leaving the destination blank or choosing “explore,” you can pull up a world map showing the best fares from your chosen airport. You may find that Ecuador is $1,000 but Colombia is $500, or vice-versa. Or you may find that leaving on a different day can chop hundreds of dollars off the fare. Skyscanner and Google Flights both help you compare the cheapest days and months to fly to your destination.
Flight ticket spikes based on browser history can be avoided by being flexible with trip dates and using incognito mode. That way you won’t see a higher price pop up due to the airline tracking your every move.
Signing up for airline newsletters and ticket alert emails can also reveal great offers.
Play the Loyalty Points Game Like a Travel Hacker
Book this resort with Hilton loyalty points
Returning to that traditional version of “travel hacking,” are you getting all the perks and freebies you could be getting from your travels and spending? Are all your credit card expenditures going toward free travel and upgrades? If not, you probably need to shift your spending.
There are two basic approaches to this kind of travel hacking that are simple to implement and maintain. You can use a credit card that earns points you can use in multiple programs, like an American Express green, gold, or platinum card, or one of the Chase Sapphire cards that allows transfers to multiple programs. These cards allow you to top off your balance to get that flight or hotel room, or transfer points at once to cover the whole amount.
The other strategy is to have one or two airline cards and one or two hotel cards and allow your regular spending to pile up points on your frequent flier or frequent guest account. In my opinion, the best one with the most perks for airlines is the United Explorer card from Chase (free checked bag on every flight plus two lounge passes each year upon renewal). For hotels, I’m a big fan of the IHG Premier and Hilton Surpass cards to earn free hotel nights and get instant elite status.
For any of these, follow the links and you’ll see that you get a fat sign-up bonus after meeting the minimum spend that will be enough for a free flight or a couple of hotel nights.
Use That Download Button on Your Phone and Tablet
I always have every boarding pass, every train ticket, and every hotel confirmation in my pocket, whether I have internet service or not. That’s because I’ve downloaded everything I need and have it handy on my phone. For good measure, each item is in Dropbox too so I can access it from any device. Google Drive or other cloud services will work too and you can store pictures of essential items there like your passport, driver’s license, insurance card, or vaccine card.
Then with all the travel docs taken care of, you can turn your attention to entertainment. Never go for hours without something to watch or read. The Kindle app can run on any device or you can load up a real Kindle with a dozen books. Most streaming services will allow you to download a certain number of titles to watch offline when you’re traveling.
With Amazon Prime you can even get copies of a rotating list of magazines. Spotify allows you to store music on your device locally so you don’t have to pay for airline Wi-Fi to groove on your favorite tunes.
Offload Your Stress With Good Travel Insurance
Not really a hack as much as a necessity, but the right kind of travel insurance policy covers far more than trip cancellation and medical issues. The good ones will compensate you for delayed or canceled flights, lost luggage, theft, and rental car damages.
We have written before about our annual policy from Allianz. Here are two other companies to check online to compare rates for your situation.
If you’re headed into remote areas where medical facilities are rudimentary, you may want to take an additional step and get a medical transport policy that will evacuate you and get you to a top hospital. The best-known one is Medjet.
Put all of these traveling hacks into place and you’ll have a more pleasant, less stressful vacation and get more for your travel dollar as well.
Got any tips of your own? Leave them in the comments.
Article by Timothy
Timothy Scott is the founder and editor of Luxury Latin America and has been covering the region as a travel journalist since the mid-2000s. He has visited each country we cover multiple times and is based in a UNESCO World Heritage city in central Mexico, where he owns a home. See contact information here.
