How to Plan a Couples Vacation on a Budget (Step by Step Guide)
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As a couple, we love keeping our travel costs low so that we can plan the next trip and we want to share our tips with you so that you can plan your next couples vacation on a budget too.
When we travel, there are some trips that we are happy to splash the cash on whereas there are others where we want to keep costs as low as possible. The more money we save on our trips, the more trips we get to have throughout the year.
As a couple that likes to be away a lot, keeping costs low on our vacations is imperative. Whether that be finding cheap places to eat, staying in hostels or just visiting as many of the free attractions as we can.
Often when we start to plan our next trip away, we will pick dates that we can get annual leave from work and then check to see what destinations we can find cheap flights to.
As Amy is a travel agent, other times she will see a deal or a hotel that she’s sold to a customer and this can spark the inspiration for the trip as well.
In this travel guide, we will share a step-by-step guide on how to plan a couple’s vacation on a budget and the tolls that we use to keep travel costs as low as possible.
How to Plan a Couples Vacation on a Budget
Step 1 – Work out your budget for the entire trip
Before you even start looking into destinations, flights or hotels, you need to sit down together as a couple and plan how much you can realistically spend on the trip.
By this, we mean that you need to break down how much money you have to spend and then break that down further on how much you can spend on each element of the trip. This includes if you’re booking a package or booking all the elements individually yourself.
Flights – £500
Hotel – £400
Public Transport / Transfers – £25
Food – £200
Drinks – £75
Attractions – £200
Airport Parking – £50
Airport Food – £30
Insurance – £20
If we were planning this trip above then we are estimating that we have around £1,500 to spend on the trip. When you have made a budget for yourself, you need to stick to this and make sure that the trip you’re planning meets with your realistic budget.
Step 2 – Research destinations and decide on one together
Once you’ve decided how much you can spend on your trip, this is when you start researching destinations and decide where you want to visit. If you’re on a tight budget then you may want to pick a few options so that you have more choice.
However, if you’re open to destinations and want to just go anywhere that can meet your budget then you can skip this step and the next one.
For most couples travelling together regularly, you will most likely have a travel bucket list that you’re ticking off so you may already have some idea of destinations that you want to visit which will make things much easier.
Step 3 – Check the best time to visit to keep travel costs low
Once you’ve found a few destinations that you would like to travel to together, if you’re open on when you travel then you will want to research the best time to visit for people on a budget.
We’ve created a lot of these guides ourselves for destinations that can at times be expensive. You can find a list of a few options we have available below:
Best Time to Visit Isla Mujeres
Check to see when are the cheapest but most comfortable times for travelling so that you can make the most of your trip and also keep costs low.
Step 4 – Check both package holidays to see if it will be cheaper
For some people that have travelled a lot already, sometimes you can forget that package holidays can every now and then offer complete gems for finding cheap couple vacations.
It is even worth consulting a travel agent so that you’re fully protected for the holiday too. When we travel we like to use companies such as Jet2Holidays or EasyJet Holidays to find cheap deals and prices especially when they have a sale on.
We used EasyJet Holidays for our short break to Tunisia and it cost us around £240pp for a 5* all-inclusive hotel for 4 nights. As we said, you can often find some really good deals.
Step 5 – Check flights through tools like Skyscanner & Wayaway
If the type of trip you’re planning is not able to be done through a package company or you think it will be much cheaper to do it yourself then it is worth comparing flight prices through tools such as SkyScanner and WayAway.
Using tools like this can help narrow down the cheapest airports to fly from (if you have a choice of them) and also cheapest dates that you can travel too.
You can use the WayAway tool below to check the destination you’re travelling to and find out the cheapest month to travel.
Step 6 – Use our map to check for cheap accommodation
Once you’ve determined your destination and checked to make sure that the flights are within your budget, the next step is to find affordable accommodation.
If you’re going to a more expensive destination and want to keep costs low, we recommend considering staying in hostels.
For some reason, hostels are given an unwarranted bad reputation and there are so many wonderful ones out there so don’t believe everything you hear!
However, if hostels are not your vibe as unless you book a private room, they aren’t for every couple then you may want to find an affordable bed and breakfast or budget hotel.
To make this even easier for you, below we’ve shared a helpful map where you can input the destination of your choice and explore the areas to see prices of different places to stay.
Step 7 – Book Travel Insurance
After you’ve checked your flights and accommodation and reassured yourselves that it will work in your budget, that is the time you need to get them booked off.
At the same time doing this, you will want to get your travel insurance booked up too. We’ve got a few different companies that we recommend booking your travel insurance through and we’ve popped those details below for you to check a policy for your trip.
Step 8 – Find Things to do in the destination
Now the hard part is out of the way, you can let the fun begin and start to get excited for the trip.
Before we travel to any destination, we always check out the different free things to do so that we can keep costs as low as possible. Not just that but we’re a sucker for a viewpoint and finding Instagrammable spots.
After we’ve made a list of the free things we want to do in the destination, we then start to check into things that you need to pay for (if we have the budget to do so).
At this point, we don’t book anything until we’ve completed the next step. For now, we just make a list of things that we want to do whilst we’re there!
Step 9 – Check to see if there’s any attraction passes to save money
Once you’ve got a list of things that you want to do whilst you’re visiting the destination, you will want to check to see if there’s any attraction passes or city cards that can help you save even more money.
When we visited NYC, we purchased an NYC Go City All-Inclusive Pass which saved us around $200 each than if we had booked all the attractions individually. After this we also visited Barcelona and used the BCN Go City Pass too which saved us a good amount of money too!
If the destination you’re travelling to doesn’t have an attraction or city pass then you will now want to start getting your attractions booked individually. This will work out much cheaper than if you were to purchase them when you get there.
We also find that the further in advance you can purchase anything when you’re travelling then generally the more money you tend to save.
When we’re booking our attractions individually, we prefer to use reputable companies such as Viator or Get Your Guide as they tend to have the best prices too.
Step 10 – Make a budget for spending money & stick to it
After you’ve booked your flights, accommodation, insurance and attractions, the last thing to do is make a budget for the remainder of your money and stick to it.
If you’re planning to drive to the airport, make sure to consider airport parking as the cost of that can often be forgotten. It is also worth remembering the money that you may spend at the airport unless you’re organised and bring snacks and refillable water bottles with you.
Make a plan of what you’re going to spend on food each day and what you can allow for alcoholic drinks and snacks too. This will help keep you right and make sure you don’t go over your planned budget.
Step 11 – Research Cheap Places to Eat
Lastly, when you’ve got all your plans in place, research some delicious places to grab a bite to eat whilst you’re away. When we went to NYC, we were on a real budget so we decided to cut the cost of food as much as possible.
To do this, we mostly ate from street vendors and pizza joints just so that we had more money to spend on attractions and beers. We ended up stumbling into this great little bar that sold beer for $3 and with it you got a free hot dog.
This was an absolute gem to find and you may find that you will stumble upon places like this but it’s always worth having a couple places in mind as a fall back.
Travel on a Budget as a Couple Now
Travelling as a couple doesn’t have to be expensive and there are plenty of things that you can do to keep costs down no matter where you’re travelling.
As we said, we took a trip to NYC which is up there as one of the most expensive cities to visit and we managed to spend far less than what we imagined possible so it definitely can be done.
Don’t forget to check out our other budget travel guides for couples so that you can find more destination specific advice to keep costs even lower and learn tricks before you go.
If you’re planning for a longer trip away as a couple then you might want to have a look at our tips for saving money for backpacking so that you can get yourself organised and plan further for your backpacking adventures too!
