Some common oversights could cause to spend excessively on many small things. As an example, we could pay way too much for daily meal. By choosing affordable food, it doesn’t mean that we choose dirty, local restaurants. But, it is important to avoid dining at the expensive restaurants. We should choose eating places that are visited by many foreign tourists. In this case, the seller could provide us with affordable and tasty meal. Restaurants that get plenty of daily visitors are often able to reduce their prices. Also, local foods are often more affordable than foreign ones; especially because the ingredients can be obtained easily and locals. In fact, in many countries, fast food chains are considered as more expensive options. Another mistake is that we don’t bargain. Unless we go to supermarkets and big stores with fixed prices, we should be able to bargain the price down. In many cases, vendors automatically increase their prices as soon as they see foreigners. In this case, we should immediately ask for price reduction and go to other stores if we don’t obtain that.
We could often ignore open markets, although they can be among the best way to save money. Many open markets are selling everything. If the small hotel that we stay in has a common kitchen area, we can purchase vegetables to allow us to cook healthy foods. In fact, almost anything we find in a normal supermarket, we should be able to find in open markets, including toiletries, batteries, mosquito repellents, clothing, hats and cheap sunglasses. Our trip can be more expensive if we are willing go to tourist trap areas. We should perform researches to know common scams performed in the destination areas. Wherever we go, we should expect that we can be targeted by scammers, even in developed countries like France and the United States. In many cases, places that are avoided by locals and seem to cater only to foreigners can be either too expensive or just tourist traps. In many cases, we should be able to find cheap products if we go to places that locals go to purchase their daily needs. If we are not sure, it is better to go to supermarket instead, because at least we know about their fixed prices.
There are many cool places that are not listed in the travel guides. If we stay completely on the tourist path, it is possible that we end up losing a lot of money. There are many great places that we can visit. As an example, there are many museums with free or very low entry fees. There are also plazas and great local parks that we can go to. We may also don’t take public transportation and simply pay too much for taxi. We may also waste money if we bring the wrong kind of appliances and electronics accessories. Power sources may vary greatly in many countries, even if they are located next to one another in a region. Some countries use 110V and others 220V. So, it is important to do our research and bring the correct adapters.