Student’s Guide To Travelling Overseas

This article was written by Jeremy Cabral who is part of the team at Credit Card Finder, Australia’s most popular 100% free Australian credit card comparison website.

Students looking to travel overseas are often in a tight financial situation. Even if you supplement your studies with a part-time job you are probably looking for smarter ways to travel – ways that let you enjoy your trip while not having to scratch and scrimp your last pennies.

How to Let Your Hair Down Guilt-Free

If you want to enjoy a trip to a sun-soaked beach guilt-free you need to get your finances well in order before you leave home. A great way to do this with relative ease is by putting some money aside each week as early as one year before you leave for your holiday.

It would be foolish to travel with a credit card in tow but no money in your bank account. A sure recipe for financial disaster on your return home.

Handy Tips for Getting Cashed-Up

The following savings tips can help you acquire a nice nest egg for your next holiday. Most of us spend way too much money on things we don’t really need; expenses such as cups of coffee on your way home from uni, gadgets that go out of fashion tomorrow and clothes you won’t be able to wear in 6 months because you’d be laughed at.

Instead, why don’t you aim to inhibit those spending urges in order to save money for a better cause – your next holiday.

Consider Prepaid if You Suck With Credit

Prepaid cards are a great alternative to credit cards. You won’t end up with debt because you can only spend what is yours to start with. If you need extra funds on your card before you leave home you could ask your family to be paid in “cash” for birthdays, Christmas and any other occasion where you’d normally receive presents. If you do, load the cash to your new prepaid card, then keep it tucked away until you are ready to travel.

Consider Your Destination

Some exotic destinations make it very hard to stay fluid with cash. It is a good idea to research your holiday destination because you might need a combination of cash, credit card, prepaid card and travellers cheques to keep cashed-up.

Keep Your Documents in Order

If you are planning an overseas trip, chances are that you might need a visa to visit the country of your choice. The last thing you want is to be stuck at the airport in a foreign country because you failed to bring the necessary documents with you.

Check to make sure your passport is valid for a minimum of 6 months after your planned return home. Trust me, you won’t be the first student stranded overseas because his passport has expired.

If you are planning to do a working holiday you will need the appropriate International work visa. Plus you might want to check the following to cover all of your bases:

Where to Stay

Students love to bed for the night on the cheap. Thanks to a wide range of networks you can stay in comfortable and safe surrounds while mingling with like-minded people. Try the following for fun and to save money:

See the World While You Are Young

Travelling is one of the best education you can have. It will teach you respects, introduce you to other cultures and make you new friends in all corners of the world. Chances are high that you’ll come home a more confident, relaxed person and once you catch the travel bug it will accompany you for the rest of your life. Make the most of it!

You Might Also Enjoy The Following Travel Tips Posts

My 3 Best Kept Travel Secrets

I was recently nominated to participate in Tripbase’s “3 Best Kept Travel Secrets” by Katie Sorene.

“Congratulations on being nominated in Tripbase’s Best Kept Travel Secrets Project! Two months on, and we’re amazed at the response we’ve had. Over 100 travel bloggers have participated so far, sharing their Best Kept Travel Secrets on far-flung destinations, hidden hotels, exotic foods and expert travel tips.” – Katie from Tripbase.com.

And so here are my ’3 best kept travel secrets’. They were all unknown to me and I found them to be true gems…

1. Xlendi Bay, Gozo, Malta

Found on the small island of Gozo, is the fishing village known as Xlendi. Its focal point is the small sea-inlet ‘Xlendi Bay’ with its deep turquoise waters, sandy beach and surrounding cliffs. The bay is often dotted with the traditional fishing boats displaying the bright colours of blue, red and yellow, adding further beauty to this town.

Photo by stevesheriw

2. Stourhead Garden, England

For a period of six months I lived and worked in Shaftesbury, England. Every weekend was spent exploring the surrounding areas and the National Trust property of Stourhead Garden was a place I frequented. For a short period of time I worked as a groom just down the road. What a divine area of Wiltshire it was to work! I don’t expect, as a passing traveller, I would have had the time to have Stourhead on the itinery but as a ‘local’, I got to truly explore the magestic, 18th century garden with its bridges, grottos and temples.

Photo by BethM527

3. Hallstatt, Austria

Hallstatt is still the travel destination that I hold the fondest memories. I have in the past already dedicated a full post to Hallstatt. What captured my attention is that I stumbled upon it quite by chance and found it to be so lush and green, and tidy with a dolls-house atmosphere within the village. The surrounding mountains and lake, simply resembled nothing like what I would see here in Australia.

I now have to nominate five other bloggers to share their 3 best kept travel secrets.

Here are my nominations

You Might Also Enjoy The Following Travel Destinations

Seven Money Saving Tips to Save for Travel

TravelTipsPlus.com is a proud supporter of the ANZ Bank’s ‘FebuSave’ campaign designed to assist women to save money during the month of February. FebuSave is a fabulous initiative considering the report results regarding women and their finances! It incorporates the internet and the power of social media, giving the program the ability to build a very supportive community for women to take ownership and responsibility for their financial well-being.

The research ANZ Bank undertook prior to the campaign found the following results:

• 58% of women have less than $5,000 in savings and 33% have less than $1,000.
• 56% of Australians do not save money on a regular basis.
• 52% of women claimed they know they should have a financial plan but keep putting it off.
• Only one in ten women are very confident in managing their investments, financial planning and superannuation,and
• Less than one third of women surveyed said they were very confident about managing everyday finances.

So come and join me and others this ‘FebuSave’ and register your support and pledge what you will go without in order to save some pennies during February. You can also join the FebuSave Facebook Fan Page.

Big Dreams, Warrant a Big Savings Plan

There will be things we all wish to achieve and purchase during our life-time. For me as a young women having finished three years of University, my desire was to travel. In less than 12 months, I put a plan in place to get myself overseas for a period of two and half years. Here are 7 budget tips for the young women wishing to do the same (the blokes can implement these principles also!):

1. Work a few extra hours wherever you can. That may mean taking a second part-time job and working after hours or on weekends.
2. Ensure you attract minimal fees with your banking institution.
3. Excess savings should be in an account earning higher interest.
4. Prior to purchasing items ask yourself “Do I really need this?”. You’ll be surprised how much you’ll save by not spending on purchasing items you can do without.
5. If you must purchase those ‘I can’t live without’ items, shop for the best value and this may not mean the ‘cheapest’!
6. Try to survive without a credit card and if you can’t, pay off the debt when it’s due and avoiding heavy interest charges.
7. The best tip and most obvious tip – don’t spend more than what you earn! You will ‘never’ get anywhere with your finances, let-alone that life experience of travelling abroad!

Have you undertaken overseas travel and what did it take to get you on that journey? What budgeting and savings tips can you share?

How Do You Get a Giraffe into a Canoe?

A free website can help holiday travellers answer their most pressing questions.

Litchfield, CT “How big is a canoe? Can I fit it in my hand luggage?”

Not a strange question to Luke Dudley, founder of LuggageLimits.com. In fact, there isn’t a luggage-related query that Dudley hasn’t heard or is hard-pressed to answer. However, travellers don’t need the Connecticut Algebra teacher close by when booking a flight, as the revolutionary free travel tool he designed provides answers to virtually any luggage question.

There are few things in life that are free and rarely does a tool so useful come without charge or a hidden catch, but that’s exactly what ‘Luggage Limits’ provides; a no cost travel implement that is breaking the mould for those weary of being a target for every increase from swelling fuel prices to hidden taxes.

Dudley, a seasoned globe trotter who relocated from leafy suburbs of England to Connecticut’s northwest corner with many stops along the way, recalls some of the luggage horrors he had.

“The changing scenery was beautiful and I loved waking up in a new country but the luggage was a different story,” he said. “When you relocate as much as I have, you soon look at your possessions in a new light, and I can’t remember how many times I’ve had to leave a bike or bulky items at the airport for kind friends to collect and forward to me.”

However, it was the students’ luggage at the boarding school where he teaches that highlighted a gap in the industry. The kids regularly needed to fly with sports or music equipment or just had lots of heavy bags and would often incur a fortune in baggage charges and the stress of last minute unpacking at the flight counter. He knew there was a better way.

This summer, the travel world watched with interest as he brought a truly innovative concept to reality. ‘Luggage Limits’ has made a fast track into the major players of travel with acknowledgments from Lonely Planet (the World’s largest travel guide book publisher) and it’s easy to see why. With no membership required, no fees and no hidden catch, ‘Luggage Limits’ offers essential travel information at your fingertips without having to wade through pages and pages of airline regulations.

‘Luggage Limits’ recently reached the milestone of featuring baggage information for 100 Airlines and is proving to be as essential to travellers as their toothbrush. With hundreds of web visitors each day, it is clear more and more people recognize that the start of every journey should begin with a trip to LuggageLimits.com.

Yet, the site is constantly evolving.

“As visitors to the site can attest, it continually adds information and includes more and more airlines,” said Dudley. “With the goal of having luggage details for every airline, it’s rapidly becoming a ‘one stop shop’ for all flight luggage information.”

So, do you know how to get a giraffe into a canoe? There is a website that knows.

Know your limits!