Budget Travel Vs Luxury Travel

When I started travelling, I associated the words “budget travel” to mean the cheapest of the cheap and travelling with the minimum amount of money possible. To some degree this is what it means, however I learnt very early on that you can pay not very much for bad quality, or the same amount for a decent quality. The trick is knowing how to tell the difference and unfortunately this is not always possible.

Obviously the price you should expect to pay differs between each country so it is worth doing your research before you book anything.

Accommodation

India: known to be one of the cheapest places to travel in the world. Emma and I didn’t expect too much from our stay in India, however it still turned out to be much more expensive than we first thought. We thought if we paid a decent amount our room would be nice, but we were wrong.

When we first arrived the room looked fairly presentable, but on closer inspection it was full of bugs and cockroaches! We opened the door and the walls practically moved. There was no running hot water, the bedding was stained with I-don’t-know-what, and the light fixtures were hanging off the walls inviting us to electrocute ourselves. This was on top of it having construction being done in the main stairwell with no bannisters and a sheer drop to the ground floor. We also got into a high tension debate with the hotel manager. Unfortunately I have heard that many people have had issues with hotels, especially in Delhi.

Read more about the awful Indian hotel experiences here. This cost us a total of £30 per night. It could be considered budget travel but it was also very disappointing. 

Air BnB

Air BnB can be a great option when looking to save on accommodation. For £10 each per night we managed to stay in an air BnB in Ubud, Bali, in a private villa with our own pool and a beautiful fresh fruit breakfast every morning with free transport to and from the centre. The host was super friendly, and we learnt more about the local places by talking with him, giving a much nicer experience. Budget travel became much more appealing.

In Sri Lanka, we stayed in a wooden hut for £5.50 each per night and it was clean, quiet and comfortable and only a 10 minute walk to the beach.

Luxury Accommodation

Luckily we were also able to stay in some luxury accommodations. For example in Sri Lanka we decided to splash the cash a little for Emma’s birthday. We stayed in a swanky hotel on the beach with an infinity pool and breakfast in bed. The price of £45 each per night is still fairly cheap, but on a budget it adds up quickly so we only stayed for 1 night and hopped on a plane the next day.

Reward points can Upgrade Budget Travel to Luxury

We were lucky to be gifted award points to give us a stay in a Hilton Hotel in Mauritius with Emma’s family which was definitely a spot of luxury with a welcome cocktail, the most comfortable beds, and amazing facilities. If you are able to collect your own reward points or know someone who is willing to gift you them, definitely take them up on the offer! (I am still extremely grateful for their kindness- Thank you!)

Transport

There are many different types of transport to get from A to B with different prices. These range from private car hire with a driver all the way down to flagging down a cycle rickshaw on the street. Obviously the more comfortable, safe and quick these are, the higher the price will be. To save the hassle you may want to fly between every destination where possible, but this can increase prices very quickly. If you’re travelling long-term this may not be possible on your budget.

To me, taking public transport is part of the whole travelling experience. It helps you immerse yourself in the different cultures. We even managed to travel for 3 hours in a tuktuk with our massive backpacks and rucksacks! It was a bit squashed but we saved ALOT of money by doing this over getting a taxi. It turned out the driver wanted to pick up his phone from a friends house 2 hours in that direction anyway. We were doing him a favour by paying and he was doing us a favour by getting us there. 

Barter

Most of the time you can barter down on the price you’re quoted on transport or make a deal if you want a return trip. It’s a good idea to ask people if they know of a reliable person or company to travel with. Be careful in Kuala Lumpur because we had many issues with the taxi drivers there. 

If you decide you’d rather a car with a driver for the whole trip, this can be arranged before you leave but you will probably find it’s cheaper if you arrange it once you’re there. 

So which should you choose- budget travel or luxury travel?

Although it was lovely spending the night in the luxury accommodation and it was for a special occasion, we did initially feel slightly guilty about spending the extra bit of money. There are two ways to look at it: are you just using it as a base to sleep whilst you spend the rest of the day out doing other things, or are you going to be spending time there and using the facilities? If it’s just a base to sleep, which most of the time it probably will be, you only really need a decent level of comfort and don’t have to spend much at all.

 I have stayed in a wide variety of different types of accommodation at varying prices and I think a lot of travellers would say the same: save on the accommodation so you can afford to do the exciting activities that made you want to travel in the first place! You will remember the sky dive or hike or wine tasting tour etc, but you will forget about most places you choose to stay (unless they were really really good OR really really bad).

The budget you set should reflect the experiences you want to get out of travelling, rather than the types of accommodation you want to stay in (unless of course you are travelling purely to review different types of accommodation).

Related posts 

For more help about deciding on your next destination, see How to Choose Where to Travel. For more about deciding whether to backpack or not, see Backpacking: The Reality of the Nomadic Lifestyle.

Feel free to contact me about different types of accommodation I have stayed in and a rough pricing guideline for each country- would you find it useful if I wrote a separate post about this? Let me know in the comments below.