Money Saving TRAVEL HACKS

Hello fellow travelers, so today I'm back with some more travel hacks. We're going to be going through five of my personal favorite tips, tricks, and travel hacks to help save you money on your travel. These are things like how to not lose money on the cash you currently have, how to avoid spending your cash, and how to get cash back using Ebates. Let's get started. Avoid currency exchanges because they never really give you a good rate, mainly because they are a business so they need to make money and that money comes from a cut of your money that you are exchanging. ATMs are the best way to get money out when you are traveling abroad and they are far more common than you think. Just make sure that you withdraw larger amounts of money and make sure that you aren't getting charged by your bank a certain fee when you're withdrawing that money. Definitely don't take a big wad of cash with you as you go along, exchanging it as you move to each different country, that's not a good idea either because if you're exchanging money more than once, you're going to be losing twice on the exchange rate. One of the other things you could do is go to your local bank and get some different denominations of the currency that you will be using before you go. Cash is king when it comes to travel, it is the most important thing you will need so it's really important to know how to manage and access it properly and without getting charged or losing a lot of money. Get money back from your travel expenses using Ebates. Ebates is the world's largest cash back website, no seriously, they've been around for 16 years. Cash back meaning that they give a certain percentage of your purchase back to you in the form of cash. There are over 1800 stores to choose from including many major travel websites so by using Ebates to book my flights, hotels, car rentals, anything else that I'm going to need on my travels, I'm going to get a certain percentage of my purchases back to me in the form of cash. And since these are all big purchases, even a small percentage can lead to a big amount of cash back. Now these are already trips I'm going to be taking and items I'm already going to be buying so hey, why not get paid for it? Now why you get cash back and how this works is that Ebates is an affiliate with the retailers meaning that they have worked out discounted deals and coupons that give them a commission each time Ebates sends a customer to make a purchase on their retailer's website. Ebates then shares that commission back with you. It's a win-win for everybody. The retailers make money, you make money, and Ebates makes money. Brilliant! And they also have a mobile version and a Chrome extension which is my personal favorite since it basically, you don't have to stay on the website, you can just browse your normal browsing website ways. And if there is discounts and money to be made via Ebates, it'll give you a little notification letting you know how much percentage you can save. And you get paid your cash back every quarter via a big fat check or PayPal. They even have a payment schedule all outlined in detail on their website. Plus, when you sign up and spend your first $25, you get a $10 welcome bonus. And also, since I partnered with Ebates, we are going to do a giveaway for you guys and gals. That's right, I'm giving away a $300 Amex gift card. And all you need to do to enter is sign up for Ebates and then you'll be entered to win. Contest ends on March 18th so make sure you click here or down below for complete rules and details. Buy all attraction and entrance tickets online instead of at the door. Two reasons for this. Going to the Vatican is probably the easiest example I have of this. So when we went to the Vatican, we pre-bought our tickets probably about two days before online, and at 8am we just walked up past the hundreds of people that were in line to buy tickets to enter, and we just went through the prepaid ticket line and walked right in. We were like the first people, we got to see everything, really awesome, we had no lines. It was just such a better experience. And this is true with a lot of attractions. There are many popular tourist destinations that are reaching capacity, they can't hold the amount of people that want to visit them. So it's so, so, so important that you book your spot beforehand because you definitely don't want to be flying and visiting an amazing country and then losing out on seeing one of the best sites because you didn't buy beforehand. Second, booking things online a lot of times offers discounts. And who doesn't like discounts? Saving money, that's what this video is about. So saving money on things that you already want to visit and you're already going to be paying for. Just save the money, just book it online. Done. Did you know that the GPS on your phone works regardless if you have a cell connection or internet? It's just the maps that need a connection to load. So if you want to use maps but not pay for international data or a SIM card, just load up the map of where you want to go when you have internet at wherever you are on your phone beforehand. Make sure you zoom in until you see the street names, the roads going in and out. That map is then saved onto your phone's memory. So when you are out about exploring and sightseeing, all you got to do is look at your phone and the GPS marker will tell you where exactly you are on the map. And the GPS marker will keep moving to tell you where you currently are. It's just more like having a digital map on your phone with a you are here button. I've done this many times before. Never take an airport taxi. They are literally the biggest rip off in the whole travel game. If you are getting approached by a cabbie at the airport, chances are you are going to get charged an extraordinarily large amount to get where you need to go. Seriously. In Panama City, taxis were charging $35 US dollars to get from the airport to my hostel. Now just outside the airport, about a 5-10 minute walk, not even, was a bus stop for a local bus, a coach bus, direct, only two stops, $1.50. $1.50! What? Yeah, I know, right? Worth it. So before you land, make sure you research the best ways to get downtown or where you need to go beforehand. Trust me, this will save you a lot of cash. And unfortunately though, if you have to take a cab, look for official taxi booths in the airport that are already going to be set up, as well as lineups that are set up with signs pointing to the taxi lines. And see if there's anyone else around you that is possibly going to the same destination as you. Because chances are, your hostel or hotel is grouped in an area where there are multiple other accommodations. So see if anyone else is heading in that direction. And then you can chair ride, making your cab ride even cheaper. So that's it! That's all! Thank you so much for watching this video. I hope you picked up some tips and tricks to help you save money on your travels. Anyways, if you enjoyed this video, give it a thumbs up and let me know down below in the comments. Also, don't forget to sign up for eBay to enter my $300 giveaway. Details down below. Thanks for watching! Bye!