How To Fund A Big Travel Trip

*This is a collaborative post on how to fund a big travel trip but all thoughts and words are my own

After the past 18 months I’m sure there are plenty of us dreaming of leaving the 9-5 world behind and travelling the world. Grown up gap years are totally a thing! According to a Sainsbury’s Bank survey 46% of those taking a gap year are over the age of 26. And new research from Mintel shows that almost twice as many if us are planning a big trip than they were pre-pandemic. The hardest part for most of us is thinking how to fund a big travel trip.

Going away doesn’t have to mean giving up your job. A lot of companies off sabbatical programmes if you want to take some time off unpaid. Or remote working either for your employer or freelance may also be an option.

How to fund a big travel trip- The beginnings

The first thing you’ll want to do is work out what you want from your big travel trip. Where do you want to go, what do you want to do, how long you’ll be away for. Working out all of these things can help you come up with an idea on how much you’ll need to save.  How you want to travel as well will make a huge difference to how much it costs. For example if you camp in a lot of your locations this will save you a lot of money compared to hotels.

Do your research beforehand, work out the fixed costs like flights, transport and accommodation. Then work out a day-t0-day budget for food and activities. This can differ hugely depending on location, you may only spend a few pounds in rural Asia, but hundreds in a big city. Always account for emergency money to cover for exactly that, emergencies.

Look for ways to reduce your expenses

If you’re a bit more open when it comes to your travels you can fund a big travel trip by looking into home swaps, coach surfing or house or pet sitting. There are plenty of apps out there to help remove the cost of accommodation from your travel plans.

Home swaps rely on you having your own home that someone can swap with, but may help you get to a luxury location you’d otherwise not afford. Coach surfing will give you a real taste of your location as you’ll be staying with locals. House or pet sitting is a great way to get your accommodation for free with minimal effort.

You can think about earning a little extra money while you are away by using an Airbnb Management company to rent out your place. Or you can search on there for a place to stay which may work out cheaper than a hotel.

Start saving

Work out how much you need to save versus when you’d like to go to work out how much you need to save each week/ month. You may find its going to take longer than you thought to fund a big travel trip, but that doesn’t mean it won’t happen. Work out what you’re already spending money on and how you could minimise this to allow you to save more. Do you need your car or could you sell it? Could you take on a second job to make some extra money? You could look at selling your unwanted items to make some extra money. If you choose this option look into the best options for packing such as Tyler Packaging who offer recyclable and compostable packing solutions.

You can also use apps to help you save more such as the roundup functions through Monzo, or AI apps like Plum to help you save more.

Search for grants to fund a big travel trip

There are grants and funds out there which may be able to turn your travel trip into reality. They range from ones like NextChallenge which gifts adventurers a few hundred pounds to start your travels off. And they go right up to the Royal Geographic Society which offers an annual £5,000 ‘journey of a lifetime’ award. Although your plans will have to be pretty epic for this one. Previous winners including a Paralympian who hand-cycled the course of Australia’s longest river, and a woman who crossed Ethiopia on foot.

How would you fund a big travel trip?

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