5 Tips to Make Your Budget-Friendly Last-Minute Trip Awesome

Traveling at the last-minute – we’ve all been there and done that before. For some, impromptu vacations are far from comfortable because of the lack of time available to plan and organize their trip properly. Their spontaneous cousins, on the other hand, view it is a golden opportunity waiting to be seized despite the absence of their flights, accommodation, and activities. So, how last-minute is last-minute? Depending on the reason for the trip, it can be from as last-minute as a day up to around two weeks. Although the very thought of hopping aboard a plane and jet-setting to another country in less than a week seems exciting, it’s not rare for one to overspend and get their whole trip all cluttered up due to insufficient resources and time. Because of that, we have come up with five pointers to help make your trip at the zero hour a one worth remembering – for less.

Focus Your Attention on Packages

Booking your stay and flight will cost you time and money, and this is where travel-packages come in handy. Travel-package websites such as AirAsiaGo and Expedia include airfares and accommodation which help you save not only money but time as well. Besides hotel and flight packages, AirAsiaGo also provides users with the option of booking only hotels, only flights and even activities available at their desired destinations(s). Expedia is similar to AirAsiaGo except for the additional service of providing car rentals. The best part of it all is that both these sites are using AirAsia flights, keeping your airfare to the minimum. If you’re lucky, you even get free seats during promotional periods, helping you save so much on flight tickets.

This Life-Saving Last-Minute Hotel-Booking App

Back in the day, we would have contacted the hotel directly or make a booking through the hotel’s official website. This would be a problem if you were to go on a last-minute trip as there may not be any rooms available at such short notice. And even with so many hotel-listing websites available to us today, room prices will usually be hiked up if you're making a booking which is too close to your check-in date. But I'm here to bring you good news - there is a way to book hotel rooms at the last minute without bursting your budget, and the solution is HotelQuickly. The app (available for free on iOS and Android), allows you to book hotel rooms across Asia Pacific at the very last minute with markdowns of up to 70%. What a lifesaver! Plus, you even get to enjoy free nights when you invite your friends to use the app. If those reasons aren't good enough for you to use the app to save yourself from sleeping on the streets, we at ShopCoupons have yet again teamed up with the team at HotelQuickly to provide you with an exclusive code to make your experience an unforgettable one. If you are a first-time user, you get to enjoy RM40 off your first last-minute hotel booking across Asia Pacific!

Go Lightweight

Try your best not to carry too much luggage with you. Simple reason being, checking-in baggage will incur extra costs which is probably not worth the money you’re going to pay. Of course, it also depends on where you’re heading to and the purpose of the visit. If you’re heading off to Bangkok for a shopping spree, pay for one-way baggage back home. Avoid bringing unnecessary items like too much make-up, extra pairs of shoes and too many sets of clothing. In short, bring only what is sufficient. Lugging around bags of luggage during your travels wouldn’t make it a very pleasant one.

Utilize Ride-Sharing Apps

Gone were the days where we would require the hotel staff to arrange a cab for us to arrive at our destination. Ride-sharing is much easier and less costly as compared to hailing a cab, renting a car or hiring a private driver. Prominent ride-sharing apps such as GrabCar (available on iOS and Android) and Uber (available on iOS and Android) are not only available in Malaysia, but also in neighboring countries and worldwide respectively. Another ride-sharing cum car-pooling service is Tripda (available on iOS and Android which allows users to search for nearby drivers who are heading in the same direction – usually from one state to another – and would be best to use it if you’re planning to visit neighboring states. This also helps to save on petrol and the environment, maximizing the capacity of a car.

Still Not Too Late To Plan

Despite how some of us may be peeved at the fact that we would need to travel at such short notice, it’s not the end of the world – Touristly is here to the rescue! It is a web platform which enables travelers to design their own customized holiday in mere minutes. Users have access to hundreds of attractive offers in 35 destinations by using an interactive itinerary planner and can discover spas, attractions, restaurants and tours in Asia Pacific before booking their ideal offer directly on the site. Forget browsing through review sites and country official tour sites and jotting down all those activities, Touristly already has everything in one place!

Traveling at the last-minute may come as a nuisance to some but come as excitement to others. Whichever type you are, always keep in mind that serendipity is the traveler’s strongest ally and many memorable moments are formed because of this. All those aside, the most important and crucial part of the trip is to enjoy every moment of it, the good and the bad. After all, a trip wouldn’t be fun without some funny and horrible times to talk about!