THIS Irish travel fan has figured out how to see the world on a budget, while working full time.
Ciara Butler, from Co Clare, managed to visit nine countries on 24-hour trips while working Monday to Friday.
Ciara visited nine countries for under €50 eachiNSTAGRAM
The travel fanatic said people should be flexible when booking cheap flightsINSTAGRAM
The young woman, who has achieved her goal of visiting 30 countries before turning 21, said she managed to do all the trips abroad for under €50 for flights and accommodation.
And some of the budget trips cost her as little as €28.
Ciara said the key to landing the cheap trips is to be flexible with destinations, utilise hostels and make every second count.
Ciara, who was working full time on teaching placement when she booked her first 24 hour trip, a weekend €8 flight to Bratislava.
She told the Irish Sun: “I decided to do this nearly every second weekend. The main way I got around the cost is being able to be flexible with the destination.
“I would search Dublin or Ireland to ‘Everywhere’ and see whatever came up.
“If that was Slovakia, if that was the Czech Republic, if that was Hungary, wherever it was I thought, I’m happy to be experiencing something different.”
She utilised cheap and well rated hostels for bargain accommodation.
Ciara, who shares travel advice on her social media and in a travel newsletter, said: “I would always stay in hostels and I think still there’s a bit of a stigma around hostels like, ‘oh my god they’re so scary, they’re so dangerous, they’re dirty.’
“But really for me, I would consider myself a little bit apprehensive at the start as well but once you get into it and know how to look for the hostels.
On one trip Ciara nabbed a bed in a female dorm in Gdansk, Poland for just €8 on reputable booking side Hotel World. In total, with flights included this trip cost Ciara only €28.
One of the travel fan’s top tips for cutting costs is to cut out the excess activities and make the most of each minute abroad.
MAKING THE MOST OF IT
She explained: “If you really value exploring places outside of Ireland, if you are really tight on your budget and you are only going for 24 hours, it’s really easy to save on things like activities.
“If you look at the positives you can focus on what you actually want to do. Sometimes you have like three days somewhere and you don’t end up even doing the things you want to do.
“That’s the question I get the most, how do you even see anything in that time? [24 hours].
“But I think, would I even get to see this country if I didn’t go on this 24 hour trip or go on the weekend.”
SAVE ON FOOD
One bonus hack she used was to bring food from home with her when visiting expensive locations.
Ciara said: “Sometimes I would bring my food. If it was an expensive place I would bring some snacks and just go out for dinner.”
Ciara added: “In total I’ve seen nine countries on a 24 hour trip and to be honest for most of them it was more than enough.
“Of course maybe I would like to revisit the places but I couldn’t properly visit them for another few years otherwise.”
Find more of Ciara’s bargain travel advice on her Instagram here or here.
Ciara enjoyed the bargain trips all while working her full time jobInstagram Read More