Budgeting Tips When Traveling To Asia

Unless you make a lot of money or have a lot saved up before you travel, not many of us have the luxury of spending 500$+ a night on hotel rooms, 3 course luxury dinners, parties on a yacht, gambling thousands of dollars at casino, or renting a villa in Bali for countless nights with an infinity pool (as much as we would all love to!!). Therefore, these are some tips for traveling on a budget to 4 Asian countries in a row in all in one exciting trip.

1. Use Your Mileage Perks

American Express Gold offers 35,000 bonus points as a welcome bonus if you spend $4000 or more in the first three months. That is an equivalent of 350$ in redeemable travel rewards. It may seem like a lot to spend $4k, but the bucks add up quickly once you use it often for groceries, gas, travel, clothing, and other day to day expenses. AmEx has a great reputation for redeeming points for travel. They give you maximum benefits to cash out your points for travel tickets, compared to redeeming for cash back or using it for gift cards such as Amazon. If you were going to make a new credit card anyway, why not make one with American Express to get those welcome points?! For my one way trip to Tokyo from LAX, I redeemed my welcome bonus points, and even had some left over afterwards! Arigato~

2. Just travel to different countries of Asia all in one longer trip instead of one country at a time.

– Just by traveling to multiple countries at once saves you a lot more money than returning home, and then traveling to another country later on. When I booked a trip to Tokyo, I really wanted to travel to Other countries such as Indonesia and China. To my surprise, where a Bali trip from LA to Bali would be ridiculously expensive (peak days are up to a 1000$), a trip from Tokyo to Macao to Bali to Korea cost me almost the same price! 100% real. Also, because of my free miles I got to book a ticket to Tokyo from Lax completely free.

3. Eat one really good meal and try different types of street food.

– I know the luxury of eating at Michelin star restaurants sounds amazing, but realistically, it is hard to eat at expensive restaurants the whole time when you are traveling on a budget. Therefore, eating at a nice restaurant for one meal and budgeting on the others by trying new street foods is not a bad idea. Trying street foods actually allows you to explore their culture more instead of sticking to foods one would normally eat in their own country. When I was at Singapore, we did not really budget on the food and ate mostly at Marina Bay Sands. I felt that the food was very delicious, but was mainly American. I ate a Wagyu burger that I really enjoyed, but felt that I missed out on eating a real Singaporean meal. I also felt that the Hawker centres were way more culturally authentic compared to the high end restaurants inside the hotel. Why not indulge in yummy street food that is tasty, cheap, and culturally eye opening?

4. Stay at a lower priced air bnb and not in a hotel for some nights.

Unless you have promised yourself that you need to stay at a certain hotel, try an Air Bnb.

– This is not always true. Air bnbs are sometimes around the same price or more in major city areas such as NYC or LA. It is best to compare the hotels to the air bnbs of your choice and to see the different pluses and amenities that are available. I was able to budget on hotel fees by staying in an Air Bnb in Tokyo. I was able to stay for 3 nights in an apartment all to myself for only 100$, and it definitely was much cheaper than staying in a major hotel in Tokyo, which would have costed 100$ plus for one night. I know that hostels are also a much cheaper option, but thinking about sharing rooms with strangers you never met before was scary to me. If you are traveling with others, sharing an entire air bnb with multiple rooms also saves a lot of money as well, compared to staying in different hotel rooms.

5. Stay organized and reserve activities beforehand.

In very popular touristy areas such as Harajuku in Tokyo, a lot of activities such as the Owl cafe, Hedgehog cafe, and Robot restaurant require reservations. The Ghibli Museum (not in Tokyo) requires you to purchase tickets only during a particular time slot (every 9th of the month) online, on Lawson, and when it sells out, you have to wish you are lucky to get a ticket when arriving in Tokyo (not likely). Reserving activities beforehand saves you the trouble, but also the money too! Planning your trip beforehand allows you to stay organized in expenses, so you don’t overspend while you are enjoying your trip. When on vacation, a lot of people do not really stay on top of bills or expenses used because they want to have a pleasurable experience. It is definitely better to buy these tickets and pay room fees beforehand to minimize going bankrupt, especially while traveling. It is a traveler's worst nightmare to run out of money while on a trip to another country! Make sure to keep tabs on a ballpark number you are spending on your credit card/cash for expenses.