THE BEST TRAVEL RESOURCES
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This post is all the best travel resources for solo females that will help you save money on flights, accommodation, tours and more
If there’s a skill I’ve gotten really good at over the years it’s booking travel and more importantly saving money on travel. It’s my speciality.
People often ask me how I afford all the travelling I do thinking there’s some magic formula. But it’s simply not that easy - it’s about priorities, saving, living cheaply and making money on the road.
Over the years I’ve come to trust different companies for booking flights, accomodation or activities and I figured I’d share this knowledge with you in the hope of helping you save some money on your travel experiences.
These companies are tried and tested by me and many others and they never fail to help me find the best deals and prices.
I’ve personally used all the products and services below and can happily recommend them to you! If you choose to make a purchase, please support me by doing so via the links in this article.
The first four are my absolute favs and I use them for every single trip. Below I’ll break the travel rescources I use into different sections including transport, travel insurance, accomodation, tours and more.
Before you even think about booking anything or buying anything online tbh you need to join a cashback website. If you’re not going through a cashback website whenever you purchase anything you’re giving away free money! And who wants that! My favourite is TopCashback as so many brands are on there. Incase you’re not sure how they work. Let me explain what I do. Say I’m looking to book a flight using Skyscanner instead of going straight to the Skyscanner website/app I go to TopCashback first search for Skyscanner and see they’re doing 4.2% cashback on any purchase from Skyscanner. Click through, book my flight and I get 4.2% of the price back in to my TopCashback wallet that I can redeem for a payment straight to my bank account.
I love Skyscanner. It’s my go to whenever I’m looking at flights. I just love it as a flight search engine. It always delivers in finding me the best flight prices possible. What I particulary love is the ‘Search Everywhere’ feature incase I don’t know where I want to go and I want to be inspired. You can also look at a whole month at a glance instead of a particular date so you can find the best prices. Prices in one month can range from as little as £20 to £400 so it’s definitely helped me save a bucket load of money picking the cheapest date to fly.
Booking.com is my go to when it comes to booking my accommodation. I’ve found time and time again they offer me the best prices. It’s easy to use and offers me travel rewards such as free breakfasts on certain stay or free room upgrades. It’s always my first port of call. Once I’ve checked Booking.com I’ll have a quick look on Expedia to compare prices.
Depending on where I’m going I don’t always like to prebook tours or activities before I arrive but if I do Get Your Guide tends to be my go to. Even if I don’t book anything it’s handy to have a browsw through and see the types of experiences on offer in a location.
Viator is another website I use to check out activities.
Flights
Flights (international and domestic): I use Skyscanner and search by month to see the cheapest dates.
Buses & trains
Europe buses – FlixBus. I would recommend FlixBus which travels between most major towns and cities. It’s very affordable, particularly around Central and Eastern Europe with journeys for €5.
Europe trains – check out RailEurope. The search feature allows you to compare prices, and they show live departure times on the website.
UK buses – I use Busbud to compare UK coaches and buses. Find London to Manchester journeys for £1!
UK trains – I’m from the UK and have used Trainline for years for all my train travel. The search feature allows you to compare prices, and they show live departure times on the website.
Bus, trains flights in Asia – I’ve travelled extensively in Asia and I always rely on 12Go for my bus, train, ferry and flights in Southeast Asia. It shows you how the modes of transport compare in price and duration.
Buses, trains, flights in Europe, US and Canada - I love to use Omio when I’m travelling in Europe, the US and Canada. On this website you can see buses, trains and flights between any two destinations, comparing the prices and duration of all three.
Travel insurance
I recommend Hey Mondo as they offer really flexible insurance policies from single trip, annual and my favourite their over 90 day trip coverage.
If you are a long-term digital nomad travel, I suggest you take a look at Safety Wing. It’s what I used when I was travelling full time and I couldn’t recommend it enough. You can use the widget below to get a personalised quote for your travel insurance.
Bank accounts & money
When travelling abroad it’s really important to use a bank card that doesn’t incur fees or interest. If you’re anything like me you’re probably travelling on a tight budget and I certainly don’t to be paying bank charges when I withdraw money abroad or buy some groceries in a shop.
For UK travellers
There are three different UK bank accounts that I’ve used over the years. I tend to use all 3 in tandem with each other so I never go over the interest free amount. All three of them are used via a mobile app which is perfect.
Revolut – free cash withdrawals worldwide up to £200 per month. After this amount, you pay just 2% interest. The card itself costs £5. You can hold multiple currencies at one time.
Monzo – free cash withdrawals worldwide up to £250 per month. After this amount, you pay just 3% interest.
Starling – up to six cash withdrawals a month with 0% interest (£300 limit per day). You can hold multiple currencies (GBP and EUR).
For all nationalities
Wise – is an online bank account for international money transfers. It allows you to send funds worldwide with low fees, receive payments, and manage multiple currencies in one place. Use this link to create an account. Additionally, you can order a Wise Mastercard, which enables you to withdraw up to £200 at ATMs globally without any fees.
XE Currency Converter – isn’t a bank account, but it’s a real-time currency converter that displays the latest exchange rates for global currencies. The rates refresh each time your phone connects to the internet, which makes it my top choice for quick currency checks wherever I am abroad. You can save up to 10 currencies at once for easy access.
Booking accommodation
I always try to book at least a few nights accommodation when I arrive at a new place. I have a few favourite sites depending on what I want from my accommodation.
Booking.com is my go to webite for booking hotels. It is one of the oldest and most trusted accommodation booking sites on the internet. I’ve found that I tend to find the cheapest deals for hotels, apartments and hostels. You can filter the results by price, review, most popular, distance from landmark and so much more
Hostelworld I’m quite the newbie to hostels and, as a solo female traveller over 4, not your usual clientle. I love them through as they can be a great way to make friends when you’re travelling and as quite the budget traveller, they are perfect for the purse strings. In Southeast Asia I paid as little as £1.50 per night and often could get a bed, WiFi and breakfast in a place with a pool for around £3-5 per night.
Trusted Housesitters I found Trusted Housesitters many years ago and I have used it all around the world. If you fancy spending £0 on accommodation then Trusted Housesitters might just be for you and you’ll love it as much as I do. The premise of house sitting is travellers stay for free in homes while their owners are on holiday. Your accommodation is free and usually much nicer and homier than staying in a hostel or hotel. I love that often with Trusted Housesitters I’ve ended up staying in places that I wouldn’t norally visit or are less touristy.
Couchsurfing is a great way to get free accommodation, staying in peoples spare rooms or, as the name suggests, on their sofas. Couchsurfing is a little like a cultural exchange where, if you want to and they want to, you can actually get to know your host and they may even take you out on local tours. Sometimes you can find yourself sharing meals and experiences with your host which, personally, I love.
Workaway When I was travelling full time I used Workaway as a way to help fund my travels as I was on a real budget. It is a fantastic way where you volunteer or work in exchange for your accommodation and food. I’ve done Workaways in France, Vietnam, Thailand, Singapore, Spain and many more. I generally did teaching type Workaways as that’s my background but there are so many different types of ‘jobs’.
Generally you will work for around 5 hours, 5 days a week and in exchange your host will provide you with a bed and space to stay as well as all or some of your meals that they cook for you.
Registration costs $49 a year which I think is a bargain compared to what you save in food and accomodation.
Tour Companies
G Adventures offer adventurous tours around Asia, Europe and Latin America with a focus on sustainability and social responsibility. There’s no solo surcharge or age limit which is brilliant. Browse G Adventure tours here.
Day tours and activities
GetYourGuide offer tours almost anywhere. I’ve used GetYourGuide to book tours all around the world such as a Vatican City Museum tour. The prices are affordable and guides are always incredibly knowledgeable.
Viator is very similiar to GetYourGuide and I always check Viator as well as GetYourGuide just incase they offer a slightly different tour or a more competitive price for a tour I want to do.
EatWith is fanastic if you have a passion for both travel and food. They offe food tours that match travellers with passionate local chefs and foodies. They have over 25,000 hosts around the world offering everything from Ethiopian supper clubs to sushi-making and vegan fine dining!
If you don’t yet have a VPN you really should think about getting one. There are quite a few out there but I personally use SurfShark and it works fantastically for me. I can watch my TV shows wherever I am in the world. I can search for flight deals without revealing where I am in the world (which affects the cost in case you didn’t know) and most importantly I can keep my data secure when I’m connected to public Wi-Fi
