When it comes to finding travel hacks, The Solo Female Traveler Network audience of over 500,000+ women have a few tricks up their sleeve! Here’s a collection of their top recommendations for you to try on your next trip abroad.
We’ve collated the best suggestions from our Facebook audience from fund saving techniques to apps to everything in between. Some you may know already, and some might surprise you. Take a look!
- Set your Lock Screen to a screenshot of a bunch of basic phrases in the country you’re going to (excuse me, hi, bye, yes, no, I don’t speak _______). – Skylar K
- Invest in a charging phone case so you never need to worry about running out of battery – Skylar K
- When you arrive in a new country exchange your SIM card for a local one to avoid roaming charges by your home cell provider. You can sometimes buy SIM cards at the airport or at large grocery stores, pharmacies, even some corner stores and of course stores that sell cell phones. – Heather H
- I always search with hashtag # on Instagram the countries I’m gonna visit, and I take ideas and see places where other people have been. – Mary P
- Never book walking tours through Viatour, Trip Advisor etc. Rather Google free walking tour (x city). Every big city has them. They’re usually in a variety of languages. You’ll get a smaller group and remember to tip your tour guide! It supports locals, not conglomerates! – Diane L
- GPSmycity app is also pretty nifty. They provide self-guided walking tours if you don’t want to do free walking tours or you miss the time for them. I love walking tours on my first day to get to know the area a bit. – Michelle P
- Greether– they connect travelers with a female local tour guide who can help you with whatever; tours, safety tips, anything! Also helps you get a more authentic cultural experience by hanging out with a local. – Ashley C
- Use Stasher – If I get into a town early or check out early and my flight is later, I can store my bags at a local shop and it works out great… – Julie A
- Try an e-sim: I just discovered Airalo while traveling to Europe from Canada. It saved me so much money. My Canadian provider was going to charge me $400 for a month in Europe. The eSIM was $20 for 5G of data. It worked great and you didn’t have to physically put in a new card. It was all through the app. – Jill A
- Booking.com app is great because the more you book, the bigger the discounts you get. You also get complementary room upgrades and it’s super easy to manage all your bookings in one place. Also, you save even more by booking through the app! This sounds like an ad lol – Angela L
- I book through the Moneybox app and get cash back for every stay! – Debbie S
- Download Splitwise to calculate costs shared between friends and groups. It’s a must-have for tallying who spent what, and reconciling it all at the end. It couldn’t be easier! – Lyn R
- I recently discovered Instabridge. It’s an app where you can see the passwords of public wifi connections (for example from a restaurant/café). Sometimes it’s nice when you don’t have mobile data and quickly want to search online. It has some ads. But when you download a region offline, you don’t have to watch the ad. – Jasmien T
- Google Maps has an option to download an offline map so you can access it anytime even if the service is spotty – Emily B
- If you need an ATM, look for an ATM outside of a big bank because their fees are usually lower than the sketchy looking ones just out and about. – Skylar K
- Get an RFID protective card holder for your debit and credit cards. My card has been swiped multiple times. RFID stops this. It’s very annoying when your card is cancelled while overseas. – Monique C
- I love GTFO (Get the flight out) for random lady minute trips. You save the airports you most regularly fly from, and it sends you super discounted rates for flights departing from locations on your list 🙂 – Staci L
- Once you identify a place you want to stay and lowest price possible on any app, call that place directly and ask them if they can offer you the same thing for less if you book directly by phone right then and there. – Elaine M
- If you don’t have a specific destination in mind, use Google Flights and set your browser to Incognito mode. Reset the dates and don’t put an “end” destination – it will scroll through and find the cheapest current rates per weekend, 1 week and 2 week searches. Widen the map and it will include international flights . Love it! – Zuri J
- I pack protein bars, jerky, and mixed nuts…those I eat for breakfast and lunch and only eat out for dinner. You still get to try local dishes, but it saves a ton of money because you aren’t impulse spending on food during the day! – Audrey S
- Pick airlines that allow you to extend layovers so you can add stops to your vacation (TAP airlines, Icelandic air, Norwegian airlines, Qatar Airways, Turkish Airlines) – Christine S
- Busses and trains might be cheaper than flights (and more environmentally friendly in general). You can cover great distances for as cheap as 1$ per ticket; if you travel overnight, you even save on the ho(s)tel. Look out for coupon codes.. Buy things in supermarkets; even if you can’t cook, there often is a bakery stuff or so that is cheaper than takeaway food. – Louise O
- Bring a collapsible, reusable water bottle – in some countries water is expensive. – Fatima C
- I will plan out where and when I’m going, and then look into food/hostel/hotel prices, flight estimates, etc and create a budget for myself. Then I’ll split that budget into however many months I have until the trip and save slowly but intentionally, and book things as I go so that by the time the trip comes around I’m set to go. – Kelsey H
- I live a pretty humble life and save all year. Here’s a “hack” for every week of the year…put away the $ amount for that week. Week 1=$1. Week 52=$52. At the end of the year you’ve got something like $1400. It’s not alot but it’s something that you’ve built up to add to other savings without really thinking about it impacting your wallet ♡ – Anna B
- I try to travel during shoulder seasons for whatever country I’m going to. I also always plan my trips a year in advance so I know how much to save each month and sometimes the earlier you book stuff, you can get discounts or prices are cheaper. – Massiella P
- Whenever I am about to buy something I don’t need, I just stop and put that money in a piggy bank . Let’s say I’m about to buy a top from H&M for 15€, I forget about it and save that 15€. I want to buy a 3€ slice of cake? Walk away from that shop and save 3€. It also helps me eat a lot healthier
– Alexandra S - I save on Qapital, where whenever you spend I have it set up to round off to the next dollar and that change goes into my Qapital account. You don’t miss it and before you know it… you have saved quite a bit!!!!!
Have other great suggestions? Mail us on [email protected]!
Ed’s note: This post contains affiliate links to help support the running of the SoFe Travel team and SoFe community at large. Wherever possible, we support women-owned businesses and ethical, sustainable organisations. Got suggestions on blog topic ideas or want to contribute your travel stories? We’d love to hear from you! email us on [email protected]
GET JUICY UPDATES DIRECTLY TO YOUR INBOX
By joining our email list, you’ll be the first to know about our newest Meetup Tours, special sales and discounts, as well as ways to get involved with the largest online community for solo female travelers.Â