Does anyone have any good travel hacks and tips to share?

I don't like planned trips. On the contrary, I like to come to a new city and feel like not a tourist, but to be among the locals in their natural environment. The only thing I can prepare in advance is to buy tickets, say, here https://www.secretfoodtours.com/nashville/ , to take part in the food tour. It's better to do this thing in advance as well as buying other tickets for events that interest you.

My only advice that is relevant at all times is to plan your trip in advance. There is nothing worse than staying in a new city or even country, lost, not knowing what to do or where to go. This can greatly ruin the whole impression of the trip.

I've done a 18 day Vietnam trip under 1k SGD before, backpacking style. Our route was Mui Ne, Dalat, Nha Trang, Hanoi, Sapa, Ha Long Bay, then back to SG. The trip had a good mix of leisure, water sports, shopping & nature so I would reccomend it! Some travel tips:

• travel in a group (it's much easier to negotiate)
• spend some nights travelling via sleeper buses
• travel light (you can bring lesser clothes since there are many laundry shops there)
• eat local food
• plan your overall travel route well to maximise your time & expenses
• scrimp abit on accoms if you can (we booked via booking.com and mostly stayed at backpacker hostels ~10 sgd/night. They can be a little noisy but rly worth the price).

1. try using shopback to earn cashback on your hotel and flight bookings! fairly easy website to navigate on, so i think this is a must! it also works with most of the popular booking sites so you don’t have to worry! my referral link for us to get $5 each - https://app.shopback.com/sgp?raf=CkZeGk

2. always buy baggage online. if you purchase last minute at the airport, you are overcharged for the ‘processing’ fee. if you manage to exceed, try checking or asking the staff what is the minimum numbers of hours before the flight that you can purchase the baggage online.

3. be nice to the staff who serves you, because they are also the one who will help you waive off your baggage. not only that, they’ll make sure you have a smooth journey for the entire flight up to the best of their ability!

4. ask for seat changes for free. yes, you’ve read right. i’m not sure for other budget airlines, but the one i work for allows free seat allocation at the airport (not counting emergency exit seating). sure, you could always be safe and purchase seats online but i think it’s worth a short to try at least a few times and see how flexible the staff are.

5. use klook to get tickets or book additional activities for your trip! they offer wifi egg, shuttle services, attraction tickets and etc at a discounted rate. furthermore, most of the attractions have a separate counter for online booking sites such as klook and thus you don’t have to queue there on the day you’re visiting and just cut the waiting time + save money!

6. always bring a foldable bag of some kind with you when you travel. for me personally, i use a foldable duffel bag that can expand to quite a large size. i’ll use it when my luggage is too full to fit anymore stuff, exceeding my baggage kilos i purchased, or to maximise my carry on of 7kg since i’ll only carry on a backpack weighing like 2kg onboard.

7. before booking, make sure you know the airline’s sales period. usually for budget airlines, there are weekly sales like take-off tuesdays at scoot. make sure to maximise your savings with this!

8. try using Airbnb if you have not had the chance to. i’ve used it twice so far and i’ve saved up quite a fair bit from booking an entire apartment/house and splitting the prices with my friends. most of the listings entitle you to a washing machine, shampoo, iron, and even a kitchen! before booking, you can check the reviews of fellow travellers who booked the place before to ensure you are getting a good airbnb! here is my referral link - first time users will get $45 off a home booking! https://abnb.me/e/1xvtnMbGGX