It sounds like a bit of a paradox, doesn’t it – budget luxury travel? I mean we’ve all heard of budget travellers and we’ve all heard of the opposite of that, which is luxury travellers, but as is the case with just about everything else in this day and age, the boundaries are considerably blurred and in reality you can be any kind of traveller you want if you work really hard at it.
So anyway, to define what a budget luxury traveler is, as the phrase suggests it’s merely a traveler who has a nose for getting great deals by researching resources like Vacation Mode. The most important aspect of each trip is to enjoy what would otherwise be expensive products and services forming part of the travel and tourism industry. So the budget luxury traveler might be spotted in the business class cabin of a particular flight for example, but in fact, they didn’t pay the full price for that premium ticket.
There are so many different stories I could tell you about exactly how some so-called budget luxury travellers I’ve bumped into and rolled with managed to enjoy all the comforts of luxury travel at less than half the price, but I think it would be better to rather discuss some of the lessons I learned thereof.
Last-minute planning isn’t always a bad thing
Depending on which aspect of your trip you’re planning, doing things at the eleventh hour isn’t necessarily a bad thing. It’s often by doing something like getting a flight cabin upgrade due to the unavailability of economy class seats, etc., or chartering a yacht from OnBoat or like companies at the last minute than pre-booking it to save some bucks, that you become a budget luxury traveler from a budget traveler.
The bulk-buying principle is pretty much universal
This is not that difficult to understand and is in actual fact a little obvious once you look at it more closely, which is the fact that luxury travel aspects can be better afforded if they’re split between more travellers sharing the costs, such as renting out a sea-side villa between six to eight people for example.
Premium prices don’t necessarily translate into premium value
I guess this particular lesson strikes at the very heart of what the concept of budget premium travel is all about in that as a so-called budget luxury traveller you seek to get as much value out of every single dollar you spend as possible. The lesson is indeed that the high prices attached to certain packages, offers, perks, etc don’t necessarily mean you’ll be getting the value-equivalent for the money you spend.
Is something like a first class ticket worth all you get if the flight is only a two-hour one for example, when you have to pay about three times as much as an economy class ticket? On the flip-side this can work to your advantage though. For example, if you’re looking for a yacht charter Croatia has some cheaper options than those you’d get in many other destinations in the region and yet you get the exact same value or sometimes even better value.
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