8 Tips on how to travel on a budget as a family in Zimbabwe, Africa

In the previous blog post, I talked about budget travel in general and covered a lot of tips including the best accommodation choice, meals, transport, best times to travel etc. So before you read this blog I suggest you read that previous one first then follow up with this one. One or two tips may not apply to a family trip but most will. You will find that blog post here.

Below are my 8 additional tips for you if you would like to travel as a family and on a budget.

1. Have a budget first, then plan your trip

I know it sounds rather unusual to budget first before you even know where you want to go. But believe me, if you have ever decided on where you wanted to go first, then started budgeting, you have definitely spent way more than you needed to on those trips. Think of it this way… say you want to buy a vehicle. You do not start off by making up your mind on where to buy the vehicle, do you?! Rather, you have your budget first, then look for a vehicle that suits your budget, isn’t it! Same concept applies.

You want to have a budget first before you decide on where you want to go for your vacation i.e. maximum amount of money you are willing to spend. This is then followed by listing down the reasons you are wanting to travel and what you want to see & experience during your trip. For example, is it a beautiful landscape that you want to see and experience e.g. waterfalls, mountains, or is it a place full of animals, or is it both. Be specific but flexible at the same time. After you have your list, you then sit down and start carrying out thorough research on different places in the country that offer what you want. From there, you will find the place that best suits your budget. Always remember – not all game parks are created equal budget wise 🙂

2. Be extremely communicative to the family members involved in the trip

I can not stress this point enough. In fact, be over communicative. My rule that I live by, (if you have already read the previous blog you now know this), is “Plan your trip(s) at least a year before traveling“. If you are traveling with your family, this is even more important and you therefore have to inform them about your plans to travel 12months prior.The reasons for this being to find out if:

a) everyone is actually interested – if some family members are not interested but only doing it because mum or dad said we have to do it, they will give out a negative energy which no matter how much money you spend on the trip, it will look like you still should have spent more. So to be able to do a successful budget trip everyone has to have the interest to do the actual trip in the first place.

b) it is a surprise to the family from you or not? – if not then you have to ask others to contribute depending on your family setup. If you have young children, start teaching them to be responsible. So if you give them pocket money for school, no matter how little, encourage them to save up for that year so that they also can contribute towards the trip. This will particularly be beneficial once your children are older and are making a little bit more money. They will already know that they are not to only depend on mum and dad for these trips but also contribute as best as they can.

Quite honestly, you would have done the world a favour as well because up to now we have adults who feel that they are owed by the world – when a group trip is being planned among friends they just feel that the friends with more money should carry the costs of the whole trip… not cool at all. If your children do not have any money then they can also contribute by doing the internet search for the possible places to go to. Children nowadays are quite good with technology.

c) your partner is able to contribute – you also want to discuss with your partner (if you have one) so that they also can contribute too where possible. If you just say, “we have a trip planned” and not specifically ask for people’s contribution, it will be so easy for everyone to just assume that you have everything covered. So you need to communicate every single thing including your expectation from each family member involved.

d) finally, you agree on the itinerary with every family member – including the amount of money available and how much is going to be spent and on what. Don’t just take out money bit by bit whenever someone wants something during the trip. The expectation will become high. This will end up causing you to spend way more than you have to, by borrowing from friends and workmates in order to try and keep everyone happy. This is something which can be easily avoided by being clear from the get go, about the amount of money meant to be spent on that particular trip.

3. Limit your spending before you actually travel

We understand you want to look your best for the pictures and you want your kids and partner to look their best too. BUT brand new clothes may not be necessary. Try to focus on needs rather than wants. So if your trip includes mountain hiking and one of your kids does not have the proper footwear then Yes! go ahead and by him/her that sneaker. However, if you decide to buy yourself hiking boots too even though you already have a perfect pair but want to buy it simply because you want to match with your child for the camera, Umh… that’s a “want” so probably not the best idea. Bottom line is, make a list of everything you need for the trip that “needs” to be bought prior and go through that list over and over again until you even remember the order of the items on the list, to make sure that all the “wants” are removed from the list and only “needs” are remaining.

PS: Not advisable to go on a hike with brand new footwear as it will cause blisters and change your hike from a pleasurable experience to a total nightmare, I talk more about some hiking tips in this article 10 Essential Requirements for your first Hiking Trip in Zimbabwe (beginners guide – 1)

4. Travel with a first Aid Kit with ALL the medication for every single member

So many times we get caught up with the planning of other things that we forget this bit. There are certain medications that are not to be forgotten – which if forgotten will cost you a lot of money to buy because one member can not live without. For example, I can not go anywhere without my ulcer pills. That’s a terrible mistake and everyone I travel with knows this. So they actually always remind me before our trip to make sure I have packed them. Therefore, make sure that you have reminded everyone, no matter it’s the children or the adults. Sometimes you may even need to double check that the said medications have been packed because they are quite easy to forget due to the excitement of going on this trip.

5. Travel light

It is so easy to get carried away with the packing, in fact, most people are heavy packers. Meaning that, they tend to pack the whole wardrobe. I used to be guilty of that. The more you pack, the more space you need which means the bigger vehicle you need. If you have a Honda Fit and it has enough seating area for all the family members traveling but it can’t fit the luggage then it means you have over packed. Do not be tempted to borrow your friend’s vehicle because that is only going to cost you way more in terms of fuel and hopefully you actually don’t accidentally damage anything on that vehicle. So always try by all means to travel light, it will save you a lot of money and save you a lot of headaches.

6. Avoid buying unplanned food due to “vehicle hunger”.

Is it just my family and I who are affected by what my mum ended up calling “vehicle hunger”. The moment we sit in the vehicle to start a trip, we are already feeling hungry lol. Now I see it even with my nephews. How to avoid this is not by stopping at the nearest shop and buying food or by telling your children to stop faking hunger. BUT rather packing some snacks for the trip. My favourite snacks are roasted peanuts and fruits like apples and oranges. Apart from being tasty, they are also cheaper, healthy and keep well. These are also food items that you can snack on even during your stay at your destination if someone feels hungry in between meals instead of increasing to eating 4 meals a day.

PS: Please do not be in the habbit of eating in the vehicle. I really can’t stand fat on the seats and food crumps all over the place… I might have to do a separate blog on this topic one of these days – how to maintain your vehicle during a trip (it will also save you a lot of money long term by the way)

7. Take it easy on the souvenirs

This was my mum’s weakness all the time – every single basket or sculpture she saw, she had to have it. I am not saying though that do not spoil yourself a little but always have a budget for these things. The moment you have reached your budget maximum then STOP! No matter how cute the souvenir looks, just put it down, do not even look at it. Quite honestly, most of these souvenirs are in our local flee markets and are actually sold for way cheaper. So lets avoid unnecessary and impulse buying altogether.

8. Instead of doing multiple trips do one trip and stay longer

Yes! A lot of the time we don’t think about this because in the moment, adding a couple more days looks more expensive but actually it is way cheaper than planning a whole new trip. Firstly, you may even get a discount if you add days. Secondly, you will save fuel and other expenses compared to planning a whole new trip. So that is why tip 1 is crucial, because after taking note of the experience you want out of your trip, you can choose an area which can offer you every thing you want. For example, instead of going to a Game Park which is isolated, you can choose to go to a place like Nyanga where you can visit the Game Park, then also visit several waterfalls there AND also enjoy the Nyangani mountain hike. So you can spend more days in Nyanga and have a blast of a holiday than plan different trips for mountain climbing, for game viewing, for waterfalls etc.

These are my 8 tips for you if you would like to travel on a budget with your family. I wish you all the best on your next trip, hoping that these tips will come in handy and you have the best family vacation ever!

Remember to always have a little intimacy in your life, and I’m talking intimacy with nature.

#ConservingByTouring