Travel Tips

After you've settled into your new Cardiff digs, you might be feeling ready to book your first adventure. Travel is very convenient and easy on the student budget in Europe. Before moving to Cardiff, I had never been "across the pond" so booking hostels, trains and planes was a whole new territory for me. In this post I'll discuss some travelling tips and tricks that I've learned from experience over the 8 months of living abroad.

1. Decide on a Destination

This is the best part! When Jenna and I would be looking for a weekend getaway, we turned to Google Flights to help us find the cheapest deals. With the map, you can see flights from Cardiff to anywhere in the world. We also quickly realized that flights out of Bristol and London are much cheaper and provide more destination variety, so it's definitely worth checking out what those airports offer as well.

2. Book your Accommodation

Never in a million years did Jenna and I think we would be staying in hostels. I always pictured them to be a place where sweaty, tired, (probably Australian) travellers hung out in bunk-beds while backpacking across Europe. Well, I wasn't completely wrong, but I've definitely become the sweaty, tired traveller that hangs out in a hostel bunk-bed. Jenna and I found that Hostelworld was the most straight-forward and convenient way to book our accommodation. You just type in where you want to go, the dates and how many guests and loads of options come up. It also provides a review rating for each based on different things like atmosphere, cleanliness and location as well as a photo gallery to give you a better idea of where you're staying. Hostels are so much fun and you meet wonderful people along the way, it's all part of the travelling experience.

3. Book your Train (if necessary)

If you're flying out of Bristol or London you'll need to book a train or a bus to get to the airport. Jenna and I have discovered that the Trainline app is the most simple way to get this done. The booking and payment process is simple and you have the ticket easily accessible on your phone. Another great way to save some money is to get a student railcard! It gives you a great discount on trains around the UK, just make sure you don't forget to bring it with you or you'll be charged an additional fee (please learn from my mistakes).

The conversion rate is a killer!

4. Get your Funds in Order

Yeah I know, definitely not the most fun part of the process, however, managing your money responsibly over here is so important. I've definitely learned what it means to be a "starving student" in the last 8 months due to poor budgeting. My advice would be to open up a UK bank account when you arrive. This allows your Canadian dollars to be converted into pounds and makes withdrawing cash easier. Jenna and I discovered that Transferwise is the most simple way to bring in money from your Canadian bank account to your UK bank account. There's a small fee, but that's the case with any international money transfer app. It also takes time to transfer your funds from Canada to the UK, so make sure you allow at least 3 days for the money to come through. Before going on a trip it's important to make sure that your account has a sufficient amount of money in it for meals and excursions as well as some cash for emergencies.

Hope these tips help for your next adventure!

-Laura