Zach and I are preparing for an adventurous trip to Thailand and we couldn’t be more excited! To say we love traveling is a huge understatement and when we received the most beautiful wedding invite from our friends, we booked our flights immediately! We can’t wait to celebrate our friends’ marriage in such a special place and we are so honored to be included!
If you’re anything like us, you love a good deal. Traveling can be intimidating but I’d love to share some things that work for Zach and I when we decide to book a trip!
AIRBNB
I remember the first time Zach and I booked an Airbnb. It was years ago when we first started dating. I hopped in the car and we headed off to a wedding in Austin. Zach mentioned that he had booked a room at a person’s home but it was really cheap. I was a tad worried but it wasn’t unusual for Zach to do something because it was “cheaper.” We arrived that night at our destination and I prayed Zach had my best interest at heart. This was the man I wanted to marry! We slept in someone’s guest bed next to their babies nursery and in the morning we woke up and met the family in the kitchen. The husband was in his robe and they all looked as uncomfortable as we were. We left that day laughing and continue to love Airbnb for many, many reasons!
Since that one night we’ve stayed in some of the coolest houses among the coolest people! We’ve shared memories with friends in charming houses in Austin and Nashville. We’ve lived in a duplex and became friends with the best neighbors in Memphis. We’ve lived in an awesome house in Houston next to a family that didn’t know Jesus and through multiple conversations Zach was able to share the gospel with them! Airbnb is more to us than a place to stay. It’s always an opportunity for us! An opportunity to live like locals, to meet neighbors, to experience more! If you’re the kind of person that loves the local life, meeting people and cheap rooms, then we highly recommend Airbnb!
We just booked this cute little room above a local Thai coffee shop and we can’t wait to tell you all about it when we get back! I’m way too excited to meet people and stay right on the streets of Thailand and enjoy the Thai coffee everyday 🙂
Use our link to receive $40 off your first AirBnB rental!
https://www.airbnb.com/c/kaitlinm382?currency=USD
HOPPER APP
I’m a huge Hopper fan! Nobody likes paying tons of money for a plane ticket and nobody likes stalking airline websites for the perfect price. The hopper app does that for you! When I knew our dates for our trip, I plugged those into the app and waited for notifications for the best time to book our flights. The app tells you peak times to book, when the price will continue to rise and it’s color coded to make choosing cheaper days to fly much easier! Once the app notified me of the perfect time to book, I checked multiple airlines until I found the best deal for our Thailand tickets.
I have never actually booked through the Hopper App but you absolutely can. I personally just feel safer booking straight from the airline. We booked our Thailand tickets through United. We typically use American Airlines, United or Southwest. I know there are cheaper airlines out there but we prefer to get the free checked bags!
HOTELS.COM
Zach and I don’t book hotels very often, but when we do, Hotels.com is my favorite site to use! Having an account on Hotels.com has so many cool advantages when traveling. We actually booked two different hotels for our Thailand trip; one resort in Phuket and a one night stay before flying home. Hotels.com has a rewards program where you collect nights when you book a hotel room. 10 nights will earn you a free night stay! We earned 3 nights when we booked our hotels for Thailand! They also have special deals and secret prices on their website constantly as well as coupons. When I booked our resort in Phuket I searched for a coupon and found a hotels.com rebate that I used when checking out. When we return we can earn up to $100 back from our trip depending on the nights we stay.
DIGIT APP
The Digit App was new to me until this summer when my friend Haley told me all about it! My mom told me recently to start saving $25 every paycheck for our upcoming beach trip and my response was that there was no way I would remember to go to the bank every week to withdraw money. It seemed tedious and unreasonable for someone who never has cash. The Digit App has been an awesome money saving app for our trip! The app links to your bank account and withdraws small amounts of money and places it into a “rainy day” fund in the Digit App. The app allows you to place your own parameters making you feel comfortable with how much money is being removed from your account weekly. The app helps you save your money over time. It was nice having wiggle room when I was ready to book a flight or our stay for our Thailand trip. I was able to transfer our savings from our “rainy day” fund back into our bank account to pay for our trip and feel good about it! If you need a “rainy day” fund we love this app and think it’s great for saving those dollars!
Use our link to receive $5 in your rainy day fund when you sign up!
https://digit.co/r/-kkI11ASc4?wn
