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Travel Tips

5 Things We Do to Stay Boujee on a Budget

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5 Real Ways to Stay Boujee on a Budget

Our budget luxury travel cheat sheet, all in one place:

  1. Switch accommodations mid-trip
  2. Walk everywhere
  3. Don’t skip the unexpected food moments
  4. Sit through a timeshare presentation (if you can)
  5. Redirect daily habits into a travel fund

Below, we break down exactly how each one works.

When people hear “boujee on a budget,” they usually picture someone drinking $4 gas station wine in a plastic champagne flute and calling it luxury. While that is totally something we’ve done, it’s not really what we’re talking about.

We’re talking about staying in an Amsterdam houseboat. Eating at a wine bar in Barcelona that felt like a scene from a movie. Two nights at a Hilton in Midtown Manhattan, walking distance to Rockefeller Center, without blowing our savings.

What we’ve learned is that budget luxury travel isn’t about finding the cheapest version of everything. It’s about being strategic and flexible with the boring stuff so you can spend a little more on the finer things. Here are exactly the tricks we’ve picked up over the years.

1 We Switch Accommodations Mid-Trip

This one often shocks people, but we’ve done it so many times and it’s saved us hundreds. It might sound like more work than it’s worth — until you realize the extra $250 you’ve saved can now go toward the Michelin Star restaurant you’ve always wanted to try, or the tour tickets to a once-in-a-lifetime attraction. Suddenly you see how much money you’ve been leaving on the table.

How It Worked in Iceland and Europe

In Iceland, we booked two different places strategically — one for the first half of the trip, one for the second. Not because we couldn’t commit, but because the pricing worked out significantly cheaper than staying in one place the whole time. Hotels in popular travel destinations often have wildly different rates depending on which nights you book, and most people never think to split their stay.

We took it a step further in Europe by staying in a pretty questionable Airbnb in Brussels for a couple of nights. We’re not going to pretend it was luxurious, because it was not. But we put up with it because it meant we had the budget to book a beautiful and unique houseboat in Amsterdam for the first part of the trip. And that Amsterdam houseboat? Worth every awkward night in Brussels.

Before you book anything, check the rates night by night. Sometimes moving a single day in either direction can cut the price significantly, and if you’re willing to stay somewhere less iconic for part of your trip, that savings can fund something genuinely memorable.

2 We Walk Everywhere

This one sounds obvious, but the amount of money that disappears into taxis, rideshares, and even the metro on a trip is staggering if you’re not paying attention.

Why Walking Beats Rideshares

It’s not uncommon for us to hit 20,000 steps in a day when we travel. Yes, I (Courtney) still make this work even with a bulging disc in my back. And yes, Nick complains when we get lost. But we’ve figured out that walking isn’t just a budget hack — it’s how you see the city and get familiar with your surroundings. Some of our best finds, like the speakeasy in Barcelona we stumbled into and our favorite vintage shop in London, happened because we were walking and not sitting in a car staring at our phones.

Every rideshare we don’t spend is money that goes toward something we actually want to do. A nicer dinner. The tour we weren’t sure we could afford. The flight upgrade we were debating. It all adds up faster than you think.

This isn’t about suffering through vacation. It’s about deciding intentionally where your money goes instead of letting it drain away in $20 increments.

3 We Don’t Skip the Unexpected Food Moments

We need to tell you about the time we flew to Spain and ate at McDonald’s… twice.

Before you close this tab, hear us out.

Why “Bad” Food Sometimes Wins

Barcelona McDonald’s is genuinely not the same as American McDonald’s. They have regional menu items like McIberica sandwiches, patatas deluxe, and a whole different energy than the one you grab on your way to work. We also took a paella cooking class and ate at incredible local restaurants during that trip, so this wasn’t us failing at food tourism. This was us being curious about something that other people overlook or skip because “I can get this at home.”

The total cost for our fast food experience was under 15 euros for both of us, and we’re still talking about it years later.

Budget travel isn’t just about eating cheap food. It’s about being flexible enough to have the expensive experience and the cheap one, and not treating either as if it doesn’t count. The paella class was incredible. So was McDonald’s.

4 We Sat Through a Timeshare Presentation

This one is a bit controversial, but we’d do it again in a heartbeat.

The Hilton Midtown Deal That Actually Worked

We spent two nights at the New York Hilton Midtown. Prime location on Avenue of the Americas, walking distance to Times Square, Rockefeller Center, and Central Park. This is the kind of hotel that costs hundreds of dollars a night. We paid $228.36 for 3 days/2 nights, and they gave us 25,000 Hilton Honors points on top of that.

The catch? We had to sit through a 90-minute timeshare presentation on Saturday afternoon. The perks were amazing, but the downside was that it landed right in the middle of our day and they used high-pressure tactics and multiple sales pitches. If you’re a person who struggles to say no repeatedly, this is not a tactic we’d recommend trying.

In full transparency, we said no a lot. But when it was over, we retreated to our nice hotel room and went out to explore Times Square that evening.

But if you’re someone who can hear a sales pitch, say no firmly, and not feel bad about it? This is one of the most effective ways to experience expensive cities on a budget that we’ve ever found. Do the research, know what you’re getting into, and go in with a plan to leave without signing anything. We’d do it again tomorrow for the right deal in the right city.

5 We Redirected Our Daily Habits Into a Travel Fund

When I met Nick, he was buying coffee at Starbucks every single workday. That was five dollars a day, gone, without a second thought.

The Habit-to-Travel-Fund Math

I helped him break that cycle. Not because there’s anything wrong with coffee — don’t get me wrong, we love coffee. We explore new coffee shops around Pittsburgh as actual dates. But spending five dollars a day on autopilot without thinking about it is a different thing than spending five dollars intentionally on something that brings you joy.

Let’s break that down into travel math:

  • $5 a day = $1,825 a year
  • $1,825 = at least one roundtrip flight to Europe
  • That’s a weekend trip with a hotel included

We aren’t anti-spending. We’ve definitely splurged on plenty of things. We’re just anti-spending on autopilot. The daily Starbucks became coffee at home plus intentional cafe dates around Pittsburgh. The money that used to disappear into habit now goes into a travel fund, and it has funded multiple trips without us feeling like we gave up anything meaningful.

This works for any daily habit: coffee, lunch out, subscription services you forgot you had, the app you haven’t opened in six months. Audit your spending, redirect what doesn’t actually bring you value, and watch your travel fund grow faster than you expected.

It’s Not About Cheap. It’s About Intentional.

Boujee on a budget isn’t about suffering through the cheap stuff. It’s about being intentional with the boring decisions so you can go all-in on the good ones.

Take it from us, you don’t need unlimited PTO or unlimited money to travel well. You just need a strategy that works for your actual life. These are ours. Take whatever is useful and leave the rest.

And if you have a boujee on a budget hack we haven’t tried yet, we want to hear it. Drop it in the comments and if I had to guess, Nick will add it to our planning spreadsheet.

Frequently Asked Questions

It’s the practice of luxury budget travel. We view it as staying somewhere memorable, eating somewhere special, doing something that feels indulgent, without spending what those experiences would normally cost. The trick is being strategic about the boring decisions (transportation, mid-trip lodging, daily spending) so the money you save can fund the parts of the trip you’ll actually remember.

It depends entirely on you. We’ve saved hundreds doing this and would do it again. But the presentations use real high-pressure sales tactics, and if you’re someone who feels guilty saying no repeatedly or gets talked into purchases, you’ll likely walk out having spent way more than the hotel saved you. Only do this if you can confidently say no for 90 minutes straight without flinching, unless you want a timeshare that is.

In our experience it’s less than people think. A daily $5 habit redirected into a travel fund adds up to $1,825 a year, which is enough for a roundtrip flight to Europe with budget left over. For a 7-10 day trip to a mid-cost European destination as a couple, we typically budget $3,000–4,500 all-in (flights, lodging, food, activities). Start with a savings goal, work backwards, and pick a destination that fits the number.

Strategic PTO planning, long weekends, and stacking trips around holidays. We use every Friday-Monday we can get, and we plan international trips around weeks where a holiday Monday gives us an extra day for free.

Split your stay. Most travelers book one place for the whole trip, but hotel pricing fluctuates wildly night to night, and switching accommodations mid-trip almost always saves money. You can also mix property types. For example, try a budget Airbnb for the “logistics” nights, and a splurge stay for the “memorable” nights. The savings add up fast and let you afford a hero accommodation you wouldn’t otherwise.

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