When travelling abroad, or moving, you have no idea what your destination will be like, in comparison to your country. And especially when you want to save some money, you need to know a few things, in order to be prepared. Here are four websites that have helped me a lot in my travels.

Expatistan

One of the main causes of anxiety, when it comes to money, is the cost of living at your destination country. Is it cheaper? Is it more expensive? Am I going to spend a fortune for that travel, or am I going to return with enough money?

The answer to that question is Expatistan.

I think it all started with my trip to Russia, when, with the currency difference (euros to rubles) it was difficult to understand what could be a normal price for something, say like a bottle of water. It is different when you have to compare euros with dollars or pounds, because you still have the 1€, 2€, 5€, 20€ and so on. But when you have coins and then the notes are 100+ , things get tricky.

What expatistan does, is compare two cities and say which one is the cheapest by a certain percentage. Then you can see an indicative comparison in cost for various categories. There is food (with examples like: combo meal, 1L of milk etc), housing (utilities for 1 month etc), clothes (1 pair of sport shoes etc), transportation (monthly ticket for public transport, 1L of gas etc), personal care (tube of toothpaste etc) and entertainment (cinema tickets, a cocktail etc).

Link: https://www.expatistan.com/cost-of-living

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Price of travel

Price of travel is a website with articles about travelling (cheapest cities to travel, advices, some itineraries etc).

You can click on several destinations and see a few facts about that city, hotel price ranges depending on the stars, hostel prices, average temperatures of each month and weather advice.

But most importantly, when checking one of those destinations, is that you can get an idea of a few attraction prices, transportation prices and food & drink prices.

It is similar to expatistan in that way, but I recommend that you check both websites.

Link: https://www.priceoftravel.com/

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xe

Many of you know this website. I mostly use it to check the exchange rates, to have an idea of the foreign currency I’ll be using on my trip, and to compare the rates at the exchange stores at the destination country and get the most favorable rate.

There are also other features, such as money transfer, rate charts, IBAN calculator and many more.

Finally, there is the feature of travel expanses calculator, for after the trip, so you can sum up all your expanses.

Useful links:
* website: https://www.xe.com/
* download for android (free or pro) : https://www.xe.com/apps/android/
* download for IOS (free or pro) : https://www.xe.com/apps/iphone/
* other download options: https://www.xe.com/apps/

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Accuweather

Another famous website. People use it to check the weather the same day, in the weekend, extended (a few days later), month and satellite.

My favorite thing is that, at the month section, you can see the weather for when you are travelling (or an estimation if it’s too early), BUT you can also check the numbers of the previous year, which gives you a better idea.

Yes it’s weather, yes it’s unpredictable, but it doesn’t hurt to have a general idea.

You can also download the app.

Useful links:
* website: https://www.accuweather.com
* download for android: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.accuweather.android
* download for IOS: https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/accuweather-weather-for-life/id300048137?mt=8
* other download options: https://downloads.accuweather.com/?shortlink=aba0397&pid=accuweatherDADC&c=Downloads

Till next time! 😉

xoxo, Myrto