Note: Readers of my blog know I've been in Europe for long time. However, I also went home to Boston

Back in September I wrote the ultimate guide to travel hacking . It was a way for me to share tips and advice on how to travel madrid cheap hotels cheaply without sacrificing comfort. madrid cheap hotels And as I watched people’s madrid cheap hotels reactions madrid cheap hotels and answered questions about that guide, I hit upon an idea. It’s one thing to say “Hey, this stuff works,” but it’s another to actually show that this stuff works. I decided that as I hopped, skipped, and jumped around the world, I was going to take what people view as “expensive” places and demonstrate how they can be visited on a budget – without sacrificing comfort.
The first city on my list is London.  I came here for a 10 day trip for a travel conference and it would make for the perfect first example. London is notorious for being one of the most expensive places in the world to visit. No one goes to London under the assumption that they aren’t going to spend a lot of money.
Using my own travel hacking tips, 10 days in London only cost me 481.21 GBP or $710 USD. That works out to be roughly $70 USD per day. And that’s not just my day-to-day expenses. That includes EVERYTHING my flight to London, my hotel, transportation, food, drinking, and attractions.
Think about that for a second: I had a 10-day vacation in London for $700 USD that included airfare. When was the last time you went to Europe for that little money? When was the last time any real big international trip cost that kind of money?
Before I explain how I did it, I want to take a second to explain madrid cheap hotels some of the ground rules I laid out for myself. I didn’t backpack London. My goal was to show the budget travelers of the world – the two-week holiday makers – that you can do London on the cheap without being a backpacker. That saving money isn’t all dorm rooms, Couchsurfing, and eating pasta.
I couldn’t say “no” because it was expensive . Many backpackers skip sightseeing because of the cost but I wanted to do all the normal sightseeing activities regular tourists do.  You don’t go on a short vacation to not sightsee right?
I’m a frequent flier, so I can generate a lot of miles per year. I normally fly about 40,000 to 50,000 miles per year, which, compared to most travel writers, is pretty low. But I’ve written extensively on how to get miles for free. I sign up for bonus credit cards, sign up for deals, use preferred merchants, and sign up for every contest that gives extra miles. All told, I have accumulated over 400,000 frequent flier miles with American Airlines alone through these methods.
Sign up for a branded airline credit card: Whether you love Delta, fly United and the Star Alliance, all U.S. carriers have a branded travel credit card that gives you 25,000-30,000 points when you sign up and make one purchase. That’s a free economy ticket right there. Airline credit cards are the best way to kick start your mileage balance. Often times they offer huge sign up bonuses. For awhile, American Airlines gave you 75,000 miles when you got their branded credit card. Virgin Atlantic has offered 50,000. United has done 40,000. The quickest and best way to gain a lot of free miles is to get one of these travel credit cards .
Watch out for special promotions : I sign up for all airline mailing lists. I always watch out for special 2-for-1 mile deals. Or when they have special card offers to earn extra miles. American Airlines just gave me 1,000 miles for watching a demo on their new shopping toolbar. I once got 5,000 miles for joining Netflix. Often times you get miles for filling madrid cheap hotels out surveys madrid cheap hotels or they will give you a 100% bonus on purchasing miles. madrid cheap hotels Promotions help bit time and airlines seem to always be offering them. Utilizing promotions over the course of a few months can yield big results.
Sign up for a non-airline credit card : Sign up for a non-airline credit card like a Starwood American Express card and you can get 25,000 sign-up points. When you convert 20,000 points into miles, you get a 5,000-mile madrid cheap hotels bonus. I highly recommend signing up for this card too but signing up for any “points” card like the AMEX travel card or a Capital One card will do. Afterwards, you can transfer your sign-up bonus points to the airline you use and redeem them for flights.
For all of these methods, the bonus points madrid cheap hotels take about 6-8 weeks to post from the time you sign up for a credit card. If you want, sign up for my free newsletter madrid cheap hotels I always post the best mile bonuses on it.  Or read Boarding Area , which features all mileage madrid cheap hotels bonuses big and small.
Note: Readers of my blog know I’ve been in Europe for long time. However, I also went home to Boston in September on a round trip flight from London. I’m using that flight madrid cheap hotels as the basis for this article.
Accommodation : I had hoped that by the time I went to London, my Marriott or Starwood points would credit to my account. Marriott is offering a new card with Chase that got me 70,000 points plus 1 free stay for signing up and after the first use. I jumped on this deal but the points took too long to place into my account. On the plus side, I now have 70,000 points and a free night at the Marriott for future use.
However, my points didn’t get credited in time, so I used more American Airlines miles for this. I used 68,000 points plus $25 USD for 5 nights accommodation in a 4 star hotel.  I stayed in a hotel near Hyde Park, a very well-to-do neighborhood in London.
Now, while you can use airline miles for vacations and hotels, you never get as good of a point conversion as you do with flights. Five nights using hotel points madrid cheap hotels would have cost me just 50,000 points.  The point here, though, is that by signing up for a branded hotel card, you can use those points to get free hotel stays for your next vacation.  Or you can use the bonuses from an airline. Either madrid cheap hotels way, getting free hotel rooms isn’t that hard.
For the other 4 nights I was London, I used Wimdu, an apartment rental company. While I normally like hostels, I wanted some peace and quiet while in London as well as a kitchen. The room cost 150 GBP ($238 USD) for 4 nights.
Regarding all these credit cards: While you may get a small short term ding opening lots of credit cards in a short time, over the long term your credit will be fine so long as you pay off all your cards at the end of the month. Even after opening all these credit cars, I still have a score about 800.
Attractions: London madrid cheap hotels is great for sightseeing because so much is free here. It makes sightseeing on a budget really easy. The best museums – British Library, British Museum, National Gallery, Natural History Museum, Museum of London (just to name a few) are all free. Hyde Park? Free. Kensington Gardens? Free. It’s easy to fill a few days with sightseeing in London without ever spending a penny.
But sadly, not everything is free. For attractions that weren’t free, I used the London Pass . This tourist madrid cheap hotels card cost me 54 GBP ($86 USD) for two days of sightseeing. It covers over 32 destinations and offers free public transportation. You can get a pass for up to 6 days (87 GBP). There are hundreds madrid cheap hotels upon hundreds of dollars in savings with this pass. However, I didn’t have much time nor the desire to see all 32 spots.  I was able to see:
Without this pass, the same attractions would have cost me 104.55 GBP. I saved 50% by using the London Pass and I didn’t even use it for everything it offers. This is why in so many of my posts about various cities I always stress getting a city pass if you plan to do a lot of museums and tours. madrid cheap hotels You can save a lot of money by doing so. It’s one of the best budget travel tips out there and is all too often overlooked.
Food: I didn’t want to be the typical backpacker and eat kebabs and pasta for every meal. But at the same time, I know locals don’t eat out 100% of the time, either, and a great way to save money is to cook, which is part of the reason I got a place with a kitchen for my last 4 nights. I wanted to mix eating out with cooking a few meals.  During my 10 days in London, I spent 103.80 GBP ($165 USD) on food, which broke down the following ways:
The rest was spent on dining out. I got pizza one day, went out for good Thai for one dinner, had great Indian one night, ate typical madrid cheap hotels fish and chips the next, and had a few Starbucks green teas, and tons of kebabs. They are everywhere in London. According to my friends, you are a true Londoner if you are dining on kebabs, especially if it’s after a night out.
As I said, I didn’t want to skimp on meals. I ate how I wanted to eat, when I wanted to eat. I did look for deals though as any good budget traveler knows that good food doesn’t have to be expensive.  In London, I found the best way to eat out on a budget was to look for lunch specials. Most restaurants I came across had lunch specials and many pizza places offered a “buy one, get one free” deal on takeaway.
Another great way to save money is to get the Taste Card . This diner s club card offers 50% discounts on thousands of restaurants as well as two for one specials. It can really pay off, especially on those nice meals you ll want to have. You can only live on fish and chips for so long.
For transportation to Heathrow airport, I took the Heathrow express to get into the city (18.50 GBP) and the London Underground to get out (5 GBP). Around the city, I loaded my oyster card (metro card) for unlimited use within Zones 1-3 for 7 days at a cost of 32.20 GBP. (Everything you really need to see is mostly in Zone 1, but my conference was in Zone 3, so I had get out there.)
Currently, the average price of a decently rated 3-4 star hotel in central London is 70 to 100 ($111 to 158 USD) GBP per night. For my 9 night trip, that adds up to around $1,000 USD as I would have gone with the cheapest.
If you add up all of that plus my transport and food, I would have spent around $2,000 USD. By traveling hacking and cleverly using reward points, I spent 10 days in London for less than the current price of a flight to London, saving myself $1,300 USD! Think about that. I saved 66% off the cost of