How to make your dream trip affordable in 2025
Think travel in 2025 is out of your reach? With our budget travel tips, you’re one step closer to embarking on your dream tour.
As a company full of travel lovers, we hear you loud and clear: Funding all the trips you’re dreaming of taking can feel financially impossible. We understand that in 2025, between inflation worries and decision fatigue, it might feel like travel is better postponed for another time. But, if seeing the world this year remains a priority, know that affordable travel in 2025 is not impossible. Our in-house, jet-setting experts are affordable travel aficionados, and we’ve compiled this list of budget travel trips to help get you on your way.
How to budget for a trip in 2025
While bucket list trips like our A Week in Italy: Venice, Florence & Rome tour or our Egypt & Nile River Cruise cost money, that doesn’t mean that they’re unattainable. There are many ways to travel on a budget in 2025, whether that means keeping an eye out for the best travel deals of 2025, stretching your dollar further on a guided tour, finding a payment plan that works for you, stacking up loyalty rewards, signing up for an off-peak trip, or seeking out some of the world’s most affordable destinations.
How to budget for a trip often comes down to clever planning. If you do it right, you might even be able to travel with Go Ahead every year. Take it from traveler Charlie, who joined our Venice, Florence & Rome for Solo Travelers tour: “It was surprisingly affordable,” he said. “The more we did, the more I was amazed at how little I paid to see so much.”
Stretch your dollars and travel on a budget with Go Ahead
The best part of going on our guided tours is that the price you pay covers almost everything: the conveniently located hotels, the expert guides, transportation around your destination, access to world-class attractions, and most of the delicious meals. It even covers airfare, if you want. On our tours, you occasionally have to pay for some meals (those are clearly noted on our itineraries), optional excursions, and gratuities. Otherwise, everything is already included in the tour price. Unlike a DIY trip, a guided tour doesn’t have surprise expenses. You know exactly what you’ll have to spend on before your trip begins. And the peace of mind that comes with knowing most of the logistics have been handled for you? Well, that might be the best value of all.
To better familiarize you with what’s included in a Go Ahead tour, here’s a quick primer.
- Exceptional Tour Directors: From picking you up at the airport to and bringing you to the front of the line at museums to helping you figure out foreign menus, your fun and friendly Tour Director will oversee your itinerary from start to finish.
- Hotels and accommodations: We personally handpick all the lodging we include on our tours, whether that’s a centrally located hotel in Waterloo during our iconic London, Paris & Rome tour or a charming hotel in Fira on our The Greek Islands: Athens, Mykonos & Santorini tour. We prioritize comfort and convenience, and strive for three-to-four-star accommodations—because to travel on a budget doesn’t mean giving up on a nice place to stay.
- Included meals: A wine tasting in Campania during our Food & Wine: Campania, Puglia & the Amalfi Coast tour and a Balinese cooking class on our Bali & Java: Culture & Landscapes of Indonesia tour are just two of the many delicious culinary experiences that are built into our personal itineraries. Plus, you’ll even have the opportunity to seek out more meals you're craving during free time, which is why not every single meal is included on our tours. We want to give our travelers the chance to explore their own tastes, too! During free time, you may want to try street food or splurge on a Michelin-starred meal. We’ll leave that up to you.
- Transportation: Airport transfers upon arrival? The train from one city to the next? These are just some of the transportation logistics you won’t have to worry about on a Go Ahead tour—and which are included in the cost of your trip.
Of course, we can give you all the travel budget tips we have in our back pocket, but there’s nothing like hearing directly from Go Ahead travelers about how savvy budget-planning allowed them to make their travel dreams come true: "All of the meals included are fantastic,” raved traveler Elise, who was recently on our Food & Wine: Northern Italy & the Italian Riviera tour. “The cost of the tour may seem high to some people, but you get a lot included in the tour, including peace of mind in not having to worry about transportation or trip details.”
Choose from our flexible travel payment plans
Whether you’re ready to pay in full or want to sign up for a monthly plan with our AutoPay, our flexible automatic payment plan, we offer a variety of travel payment plans to suit everyone’s budget. Our AutoPay program is especially helpful if you have a dream trip you want to gradually pay off. For instance, if you’re keen on joining our A Week in Ireland: Dublin, Cork & Galway tour, you can confirm your spot today for as little as $99 down.† Then, link a debit card or checking account to your booking, and we’ll automatically withdraw your interest-free monthly payments. Your first payment won’t be due until 30 days after you book your trip.
"This was our very first tour with EF Go Ahead, and I’d say it was a resounding success,” traveler Katherine said of our Grand Tour of Portugal & Spain: Porto to Barcelona. “What originally sold us was the ease of booking a tour and being able to make affordable monthly payments a couple years in advance. I highly recommend this!”
Keep your eyes peeled for group travel deals
If you’re searching for cheap guided tours or are eager to scope out affordable travel in 2025, don’t miss our travel deal. As we speak, dozens of itineraries are on sale, from classic Europe tours to once-in-a-lifetime trips to Asia. Our sales include everything from year-round offers to deals for trips that depart soon, which could mean savings of up to $700 (aka some of the best travel deals of 2025!). We constantly include some of these promotions on our newsletter. Make sure you’re signed up so you don’t miss out. Budget travel tips don’t get simpler than that!
Trips worth budgeting for
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Consider going off-peak to travel on a budget
Another one of our favorite ways to travel on a budget is by joining one of our Off-Peak Tours. More affordable travel in 2025 doesn’t have to mean giving up on a bucket list destination; choosing to go in a less busy season could yield exceptional savings. And you know what? For this very purpose, we’ve recently introduced a number of new Off-Peak Tours to some of our travelers’ most beloved regions.
If you want to see for yourself why travel experts love the Mediterranean during the offseason, join our Off-Peak Greece: Athens, Delphi & Nafplio tour. You’ll get to see the Acropolis and savor the best olive oil on an itinerary that costs hundreds less than if you took the trip in July. Craving Italian dishes you can only sample during the offseason? Our brand-new Off-Peak Italy: Rome, Naples & Florence tour will have you living la dolce vita in some of Europe’s most iconic cities. Like Greece, Italy is a fantastic value in the offseason when airfare and hotel prices are often slashed to encourage travel.
See how loyalty can help make travel more affordable
For travel lovers, joining our Club Go loyalty program could be a great way to save on future tours. It’s free to sign up, and you’ll start reaping rewards as soon as you complete your first trip. Every tour you take with Go Ahead will earn you credits that can be redeemed for discounts on other tours. The more travel you book with Go Ahead, the more exciting the benefits are. For example, taking at least one trip can earn you a $100 Future Tour Credit. Traveling on a budget can be as easy as that!
Discover more savvy budget travel tips →
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