It’s hot as a mofo here in Texas, and when the temperatures get this sticky, our thoughts turn to travel. Preferably to a nice, cold igloo somewhere in the Antarctic.

For those not able to achieve such lofty, costly travel dreams (like, say, us!), we’ve decided to hit you up with our top 5 budget travel tips to keep things sane, sensible and hopefully very, very cool this summer.

1. Explore your own hometown. What? You mean you’ve already checked out EVERY nook ‘n’ cranny Austin’s got to offer? C’mon, you’ve gotta be kidding me. Okay, so the place may not be as dense with hotspots as New York, L.A. or even Chicago, but I guarantee it’s still got some tricks up its sleeves to blow your fragile little mind. Chances are, born ‘n’ raised Austinites have never bothered with the “touristy” stuff, like the Museum of the Weird (412 E. 6th Street, and only $4 for admission or free entrance to the gift shop) or even toured the Texas State Capitol (1100 Congress Avenue, and completely free to tour), which is the largest state capitol building in the entire United States! Pick a place that’s sure to be blasting the AC to make sure everything’s ice cold.
   

   Texas State Capitol (courtesy of the State Preservation Board)

2. Hit up the swimming holes. Maybe you’ve done Barton Springs to death, but what about the hundreds of other swimming holes Texas has to offer? Most boast free admission, so you can laze the day away floating in a natural pool or floating down a real-life lazy river. In these overheated dog days of summer, you’ll love the chance to cool down and chill out, and doing nothing is oh-so-apropos for a summer getaway.
3. Use your tech. Okay, so we’re shamelessly stealing this suggestion from James Nestor’s excellent article over at ReadyMade, but people: technology is there to make your life easier! Put it to work with a few good travel websites that’ll shave precious buckazoids off your total, leaving you with a bigger budget for everything else on your to-do list once you’re there. Wherever you’re dreaming of traveling to, consider this: ReadyMade recommends travelzoo.com if you don’t know where to go but want a bargain, or skyauction.com if you know where you want to go but are flexible on dates. For everything else, there’s kayak.com (and the Kayak app for your iPhone). We’ll also throw in a recommendation for our fave, Hotwire.com, which can score you some nice low prices on hotels, airfare and car rentals.
4. Staycation, not vacation. If you’re a total broke-ass like us, and don’t have the money for a full-fledged vacation, why not try one of them fancy staycations you’ve been hearing so much about? For those who’re out of the hip slangy lingo loop, a “staycation” is a kind of mini-vacation, usually one within easy driving distance of your hometown. If you can’t get away for an entire week, a staycation is perfect; they usually take up a weekend, possibly throwing in a Monday or Friday off work to make it really feel indulgent without being a total time (or money) suck. Brilliant! We can recommend a number of fabulous places within driving distance of Austin, including Dallas, Fort Worth, Houston (all 3 hours), New Orleans (8 hours), Phoenix, Nashville (both 14 hours), and Orlando (18 hours), depending on how long a drive you’re down with. As a completely random aside, we here at Shoestring Austin have recently won an overnight stay at Ye Kendall Inn down near San Antonio in Boerne, Texas, so we’ll be taking a little staycation of our own sometime in the near future; stay tuned for our report!
   

   There really IS a streetcar named Desire in New Orleans! (image via streetcar.org)

5. Rideshares and couch surfing. For the truly budget minded, rideshares and couch surfing are simple facts of life. If you’ve never heard of either, boy howdy, you’re overpaying for your travel! Check out eRideshare.com to get started on finding an inexpensive ride to the (driving distance) destination of your choice, and set up a profile on CouchSurfing.org to find a place to crash once you get there. Both of these sites are the budget traveller’s best allies, whether you’re taking a day trip to Dallas or trekking to Abu Dhabi. In brief: couch surfing involves sleeping overnight (or possibly for a weekend) on a stranger’s couch for free, whereas ride sharing involves a small outlay of cash for a spot in a fellow traveller’s car, where the fee typically covers gas money and possibly the rental of said car. They are both brilliant ideas, and we highly recommend them to the budget minded. Just be sure you’ve got your safety in mind when relying on the kindness of strangers, and you’ll be good to go.

Got any other tips you’d like to share with our budget travellers? We’d love to hear from you, so feel free to post your comments or email us with additional tips and tricks.