{"id":15356,"date":"2023-01-27T15:30:21","date_gmt":"2023-01-27T15:30:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.cardiff.ac.uk\/insiders\/?p=15356"},"modified":"2023-01-31T13:01:44","modified_gmt":"2023-01-31T13:01:44","slug":"how-to-travel-cheaply-while-being-a-cardiff-university-student","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.cardiff.ac.uk\/insiders\/how-to-travel-cheaply-while-being-a-cardiff-university-student\/","title":{"rendered":"How to travel cheaply while being a Cardiff University Student"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">While travelling the world may seem like an inaccessible privilege for the wealthy or Instagram influencers, the most adventurous type of travel (and, in my opinion, best) is to travel cheap while you\u2019re young. This blog aims to show you ways that travel can be done cheaply as a university student, and how studying at Cardiff University can open you up to many travel opportunities if you only look in the right places.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><b>Cardiff is the cheapest student city in the UK<\/b><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Being a student in Cardiff means living in one of the<\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.timeshighereducation.com\/student\/news\/cheapest-student-cities-uk\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400\"> most affordable cities in the UK<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">. This allows you to spend less money on accommodation, utilities, shopping and nightlife when compared to other student cities. Therefore, living in Cardiff can help you save money for your adventures while not missing out on any of the fun student life has to offer. This is helped by the accessibility of the city, not needing to drive or use public transport and the great food and drink deals in the <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/goo.gl\/maps\/cTU6RYYwTAQgE6t77\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Student Union<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><b>Nearby transport connections<\/b><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Cardiff has lots to boast about when it comes to its transport connections. Having its own <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.cardiff-airport.com\/destinations\/amsterdam\/\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">international airport<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400\"> with destinations across Europe for one, and being only a 1 hour 15 minute National Express coach away from <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.bristolairport.co.uk\/\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Bristol airport<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">. This gives great access to lots of European destinations for weekends away while taking a break from studying. There are great affordable domestic destinations too, with <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.nationalexpress.com\/en\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">National Express<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">, <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/uk.megabus.com\/\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Mega Bus<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400\"> and <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.flixbus.co.uk\/\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Flixbus<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400\"> offering coaches to London for as little as \u00a34.99 (it\u2019s best to check all three companies and be flexible with time to get the best price). These can also be used to book coaches to <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.heathrow.com\/\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Heathrow<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400\"> and <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.gatwickairport.com\/\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Gatwick<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400\"> airports for more flight options for affordable city breaks. Additionally, being in Wales, there are beautiful Welsh coasts to explore, why not start with<\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.barcrawl.co.uk\/pubcrawl.aspx?Crawl=20\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400\"> The Mumbles Mile<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">? Or there are plenty of hiking options in the <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/goo.gl\/maps\/VdUMAJXax8qMUDwS7\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Brecon Beacons.<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n<p><b>No or half rent in July<\/b><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Being a student in Cardiff also has great advantages with having masses of time to travel. Finishing Uni for the summer gives you the perfect opportunity to spend time abroad. To encourage you even further, having no or half rent in July is very common for private rented accommodation in Cardiff. This not only allows you to save money for your trip, but also challenges you to save and plan for a month, you could volunteer in exchange for accommodation or go on a simple holiday. I used this month at the end of my first year to go backpack around Europe solo and managed to visit 8 new countries.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<figure id=\"post-15358 media-15358\" class=\"image align-none\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"\" style=\"width: 485px;height: 649px\" src=\"http:\/\/blogs.cardiff.ac.uk\/insiders\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/523\/2023\/01\/IMG_20220706_231627-scaled.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"495\" height=\"661\" \/><figcaption class=\"caption\">The view from a boat party I went to while solo travelling in Budapest<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p><b>Great part-time job opportunities<\/b><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Studying in Cardiff gives you access to masses of different ways to make money part-time. You can get a flexible role as a<\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.cardiffstudents.com\/about-cusu\/workforus\/student-staff\/\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400\"> Venues Assistant<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400\"> at the Student Union, find a part-time role in the nearby city centre, or find flexible shifts with <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/cardiffjobshop.com\/\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Jobshop<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400\"> where you can get casual shifts to a regular position &#8211; it\u2019s how I found this gig. Being a university based in a city, Cardiff has what you need to earn money to facilitate your travels while focusing on your studies.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><b>Take advantage of university opportunities\u00a0<\/b><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Another way to travel cheaply while at university is to study volunteer or work abroad while being supported by your university. This allows you to go away for longer meanwhile having the potential for receiving funding. Check out the <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.cardiff.ac.uk\/study\/undergraduate\/why-study-with-us-as-an-undergraduate\/global-opportunities\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Global Opportunities<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400\"> page to find out more about bursaries available and options for destinations and duration. <\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"While travelling the world may seem like an inaccessible privilege for the wealthy or Instagram influencers, the most adventurous type of travel (and, in my opinion, best) is to travel [&hellip;]","protected":false},"author":6948,"featured_media":15357,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[742,20],"tags":[156,307],"class_list":["post-15356","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-global-opportunities","category-travelling","tag-travelling","tag-university-life"],"meta_box":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.cardiff.ac.uk\/insiders\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15356","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.cardiff.ac.uk\/insiders\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.cardiff.ac.uk\/insiders\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.cardiff.ac.uk\/insiders\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/6948"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.cardiff.ac.uk\/insiders\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=15356"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.cardiff.ac.uk\/insiders\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15356\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":15362,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.cardiff.ac.uk\/insiders\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15356\/revisions\/15362"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.cardiff.ac.uk\/insiders\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/15357"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.cardiff.ac.uk\/insiders\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=15356"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.cardiff.ac.uk\/insiders\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=15356"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.cardiff.ac.uk\/insiders\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=15356"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}