Is Frugal Travel the New Luxury? Why More Travellers Are Choosing to Spend Less
It's little wonder so many of us are starting to ask a different question before we book: not just where do I want to go, but how do I want to spend while I'm there?
That question is behind one of the more interesting shifts in UK travel right now. People aren’t giving up on holidays. They’re just being far more deliberate about where the money actually goes.
Why UK Travellers Are Rethinking How They Spend
According to VisitBritain’s August 2026 domestic sentiment tracker, 75% of UK adults still intend to take a domestic overnight trip in the next 12 months, and 65% have already taken one in the past year. But cost is clearly weighing on those plans: behind the ever-reliable “UK weather” (32%), the next biggest barriers to taking a break are the rising cost of living (29%) and rising costs of holidays and leisure (28%). People aren’t cancelling their travel plans. They’re recalibrating how much they’re willing to spend to make them happen.
This isn’t a one-off. The June 2026 wave of the same tracker found a similar pattern: 29% planned to spend less on eating out, 25% said they’d choose cheaper accommodation and 23% were looking for more free things to do (see page 19 of the VisitBritain’s June 2026 report). That kind of consistency across separate months is a useful sign that people are genuinely changing how they travel, not just cutting back for one trip.
Choosing Less Isn’t the Same as Having Less
It’s worth being honest here: there’s a difference between consciously travelling frugally and being forced to cut back because money is tight. Both are completely valid, and this isn’t about pretending a squeezed budget is secretly a lifestyle choice. But for a growing number of travellers, spending less is a decision made from a position of choice, a way of prioritising experiences over expense, rather than a compromise.
What Frugal Travel Actually Looks Like
In practice, this shift shows up in small, practical decisions. Booking a family-run guesthouse instead of a big chain hotel. Travelling in May or September instead of the school holidays, when prices drop and the crowds thin out. Taking the train or local bus rather than hiring a car. Choosing a quieter alternative to an overtouristed hotspot, often somewhere with just as much charm and half the price tag.
None of this feels like deprivation once you’re there. It tends to feel like the opposite.
Can Spending Less Create a Better Trip?
This is where it gets genuinely interesting. A meal at a family-owned restaurant, a bus journey spent chatting with someone local, a morning spent walking a coastal path instead of queuing for a paid attraction: these are often the moments people remember most fondly, and none of them cost very much. Independent accommodation and slower travel naturally push you towards a place’s actual character rather than a version built for tourists passing through.
We’d love to know what you think. What’s the one thing you refuse to skimp on when you travel, and what are you happy to cut without a second thought? It says a lot about what we actually value on a trip.
How to Make Frugal Travel Work for You
A bit of planning goes a long way here. A flight comparison tool like Skyscanner.net makes it easy to spot the cheapest dates to fly, while the National Trust’s list of free places to visit is a good place to start if you want free or low-cost things to do once you’ve landed.
It’s also worth thinking about how your travel spending fits into the bigger picture. If you’d rather have a clearer sense of what you can comfortably spend on holidays without it derailing your wider goals, resources like pmw.co.uk can be a useful starting point for thinking about your finances more broadly, not just for one trip, but for the years of travelling still ahead.
What Luxury Really Means Now
Maybe that’s the real shift here. For a long time, luxury travel meant five-star everything and not looking at the bill. Increasingly, it means something quieter: booking a trip you can actually afford, without that nagging spreadsheet dread creeping back in halfway through. Freedom from financial stress, it turns out, might be the most luxurious thing you can pack.
By S Fernandes
Image credit – Magnific
