Money Saving Hacks for Your Working Holiday Visa in Australia
Aussie Working Holiday Visas are the ultimate way to properly explore Australia {as its massive} and earn some money in the process. You’ll hear that Aussie is expensive, but we’ve pulled together all our knowledge to give you our best money saving hacks. From beautiful beaches to quaint and quirky towns and never-ending sunshine (most of the time, depending on where you are… haha), Australia has so much to offer.
We’ll be sharing with you:
- How to be savvy whilst you are travelling
- Our tips and tricks for your working holiday visa
Travelling Australia can be made easier if you budget and be pretty savvy and plan ahead. Here’s a few RatPack essential travel hacks to help you save money $$$ on your working holiday in Australia.
Click images to see more.
Wallet-friendly accommodation
Hostels are THE place to stay when you’re starting out as you’ll get to meet similar travellers and of course, if you’re happy to bunk up in a dorm room you can save a money on accommodation compared to private rooms or hotels. Dorm accomodation is the way to make friends, have banter and learn how to sleep through someone snoring. Not only are you saving cash but you’re getting the actual backpacker experience, you’ll learn great travel tips and will make memories that will last forever.
Another option if you’re a solo traveller and only staying in a city or town for a few nights or more long term is staying in a room through Airbnb. This is a great option as you can meet locals and expats, get a taste for what it’s like to really live in the place and you’ll be with people who could help you find your feet quickly.
If you’re feeling a little more like getting the true aussie outback experience and planning on being in more regional areas, you could give camping a go. This will save you some serious dollaaaaar and you’ll get to enjoy some time in the famous Australian bush…
Just be careful and make sure you’re prepared as we all know Aussie’s wildlife are not always friendly.
Food and Drink
Cook your own food before adventuring for the day
Bring some home cooked food or enjoy the free public BBQ facilities at parks. To enjoy the facilities at the park, just bring some meat and veggies and start grilling! It may not be fancy but it helps you save money. Get some sandwich ziplock bags or tinfoil and you could bring along a packed lunch {your mum will be proud ahah}.
Bring out the Bevvies
Get your share of booze at the “Bottle-o” aka “bottle shop” aka “liquor store” aka “wine shop” or the good ol “off Licence” for the brits amongst us ‘the offy’. Alcohol at the bottle-o is way more reasonable than at bars so starting your night off at the hostel or your house will save you a ton of cash. And no doubt, you’ll learn about the world famous ‘Goon’.
Here’s a proper RatPacker tip for you: Goon is a common choice for the ultimate budget drinkers. It is wine packaged in a box. Its cheap and does you the same justice as any other alcohol drinks but for less cash. WINNING! Warning – goon causes great {terrible} hangovers and if you mix it with juice it will taste WAY better.
with RatPack Travel?
Venture around Australia by Campervan
If you are traveling in a group or solo travelling around Australia, then here’s a little tip for ya: get yourself a campervan to drive, relax and enjoy the beauty of Australia. For example, if you fly into Sydney you can buy a campervan with your savings, you now have a mobile home and somewhere you can call your own. You’ll save a heap load of cash on accommodation, transport and you’ll be able to participate in car pooling where other backpackers will share your fuel cost in return for a ride.
Of course driving across Australia will take more time but there’s loads of opportunities to find work across the country and experience amazing activities like learning to Surf, Sailing the Whitsundays, Bungee Jumping and 4WD on Fraser Island.
An Aussie roadie is a great way to travel the country, save money and make the most of your working holiday visa, a year will go faster than you can imagine!
Get to work
You might be thinking we’re mad when we say you can actually leave Australia with more money than you arrived with but savvy backpackers will finishing up their working holiday in Australia with some extra cash in the bank.
If you complete your farm work you’ll have a whole extra year ahead of you so earning is the one! Another great tip here is to buy a camper or decent size car or van that you can live in while on the road.
This will save you a load of cash on accommodation and transport and you can sell it when you’re gone. The final stage of the money saving guide is to secure your superannuation refund when you leave Australia.
If you’ve already left Australia or if you have a friend who’s left recently, check out the RatPack’s Super Refund page, fill out your details and we’ll find out how much cash you’re owed then you can start planning your next trip yewwwwwwwwwwwwww.
From our RatPackers
I booked my campervan to travel in NZ via RatPack Travel, who managed to find me the perfect van at relatively short notice and with a discount! It was a real help to have someone do the searching and mediate with the company, once they had dates and information from me. Thanks for the prompt and friendly service!
Great service! Jenner was so much help and gave us lots of options to suit our journey. Very attentive and made it an easy process.
This was the best customer service I ever experienced! I highly recommend you if you are looking for a Van or Camper to leave your email address so somebody of their team can get in touch with you. They compare for you all camper hire company’s and you can choose with one suits you the best. I literally talk to this awesome lady from Holland (as I’m only available after 8pm MEL time, so the arrange for me a call with somebody from the EU team for free) and she got our dream van for the most incredible price few minutes after we talked! And not even one day later I got my booking confirmation from the camper company. Their service is free of charge as they earn commission of your booking but this doesn’t cost you a cent. I did my own research before but the deals they give me was way better than I could find by my own. I highly recommend to get in touch with this team and let them find your Van. They literally saved us our fuel cost for a 3 weeks travel from Cairns to Sydney. Yes- that’s almost $1000 they saved us! Go and get your van! You won’t regret it.
So far, so so good. I should have started with RatPack to begin with and saved all that time searching for a camper and feeling like I was getting nowhere. Jenna was incredibly helpful -doing all the hard yards and getting us the best deal. Very prompt service. Thanks for making it so easy !
Very friendly service with Tammy. Super attentive and keen to help us. Got us a discount and one of the last available options.
Ratpack was super helpful! They were extremely responsive and helped us get an amazing deal on two 3-person camper vans. Highly recommend giving them a shot!
Really straight forward helpful and friendly people!
Mike helped us with finding the best van for us for our 3 week trip and was very knowledgeable. With some quick phone calls he gave us the best quotes and walked us through the process in detail. Everything was made clear and we booked our trip in just an hour! I would highly recommend their service.
Great experience with the RatPack travel team! Really went out of their way to help us book our Van’s for two different trips! They have great rapport with the various Van companies, were able to help us book the last available Van for our time in WA and were able to get us some discounts as well. Zan and Mikey were both so easy going, made it feel like we were chatting with friends who genuinely cared about our travels haha, awesome guys! Definitely recommend the RatPack service, will save you time and money fellow travellers!
Mike was amazing - helped me find a van and gave me quotes, a full breakdown, etc super quickly no stress! Just what I needed. Can't wait to start my trip. Thanks dude!
Booked a 3 week trip with MIKEY! Customer service was on point. No Buls**t straight to the point. Saved us a further % on the original price of the campervan and sent me a map of the east coast with highlighted areas he highly recommended to stop at. looking forward to our trip! 🇮🇪 🇦🇺
Highly recommend this company! Mike was incredibly helpful; he gave us lots of useful info and managed to get an excellent deal on a camper for our trip. The whole process was quick and easy. Thank you! Alison and Amy x
Mikey was amazing at helping us plan our 3 week schedule for the east coast. He went over and above to make sure that we were able to fit everything in that we wanted to in the time we have. His knowledge has been a great asset for us making an itinerary. Can't recommend enough!
If you want to book a camper for your trip, you should only do so with Ratpack. The team is incredibly fast and provides great service. No annoying comparison of providers, since Ratpack takes over. They are looking for the best deal and can offer great discounts. they respond individually to your wishes and give you additional tips for the trip. Since there is also an EU team, you could make calls at individual times of the day - simply excellent all around - thanks for everything
Absolutely delighted with the service provided by RatPack Travel. In particular, the excellent guidance and support offered by Jules! We explained our plans and she found a suitable solution to meet our needs. Very grateful and suggest other travellers use this facility. Thank you 😊
