The perfect surf vacay may be more affordable than you think. Thanburudhoo Island, Maldives. Photo: travelcentralmaldives.com
Hack: Find the cheapest flights to dream surf destinations.
Pros: Save money, travel more.
Cons: Requesting more time off, quitting/losing your job.
It only takes a few days of no waves for any surfer’s mind to start to drift. Daydreams turn to a late night researching. And just like that, they wake up the next morning on the couch with a pizza box on the ground, Mountain Dew spittle on their shirt, and a computer open on their lap, with a new message in their inbox: flight confirmed.
Most surfers dream of perfect waves in paradise. And while (if you’re like me) the majority of trips end with less-than-perfect waves, sometimes more people in the water than anticipated, and a sunburn that makes you look like a colonial British soldier, traveling to surf has a certain indescribable quality that tantalizes.
It’s common practice when determining your next surf trip to first determine your availability and length of stay, make a mental list of desired destinations, then proceed to shop around plugging in different possibilities in different websites to determine what variation will get you the most bang for your buck. If I go from Tuesday to Tuesday will it be any cheaper? Is a flight to Managua cheaper than one to San Salvador? Etc., etc.
But if you think about travel a little differently, there’s a pretty rad tool out there that can take all the work out of that process, and show you what the cheapest flights are to various destinations around the world on a map. It’s called Kayak Explore.
In the interest of full disclosure, I feel obligated to mention that this is not an advertorial. I’ve used this tool to book trips a few times and find it pretty helpful.
Enter in your origin airport and play around with the different options. It gets addicting.
All you do is enter your origin airport, slide how much you’re willing to spend on a flight, how long you’re willing to spend on a plane, and select dates (which can be as non-specific as “Anytime” to actual departure and return dates), and voila!
This will change the way you think about surf travel. Instead of thinking to yourself what’s the least you could spend on a flight to Capetown, for instance. Or even choosing to book the cheapest flights comparing a few different destinations, this tool visualizes all of your potential destinations (even the ones you might not have otherwise thought of).
LAX to Panama City? Flights are $381 right now. What about Bilbao? Flights are $466. Or Bali? $540. Research your surf travel smarter, not harder. Now get after it!
