This year I’m attending the Formula1 at Malaysia, and I’m doing it “cheap”.
I’ve never been to an F1 race before and despite being in Malaysia at the same time as the 2012 race I never quite made it down to Sepang Circuit to have a look. This year I’m making a dedicated trip, on a budget.
The Budget:
The budget was “open” to interpretation as I’m always a sucker for toxic option syndrome, but to meet all the initial costs upfront from cash reserves and limit myself from up-speccing accommodation etc I elected to cap fixed costs of airfares, accommodation and F1 ticket at AUD1500.
Planning:
I started out in January with a very simple plan, book some fares on the worlds best low-cost carrier and use the dates of the cheapest fares to determine the duration of the trip. I wanted some time on the ground to visit some attractions as well as relax and generally “have a break”.
Canberra is not an international travel hub so my flight costs had to get blown out by the duopoly that is the Australian domestic airline industry.
F1 tickets for Malaysia are cheap, there’s no other way to put it and this was the most flexible part of my budget, I could spend next to nothing for a walking paddock pass or extend into Grandstand seats from around AUD100.
Accommodation was going to be part of the make-or-break equation, I knew spending AUD100-AUD150 a night would deliver a good room in a international hotel chain, but it would also significantly dent my meagre budget. Thankfully Kuala Lumpur has a myriad of options and really the trick was seeing how much was left after the airlines took their share.
So the plan was:
1. Book flights to Malaysia (Kuala Lumpur) – ensure domestic flights could be matched up and book those too.
2. Lock in F1 ticket booking.
3. Decide on any side-trips, book Kuala Lumpur accommodation.
4. Do stuff I forgot to do first… (Like Travel Insurance)
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