Great job @rehankillbill I am amaized to see PakWheels k naami graami awara gerd and Khuwar log gathered on this single thread. Thank you so much for inviting me.
Looks like I am late to the party and most of the topic of traveling cheap is already covered, khair sharing my two cents.
These are the main factors I guess
1. Transportation
2. Food
3. Accomodation
4. Group Size
5. Season
Aik aik kr k nimtety hain.
1. Transportation
Personal vs public transport: Public transport is cheaper usually but not always. If you have personal conveyance like car then its expensive for 1 or 2 person. But things gets change if you are 3. Its bit cheaper to be 3 people in car than having 3 seats in public transport. If you are 4 people traveling in car then it becomes quite cheaper and with 5 people (though I don't recommend 5 people in car for long trips) it almost half the cost of having 5 seats in public transport. It also saves cost of taxi, rikshaw etc to go to bus stop. Saving a lot of time which is consumed during loading, unloading texi/rikshaw to bus, the bus to texi/rikshaw, waiting for bus etc.
2. Jeeps
Not always but often jeeps expense is the biggest of all other expanses.
Sharing a jeep is an easy trick and an opportunity to meet and chit chat with other travelers. Sometimes you find really amazing people (all the true travelers are amazing) and you end up having the combined rest of the trip. Khair..
We were used to do it often in my early days of traveling to North. If you are with friends then sharing a jeep is no problem at all. But many people can do it with family as well.
Once a friend was on trip to Kaghan valley with his wife and they were on low budget. With some other things I also suggested him to go for jeep sharing if he could find some easy-going couple or family. And he shared jeep with other couples to go to all the jeepable places like Lalazar, Safulmalook, Babusar Top, Paye etc and saved a significant amount.
Usually couples share with couples or families but once when I was with friends, a couple requested us to share our jeep with them. So we gave them front seat and it lowered the cost for both parties.
Book a jeep for all the jeep tracks is Another way of saving some jeep expense. It lowers the jeep expense to some extent instead of booking a different jeep daily. But you need to be smart to make everything clear to the driver. They will agree to take you to A, B, C and D points but later will refuse to go to one of these points and will say it was not part of deal. So deal must not be vague, should be crystal clear for both parties.
Food:
1. Food Canning is the best option, specially for long trips. Cook food at home, get it canned and that's it. You enjoy cheapest meals of highest quality because its ghar ka khana, and secondly aap ki apni mrzi ki dishes. We usually arrange 4,5 different dishes for long trips like qorma, karahi, qeema, sabzi and daal etc. jahan dil kia rotiyan leen, saalen ka can germ kia and enjoy. Its cheapest yet best option. Canning ka expense mila kr bhi its cheapest because nothing is cheaper than cooking at home.
Lahore mai I am getting my food canned by Alfaisal Food Canning in Shadman from last 11 years. Trip se pehle thori khuwari uthani prti hai lakin it pays you back well in trip. Khuwari means you have to cook dishes and take to them, they will put in cans and cans will be sent to canning plant and you will get receipt. Next day you will go again to receive your cans. It has 12 months expiry. I have used within 3 months at max and food was fine. Obviously fresh cooked wala mza tu nai hota lakin its still better than food you usually get from restaurants, hotels during the trips.
But still if trip is short, like 3,4 days then to avoid this hassle of cooking and get it canned, sometimes I buy some different dishes of Freshmate. Its not very good but its just ok option.
2. Cooking your own food is obviously the best and cheapest of all options but its good when you are with friends because load gets divided and everybody enjoy doing the stuff which they are not used to do in routine. Adrak ya pyaz kaatna, masala bhoonena, bertan dhona, ulta seedha pkana, you enjoy everything because its shughal with friends and is not part of your usual routine.
But when you are on family trip then I don't find it appropriate to expect from Khaton e khana to cook. Mothers are the busiest creatures in world. They are the first ones to wakeup in the morning when everybody at home is sleeping, and they are the last ones to go to bed at night. Trips are meant to break your routine. And specially for mothers its only trips when they get chance to break their routine. Agr trip pr bhi routine stuff and duties expect ki jayn tu they are left with no outlet. Khair... it can be arguable for many.
Accomodation
1. Camping saves you a fortune but its not feasible all the time. Specially when you are with family you can't camp everywhere. However its still the best of all options to save on accommodation expense.
2. Finding a hotel other than main hub is another way of finding cheaper accommodation. I remember finding the hotel near Murree adda instead of Murree Mall during the student age. In Kalam, the hotels on main raod are the most expensive, lakin thora ooper ja kr you find really good deals. Fizza ghat pr bhi main road pr hotels are expensive but you find cheaper yet better thora ander ja kr. Land is always costly on Main, so hotels ka thaika (contract) bhi zyada hota hai so customer ko bhi zyada charge krte hain, its simple.
Group Size It matters a lot sometimes. Specially when your trip includes several jeep tracks. If you are 2 to 4 people then you would like to share jeep with some other group. If you are 9,10 people then you would need 2 jeeps. But if you are 6,7 people then chill Jeeps expense is not your problem. You all will fit into a single jeep and expense will be shared among all.
Other than jeeps, it also produce a huge difference in accommodation for some groups which are low on budget. I have seen 10, 12 people sharing a single room. Lakin washroom ka hasher nasher ho jata hai when that much people are using it
Season? Off Season?
Last but not least. It makes really really huge difference.
Once a friend of mine told me about getting a room in Naran in a hotel in peak season. Hotel person asked for 8,000 rent for a double room. Friend find it expensive and left the hotel. Aik do aur jga se pta krne k bad he found that 8000 was the best available option. He went back to that hotel and hotel person said its 10,000 now because someone already have given the offer of 9000.
The same year, but in off season (Oct 2016) I stopped at Naran to spend a night while going to Shandur from via Ghizar side. All the hotels were having most of the rooms empty. I asked for double room and the hotel guy showed me a triple room. I said I don't need a triple room tu he replied k ap yehi le lain rent double ka de dena. Abhi double room tyar krna pre ga. I asked for rent to he said 1200. Mai ne kaha "yar 1200 tu zyada hai". Ye sun kr he lift his gaze, dono ka eye contact hua aur dono ki hansi nikal gai. I didn't say a word more aur kaha ok theek hai.
That much difference season or off-season can make. 10 thousands vs 12 hundreds.
Question is, when is season and when is off?
When schools are off in summer (Start of June to end ofAug), its peak season in whole North. When schools are off in winter (Last week of Dec and first week of Jan) then its peak season in Murree and Galiyat.
And when its long weekend like some public holiday comes with weekend then rates are high in North.
Also there is a difference in rates on weekends and on working days. People reach North on Saturday or Sunday and book hotel for 3,4 days on the rate of weekend. I would recommend booking for just couple of nights and then rebook or change hotel after the weekend and you will find better deal.
Aur han, peak of the peak season is right after the day of Eid. I would strongly advise against going to North in these days.
PS. Awara gerd and khuwar words are used in positive manner. I know most of the people invited to this thread due to PakWheels platform and am actually admiring their desire and efforts to explore the motherland.
PPS. I would also like to invite @dr_baloch, he is not as frequent traveler as many here. But I am sure he can share some word of wisdom.
I would also like to invite @ranasherdil to seek some advice from his experiences.