Affiliates and Products
Scribbled by Claire ◊ 24 Jun 2025
This is just a quick explanation of what affiliate marketing is, why we do it, why integrity and honesty matter, what companies we recommend, and why we recommend them.
Here at The Restless Beans, we are very average people. We travel around the globe, on a budget, for around nine months of every year, sometimes covering a lot of ground. This results in us utilising a mammoth amount of travel products and companies. Things like hotel websites, flight portals, car hire brokers, apps, travel gear and so on, without being compensated for doing so.
We consider ourselves reasonably unbiased with our opinions and are writing this post to share, transparently, what stuff we use and why.
Just like most others, our website also uses affiliate links sometimes.
Across this site, interspersed between all our rambling words, are occasional recommendations for car rental companies, ferry booking websites, guided tours, and various other services. Some of these suggestions are links that earn us money if you use them – at no cost to yourself.
IN THIS ARTICLE //
Affiliates and Products
WHAT IS AN AFFILIATE?
WHY WRITE ABOUT AFFILIATES HERE?
SOME OF OUR FAVOURITE COMPANIES
– CAR RENTAL
– FERRIES
– E-SIMS
– FLIGHTS
– CASHBACK
– OVERLAND
– LUGGAGE STORAGE
FINAL THOUGHTS
This post may contain affiliate links. If you book through these links we may make a small commission at zero cost to you. It helps us pay for the upkeep of this blog. Thank you!
What is an Affiliate?
An affiliate is a company that we use regularly and market on our website. We make a (normally tiny) sum of money if you choose to purchase anything through the link we provide – at zero cost to you. We are basically paid to advertise an affiliate company to any visitors passing through our site.
I’ve listed some of the companies we use below, why they are great and why you should consider doing so.
We also suggest products that we don’t affiliate with – our aim here isn’t to sell a product, it’s to recommend a company who we’ve had great experiences with. For example, our recommended travel insurance does not do affiliated marketing. This means we get no money if you choose to buy anything from them – we just love their products and won’t recommend an alternative, just because it has the potential to earn money.
Why Write About Affiliates here?
We chose to write this post because transparency and integrity are important. Honesty is key to us when recommending companies we use.
Truthfully, we’ve seen many websites (bloggers in particular) selling products simply because they can make money. Some also sell products that they have definitely not used themselves. You’ll probably start to notice this if you visit a lot of travel blogs.
We rely heavily on reviews, for everything. If you do not trust the reviewer (or they haven’t even used the product), is their opinion even reliable?
We’ve struggled with these issues a lot, since it’s common to sell products that are unsuitable or otherwise not appropriate for a particular market. There are certain companies, hotels and tours that everyone hawks – had it occurred to you that most people haven’t actually used them!?
Do you want somebody without a driver’s license to advise you on who has the best car rental insurance? What about somebody who has only ever driven abroad once for three days? No, that’s not a good strategy.
Do you want to have travel insurance sold to you that is over-priced, doesn’t cover what you need and has significant (small print) age premiums? No.
There is so much of this behaviour, all over the internet. Honestly, it pisses us off.
Below are the companies we use regularly. If you buy something through these links, the price remains the same for you, but the company pays us a tiny bit of money which helps us cover the cost of this blog!
Some of Our Favourite Companies
Car Rental – Discover Cars
We love Discover Cars. They are a broker that shops around for the best car rental prices for you, anywhere in world. We’ve driven hundreds of thousands of miles, in countries across five continents, and rented more cars than we can count.
Discover Cars almost always has the cheapest prices, but more importantly, they have the best insurance. We found this out the hard way, when our car got absolutely destroyed in a tiny Sicilian town. The claims process was so clear, easy and simple and their communication was perfect.
We have also got stuck in a flood in Death Valley which damaged our rental and another time some absolute nob backed into our car in Yosemite. Then there was the time we had the windscreen of a Mustang completely shattered by a rogue bit of gravel.
None of these incidents were our fault but could have cost us a lot of money without insurance. Fortunately, they didn’t, thanks to Discover Cars. This is why we proudly place their affiliate link all over our website – we don’t use anyone else (or worry about damaging our rentals!).
Ferries – Direct Ferries
Living in the UK with family in Europe means we get a fair few ferries. Direct Ferries is always our go-to because it lists every route with all the ferry lines, so you don’t have to shop around between different companies.
They also list ferries all over the world – not just Europe. Sometimes, some of the most surprising routes are covered by ferries! It’s always worth checking for alternatives to flights. For example – you can travel between Thailand (Koh Lipe) and Malaysia (Langkawi) by ferry instead of flying by booking with Direct Ferries (we did this a few years ago and it was much better than flying). We also took a ferry from Italy to Tunisia to avoid a flight!
E-Sims – Airalo
Until recently, I didn’t really understand why anyone bothered with e-sims. I mean, isn’t it easier and cheaper to pick up a real sim locally?
Well, sometimes, yes, it is.
However, we have had a few situations of late where an Airalo e-sim was the best option. For example, arriving at Tunis ferry port around midnight with no money or access to Wi-Fi.
Other instances where e-sims are useful include crossing land borders where there are no sims for sale (rather than arriving at an airport where they are abundant), or any location that you would feel safer landing/arriving with data.
We also recommend checking Airalo out for every destination anyway, because sometimes they are simply cheaper. In the Maldives, Airalo are offering the exact same data package as the leading network but $5 cheaper!
We affiliate with Airalo because the sims are super simple to set up, we have used them multiple times, and they have always been just as good as a local sim.
Flights – Skyscanner
I feel like I grew up using Skyscanner, it is so fundamental in my life! The ability to type U.K. to ‘anywhere’ and see the entire world in flights was just incredible to me when I was younger.
If you’ve not used it before, Skyscanner is a flight broker thatfinds the best routes combining all the different airlines and has yet to let us down.
Some people might argue that Google Flights is better, but I generally disagree. Skyscanner is the only flight broker that can show you the cheapest flight between two countries without specifying an individual city as either the departure or arrival point. Also, Google flights has had actual incorrect flight prices recently when I was trying it out.
Skyscanner is our go-to for all flight research and bookings – this is why we affiliate with them.
Cashback – Top Cashback
Top Cashback has been a game changer for us, seriously.
It’s a cashback app that if you buy your products through it, you get a percentage back, like any normal cashback app.
This company works with high street brands and supermarkets, but also websites like Expedia.com, Hotels.com and Agoda. This means that for every single accommodation booking you do – you’ll get between 2-11% back. In cash.
It’s completely changed our accommodation budgets for our trip, saving up to around ten percent of the price.
We affiliate with them because we use their product at home and abroad – we love it.
Overland Travel – 12GoAsia
It is now possible to book your transfers around southeast Asia, in places like Thailand and Vietnam (and loads more, like Morocco and the Maldives), using a website called 12GoAsia.
Pronounced 1-2-Go-Asia (not twelve-Go-Asia like I always call it), this site arranges overland travel routes between almost any destination imaginable, using a combination of cars, boats, trains and buses to get you around.
We often use this site to reference transport prices, so we know if we are being ripped off when booking through local agencies! It’s also very good for shorter trips, where it is necessary to pre-book transfers and timing matters a whole lot more. 12Go Asia is by far the best (and often the only) place to book!
Worldwide Luggage Storage – Bounce
If you’re a backpacker, Bounce is an amazing service that provides luggage storage all around the world in major cities. If you want to store something for a day, or even a month, you pay a nominal fee to leave your gear at a nominated site (often at a store or a station etc.).
This service is safe, convenient and means you do not have to lug around your unneeded gear if you go on a trek, a day trip, a short haul flight with luggage restrictions, or even just some city sightseeing!
We’ve used it several times (I hate carrying unnecessary weight, no matter where I am – makes me miserable). We most recently used Bounce in central London, and it was the cheapest option available (and easy, too). The service costs from a few pounds, is bookable on the website, and was perfect for us. We fully recommend it.
Final Thoughts on Affiliates
Despite my little rant at the top, many people legitimately use affiliate links to support their blog or content creation.
In my opinion, it’s a wonderful way to financially support people who do this with integrity while making a positive difference to consumers’ purchasing decisions (especially if it is at no cost to anyone).
This is why we wrote this quick explanation of these companies. We hope it helps people plan their trips and also demonstrates that we really do use these products.
Have a wonderful day and thanks for reading!
Hi, thanks for visiting our blog! If this post has been of help to you, or you’ve just enjoyed our random ramblings and musings, say thank you by buying us a coffee! It helps keep The Restless Beans blog up and running without ads.
Thank you, Claire + Nick
