I used my favorite money-saving trick to travel through the dreamy Mediterranean islands of Sardinia and Corsica

Libby Kane / Business Insider

I've written before about how my favorite money-saving travel tip isn't poring over flight websites or negotiating with hotels: It's traveling in shoulder season.

By choosing to travel six to eight weeks before or after high season ("shoulder season"), I save money on flights, accommodations, car rentals, and most everything else by making one decision and never thinking about it again.

It seems obvious, but a lot of people don't do it. There's a good reason why: Traveling in shoulder season means things are more likely to be imperfect. The weather could be less reliable, the transport could be less consistent, and the scene could be less vibrant. If imperfection stresses you out unduly, this probably isn't the strategy for you.

It is the strategy for me.

At the end of May, a college friend and I spent 11 days traveling through Sardinia and Corsica, Italian and French islands (respectively) off the western coast of Italy. Admittedly, we ran into a few shoulder-season logistical snags, but nothing we couldn't handle. Here's what it was like:

Sardinia and Corsica are located off the western coast of Italy. It takes about an hour to fly from Rome into Cagliari, the southernmost city in Sardinia.

We planned to work our way up the eastern coast of Sardinia by car, stopping along the way to see the ritzy Costa Smeralda, then jump to Corsica via ferry.

With this plan, we hit a shoulder-season snag: The high season in the area is July and August, so in late May and early June, there are extremely limited and expensive flights in and out of Corsica.

Instead, we chose the less-efficient method of spending just a few days in Bonifacio, Corsica, and looping back around to fly out of Sardinia.

We booked a mixture of Airbnb apartments and hotel rooms for our trip. Our first was a lovely room in the historic center of Cagliari, where we'd planned to spend about 24 hours. Thanks to some flight delays, it ended up being a little less than that, but ultimately enough.

Book our Airbnb in Cagliari.