Be seen around galavanting across the world is a privileged life that was portrayed and a rather luxurious voyage that is restricted to only those who have very rich bank accounts. There are refined pictures of infinity swimming pools, five-star rooms and fine dining and we end up at the endemic myth that the sign of a passport stamp is the sign of an empty bank account. This is a seductive story but a very misleading one. The potential of travel to get you absorbed in a culture and etch itself on your soul does not depend on how fat your wallet is, it depends on how creative your imagination is. It is not about changing how you look at things as a consumer but looking in a different way of the dimension of connection, it is not a manufactured luxury. Budget traveling is not deprivation but the most liberating type of traveling as it frees you of the tourist bubble and makes you able to interact with the world in a more personal and deeper way. It has a new type of currency: flexibility, creativity and boundless curiosity.
A budget travelling adventure starts many months before the baggage is packed or even when a taxi is called to go to the airport. It begins at the planning stage during the quiet hours when the greatest savings are discovered. Flexibility is the greatest asset during the stage. When you are tied to a particular two weeks of August to go to Paris, then you are at mercies of high season prices. However, when you say only that you want to go to Europe and with a date like sometime in the fall, the doors of opportunity swing open. The inflexible traveler is charged a premium on convenience and the flexible traveler gets rewarded with value. Such flexibility ought to apply to places of destination, as well as dates. Maybe Italy is your dream destination, yet air fare is unbelievably high. In less than a minute, you may find that a flight to Lisbon, Portugal, is a handful of the expenses. Portugal has its excellent coasts, heritage and delicious food as well. There is nothing you have devalued on your trip; you have just unlocked another door which is just as exciting as the one you had on your trip. Go during the shoulder seasons; the months before and after the height of the tourist delirium, so as May, June, September and October in Europe. You will also be met by good weather, no hectic hordes trying to take photos, and the air fare and accommodation rates are a bargain in these dramatic ways.
The biggest obstacle is normally to locate that cheap flight. A traveler in the new era is well equipped with weapons of digitality. Compare aggregators (e.g. Skyscanner, Google Flights, Momondo) will now become your new best friends. With a few clicks, you can compare prices on hundreds of airlines and booking agents offered to you. Take advantage of their improved features. Whereas, in case you are quite flexible, play with the so-called function “Everywhere” or Explore, and it reveals to you the destination you can fly to, the cheapest places possible on your selected dates and at your home airport! Establish flight trackers on the flights you would like to travel on; the internet would work on your behalf, sending you alert when the flight price would decrease. Do not mind purchasing a flight with a couple of hours longer delay as they tend to be considerably lesser expensive. Layover is not an irritation when you have to stay at a place like Istanbul or Amsterdam, ten-hour layover is a gift and an opportunity to have a taste of another place and spend some hours there, free of charge. When flying in, think of getting your flight in smaller and second-tier airports as opposed to the major international hub. London Stansted or Gatwick are usually cheaper places to fly to than Heathrow and the transport to the center of London by train or bus is easy and cheap.
After you book a flight and step into the paradise of your choice, the second major pillar of your travel budget will come into play: the place that you rest your head at night. The oldest element to such a drain on the wallet of the traveler is the old-fashioned hotel with its star rating and concierge desk. However the wise traveler understands that the accommodation world is diverse and extensive. The hostel is the classic option of a budget traveler and the new age of hostel living obliterates the old idea of the grimy hostel. Nowadays, there exist luxury hostels that are cleaner and stylish than hotels. Most hostels also have private rooms (with en-suite bathrooms, which is why most hotels never have them), but even the most expensive are, despite that advantage, cheaper than a similar room at a hotel. A hostel, however, can be much more valuable than the bed. The place is the communal kitchen, which helps you save a fortune where it comes to food. It is in the common room, where you will find other people traveling too, and will find others in every part of the world, and will hear them talk about their stories, suggestions, and may be even have someone to plan to explore with. This is the most valuable social part of it; the only friends you will make standing by the table during the shared meal or sharing a map in a common-room of a hostel can become the best memory of your visiting.
In case one wants to go even further in the quest of cultural immersion and financial savings, one must move to the great realm of Couchsurfing and house-sitting. Couchsurfing is not only a tool that provides free housing as it allows travelers to stay with local people who can provide them with a bed or a couch at no cost. It is a philosophy of trusting and cultural reciprocity. Living with a local gives one a unique experience about the everyday life in an atmosphere far away off the tourist beaten path. Your host can introduce you to his or her favorite local cafe, take you out to the dinner table, or tip you about things that no book would ever tell even you. In the same way, house sitting is now an innovative means of traveling. Internet sites such as TrustedHousesitters allow house owners in need of maintaining their homes to find appropriate individuals to accommodate their pets with individuals on the move wishing free boarding. That can be an opportunity to live as a local, with a comfortable bed in a nice house, to spend weeks or months, with the only commitment having to take a dog one or two times a day to walk or to water some plants. It is a wonderful exchange that leaves a strong sense of the place and belonging.
Let us take the third pillar of travel expenditure and probably one of the best features of traveling itself, food. Travelers fear paying large sums of money to buy food; therefore, they end up living on instant noodles, which is a very sad miscalculation. Food can be seen as the language of culture and being deprived of it is being deprived of a very important aspect of an experience. The trick is to not miss out on local food, but to go about it wisely. The most effective weapon of yours is your own kitchen in your hostel or flat you are renting. You literally can save money with buying your own breakfast and making a lunch by packing one. A visit to the neighbourhood supermarket or even better still, a scampering street market is in itself an adventure. Fresh bread, local cheeses, ripe fruits, and other supplies can easily be purchased cheaply as compared to paying a restaurant. This enables you to indulge in an expensive night out. When eating out, eat at local places. Take a few steps to the side of the main tourist square and you will discover small family restaurants where food is more natural and prices are much cheaper. Search destinations that have handwritten menu and constant flow of local customers. A budget traveler could not be more than pleased with street food. Whether it is pad thai in Bangkok, tacos al pastor in Mexico City, or crepes in Paris, street food can be the cheapest, tastiest and most traditional thing you can ever eat. Look at where people line up; you cannot get a better hygiene and quality rating than a long queue of the locals.
Local transportation is another aspect on which smart decisions can save you money. When I get to a new city, I do not go straight away and get to a taxi. The majority of the airports are well-equipped with superb, well-labeled means of public transport, such as trains or buses, which will bring you to the city center at a very small portion of the economic cost. Public transport: when you have settled down, utilize it. Subways, trams, and buses are not only cheap, but rather the mode through which the citizens of the city lead their life. It is the part of the adventure to keep your way in new metro system. Most importantly, take to walking. The freest, and the best mode of transport, is your own two feet. By walking, you get a chance to explore the little lanes, those odd little shops as well as those random places of beauty that are very easy to overlook. It enables you to experience the pulse of a city, to be able to engulf the sounds and odors. Overnight buses or trains are a good option when it comes to travel between cities that are further apart. This is a useful trick of combining the transportation and accommodation fees into a single deal so that you do not have to spend a night in a hostel although you travel as you sleep. Airlines of the type of low cost planes are unbelievably affordable to travel the country in regions such as the Europe or Southeast Asia where it would be cheaper to fly than it would be to travel by train.
And last but not least, and the activities which made us travel to begin with the museums the historic sites the natural wonder can also trip the budget. However, a lot of the best memories are a free of charge. The most valuable things do not cost a penny; afternoons sitting on a bench in a park observing people, lost in the medieval quarter of a town on purpose, enjoying a hike to a viewpoint to see the sunset spread its rays, a walk by the seaside to a free beach, etc. Make inquiries on the paid attractions. A lot of museums of the world class are free on some days of the week or evenings. Tourism cards granting access to several attractions throughout the city may turn out to be a wise deal (it happened), but you need to count the numbers. When you do not intend visiting all the ten attractions that come with it, then it is best to patronize them separately. When you are qualified, always inquire on student or youth rates. Experiences rather sights. Rather than coughing up an expensive price to ascend another cathedral tower, perhaps you would find more pleasure in a free tour on foot (where you give the guide whatever amount it felt the tour was worth at the end of the tour) that provides historical background and the tales of the locals.
Finally, budget travelling is a lifestyle. It is the choice that it is not about luxury But more about experience, connection than convenience. It is about realizing that sitting down with your newfound friends in a hostel kitchen and having a home-cooked meal would be satisfying than eating alone in an expensive restaurant. It is to understand that the anecdote about the problem of getting lost and retrieving a way out with aid of a helpful stranger is worth more than a smooth, package tour. Such a way of travelling can resolve more than [just] save you lots of money, but it makes your trip more favorable. It makes you more resourceful, more alert and more desiring to learn more about the world around you. It takes you beyond your comfort zone and into the world of the true adventure. The world is big, wonderful and more reachable than one would think. You do not have to be a millionaire to see it. All you require is a bit of guts to stuff your bag, the gumption to stretch your dollar and the conviction that that the best things in travelling are actually not what you can acquire on the road but what you can acquire there.
And it can even be taken to the step further as this very action of making your way in life is transforming into a long-life juicy journey across the road. This is the world of slow travel, purposeful and conscious refusal of the storm tour, which takes away only a camera stick-loaded with photographs and general feeling of fatigue. The art of staying put is called slow travel. It is taking a town in Vietnam, spending a month staying somewhere that is tiny compared to the events in the past month. It is not attempting to visit five countries in Southeast Asia in the same month. The economic advantages of the strategy cannot be overestimated. The cost of renting out an apartment (or a room) on a monthly basis is nearly always radically cheaper per night, as compared to a few nights at a time. It is rooted and this solidity gives you the chance to literally and metaphorically unpack. You are no longer a tourist travelling through, you become a long term visitor. You discover your favourite coffee place, you get to know the names of the sellers of the local market, you learn about these nuances of a daily routine of a place. This increased sense of belonging to a community is a great payback more than forming another country to fill in a list and enables your travel budget to be greatly extended in ideas you can hardly have ever imagined.
Work exchanges are one of the most revolutionary measures to take up slow travel and rid your largest single outgo of the trip accommodation. New budget travel platforms, such as Workaway, HelpX, or Worldpackers, have welcomed a revolution in long-term travel, bringing together travelers with people around the globe who can provide them with a home to stay in (and, in many cases, food too) in exchange of some hours of work per day. It is amazing in the extent of opportunities. You may pick olives in a family farm in the Greek country side, assisting in guests at a surf hostel in the coast of Peru, restoring a historic chateau in France, tending to sled dogs in the wilderness of Canada, teaching English to kids in a small village in Thailand. This is not labour for free, it is a symbiosis. You bring knowledge and effort, and in exchange, you get not only a bed to sleep in, you also have direct and real access to a local culture. You cooperate with locals, eat with them, you are involved into their project and their lives. It is an unprecedented chance of self-development, mastering a new language, and establishing authentic human relationships. A two months trip across South America that can appear financially overwhelming turns to be fully possible when you understand that one of these months you will live without paying a dime, as you may have to just find the way to get to the next place and spend some weekends outside but it is probably not expensive to do so.
Naturally, in order to survive in this realm of fluid, long-term travel, you have to be as advanced in how you handle your money as you are advanced in your travel arrangements. Just coming to a country with the amount of your currency in your wallet is a sure loser in the exchange rates and excessive fees. Get the right financial tools equipped before you go. Open a bank account that is travel-friendly, which is one that has no, or minimal, charges involving foreign transactions, and one where the bank will reimburse the local ATM fees imposed by other banks. These are tiny percentages, perhaps not too much to consider but when it comes to a multi-month trip, it can easily come in hundreds of dollars. The best would be a travel-friendly debit card to draw local currency with and a credit card with zero foreign transaction fees to use when making larger purchases. Whenever making purchases in a foreign country, it is always better to pay in the local currency using your card because the exchange rate that will be provided by your card company will usually be favorable, compared to the exchange rate that will be given by the machine at the store. Another nice thing to have, just in case of loss or theft, is an emergency supply of a currency that most people accept, such as US dollars and Euros, neither of which is backed by a government. It would also be advisable to have a spare credit or debit card, separate of the main wallet. It is not pessimism; it is being ready in case of when a small accident is going to bog you down.
This high-efficiency streamlined culture is carried straight to your back. Pack light not only is the slogan of the budget traveler, it is as well a philosophy of liberation. It is a freeing experience to travel with a carry-on backpack. Light, swift and free-footed. You can travel through the busy train station without difficulties, sit on the back of a scooter taxi when it is necessary without questioning this option, and you will never need to lose the most precious time of your traveling on the worst carousel where you hope that your bag will finally appear. This takes a tough and smart ways of packing. Buy packing cubes because it helps to organize all your stuff and also to pack it and keep it tight. Select a multitalented wardrobe, that is based on layers, that is mixable, and matchable. Such materials as merino wool are a dream of a budget traveler; light, temperature-regulating, are resistant to odour, and you can wear them several times before a wash. Transfer your liquids to travel-friendly reuseable bottles or even better, use solid toiletries, solid shampoo, conditioner, and toothpaste bars travelling with liquids becomes a problem with the 3-1-1 liquids rule in the airports. The must-haves include a universal charge converter, a handheld portable power bank, or a reusable water bottle. All items placed in your pack should serve their purpose. Not only will you save money, but you will have practiced minimalism which relieves you of stress and helps you concentrate on the world in your front and not on the burden on your back.
Technology is a tool that can work to your best advantage when utilized in the most judicial manner. Most people carry around a digital Swiss Army knife in the form of their smart phone. Download offline maps with your applications such as Google Maps or Maps.me before you even get there. This will give you the ability to maneuver without the continuous flow of internet connection, you will not have to pay the heavy roaming costs as well as the panic of being lost. Such a decent translation app with offline dictionary will make the communication gaps disappear and result in a fantastic interactions. A special budgeting app or just a regular spreadsheet will help monitor your expenses so that you are still on track. As far as remaining connected is concerned, avoid roaming packages in your home carrier. When travelling an eSIM (a digital SIM card) can be bought and turned on, even before landing, and you instantly have connectivity to the internet. In longer cases, the cheapest way is nearly always to purchase a local SIM at the airports or a mobile phone store in the town. It is a minor task that can help you economize a lot of money and just offer you with a local number and lots of data to study, move around, and communicate.
In addition to the practical considerations of funds and equipment, it is important also to recognize the psychological environment of prolonged travelling on a budget. Travel burnout may also occur due to the continual movement, the new settings and the difficulties of having to orient oneself in completely different cultures. It is a quite tangible phenomenon. The urgency of constantly discovering, seeing things and doing things might get tiresome. It is essential that you plan some zero days; days in which you do not have anything to do. Allow yourself to not do anything but read a book in a hammock, binge watch a show or just stroll around with nowhere to go. These break times do not represent wastage of time; they help in restoring both the physical and mental energy in a person and thus enables the person to enjoy the journey more. Being lonely may also be one issue and more so to the single people who travel. This is where communities you can find in hostels, or at work exchange, or at online groups or in meetup applications will be so insightful. It is not a problem to start a conversation, or even go out with a group to a restaurant or ask the group to go out, it is not a problem to initiate a day trip. The human contact is the remedy to anything that tends to creep in on the road, in the form of isolation.
Lastly, the smart traveler on a budget is the one who is safe. It should never cost you your security so that you can be conscious about your financial resources. There is one pre-trip purchase that ranks above them all; extensive travel insurance. It might seem to be an extraneous expenditure when you are struggling to save every penny but it is the final safety net as far as finances are concerned. Even a minor injury like a broken bone or a severe illness in a different country might end up costing you not only a budget-break but a life-changer. It is a little cost where you can travel without worrying. Keep in mind to stay alert and read about typical tricks in the place that you are visiting, so you can be sure not to easily fall as a victim. Do not flaunt costly electronics and wads of money. Lock the valuables in lockers within the hostells. Use your instinct; when something or someone does not add up, get out of it. This consciousness does not concern frightened existence, but a state of knowing how to travel with confidence and wisdom. It gives you the confidence and assurance that your memories are of the amazing people you encountered and the breath-taking sceneries you admired and not the avoidable accidents. This has become a combined perspective of financial savvy and the reality of practical minimalism and emotional intelligence and allows the act of budget travel not just to be a vacation but a deep-rooted and easily accessible life lesson. You learn things like resilience, resourcefulness and how despite what you have been programmed into thinking, the world is much more open to people and much cheaper than you have been led to believe.
