A strange myth perpetually persists one that takes sick comfort in suggesting that real travel is something only moneyed people can enjoy that having adventures around the world is a matter of having a bank account as thick as your waistline and an allowance as flexible as your knees. Anyone who has elephant-trunked through a land of twenty-five cent meals, hitchhiked their way across a continent, or camped their way through breathtaking national parks will see this myth for what it is a cozily comforting alibi for those who have never got out of town. Traveling cheap is not a compromise. It is a discipline and it can be an art and like all arts, it will smile kindly upon those who learn its secrets.
Rethink the Meaning of “Travel”
The first and most crucial transition that it is necessary for budget travelers to make is mental, instead of monetary. Traveling isn’t meaning benefit, as well as luxury isn’t really meaning unforgettable. A few of the greatest traveling experiences originate from sharing an dish with a stranger at a backpacker kitchen, a lengthy talk on an overnight train, or a sunlight up viewed from a rooftop that was free to climb up.
Plan Early, Book Smart
Timing is the single biggest tool at any budget travelers disposal. Airfares and hotel prices are highly sensitive to demand. By keeping an eye on fare comparison sites, warning alerts, and saving a few days flexibility on travel plans, trips can be booked for far less than a day earlier or later. Traveling during shoulder season when travelers are between peak seasons can result in beautiful weather and few other tourists for half the price.
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Price always pays to flexibility, rather than specific destination. If you’re choosing ‘see some beautiful and new place’ instead of ‘see that one specific city’, then use cheap flights and available fares to guide your location rather than battling increasing fares to travel to a current destination to tick it off that (overcrowded) list.
Eat Like a Local, Not Like a Tourist
If you’re a restaurant near a big sights, you’ll be paying for the tourist cheerleading and high numbers of customers, not quality. Walk two or three streets back from the tourist information center and you’ll notice the price halved and the flavor increased. The best street food, local markets and family-run restaurants will be much cheaper than the unpronounceable entrees on an laminated menu in a language you don’t understand, and will often taste much better. Even cooking a handful of your own food, when your accommodation is suitable, can cut your daily costs by a dramatic amount while still having lots of new tastes.
Move Like a Local Too
Public transportation is marginally more affordable than taxis and private shuttles, while serving as an even better experience. Buses, trains, and subways provide a glimpse of life that private cars do not. Often, in most cities, walking or biking are the best ways to really feel a place’s fabric – its buildings, its tempo, its unexpected minute. Buses and trains at night also save on the cost of both a hotel and a ride often a wise choice.
Prioritize Experiences Over Souvenirs
If you want to travel on a budget, it needs an unflinching honesty about what really matters to you. What will be remembered fondly years from now are usually not the souvenirs bought on your journey but the free walking tours, city parks, nature trails, street festivals and buying yourself a baguette in the middle of nowhere. Don’t spend on anything that doesn’t really matter to you, and be willing to cut ruthlessly everywhere else.
The Real Secret
This might be the greatest unknown money saving travel tip of all travel slower. Traveling too quickly through numerous countries in a limited amount of time causes transit costs to soar while minimising the opportunity for those travel moments, which make it all worthwhile. By spending more time in fewer locations travel costs are decreased with the potential for better local rates on long term rentals and the opportunity for improvising discovery that no amount of money can buy.
Budget travel is not really about deprivation in the end. It is about choice to spend ruthlessly on what expands you and refuse, clear conscience, all else. You learn how to do this and the world suddenly becomes a whole lot cheaper…
