Travelling on A Budget: Travel enthusiast and those who like travelling on a budget, taking the world by storm without breaking the bank have I got a treat for you.
Travelers I found great book on the topic of traveling on a budget . I like this book because it explores how people can better travel, spend less to see the world and how to experience freedom of long term travel. The name of the book is Big Travel, Small Budget: How to Travel More, Spend Less, and See the World. Here is an excerpt:
Breaking Away … But Not Breaking the Bank. In the frenetic pace of today’s world, it’s difficult for most people to break away for a week-long vacation. When they do manage to get away, they end up breaking the bank during their travels, which in turn leads them to believe that long-term travel is a luxury held exclusively for the rich. The truth of the matter is that traveling for a few weeks or even a few months doesn’t have to be expensive and you shall see this in travelling on a budget.
I’ve traveled for a month for much less than my cost of living while working a steady job, and for much less than I used to spend on week-long vacations. In this book I’m going to show you exactly how I have managed to save thousands of dollars on transportation and accommodation during the past few years of continuous travel. Being on the road since January 2013 has been one of the greatest experiences of my life and has taken me in so many new and unexpected directions, including the launch of my blog, writing this book, and so many other adventures. It’s been truly remarkable sharing my journey and connecting with so many like-minded people.
I regularly hear from readers who wish they could follow in my footsteps and embark on their own long-term adventures, but their biggest roadblock almost always comes down to money. I wrote this book as a practical and tactical road map to dramatically reducing your expenses and making long-term travel more affordable for everyone, regardless of your starting budget. All it takes is a little know-how mixed with creativity, and a world of travel will open up to you as the reward. Let travelling on a budget show you how.
When I worked a nine-to-five job, I was allowed to take only a single week of vacation at a time, and thus, I would try to jam in as much as possible. I’d come back from vacation somewhat wiped out and with a considerable hole in my savings account. It was only after leaving my job at the end of 2012 and embarking on a year-long sabbatical that I began to embrace the methods I’ll be describing in this book and to truly realize that long-term travel is much more affordable than my previous everyday life—so affordable, in fact, that I continued traveling beyond my initially planned year and have experimented with many different ways to save money while living a life of travel and adventure.
The Best of the Best of travelling on a budget. Some tactics worked well, others not so much. What follows are the best of the best—the big wins that will get you out there traveling in a way you never imagined. Now, you don’t necessarily need to become a permanent vagabond like I did in order to reap the benefits of affordable travel that I will be sharing in the following pages, but you certainly can if you like. Most of these principles can be applied toward a two-week vacation from your regular job or can be scaled up to fit the time you have to spare, which is something that becomes especially appealing if you are going to be between jobs or would like to make the transition to freelancing.
I promise that if you implement just one of the tactics that I share in the following chapters, you will be able to save at least a few hundred dollars during your travels. But more important than just saving money is the realization that you can finally make your travel dreams come true, even on a limited budget. Stepping away from the daily grind of work will allow you to take your life back, open yourself up to new experiences and perspectives, and fundamentally change your idea of what is possible, what is important, and where your priorities stand.
Don’t be the person who puts off their dreams to break free until retirement. Be the kind of person that makes your friends and family stop and say, “I don’t know how they do it.” Be the kind of person that doesn’t just talk about how they like to travel, but truly makes it a priority in life. Money definitely isn’t everything in life, but money is almost always the biggest perceived obstacle to travel. Let’s mitigate some of those worries and make travel a reality by doing it smarter, cheaper, and longer.
The methods we’re about to get into have been proven to help people realize their goals of travel and adventure, which they previously thought were financially beyond their means. You’ll read anecdotes about some other savvy travelers whom I’ve met in my travels or who have connected with me via my blog. Each chapter will provide you with a different actionable approach where you can save money and stretch your budget during your trip. Forget the Top Ramen Each tactic, simply used alone, will amount to significant savings—we are not going to be talking about saving a dollar here or there by eating Top Ramen in the hostel dorm room. But better still, some of these tactics can be combined to create a synergistic effect where you can take mindbogglingly awesome trips for a fraction of what you would otherwise pay. Your friends and family will be blown away, jealous, and asking you, “How can you afford all that?” Are you ready for travelling on a budget?
Not to Brag, but, everyone always asks me how I’ve been able to stay on the road for so long … Since walking away from my desk job in December 2012, I spent nearly a year road-tripping more than 20,000 miles across the American West, seeing some of the most awe-inspiring places I’ve ever laid eyes on. I set out backpacking across Colombia before settling down in the vibrant city of Medellin. Most recently, I’ve headed out for another major road trip across international borders. Indeed, somehow, some way, I’ve been able to maintain a life of adventure and travel over the past few years, and I have no immediate plans to return to the traditional world of work. I don’t say that to brag, but just to show you that you too can create more opportunities to travel in your life and can stretch your budget over the long term, or at least much longer than you probably anticipate.
When I was working the nine-to-five as a legislative assistant in Washington, DC (actually, it was nine-to-six, with plenty of much, much later nights), I would constantly be waiting for the weekend, so grateful when a three-day weekend came about that would allow me to drive a little farther out, and the Holy Grail, a week-long vacation to the mountains and Mother Nature once or twice a year. I love the outdoors, travel, and adventure, along with the constant unknown and uncertainty of where the day’s adventures might take you when you are traveling. It doesn’t really matter whether you are traveling domestically or internationally, it’s all about stepping away from the daily grind that opens you up to new perspectives and places.
Fruition of the “Someday” Plan I would save a little money every month, putting it away for “someday,” but there were never any concrete plans laid, and I always thought I needed to save “just a little more” before making the jump. I was finally forced into making a decision when my boss announced he was going to retire at the end of the year (effectively ending my job) … I would either make the leap into what I’d been longing for, all those days daydreaming at my desk, or, like everybody else, I would start the frantic search for a similar job and keep putting my dreams off until an uncertain date in the future. I was lucky in many ways because I was forced to take action. I know from my own experience that it is much easier to forever delay taking action …
You can always save up just a little more, and there’s almost never, ever a perfect time to uproot your life to travel. That’s why almost every story like this begins with someone getting fired, downsized, or losing their job—it’s so much easier to remain forever complacent (not bad, but not great), than to take the risk of walking away to travel, or heading out on your own and forging your own path. Stepping away from the nine-to-five was one of the best things I’ve ever done. It’s allowed me to take a mental breather, leave behind the stress of work, and live simply while pursuing the things that interest me and not just pursuing money. I felt like I got my life back, and it gave me a new perspective on what is important to me and what is possible when you commit to taking a leap.
In the process I’ve discovered skills and passions that I never knew I had, as well as rekindling passions that I had let die out because I used to be too busy. By taking this path, you’ll come across side trails that branch out to places you never imagined or knew existed when you set out from the trail head. The Leap If you’re looking at making the leap into the world of long-term travel, I’m here to tell you that it is totally possible—but, more importantly, it is totally worth it. One of the top five regrets of the dying is “I wish I hadn’t worked so hard.” Who regrets the opportunity to travel more? There are tons of people that inspired and informed me in the years before I made the jump, and I’m hoping to do the same for you.
Maybe you hope to travel for just six months but don’t think you have enough cash on hand. The info in this book will teach you how to make a smaller budget last over a longer period. Maybe you hope to stretch your six-month budget into a full year. The same principles hold true. Whether you hope to travel more domestically and see the things you’ve always wanted to or you would like to dive into a foreign culture feet first, there is something here for you. The tactics in this book also apply equally to retirees or recent college graduates. If anything, I’ve been crafty with my travels this whole time, which has allowed me to keep traveling. That’s what I want to share with you. Long-term travel is not the exclusive domain of the rich, and there are countless stories unfolding from fellow vagabonds all over the world that prove that simply isn’t true.
I planned to set out for a yearlong adventure at the beginning of 2013, a year of climbing, backpacking, and hiking across the American West—doing the things I loved to do every weekend, but doing them on a daily basis with a constantly changing horizon. I’d enjoy my career sabbatical and then head back to the “real world.” Multiple people warned me when I set out down this path that my travels would fundamentally change me and I wouldn’t want to return to the regular desk job. Well, they were right, I’m still out here. Now I should probably give you the same warning. Who Wants to Travel? You ask 10 people what they like to do, and nine of them will probably mention traveling. Most everybody loves to travel, see new things, and get away from the daily grind. Some people like the big cities, some like beaches, and some like remote country escapes. Hope this travelling the world on a budget helps in making your travel dreams come true.
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