During my 27 years of life I have been traveling a lot. I have left my hometown at nineteen and dedicated many years to my biggest passion of discovering new countries and destinations. Seven months ago I have reached my goal of visiting 75 world countries, over all the six continents of the earth.
Many people are shocked when they hear my story, and the most asked question I receive is: how can you travel that much?
First of all, I would like to say that travelling has not been my only activity in life, I didn't quit everything to make a world tour, but I have been started and completed my university studies in the meantime, as well as visiting my parents and hometown at least once a year.
Here I want to share with you the secrets I have been applied to my life, in order to achieve all my travelling and life goals, so that you can think about applying them to your life too.
1. Postpone that dinner. Everybody likes to go and have a dinner our at their favorite restaurant, but unfortunately this implies a big expense of money. If you try and think about a little change of plan from time to time, this extra money could really help you pay for a flight ticket. Consider maybe cooking at home one more time and remember that you are just rescheduling the dinner out for the time of your travel, when you are going to be in a new place and that restaurant will offer you the best local food of that area.
2. Buy clothes second hand. Today more than ever we are in an era where overproduction of items is consuming all our natural resources and the waste we generate is hard to be disposed without causing issue to the environment. This means that every new piece of cloth that we buy, we are directly harming Mother Nature.
To avoid this waste, I found a solution that is to shop in second hand or charity stores. Depending on which country you are in, there might be different businesses, but I definitely recommend to give it a go and save those important extra money that will reveal very important to reach your travel goal, and in the same time reducing your carbon impact on the world!
3. Study deeply your destination. When you decide to travel somewhere it is usually because you don't know that place and you want to discover it. Unfortunately, when locals see that you are a tourist, they will try to get the most of your money because they take advantage of the fact that you have never been to that place and don't necessarily know the exact currency value or how things work there. If you want to avoid or limit the chances of this scenario, the best thing I can recommend you is to study and get the most information about that place. You can read in internet, watch Youtube videos, or check my other articles ->click her to see the blog<- to get a bigger knowledge about that country or location that you are going to visit. This will save you a lot of money when on site, and also make you appreciate even more the place that you are exploring.
4. Search and look for every option. The beautiful thing about traveling is that the concept of it is the basic thing of moving your body and soul to a different location, but once you are there, anything can happen and every moment that you spend in that place will be different from what you are used to do in your home town.
When planning a trip to visit a new city or a new country, what I would recommend is to look for many options that are available in that place. Don't just limit yourself of visiting the popular places or do whatever every tourist would do. Give yourself the opportunity to look for things that are not in the spotlight and if you want to get a particular tour, search in the web many different companies that offer that same trip and choose one that better accommodates your preferences and correspond to the type of business you want to support.
5. Gather two or more close destinations in one trip. The world is a big sphere, and depending on where are are located, some countries will result to be closer or far away to reach from us. I have been using this trip since I started traveling outside Europe, because I noticed that it was way more convenient for me to wait a little longer and do a bigger trip rather than making two different trips and spending the double of flight money and loosing time to cross the Ocean twice to reach a further land.
An example is, when I moved to Mexico for six months in 2019, I took that opportunity to visit some cities in the USA, as long as some areas of Guatemala and Cuba. This gave me the chance to discover more about four different countries instead of just one.
Also, when travelled to South Africa for a volunteering project, I took some time before and after to visit as well Namibia, Mozambique and Tanzania.
Of course this requires a bigger and better preparation for the trip, but once you are back home, the memories and experiences collected are really worth the effort.
6. Take quick decisions. This is a hard point to stick to, and sometimes it could make traveling life a little bit stressful, but the reality is that the flight market is constantly changing and everyday is a new opportunity to get good deal or to see the prices risen up.
What I noticed from my experience, is that the price of a flight usually changes only after midnight, so the best moment to buy it is right before going to bed.
This would have to happen around three months before the flight date for a domestic destination, and four to five months for an international one.
It is always a good practice, as well, to monitor the flight that you are willing to take for at least one or two weeks before making the final decision and purchase. Giving yourself this time of analysis will give you the opportunity to notice the variations of the price for that same section, and why not, maybe finding a better route or choose the dates that the airlines considers less valued.
But the most important this is, once the decision is taken and you are ready to make the purchase, go until the end and close that deal, so that the flight is taken and you can add the travel date to your calendar and celebrate the new countdown!
7. Adapt to low cost accommodation. People tend to associate travelling to big spending and luxury vacation in five-stars hotels. This comes from the past times when travelling was considered a leisure that only rich or very wealthy people could afford.
Of course, it is nice when we leave our home, to sleep in nice rooms and have high standard accommodations, but if your idea is to travel many places, your mindset should change and adapt to what your wallet affords. There are many opportunities nowadays to find cheap places to sleep, like Hostels, Airbnb and even Couchsurfing (where you can be hosted for free in exchange of a good chat, a meal and the whole experience of meeting the travel community). What is my real thought is that, while travelling, you might want to spend you time exploring and getting to know the people around you instead of being closed into fancy but lonely hotel room.
8. Bring cash or make a deal with your bank. Last but not least, remember that the country where you are going might use a different currency than the one that you are currently using. Once you have landed in that place, if you don't have any money you will struggle in the airport to take a taxi or pay for public transport. Withdrawing cash in the airport or from a not-recognized-by-your-bank ATM might really cost you a lot of transaction fees, added to the currency rate that is not going to be favorable for you.
When I traveled to Brazil, I realized only once I got there that I hadn't made any deal with my Portuguese bank for international withdrawals, so they charged me five dollars every time I took money from an ATM. This is the reason why it is very important to not forget to bring a fair quantity of cash to exchange or to talk to your bank and let them offer you a plan that will allow you to withdraw in foreign countries at a fixed rate. You will be extremely happy not to have to spend that extra money at every withdrawal and will feel more free to use them for fun activities and good local food.
Here we are at the end, you read all the tips I discovered and used for each of every trip during my life. Now it is time for you to process them and apply them to your life, to reach your goal faster and in a creative and carbon-friendly way. If you are thinking about a country of your travel list, check in my map if I have already been there and read my experience and advice about it.
And I am sure you have more tips in your mind to travel cheap, so please share them with me in the section of comments below!
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