Who wouldn’t want to travel around the world and drink in the beauty of the various places on this earth? The only thing that stops people from pursuing their travel dreams is money. Yes, though the idea of visiting some of the picturesque places in this world does seem exciting, the truth is that you need a lot of money to do so.
Here, we have given you some simple tips that you can follow to travel more with less money. This may help you get close enough to the places that you ultimately wanted to visit, without loosening your purse strings too much.
Travel light
Ensure that you travel light whenever you travel. You can aim to have one big travel bag that you can carry as a backpack. You should pack all your essentials including climate-friendly clothes, toiletries, camping equipment, tools, etc. in this one bag. This way, you don’t have to worry about bags lost in transit, because you are going to carry this bag always with you. Also, you don’t have to pay extra money for carrying more than the weight that a particular airline allows you to carry.
- Eat the local food
Though you may not want to admit it, your food bills can create a big dent in your travel expenditure, if you aren’t careful. If you want to travel more with less money, you should know to eat the local foods sold at the street-side stalls. Yes, they may look unhygienic, but they are yummy! Try them at all times during your travel and your body will get accustomed to these foods.
- Choose the right accommodation
When you are traveling solo or with a small group of friends, you don’t need to stay in a hotel. Sometimes, even the tariffs of budget hotels are quite exorbitant; therefore, you could look to stay in youth hostels, serviced apartments, dormitories, etc. You can stay in these places at less than half of what you have paid for a hotel.
- Make use of tourist passes
When you are visiting a country and want to visit the maximum tourist places there at an affordable price, you have to head straight to the local tourist office of the country. Look for the tourist cards, passes and the discounts available. Usually, you can get a tourist pass for a week and cover most of the tourist attractions at less than half the price of what it would have cost you to visit these places individually. Students and senior citizens are eligible for special discount passes in most of countries. Ensure you know the rules and the information about the different passes available; this way you will get to see more places at less cost.
- Pick your airline and tickets wisely
More often than not, it is the flight tickets that cost a bomb and make you put your travel plans on hold. This is where you can get a ticket that covers a wide part of the world in one go. This means you will have a big-ticket and use it to travel to small countries that are valid as per the rules of the ticket. For example, instead of traveling to different countries in South East Asia, you could get one ticket that covers almost all the countries in this region. This may look like a huge investment at first, but it will help you save quite a lot of money in the long run.
- Use the local means of transport
This is considered as one of the best hacks to save money when you are traveling. Say goodbye to the cabs and taxis as you embrace the world of buses, trains, trams, metros and the like. There are many types of tourist passes available for different means of transport. You could get a daily, weekly or monthly pass, depending upon your duration of stay and purpose of visit. These passes are quite affordable and you can also beat the traffic when you travel by trains or metros.
- Get a job
When you want to travel to various places but face a shortage of money, you could consider getting work in the place that you wish to travel. You could get in touch with reputed recruitment agencies to find you work at a particular place. More often than not, these jobs pay for your food and accommodation, leaving you with enough money to explore various places. Some of the jobs that you can consider are:
- Working as a waiter or bartender at restaurants, especially during peak tourist seasons or festival seasons
- Teaching a new language or craft
- Food delivery staff, with access to internet and bikes
- Working in an organic farm (you are lucky if you get this job because all your expenses are covered in this job profile)
- Ski or diving instructor, if you possess the required certifications
- Tour guide, if you have a passion for history and learning new things every day
The best part of these jobs is that the employer takes care of your food and accommodation. Therefore, you can save you enough money to travel to different places, according to your time and budget constraints.
- Choose your destination wisely
One of the best ideas to travel more with less money is to choose your destinations carefully. Visit countries that are less-developed than yours or countries that have currency value less than your home country. You should do enough research to know about the cheap destinations that you can visit from your country, which will give you options to travel more with less money. For example, if you are travelling from India, some of the cheap countries that you can consider visiting are Vietnam, Nepal, Singapore, Thailand, Bhutan and Sri Lanka.
Conclusion As you can see, traveling more with less money involves a lot of planning from your side. If you make the right destination, food, accommodation, and transport choices, you are sorted and good to go. It means you have mastered the art of traveling on a tight budget.
Written By Boyan Minchev