How to Find the Money to Travel… My first travel blog post
Travel…I've been traveling the world a long time now, spending time on the road whenever I can. Travel blogs are helpful. While I’ve spent a lot of time in New Orleans, Chicago, and now Detroit, with an extended period living and working in Poland and Uruguay, I’m still a nomad at heart.
I’m a regular at airports. I am familiar with getting lost in foreign lands where the language is a mystery to me. I’m constantly searching for cheap flights and collecting as many air miles as I can and reading other travel blogs.
After visiting multiple countries, there’s a familiar line of questioning I get that usually leads to this: How do you afford to travel so often?
Am I rich? Do I travel for work? Am I an escort? Do I get paid to travel blog? Do I sell drugs or run guns?
Sadly, it is none of those. (Ok, I’m glad I don’t have to sell drugs or run guns!)
Desire is what motivates and keeps me going.
I want to travel — so I do. Just like other travel bloggers.
Tho desire doesn’t completely solve the practical issue: money.
No matter how cheaply you travel, you do need some money.
So how do I afford to travel so much?
I work a lot. I save my money. I learn from travel blogs. I am frugal. I stay in furnished, short term, rentals instead of hotels or hostels. I find work sometimes when I am staying for extended periods.
A lot of people have this misconception that travel is expensive, that whenever and wherever you go, you are going to spend a lot of money. You can travel and be wonderfully, frugal. In some places like Europe, that may be true. In some people’s cases, that is always true. But for most of us that isn’t true. Travel can be cheap and cheap doesn’t mean bad.
I tell my co-workers all the time that I just travel cheap and images of awful service and rundown hotels pop into their mind. Backpacking isn’t for them, and they want their comfort. I want my comfort, too. I eat out and do nice things while I’m away. It’s not run down hotels and instant noodle meals. So maybe frugal is a better word to use. I don’t travel cheaply. I travel frugally.
When I am home, I work, and save. I don’t go out every night and am careful about how I spend my money. I make travel my monetary priority. That’s the most important part of the puzzle. Don’t waste your money. If you are always spending it on something else, travel will always seem out of your reach.
You need to make travel a priority, too. I am an educator by trade and always yearning for more experiences and knowledge.
Once it becomes important, you begin to find ways to save. Cut out Starbucks and fancy lunches. Every dollar counts.
Before I went away in 2006, I saved for over a year. I acted like a pauper so I could make sure I had enough money to travel. When I was on the road and starting to run out of money, I taught English in Punta del Estes, Uruguay.
There are tons of other ways to make money while traveling, too. Working at a hostel, seasonal farm or restaurant work, remote freelancing, travel writing — the list goes on!
Once you get creative, travel becomes an endless possibility. It won’t be easy or glamorous, but it is 100% possible if you’re willing to make some changes to how you view travel.
People, especially Americans, have this image of travel and hotels, of fancy things and shopping, and luxury. All they see are dollar signs, but you can have a comfortable vacation without comfortably spending your life savings.
Platforms like Airbnb, Booking, and Furnished Finder make travel more affordable. Furnished, short term, rentals allow for affordability and cultural immersion.
Flying might be more expensive than it was in the past, but there are certainly good deals out there. I always seem to manage to find prices that don’t kill my wallet and that’s because I look hard and just don’t jump on the first flight. Find an alternative to flying, if you can. Trains and buses may take longer but are a lot cheaper. Most people don’t take a trip because flight costs scare them, but if you do your homework, you can find a cheap deal.
Step out of your guidebook and find those little, tiny local restaurants with great food and little, tiny price tags. Eat where the locals eat, not where Frommer’s or Lonely Planet tells you. The locals aren’t spending a fortune living in their neighborhood and you shouldn’t either. You travel to see new places, not new hotels. Living locally and traveling differently will save you money and give you a richer travel experience to travel blog about.
This travel blog is dedicated to keeping you motivated, telling tales, and showing you how to travel frugally and enjoy furnished, short term, rentals. You don’t need a lot of money to travel — You just need to think differently. Forget package tours, expensive hotels, overpriced restaurants and souvenirs. You can still have a luxury vacation without a luxury price.
If you want to travel more, it all starts with a change in mindset. After that, it’s just a matter of knowing where to find the deals and putting in the work to track them down. Just booking that package deal on Orbitz isn’t going to save you money. You need to be smart if you want to become a savvy traveler, find furnished, short term, rentals and travel blog.
So, that’s how I find the money to travel. And that’s how you can too!
Be sure to check back weekly to read other travel insights in my travel blog.
And remember, always say yes to new adventures!
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