How Do You Afford to Travel the World?
How do you travel the world cheap? HOW CAN YOU POSSIBLY AFFORD TO TRAVEL THE WORLD THIS LONG?
Hands down the number one questions I get
Constantly, like all the time.Â
It is a totally fair question
I mean I get it..
I've been gone a long time, seen dozens of beautiful things and had countless cool adventures
It looks fab, it seems fab, it IS fab
And while I try to share the difficult and sacrificial sides of traveling with you
It can still look like I live this over the top life out here on the road
And you want to know..
HOW THE HELL DO YOU AFFORD IT ALL COLLEEN?
Okay, okay Here is exactly how I travel the world cheap...
WHERE I COME FROM
First of all.. I am SO fortunate to come from a country with an excellent currency and standard of living. This alone puts me at a huge advantage when I take my US dollar overseas.
America, The UK, Australia, Canada, etc... expensive places to live
Southeast Asia, Central & South America.. NOT expensive places to live (relative to where I come from)
aka everything seems 'cheap'
I could write a whole post (and probably will) about how fortunate I am to have been born and raised where I come from. The sheer opportunity I was BORN with is INSANE.
WHERE I CHOSE TO TRAVEL
The States, Europe, Australia, Canada.. so much natural beauty to offer, so much to see.
Luckily for me natural beauty does not directly correlate to how expensive a country or region is to visit.
You have to understand…
I took complete advantage of this.
The mountain ranges of Alaska are stunning (highly recommend) but so are the Andes mountains in South America (also highly recommend)
I have witnessed stunning scenery and rock solid hiking in Alaska
But have also witnessed stunning scenery and rock solid hiking in Peru.
The difference..
An average meal in Alaska = $12-15 USD
An average meal in Peru = $2-4 USD
That is 6 times as expensive.
Based on that theory if I can eat for 1 week in Alaska, then I can eat for 6 weeks in Peru...
SIX!!
My American dollar, and where I chose to spend it are MAJOR factors as to why I have been able to afford to travel the world so long and a great first step in how to travel the world cheap
Okay, cool but like still.. how do you travel the world full-time?
If you really want to know how I personally have afforded it all.. I’ll tell you…
SACRIFICE
I sacrifice my comfort, my feet & back, my time, my energy, my clothes, my taste buds, and my emotions on a daily basis
LET'S BREAK IT DOWN...
ACCOMODATION
A private, non hostel, budget accommodation in Scotland costs me an average of $75 a night
A private, non hostel, budget accommodation in Indonesia costs me an average of $15 a night
That is 5Â times as expensive
Based on that theory if I can sleep for 1 week in Scotland, then I can sleep for 5Â weeks in Indonesia!Â
And this is being generous.. Because $75 and night in Scotland is hard to find and would most likely be a shared house/bathroom with a private room, and $10 a night in Indonesia is NOT hard to find. That would be 1 week vs 7.5 weeks!!!
I choose very basic accommodation, because it is all I need.
Sometimes it is a bunk bed in a room full of people, sometimes a terrible mattress, sometimes no A/C, sometimes kinda dirty.
Sometimes it is my own room, sometimes a good mattress, sometimes A/C, sometimes sparkly clean.
It all depends on what I want to spend, and what sacrifice I want to make that day. In Indonesia I would get my own room 8 times out of 10 because it would cost $15. In Australia I NEVER got my own room because it was minimum $80, I choose hostels for $30 instead.
My comfort has been sacrificed, however it is amazing what your body can adapt too, and I have more money in my pocket for things I am not willing to sacrifice.. like a 4 day boat trip through a dream destination of Komodo National Park!Â
I WALK A LOT
I do not care if a tuk tuk is $2 or an uber is $5, if I can walk, I am walking. May not sound like a lot, but these costs add up. I have walked down busy streets with sweat dripping down my face from the combination of my backpack and the sun on my shoulders. I'll walk the 50 minutes in Singapore to get to the Supertree Grove, or the 65 minutes in Colombia to get to  Piedra de Penol from Guatape instead of paying for transport.
My feet and back have been sacrificed but it's exercise and more money in my pocket for things I am not willing to sacrifice.. like an overnight volcano hike and Spanish school in Guatemala.
TRANSPORT
It is all about public transportation people.
In South America I did not fly, I took 15 hour bus rides.
In Central America I did not take the air-conditioned tourist bus, I took the chicken bus (aka an old USA school bus) with the locals and sat 3 people to one seat!
In the Philippines I did not take the super cool sea plane to get to Siquijor island. NO, I took a taxi, a 5 hour bus, a 30 min ferry, a 10 min tuk tuk ride, a 2 hour ferry, and then jumped on the back of a local guys motorcycle to get to the island.
Instead of flying from Colombia to Ecuador I took a series of local busses to the border, got out and walked into Ecuador, where I found another local bus to take me to Quito.
I really cannot express to you how much of my time has been in busses, airports, train stations etc.
So many times I've waited on the side of the street with my backpack wondering if the Ecuadorian lady at the bakery around the corner really did understand me when I asked her in Spanish where I needed to catch the bus to wherever I was going...
My time has been sacrificed but it is always one heck of an adventure and more money in my pocket for things I am not willing to sacrifice.. like feeding banana peels to llamas and horse back riding in Cotopaxi Ecuador
CHEAP (CRAPPY) FLIGHTS
I love cheap flights. Few things get me more excited than a great flight deal!
You do not find cheap flights on Friday after work then back Sunday night. No, you find cheap flights on Tuesday at 534am or Thursday at 12:45 in the MORNING. But I can take these deals, because I have no schedule or time line.
When I went back to visit the states after 13 months of being gone.. I did not take the $900 round trip directly off Roatan. No, I took a ferry to a 5 hours bus to fly out of the mainland half past midnight, saving me hundreds of dollars.
It sucked, I was exhausted and my energy was sacrificed but it was more money in my pocket to arrive home and do the things I was not willing to sacrifice like the Taylor Swift concert with all my best friends soooo.. WORTH IT
PACK LIGHT
You know what makes cheap flights even cheaper… no checked baggage.
You know those budget airlines that the flight is like $2 but then its like $80 to check a bag... ya those
(I always fly budget airlines, they are the best deal, they just require more patience at times. Skyscanner, google flights, hopper, and expedia/kayak are how I find my flight deals)
I found myself flying a lot in South East Asia. When everything is separated by the ocean you kinda can’t take a bus.. sigh
So I got rid of my large backpack, threw out some clothes and toilet trees and traded it in for a carry-on sized back pack.
Now I could fly from Brisbane to Sydney for $52 instead of $82
Also, when you have less luggage you can walk more and my life is so much easier. I have sacrificed my clothing but like... who cares? Clothes do not bring me lasting happiness but this picture of my first futbol game abroad TOTALLY DOES
A brilliant lesson that I will never forget!
EATING LOCAL AND COOKING
Street food for the win people. I ate at Soda’s in Costa Rica, Warungs in Indonesia, I pupusa'd my way through El Salvador, ate ‘menu del dia’ all throughout South America, and was in tortilla heaven in Guatemala.
When I could not find a good deal on food.. I chose a place to stay that I could cook my own food (okay or traveled with Denise who always cooked for us). The amount of pasta, ramen noodles, bread and fruit I have eaten that last two years is INSANE. However not blowing my money on eating out is a huge cost saver and allows me to travel the world cheap.
Did I always like it..HELL NAH, but if sacrificing my taste buds with pasta for a week straight meant I had more money for the things I was not willing to sacrifice, like a 3 day trip through the Salt Flats of Bolivia (one of the most amazing things I have ever seen) then...
I LOVE PASTA, and pasta loves me.
I WORKED
Shout out to Off The Hook in Roatan, Honduras for the 8 months they hired me to bartend! I’ve worked in restaurants my whole life, but I had never bartended. Now I am a margarita machine and working there has provided me with SO many fond memories and friendships. I loved being behind that bar and shooting the shit with expats, tourists and locals alike!
How did I get that job.. well I walked in and asked for it!
That was 8 months that I did not make a dent in my travel savings, 8 months that I essentially 'traveled the world for free'! I made enough to live and buy a roundtrip ticket to the states for a visit!
KNOW HOW MUCH SOMETHING COSTS
If I took the first price offered to me on every item I wanted to buy, or taxi I needed to take, or excursion I wanted to go on.. I would literally have hundreds of dollars less in my bank account than I do now.
Research, ask other travelers.. know beforehand the ballpark price of what you should be paying, shop around, haggle.
I am fine paying a bit of a 'tourist' premium because the truth is I can afford the extra 50 cents for a tuk tuk ride, but I am NOT going to pay 2, 3, 10 times the going rate, and I am going to make sure I don't!
I am not on vacation
If you flew to the Caribbean on your family vacation, walked outside and were told $30 for a cab, you would probably pay it.
it is vacation, its 30 bucks, it's fine.
I am NOT on vacation, this is what people do not seem to grasp.
Picture this..Â
We are both in the Caribbean, we are standing on the SAME beautiful beach, we are posting the SAME gorgeous sunset pictures...
BUT
You go grab fish tacos and margaritas down the street at a beach side restaurant
and I grab two street tacos and a beer.
Then, you rest your head at an awesome beach resort
and I rest mine at the hostel a 15 minute walk through the bushes behind your resort.
We are not traveling in the same style, but our sunset's sure do look the same..
Resort = $200 a night, dinner = $25 * 1 week = $1,575
Hostel = $10 a night, dinner = $4 * 1 week = $98
Based on this, I could watch the sunset over the Caribbean for 16 weeks, for the same price you watched it for 1 week.
It is simply just two different styles, that can look the same through pictures and experiences.Â
So it may look like I am living your vacation everyday, but I am not, I am just living my simple life in beautiful places
You work hard for your one week vacations just like I have worked hard for my simple sunset life.
Oh, and I paid $6 for the cab.. because that's how much it should cost.
By the way...I am not super human
All these sacrifices I make... they are tough man. I break, I crumble, I get over tired, my emotions go all over the place from the exhaustion. Mentally and emotionally this lifestyle can be draining. When this happens I slow down, I check myself into a nice hotel, or sit down at a nice restaurant, I pamper myself. Just like you do when you have a hard go in your day to day lives.
Only a nice hotel runs me a 6th of what it does back home, a nice restaurant is $12, and an hour massage is $6 =)
These things are tough, but to me they are worth it.
The swimming with manta rays, the mountains of Patagonia, the cultural experiences, the treks in the Andes, the flawless beaches, THE FRIENDS I HAVE MADE, the things I have learned about the world and myself, the sunsets, the stories I have, the Scottish highlands, the amazon jungle, all the incredible moments... within the course of 2 years at age 30.. they are worth it to me.
Back to sacrifice... and money
Those things listed above are what I sacrificed while ON this trip.
That doesn’t include all that I sacrificed BEFORE to save this money and everything I will have to sacrifice AFTER when I return (one day).
I gave up a lot before hand, and this will continue after to get back on my feet. All that for another post though ;)
How much does it cost to travel the world?...
On average it has cost me about $50 a day, $1500 a month to do what I do.
Food, flights, activities, accommodation etc. A hell of a lot less than my monthly expenses back in Chicago.
I can not tell you guys enough how much you can do for so little out here. If you did not catch my picture captions with price details on some of the pictures throughout this post scroll back up, you would be amazed at what $100 can get you!Â
People do it in less, but they sacrificed more, or traveled slower or solely stuck to cheap countries. I have sacrificed a lot but have said no to very little, if I want to do an activity I do it, I just find a cheap way. I have traveled to expensive countries too like Scotland, Ireland, Uruguay, Singapore and Australia. I had some $15 days in Peru, and some $100 days in Scotland.
These beautiful moments and eye-opening experiences I have created for myself. They did not appear out of thin air. Like everything in life, you work hard for it.
I worked hard for it
This is not for everyone and that is okay.
This makes me happy, and I am happy to do it.
And THAT is how I afford it.
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