How I Afford To Travel
I want to make one thing very clear.
I’m not made of money.
Like, at all.
But in a society that’s saturated with social media, it’s easy for me to make it seem like I travel in ultimate luxury all the time (even though I don’t) with a couple of planned outfits and carefully curated locations. And, while it makes for a really pretty blog and Instagram feed, it’s not exactly realistic.
Today, I want to tell you about how I afford to travel.
My Priorities
The thing is...99% of the time that I travel, I prioritize my budget.
For me, my lowest priority is how I get there. Whether it’s a flight, a bus, a train, or any other means of transportation, I’ll almost always take the cheapest option.
Clearly, it’s bitten me in the you-know-what a couple times.
But the fact of the matter is that, even though the experience may be more stressful than absolutely necessary, I still get to where I need to go. My tune on this may change in the near future, so check back in with me in a couple months.
The view? Beautiful. The trip there? Not so much. But the great thing about priorities is that you can reassess them any time you want!
My second or middle priority is accommodation. As an (often-times) solo female traveler, I need to be a bit more picky with this aspect of my traveling. My baseline for any place that I stay in is that it needs to be in a safe area, and it needs to be private, clean, and well-kept. In some cities, that can mean shelling out more than I would somewhere else.
I do a lot of research on the places I want to stay before I book. I google the neighborhood, I check if it’s an area with lots of crime, I look at the reviews to see what other people have to say.
Then, as long as it meets my baseline requirements, I’ll take whatever is cheapest.
My highest priority when I travel is what I refer to as cultural experiences. This means food, tours, shows, and anything else that will tap me into the pulse of the area I’m staying in. When I travel, I like to dive deeper than the “typical” tourist experience.
I don’t want to see the tourist traps, I want to see the back roads and the local bars. I want to see where people go after they get out of work. Because that’s how you truly get to know a place, in my opinion - by listening to the locals.
Here's How I Afford to Travel
Today, I want to tell you how I manage the other 1%. The times where I splurge. A couple weekends ago, with some careful planning, I splurged. Nice hotel, nice restaurants, a birthday weekend fit for a king.
Well, maybe not a king. But a highly regarded nobleman, at least.
I’m not kidding. Right now, I want to take you through how I afford almost every. single. one. of my trips.
Space it out.
Now, if you know me, you know that I’m a planner. Like, 100%. I can’t even deny it. Planning ahead has allowed me to be able to space out when I book things and when I pay for them.
That’s right: I’ve essentially created my own installment plan.
One of the biggest incentives that companies like Education First and Contiki offer Millennials is the chance to pay for these amazing dream trips in installments. Don’t have $2,000 on hand right now? Don’t worry about it. You can pay it in $400 chunks over the 5 months instead.
All of a sudden that dream trip becomes a little more realistic.
However, if you plan your own trips (like I do 90% of the time), then you don’t have that option.
What I do instead is pay for one priority at a time. For example, on my most recent trip to Albany, I booked and paid for:
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My hotel in June
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My transportation in August
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My experiences in September while I was there
This meant that I had a chance to pay one item down before another cost was incurred.
Because, seriously, with most people I know living paycheck to paycheck, who can really afford to travel when it means taking a multi-hundred dollar hit at one time like that?
