How To Travel Like a Cheap Bast*rd.
Stop behaving like a cheap bastard! This is something that a friend used to tell me when we were on the road. We always had trivia arguments such as this. And I had to fend for myself by saying I was traveling for a much longer time than he was. People always think I am loaded—of course, you do need to have some form of savings—when I told them I traveled for almost a year. To debunk this myth, I am going to teach you how to travel like me, a cheap bastard.
Travel During the Low Season
Summertime is usually the most expensive period when air tickets and hostels can cost twice as much compared to the low season. During the low season, hostels are readily available and there is no need to book them way in advance.
Low season, such as wintetime, can be freezing cold, but it offers you a different kind of experience. For example, ice-skating in the backdrop of romantic cities, walking through Christmas markets and skiing in the Alps. On top of that, there will be lesser tourists and lesser crowds. Not only do you save money and have a unique experience, but you also get to meet locals!
Don't Plan Too Much
I bought one-way tickets whenever I was traveling. They gave me the flexibility to move around cities without any pressure or constraint. The reason I am saying this is because there will be times when you enjoy a city so much so that you would want to extend your stay. Based on my experience, the good things always happen towards the end of my stay.
These include meeting interesting travelers or locals, having an "epiphany", or discovering "hidden gems" in different cities. Not planning saves you last minute amendment or cancellation fees on your air, train or bus tickets. For last minute transport options, I suggest checking travel websites, such as skyscanner.com, to compare days with the cheapest air ticket prices in the month that you are traveling. Alternatively, you can consider taking overnight buses/ferries/trains to save a night stay's in a hostel.
Travel Light
This is a no-brainer. Traveling light helps you to save on additional baggage costs on a flight. It also encourages you to walk more and save on public transportation. I know a guy who travelled just with 3 sets of clothes. Since he was always on the move, the people he met would always be different. Hence, no one would ever find out that he was wearing the same set of clothes for consecutive days!
On a side note, please do your laundry. You do not want to realize that your room mates are changing rooms because you smell like a fish market. You can save money by consolidating your laundry with your hostel mates.
Volunteer
Volunteering in exchange for lodging is one way to save money. You can do this through workaway.info or wwoof.net. Workaway.info has tons of opportunities for you to choose from. You could get something even on a short notice and for whichever duration you want. Wwoof.net works in a similar fashion and is catered for volunteers who want to work in organic farms. Moreover, you will be given a few days off in a week to explore the city or countryside on your own.
I met a Scottish hostel receptionist in Rome. He traveled by working in hostels of different European cities. Not only did he get to meet loads of people, but he also picked up a new European language just by working for these hostels. This is probably one of the best ways for you to get a truly localized experience.
Make Friends
I was blessed to cross path with great people while I was traveling. Once, my hostel mates and I made friends with a group of guys on the streets as we were asking them for advice. One of them is a DJ and he invited us to a bar that he was playing at. He introduced us to his friends and even invited us for dinner at his place. The following day, I bumped into one of his friends on an intercity bus ride. He offered to host me in the city that he was staying in. Spontaneously, I changed my plans and visited him for a few days. Apart from this, I had other similar experiences with the people I met in hostels.
I had a habit of hostel-hopping and settling in one that I felt comfortable in. After settling, I tend to stay put in those particular hostels for a long period for time. As such, I know the receptionists well enough for them to advice me on promotional deals that the hostel was having. With all that being said, my ultimate advice to making friends is: Don't be a creep. Be genuine.
Learn To Cook
Dining out in Europe can be an expensive affair. So, do what the locals do. Cook. There are many great and simple dishes that you can whip out within a short time. Buying groceries from the supermarkets and preparing meals yourself are so much cheaper than dining out. Sometimes, people in the hostels will pool their money together to buy groceries in bulk and cook for everyone. This is one thing I absolutely love about staying in hostels, the community spirit.
Whenever I travel to a new place, I will try to learn how to cook the local dishes from the locals that I met. In this way, I save money on dining out and I get to have a taste of "local food". Of course, there were days when I was lazy. During days like these, I would have the kebab, which is the most economical and the unhealthiest way, to fill my stomach. A friend and I got so addicted to it that we came up with the Kebab Index. Drawing inspiration from the Big Mac Index, we would measure the cost of living by comparing kebab prices in the cities that we went to.
Subsidized Meals
If you want to go the extra mile, you can crash local universities' campuses and their student cafeterias for a heavily-subsidized-good-quality-full-course-meal. In some cases, student identification card might be requested at the cashier.
Lastly, as long-term solo traveling is not always a bed of roses, I would occasionally reward myself with a good meal in restaurants recommended by locals to avoid potential tourist traps.
Comments