Traveling the world on a budget is a fun process. Don’t worry – you are still going to experience the best a given city has to offer. In fact, you will create a win-win scenario: you will enjoy the city you are in like you never have before while spending less than most other travelers. You can have your cake and eat it too!
Find Free Accommodation
The first aspect of budget travel is to find free or cheap accommodation. My favorite tool to find free housing is Couchsuring.org, which allows you to crash on people’s couches while being shown around the city by a local (or even just meeting up with locals if you already have a place to stay). Every single person I’ve ever met through Couchsurfing has been incredibly friendly and kind. I highly recommend this website and no, I have absolutely no affiliation with Couchsurfing; I just really like their site.
If you are not comfortable staying with a stranger…then get over it, take a risk, and do it because you only live once. Just kidding! Seriously though, if Couchsurfing isn’t your thing, you can try housesitting (Trusted Housesitters), HI Hostels, Hostel Bookers, Airbnb, VRBO, Homeaway, Go With Oh, or even booking through excellent sites like Priceline. The possibilities are virtually limitless.
People are Friendly
When you travel, you realize that people in other countries are not very different from yourself. You can learn to treat people in other countries the way a company with a strong customer service culture would treat its customers: with respect, dignity, appreciation, and understanding. Even the smallest show of respect goes a long way. People will help you as long as you treat them the way you would want to be treated yourself (sorry if that’s a cliche, but having been around the world I know it to be the truth).
Find the Best Flights
When it comes to flights, it’s possible to find cheap and even free flights. Cheap flights are found when you book flights about 330 days in advance or roughly six weeks in advance. Also, try to fly on a Tuesday or Wednesday, as flight prices are drastically reduced on these days due to the low volume of mid-week travelers. Use sites like Expedia, Kayak, and Momondo.
To get free flights, it’s essential to build and maintain good credit (a score of at least 700 – but don’t worry if you are below that, as at one point my credit score was barely above 600). Once your credit score is 700 or above or even in the mid to high 600’s, you stand a good chance of getting approved for credit cards with huge rewards, like the Starwood Preferred Guest from American Express, Barclaycard Arrival World Mastercard, Citi Platinum Select AAdvantage World Mastercard, Chase Sapphire Preferred, and other great travel credit cards (again, no affiliation with these companies, just suggesting what has worked for me in my own experience). To get free flights you must meet minimum spends after opening these credit cards, but once you do the rewards are tremendous.
Here’s more information on how to travel the world for cheap (and sometimes free).
Jeff Davis has been to 5 different continents and he is one of the world’s experts on using travel as a way to become a better leader.
