“How can you afford to travel so often?” seems to be the most asked questions by all of my friends. This is the ultimate question. I’ve read other world traveler answers to this question and I wish I had the responses they’ve had. I’m not sponsored, no one pays for any of my travels, although if anyone wants to I’m very open to it:) Get in contact!
So I figured I’d share honestly exactly what I do.
First things first I work a full time job. I feel like the new trend these days is like quit your job and travel. Umm no!!!!! I have bills to pay and I wouldn’t feel comfortable at this point in life just not having any form of income. To me thats unrealistic. So no I don’t completely agree with that. I don’t recommend quitting your day job. It’s a pretty risky road to commit to.
However changing your job to better suit the life of traveling is definitely an option. I took a teaching position overseas in Dubai and this allowed me to #1 be in a central location of the world for travel, easily accessible to east and west. Unlike America where we are pretty isolated. #2 teaching provided me with tons of time off, and you can bet I took advantage of every single one, even three day holiday weekends. I remember back home thinking a three day weekend is good to have a bbq or hang out with family. And hats off to you if those are your priorities. But once my family was 14 hours away by plane that was no longer an option. I also think my disinterest in the environment I was in, a skyscraper metropolitan city with little to no nature or walking opportunities, pushed me to venture out of the country every chance I got !!!! Hence how I came up with my blogs title. Every chance I got I would escape from Dubai and travel.
So let’s touch on affordable accommodation and transport:
Airbnb and hostels have become a norm for accommodation. There is no need to splurge on hotels. To be honest if you’re sitting in your hotel enough to enjoy it, you are probably vacationing wrong, but hey that’s just my opinion. The advantages associated with the Airbnb experience is that you get easy, free and accessible knowledge from your host, cheap accommodation, and an opportunity to live amongst locals. If you are solo traveling it is also helpful in meeting other solos like yourself. I can’t tell you how many times my host offered amazing advice on things that I would have never known about. Or how many times they offered me free rides to and from the airport (those are usually the most expensive ones). Getting to know your host opens a whole room of benefits, not just a bed to sleep on.
Now that I’ve mentioned transport let me add a few things. Besides taking your host up on free rides you should always research and consider local transportation over taxi’s. While in Zanzibar I had the option to take a taxi for 15 dollars from Stonetown to Nungwi, or I could take their local dolla dolla. This is an insane non-air conditioned ride on a very unstable bus that is jammed packed with local people, but hey it only costs 50 cents to ride to Nungwi. You saved a bunch of money and you have an amazing story to tell of how you survived a 30 minute death trap ride to Nungwi sitting on a locals lap and grasping at anything you could manage to get your hands on for stability. People pay amusement parks for that type of entertainment! Of course if you’re not up for a crazy ride, there are usually great bus pass deals like in Japan and Malta as I always post in all of my travel entries to help you save a few dollars. Just steer clear of people pretending to give you “good deals” or taxis. Knowledge is key! Always look up the prices before you get to the destination so you know you aren’t getting stiffed.
STOP SPENDING YOUR MONEY ON UNNECESSARY STUFF!
You need to weigh out what’s going to make you happy. I feel like, and this is my opinion as now an outsider looking in, we don’t get a lot of vacation time as American’s. Therefore buying ourselves that Starbucks in the morning brings us happiness. Or purchasing a nice pair of sunglasses, handbags, etc makes us feel good. We have it everyday and for some people it is their self worth. And because we don’t get that vacation time having “stuff” is more important and more relevant to our everyday lives. So buying that Prada gets more use in a sense than a five day trip to India. I guess at that point its all about your priorities and whats going to make you happy.
I have had the same clothes from 5 years ago till today and even further back to be honest. I don’t need new clothes or things to make me feel happy. When I get the itch and need a pick me up I plan a travel. Even if it’s planning for months. It gives me something to look forward to. I usually choose one crazy splurge on that travel. Skydiving, parahawking, Northern light adventures, skiing on volcanoes, etc. These make me feel like wow I really did something amazing in that country and gives me that extra wow memory I hold near and dear for each place I visited. I also started my blog so that I could remember each moment, and reread them whenever I wanted to relive those memories.
My father once told me while I was drinking a Dunkin Donuts coffee, which in my opinion is a cheaper end coffee but still, “Do you know how much money you would have at the end of the year if you didn’t purchase your coffee but made it yourself instead?” At first I was angry at him for commenting on a simple joy I got once a day that I didn’t think cost that much. But when I really thought about it he was right. That coffee could equal a vacation by the end of the year. The second I changed to that mindset is the second I realized I was the only one holding me back from vacationing. I needed to learn what was important to buy and what was just plain UNNECESSARY.
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