Whenever people tell me they dream of travelling around the world and I ask them why don’t go for it, I usually get the same answer… money.
I’m here to show you that you don’t need a big budget to follow your travel dreams. In this article I will give a short summary of the main guidelines you can follow to travel budget-free, and for each one I will add a link to the detailed post with practical and concrete examples where I reveal how to be successful at no budget travel. Enjoy reading and I’ll see you somewhere around the globe!
An introduction
We all like to travel in our own way, some will plan an intense jungle trek and others prefer to relax on a beach with a cocktail. Some will travel all over the globe and others choose to stay closer to home. But one thing we can all agree on, travelling creates memories and experiences that stay with us forever and allow us to grow as people.
Those benefits are invaluable and you cannot put a price on that. Unfortunately there is almost always a price and it can be difficult to follow your dreams when you don’t have the right budget for it. But money should never be the reason to stop yourself from following your dreams, whether they are travel-related or not! I will share with you what I’ve learned and how I am able to travel budget-free, hoping it inspires all of you to go out there and follow your own dreams too!
The Guidelines for No Budget Travel
1. Share travel costs
Starting with the most important and often overlooked way to soften the financial impact of any trip; travel or engage with like-minded people and share costs. There are many advantages to travelling with others and the financial aspect is not even the most important one. But it is a simple fact that everybody likes to pay less if possible (win-win) so this practice will allow you to save a lot of money. Even if you are travelling alone, there are still many situations in which you can walk up to your fellow travellers and help each other out!
Click here to read my post ‘Sharing Travel Costs’.
2. Engage with locals
“Every travel expense is linked to people, who sell a product or service. One should never forget the human factor and the value of interpersonal skills.”
Think about the place where you’ve lived your entire life. If you care about your finances, then by now you know hundreds of tips and tricks that allow you to spend your money wisely. You know where to get the best prices, who to ask if you need help and in what way other locals value goods and services. Now imagine you didn’t know any of those things, that you were dropped in a strange place and had to figure things out on your own. You might be paying double or triple the value of anything for a while before you discover you are being overcharged or there is a cheaper/free alternative. But you are not alone on this planet and I have learned that by default people like helping people. Engaging with locals doesn’t only allow you to better understand the culture of any place you visit but they can often help you save big sums of money. And all it takes is a simple hello and a smile, two things that many of us find so difficult to share nowadays.
There are many advantages to meeting locals and learning from them. In turn, we are all locals ourselves and should help our fellow humans in the same way. In a later post I will share experiences and go into detail on how interacting with locals can help you save a lot money and give you unforgettable memories. So be sure follow my social media to get updates!
3. Go beyond tourist places
When we travel, most of us want to discover the places and have the experiences that our chosen destination is best known for, and rightfully so! I will not be one of those people giving the advice to ‘avoid the tourist places’, because that would make absolutely no sense! You want to be able to discover these wonders and share that experience. But this doesn’t mean that you should stay there all the time. I have often experienced that going out of the tourist areas can create the best memories and offer many interesting opportunities. Having a meal in any main tourist street can be 2-3 times more expensive and only half as delicious or well-prepared. A less-known attraction might give their best effort to ensure that you spread the word and help them grow. I have found many of these opportunities all over the globe that are usually cheaper or even free and I will share these hidden gems with you in my various travel guides on this blog. Be sure they check them out and let me know how your experience was!
4. Special offers
This is an well-known marketing practice for many enterprises, such as airline companies offering cheaper flights during the midweek or certain attractions that might even have one free day every month . But there are many less-obvious opportunities out there that can really help save lots of money. Finding or recognizing them is the challenge, so I will share specific examples in the blog post linked underneath this paragraph and tell you where to find these special offers in my various travel guides. Once you know how to spot them, you will see them everywhere and your required travel budget will greatly decrease!
Please follow nobudgettravel on instagram and facebook to receive notifications when this detailed post is available and stay up to date on other secrets that will forever improve your travels! – Pepijn DC
5. ‘No Budget’ Lifestyle
“Once you need less, you will have more.”
This last guideline is the one where everyone will have different standards, so I’ll put it at the end of this post and it is up to every one of us to decide where we are on this scale. Ask yourself, which luxuries have only very little added-value but which comforts are we not willing to give up? With me for example I don’t need a lot of luxury but I won’t sleep in large dorms with many beds and people, even if that’s the most budget-friendly option. It is evident that the more people can embrace the ‘No-Budget’ lifestyle, the less budget you will need. And if you can reach a certain level, you will be able to travel without having to care much about budget at all.
But I want to share one realization that many travellers can agree with: life only begins at the end of your comfort zone. Try to push your boundaries even once and see how it will open your eyes to new possibilities and experiences.
In summary
These are the five guidelines for ‘No Budget’ Travel. Keep them in mind and check my other blog posts and social media to find out how we can all apply these practices in specific situations to save money and greatly improve our travel experience!
Have many wonderful budget-free travels, thank you for reading! – Pepijn DC
PepTheWorld 