»I'd love to travel, but can't afford it.« Sounds familiar? It's no excuse! If you really want to, you should finally got to the place you wish to visit. A myth about travelling being expensive was busted years ago and those who say you cannot travel cheaply haven't really travelled at all.
Student year give us a relatively large amounts of free time, with which we dispose ourselves. So it’s not really a problem to go and travel during the year and spend a few weeks on the other part of the globe. The only obstacle are the costs of such a venture. Today the airfares can get really cheap if you look for special offers, so you can get to the other side of Earth for less than 400€. Budget friendly travel is possible and quite simple, you just have to realize you won’t have daily showers with warm water, no air conditioned bedrooms, no richly decorated dinner plates and there’s no partying.
Three simple rules are:
- Don’t complicate.
- Use public transport.
- Eat food of the street vendors.
Young people always look for freedom and have fun discovering new cultures, mostly those less known, and are prepared to take risks, but are able to pay only a limited amount of money for it. What to keep in mind? The list is long, but you should adopt it to your needs.
Best advice for inexpensive travel
- The key to cheap travel around Europe or the world is to plan a few months ahead. This will take many costs connected to last minute decisions out of the travel budget.
- The train is still the cheapest choice. In cities use subways or trams, which are much cheaper than taxis.
- Among the websites suggested for cheapest travel is www.nizkocenovci.si, where the application itself finds the cheapest price.
- There are many odd jobs abroad, where you can get place to sleep and food, with some money to earn along the way in exchange for your work.
- Book the airfare on time to get the best price.
- The same goes for your stay. Book as soon as possible and usually you’ll get the best price. I suggest the booking system for youth hostels that you can find on www.hihostels.com. The vividness of hostels will give you unforgettable experience.
- Walk all the short distances to save money, but if it’s far away, use public transport, not a taxi.
- Look into offers for students beforehand, so you can save on tickets and fares once in the city you’re visiting. The student’s discounts will add up to a nice sum in the end. For some attractions you can buy tickets online – usually cheaper and with no waiting in cues.
- Buy souvenirs at markets and yard sales, where you can haggle for the price. It’s much cheaper than in local shops. The most important thing you need to know when haggling is that the initial price offered by the seller is not to be taken as a measure of the worth of the product. It can help to explain that you’re a student, who’s using the poor savings to visit the land you’re in and show the change of the local currency you’ve got let to spend, making them understand you can’t spend more. It will help you get the thing cheaper.
- If you like to see the museums and attractions of a place you visit, you should consider a city pass, which offers great deals on transport and tickets. Yu can check the offers on www.citypass.com (USA) and www.europeancitycards.com (Europe).
- If you have the chance, talk to local people. They can give you interesting stories about the place and many information, sometimes even some local food to try. So enjoy and bon voyage!
Uršula Zaletelj
