How to travel on a low budget – there are plenty of opportunities

Traveling does not necessarily have to be expensive. There are so many opportunities for literally every budget. You can spend almost every amount of money on everything you need on your holiday. For example: You can spend a fortune on a luxury hotel but you can also get very cheap accommodation. You can go to an expensive restaurant to eat or you can buy street food or prepare your own food. Here are just some of our tips and thoughts on how to travel on a low budget. We hope you like them:

Destination Part 1: The farther away the better is not true

I remember when we were living in Vienna and our friend Lucy from Canada visited us back in 2014. Awesome! Needless to say she wanted us to show her around and she asked so many questions about the attractions and sights we showed her. To my own surprise I was not able to answer too many of them. “You are not a tourist in your own country”, Lucy said. She was right. You are not a tourist in your own country. That is regrettable. But why not? There are so many things to see, to do and so many experiences to be made. What we want to say: In order to have an awesome holiday you don’t have to get far away. Think of closer destinations. It will most likely be much cheaper to get there as well. If I think about where we could go in Austria in the closer surrounding there are so many places that come to my mind that I could spend my holidays for many years there.

Destination Part 2: There are cheap places you can visit – even farther away

There are cheaper and more expensive countries in the world. That is a matter of fact. If you want to travel on a low budget then most likely Norway and Iceland (just to name two examples that came to my mind immediately) may not be the first destinations you should think of. But – for example – some Asian countries may be a better choice in this respect.

On the other hand, if you organize your trip accordingly you will probably be able to travel every country within a reasonable budget.

Length of your vacation – sometimes less is more

^The longer you are away the more expensive it will get. That is evident. But to be honest: Will the perceived quality of your holiday increase only because you are away longer? The answer is simple: no or not necessarily. So here is our advice: Adjust the length of your stay to your budget and try to get the most out of it. A shorter vacation is in any case better than no vacation. What you get out of your holiday has little or nothing to do with the time you spend. To be honest with you: On our longer journeys we felt exhausted the longer we were away and didn’t want to do anything on some days. But as it is certainly not the purpose of traveling to stay in your room and stare at the wall (as you may sometimes do at home if you do not feel like going out) we often decided to do something nonetheless – what was obviously in many cases less fun as if we had been motivated. If your holiday is not so extended in time you will certainly experience less (in terms of quantity) but you will most likely have a high-quality time and great feelings as well.

But that’s by far not all – Here are some other ideas and tips

• Avoid peak seasons if possible
  It is obvious that you will save money if you (can) travel at off-season. Sure, not everyone can do that, especially if you have kids at school age.
• Travel in groups in order to share costs
  When we traveled with other friends it was usually cheaper for everyone what is quite logical. Sharing the costs for fuel for example between four is obviously less than sharing it between two for each person. If you stay in an apartment and share the costs you will probably better off as well.
• Try a Youth Hostel or camping
  We know it isn’t something that everyone likes but you should try it at least once. I can remember when I visited Stockholm for instance. Sweden is a country that is not well-known for being cheap. I wanted to go there with a friend but he didn’t have as much time as I had and therefore I decided to go there a couple of days before him. As I wanted to save a bit I booked a bed in a dorm at a Youth Hostel. It didn’t only save me some loot but I also met new people in the room and we went out together and explored the city. Believe me: It was certainly more fun than doing it alone!
• Prepare your own food and save money
  Cooking on your own will be certainly cheaper than going out to restaurants every day.
• Package holiday
  Though we prefer to travel individually a package holiday may be cheaper than booking everything on an individual basis. Check the many opportunities that are certainly available for nearly any budget, compare prices and come up with the best solution that fits your budget restrictions!

There are certainly many other ideas that will help you reduce your traveling costs. You just have to be a bit creative! Think of how to save a bit of money on your everyday life, find sources for some extra-income and the best trip of your lifetime is closer than you may expect!

Traveling is not a privilege of the rich anymore

We are now living in the 21st Century and thanks to god traveling is not a privilege for the rich anymore. If you chose the right destinations, adjust the length of your vacation to your budget and follow some of our other tips in order to keep your budget within a reasonable framework you will most likely get what you want!