How to Travel Cheap (Explore The World Without Breaking The Bank)

Young men should travel and explore the world whenever they can find the opportunity to do so.

Travelling young has many advantages. It opens up your worldview, teaches you what life is like for people outside your cultural environment, and allows you to understand your own life better by giving you points of comparison.

At the same time, travel when you are young and energetic is a lot of fun.

When you’re young, the bigger issue is budget. You don’t have much money, and must figure out how to travel cheap.

I travel a lot (as regular readers already know), and I used to travel quite a bit even when I had very little money by today’s standards.

Here are some tips on how you can travel without breaking the bank:

1) Use trains and buses instead of flights.

Where possible, use overnight trains and buses instead of flights. In most countries, trains (and sometimes buses) are cheaper than flying.

2) If you must fly, book cancellable tickets in advance.

Sometimes you have no option but to pay for a flight ticket. Make sure you book them in advance otherwise the airlines will try to fleece you at the last minute.

Always book a cancellable ticket because often flight prices can fall by 20-40% between the time you book and your flight. You can re-book at the cheaper rate and cancel your old ticket.

3) Take red eye flights.

You are young and can handle them easily.

4) Use public transport where possible.

Avoid booking transportation only for yourself (taxis, etc.) if you can help it. Use public/shared transport wherever you can. Metros, buses, etc.

If you’re landing at a train station or an airport, do not hire the guys standing just outside the gates. Walk a bit and you can usually get a much better deal.

Any time you book a private taxi, compare prices with uber/grab to make sure you’re not getting fleeced.

5) Stay at hostels or very cheap hotels.

I never stayed at hostels much but I have plenty of friends who did when they travelled for longer periods (multiple weeks and months).

You can save significant amounts of money on accommodation by staying at hostels. They are also a good place to meet other travelers and travel with them to save money (3 people splitting a taxi is cheaper than paying for it yourself).

The downside is that you can only do this if you’re travelling solo. If you’re travelling with a girl, you gotta have your own room for privacy (You’re not going to have sex with her in a dorm that has other people). That said, you can split the costs with the girl.

6) Stay outside tourist zones near bus/metro/taxi stations.

A way to save money on accommodations that I’ve used a few times is to just stay outside the major tourist zones, but still connected by public transport of some kind (bus/metro/taxi).

You can often get much better hotels while paying 50-70% less, and still be at the tourist zone in 30 minutes or less.

7) Eat local food or from grocery stores.

Tourist food in tourist areas is expensive, because they are targeted at tourists.

Eat local food from where the locals eat.

Not only it is much cheaper, but you also get to experience what life is like for the locals.

If you only stay in the tourist areas, only talk to tourists, and only eat at and go to places for tourists, you will not learn much about the ground reality of the location you are at. You will not learn much.

You learn things when you go outside your comfort zone.

8) Avoid buying anything from tourist spots.

Everything at tourist spots costs 3-5 times as much as it should, and is often of very poor quality.

Any clothes you buy will become unusable after 1-2 washes. Similar things are true of the other items. Save your money.

9) Travel during shoulder season.

Travel during the month before or after peak tourist season time.

If the tourist season for a particular location is May to September, go in April or October.

Demand is lower, and so are the prices for everything that matters (flights, hotels, taxi, activities, etc.).

Often you get 80% as good weather but at half the price and half the crowd. Well worth it.

10) Walk when you can

If something is 1-2 kilometers away, just walk there.

I have no need to save money, and yet I still do this when I travel.

Walking allows you to explore a place far better than just sitting in a car and getting wherever you want.

11) Stay at a location for a couple of days before moving

Learning from travel is about the DEPTH and not the BREADTH.

It is almost always better to stay at a location for at least 3-4 days so you can properly explore it than to go to a new location every 2nd day.

If you move too quickly, you will only have time to do the tourist things and never get to experience any of the local culture. Which basically means you get little of the benefits of travel except the fun/pleasure.

12) Don’t go to expensive locations with no nature

Some places are inherently expensive. So don’t go there.

Usually these places are cities with no nature to explore like Dubai and Singapore. Or just extremely overpriced locations like Switzerland.

Places like these are simply not possible to enjoy without having money to spend. It’s not worth it. Just go elsewhere.

There is no point spending money to see a glorified artificial aquarium or buildings.

If you want to check these places out, do it in your 30s when you have money to spend. Not in your 20s.

13) Trekking

Trekking is the opposite of #12. It is inherently cheap.

You are enjoying nature, which is free. You stay in camps, not hotels. The food you eat is local.

Trekking is amazing, and I’ve had some of the best times of my life on treks. Even now when I have more than enough money.

If you’ve never trekked before, book one now. It will give you an experience you won’t forget for the rest of your life, and it’s going to be really cheap.

– Harsh Strongman