You probably don’t need me to tell you that mesos there’s a global recessionat the moment. People all over the world are feeling the pinch and thetravel industry is suffering because we all have less money to spendthese days on luxuries like travel.
But not being able to afford it doesn’t stop people from wanting totravel. Apart from general happiness, I think dreaming of travel,visiting new places and seeing new things is probably one of the mostuniversal life goals.
Travel is also one of the most popular search engine terms and the morewe see of the world on TV and read about in books, or on the Internet,the more we want to explore planet earth ourselves.
Yet although many of us want to travel more we don’t. There are so manyexcuses for not traveling: the expense, the kids and the job are allcommonly used to explain to ourselves why we can’t travel right now.
But what’s the point in deferring your dreams? To me you should be ableto follow your dreams even if you do have limited funds, a growingfamily and a demanding career. All you need to do is change yourmindset, make travel one of your top priorities and get on with it.These are my ideas on 10 ways you can travel more with less.
1. Start Local. First try changing your mindset. The purpose of travelis to see new things and experience new cultures. Many people thinkthat in order to see things they’ve never seen before they need totravel far afield but that’s not true. Find out more about your localarea. Anywhere within a two or three hour drive should be fair game fora weekend trip. If you’ve got longer you can extend your range further.
First head to your local library or get on the Internet for ideas ofthings to see and do close to wow gold home. There are probably some walks,caves, rivers, lakes, forests or waterfalls that you’ve never visitedbefore but have always wanted to. Pick one and make sure you check itout as soon as possible.
When I lived on the beautiful Waiheke Island in New Zealand I wasamazed by the number of Aucklanders who, on hearing where I lived,would wistfully say:
“What’s it like? I’d love to visit some time.”
But Waiheke is only a 35 minute ferry ride from downtown Auckland so Icouldn’t understand why they didn’t just jump on the ferry and check itour for themselves.
2. Accommodation. Think outside the box. For me, travel isn’t aboutstaying in boutique hotels or luxury spas. Travel is about getting outof your comfort zone and experiencing things you’ve never tried before.
Cheap sleeps include camping and house swapping. If you want to trycamping ask around and see if you can borrow some camping gear. As soonas you do you’ll be amazed at the number of people who have all thecamping equipment but hardly ever use it. For a couple of nights allyou really need is a tent, bedding, an icebox and a small stove so youcan cook pasta or risotto. Or forget the cooking part and just grab atake away.
If you don’t want to camp organize a house swap with friends or throughout of town friends. Find someone in an area you’d like to visit andswap buy wow gold away. The added bonus of this is that it will motivate you toclean out your house.
3. Food. Who needs fancy restaurants? Even eating out at fast foodjoints will eat into your precious travel budget. With a little advanceplanning and some basic equipment you can feed yourself twice a day fora minimal cost. Here’s how.
Take a couple of plastic plates, bowls and beakers with you and buy apicnic knife that comes with a cover so it won’t pierce a hole in yourbag. For breakfast pick up some local seasonal fruit, yogurt and mueslibars. One of the healthiest breakfasts is a thin layer of peanut butteron bread and you can’t get easier than that. Just buy a plastic jar ofpeanut butter to carry round with you and pick up bread, chapati, tacosor rolls fresh.
For lunch fresh bread, tomatoes and cheese or ham are simple,nutritious food. Eating outside is a real pleasure and you’ll have moretime to explore because you won’t be stuck inside or limited to placeswith restaurants. If you’re staying in a hotel ask if they can includebreakfast at no extra charge.
When it comes to the evening meal watch where the locals eat, don’thead straight to the touristy restaurants. Street food can be excellentand extremely cheap too. I ate lots of street food from stalls in Indiaand never got sick once. In fact, I may be the only person in theentire universe who went to India for three months and put on weight.My secret is to pick stalls that are poplar with the locals, watch whatthey order and get the same.
4. Sight-Seeing. There’s a lot of store set by seeing the big sights,like visiting Disneyland, going up the Eiffel Tower or touring theSydney Opera House. But these things tend to be expensive. They’re bigticket items so limit yourself to one at the most per trip.
Some of the best things have no entry charge and there are plenty oflesser known attractions which may be free or low cost like hanging outat Venice Beach in Los Angeles, visiting Notre Dame Cathedral in Parisor browsing the Paddington markets in Sydney. All fun, interesting andeasy on the budget too. You get the idea, no matter where you’re goingdon’t feel you have to spend big on the main tourist attractions.That’s all they are, you can learn more by hanging out with the locals.
5. Relax. This is my top tip. Too often a vacation or travel becomes acheck list of things to do. Promise yourself that you’ll stop trying totick things off just for the sake of it.
For example, f you do make it to Paris then visiting the touristattractions needn’t be your top priority. You won’t see many Frenchpeople paying to climb the Eiffel Tower. They’re all sitting in thecafes having a short black coffee (the cheapest option) and peoplewatching. Or you can join them wandering free of charge around theparks, visiting the local markets and walking along and over thebridges of the River Seine.
You may not be heading to Paris this trip but you get the idea. Justtravel to get to your destination and then be. Stop rushing, relax,enjoy and see what happens. Travel is all about getting rid of youragenda and going with the flow, allowing a little spontaneity into yourlife.
That’s it! Don’t delay. Get your calendar out and write in when you’regoing away for the weekend. My next trip is to the hinterland whichfeatures waterfalls and bush walks and is only about a ninety minutedrive from my house. Definitely not something you’d want to do for aday trip with 3 young kids in the car so I cheap wow gold think we’ll pack the tent,relax and make a weekend of it.
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