“1 k euros? But you spend that money in a week in Paris,”
a girl said to me when I told her I left home with that money after four months of traveling. And she’s right, somehow. But many are surprised when I say that you don’t need money to travel. How? I’ll tell you…
How did you manage to travel out of the country? Was it expensive? These are the kinds of questions people ask me when I travel, and certainly the answer is, “I didn’t need much.”
From Mexico, most of the countries I can land in Europe are expensive, such as France, Netherlands, Spain or Japan. Perhaps, one of the cheapest is Turkey, but it’s not as popular as other places (although I just discovered Turkish is amazing!)
But the issue here is: how can you travel with no money? It’s true, you can spend way too much money in a short time, whether you pay for hotels (even the cheap ones) or dinners in restaurants. Nevertheless, the things you use those bucks for are going to make a difference.
Thus, here I’m going to tell you why “traveling is expensive” is a myth and how you don’t need to have money to enjoy the best things about traveling. In fact, avoiding any kind of luxury can enrich your trips and prolong it for months!
The free best food
When I was in Mexico hosting travelers, I remember that I wanted them to taste the best dishes from Puebla. My brother and I used to take them for some of the most representative street dishes; it was the best way to show them an important part of our culture.
From time to time, we split the money in half with our guests, but mostly they didn’t have to give us even a penny; why? Because where one eats, 10 eat as well; that’s a life’s rule. Sometimes my parents also invited them to some tacos or melted cheese when we all went to dinner as a family.
Then they were able to save some money with that, and use it for other kinds of things. For us, the most important thing was to give them a taste of our culture through food. And we were right; they had such an amazing experience eating enormous memelas, or the most delicious Chile en Nogada from Puebla! And if they were happy, that was the payout!
However, as a consequence, the support always comes back. During the travel I carry out now (writing you from a camp site in the middle of North Macedonia), when I stay with locals, they have invited me many times for dinner, cooking traditional dishes at home, desserts and sometimes candies. Although, for me, family’s dinners are always the best!
“(…) they didn’t have to give us even a penny; why? Because where one eats, 10 eat as well; that’s a life’s rule.”
For me, it’s easy to share things with people, but I wouldn’t think about sharing food abroad if I hadn’t first considered the necessity of saving the money to prolong the trip. Why? I had to get back to Prague three months later to get back to school, and didn’t have money to survive that long. That’s how I started learning to share, but I’m going to tell you about this experience in another article.
But, the important thing about this text is that I didn’t need money to enjoy the best, maybe just the will to help when it was necessary, like when cooking.
Sharing travels better than buses
The first time I traveled as a backpacker, the only thing I had to do was stand at the beginning of the highway and make signs, expecting that someone would pick me up—in other words, hitchhike.
And somehow it’s true, you can save money. Although, first, you have to know this: hitchhiking can be very tricky because you must know whether you might find or not. And, at the same time, it depends on which country you do it in.
But all in all, the best ways to travel cheap are hitchhiking, Blablacar, and cheap buses. The advantage of the former two is that you have the opportunity to talk with locals or travelers on the way.
Besides, you’ll be able to practice the language of the country you are, and that’s really important when you want to travel because you learn a lot about the culture, and you can make friends, which it’s always useful.
“(…) once a Blablacar stopped by a green field in the middle of the highway… we enjoy a nice conversation with a beautiful view to a lake.”
The less I recommend is the bus, only in cases when you don’t find a car, which can be cheap if you go straight to the bus station and look for local companies. But you lose the experience of getting to know people, which can become very random stories.
For example, once a Blablacar driver from Ireland stopped by a green field in the middle of the highway, and all the passangers and I enjoyed a nice conversation with a beautiful view to a lake! Believe me, you don’t want to miss this kind of experience.
Cultural exchange for accomodation
As we have said in other articles, you can request for free accommodation in different ways, and you can have an amazing experience with locals and have a cultural exchange. It’s the most richful way of traveling. And there are different ways to do so.
The first one is by Couchsurfing, the only thing you have to do is to pay an annual fee to use the platform. Nevertheless, you can get three-months-free verification by hosting people in your house. But I reccomend you to host first before asking for accomodation, I tell you why in this article.
The second more effective way is by volunteering. For example, in projects of AIESEC, Workaway or Worldpackers, according to your needs you just have to pay a annual subscrption and then apply for different volunteer jobs offered.
Some projects, besides accommodation, give you food, and even sometimes they pay you according to the legislations of the country and your visa. I’ll explain more about this topic in other articles. But you can check-out the websites if you are interested.
The idea of traveling without money might be hard at the beggining, yet I’ve learned many things and made a lot of friends like this, and overall, I’ve been able to travel for months with a very low-budget. So the “traveling is expensive” myth relies on you and the way you want to do it.
Would you be up to give it a shot?
The best blog for Nomads and Travelers who look for a budget cultural-local experience. If you like this content, we would appreciate quoting this article properly and giving credit to the author. Thank you!
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