Sunday

Inexpensive Travel

By Keith Clark


Inexpensive travel could be achieved in 2 fundamental approaches. First, get the very best deals on the specific things you want. This approach is extremely limited however. For example, if you find the lowest price on the best hotel in Honolulu at the height of the season, you'll save cash, but still have a very costly room. Trying to get precisely what you would like - or think you want - is a costly proposition, in travel and in life.

The alternative approach to inexpensive travel is to be an opportunist. This might be difficult for some, and completely unacceptable to others. Nonetheless, the travelers who can travel the most, learn the most and do the most, are the opportunists.

When I first travelled to Ecuador, I went because it was cheap. If it was not, I would have had a great time anyhow - somewhere else. A month cost $1045, including airfare, a $130 fee for a guide to take me to the top of glacier-covered Mount Chimborazo, and everything else.

I cut the cost by taking a bus from my house in Michigan to Miami. Round-trip ticket: $158. The round-trip flight to Quito from Miami costs $256, since it was a courier flight. This meant I signed for a few luggage (car parts), and could just take carry-on luggage.

I never felt deprived or bored. I had an excellent time, eating wherever it was cheap and clean, doing inexpensive and fascinating things, and traveling across the country to climb Chimborazo. I even met and fell in love with my wife Ana.

How To Be An Opportunist Traveler

Are you able to drink rum at a dollar for each bottle, rather than your preferred beer? Are you able to eat chicken instead of steak? How about visiting the free sights first, and dancing in the street festival instead of the disco?

As an opportunistic traveler, you'll have more enjoyment, and almost everything you would like - eventually. Simply stop attempting to get exactly what you would like exactly when you want it. If the guide for Chimborazo had not decreased his price from $200 to $130, I would have spent $2 for a bus and gone hiking on El Altar, another fantastic Andean mountain. It would have left me with enough cash for a number of other minor adventures.

There are lots of things to learn about how to travel cheap. On our last journey to Ecuador, for instance, my wife and I discovered a method to save $1000 on plane tickets. Great information can save you lots of cash. A flexible, open-minded method, however, is the genuine key to affordable journey.






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