I am pleased to have Lisa Shusterman, author of Around the World in Easy Ways on Acting Balanced as part of Traveling with Kids!
FINANCING LONG-TERM
TRAVEL
In June 2008, my family and I left for a one year trip
around the world. When we announced to
friends, family and colleagues what we were planning, we met with a myriad of
reactions. Some looked at us with envy,
others with dismay and still others with shock, but all had one shared
reaction, “When did they hit the lottery?”
Since we hadn’t, people then assumed that a long lost uncle or great
aunt had died and left us with a small fortune.
The truth: long-term travel is
just not as expensive as you might think!
True, it’s not cheap, but with some advanced planning you can make your
trip for a lot less than you imagined.
There’s no getting around the fact that you will need to do
some saving. But if your travels are a
priority, saving should be easier to swallow.
Skip that weekly latte knowing that the cost of each one will pay for a
meal for four in India Thailand Ecuador
The flip side of saving for the trip is the amount you will
spend while traveling. Figure out your
budget and then work backwards. Plan
around what you can afford versus planning for something that will be out of
reach and therefore impossible for you to attain. Here are some ways to keep costs down for
long-term travel:
1. Consider renting
an apartment versus staying in a hotel.
If you’re traveling with a family, often an apartment will cost less
than multiple rooms in a hotel. You also
have the added advantage of cooking your own meals which is a huge cost
savings.
2. Plan your
itinerary around countries that are less expensive. The cost of a meal for four in India is the same as the cost of one can of Coke
in Venice
3. Stay in locations
longer and reduce the number of overall locations visited thereby reducing
transportation costs.
4. Keep the number of
airfares down to a minimum; use more ground transportation.
5. Consider home
exchanges, couch surfing, hostels or any other type of sleeping arrangement to
bring your accommodation costs down.
6. Avoid souvenir
shopping – think more memories, less stuff.
7. Avoid splurges. The trip itself is a splurge, you don’t need
any more.
8. Take advantage of
free entertainment, free museum days and any type of discounts you can find.
Before you start shaking your head that this is still a
financial impossibility, take into consideration all the things that you will
not be spending money on at home while you are gone. These can really add up. We met people traveling in Southeast
Asia for years because they said it was just cheaper to keep
traveling that it was to go home.
