Cooks Gardens

Inexpensive travel can be accomplished in 2 fundamental ways. First, get the very best deals on the specific things you would like. This method is extremely limited though. For example, if you find the lowest price on the best hotel in Honolulu at the height of the season, you will save cash, but still have a really expensive room. Attempting to get exactly what you would like - or think you would like - is a costly proposition, in travel and in life.

The other method to inexpensive travel is to be an opportunist. This might be challenging for some, and completely unacceptable to other people. However, the travelers who can travel the most, learn the most and do the most, are the opportunists.

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

I cut the price 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 some luggage (car parts), and could only take carry-on luggage.

I never felt deprived or bored. I had a great time, eating wherever it was cheap and clean, doing affordable and interesting things, and traveling throughout the country to climb Chimborazo. I also 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? Can you eat chicken rather than steak? How about visiting the free sights first, and dancing in the street festival instead of the disco?

As an opportunistic traveler, you will have much more fun, and almost everything you would like - ultimately. Simply stop attempting to get exactly what you would like precisely when you want it. If the guide for Chimborazo had not dropped his price from $200 to $130, I'd have spent $2 for a bus and gone hiking on El Altar, another fantastic Andean mountain. It would have left me with enough money for several other minor adventures.

There are lots of things to learn about how to travel cheap. On our last trip to Ecuador, for instance, my wife and I found out a method to save $1000 on plane tickets. Good info can save you lots of money. A flexible, open-minded method, nevertheless, is the real key to affordable travel.