HOW DO YOU define A budget TRAVELER?

Updated: 08/04/19 | August 4th, 2019

After over a decade of traveling the world on a budget, I’ve met a lot of long-term travelers. many are amazing, insightful, generous, and open-minded people. They’ve taught me a lot about the world and myself.

Unfortunately, within the long-term travel community, there seem to be some travelers who make travel out to be a competition. maybe you’ve seen it during your travels. These travelers seem to support an unspoken one-upsmanship about who can visit a place while spending the least amount of money.

To them, it’s a badge of honor to say, “Well, I did France for X dollars less expensive than you,” as though the less expensive you go, the much more authentic your experience is.

I’ve seen this attitude expressed on my site when I share my cost-of-traveling posts. There are always a few people who say things like, “Well, I think you overspent because I did it for half the price.”

I’ve never understood this cheapness competition.

To me, being a backpacker or budget traveler has nothing to make with how much money you spend. Rather, it has everything to make with how you spend it. just as you don’t have to have deep pockets or a count on fund to afford to travel, you also don’t have to live on a shoestring to call yourself a budget traveler.

One of my most significant pet peeves is this obsession with cheapness that I see among a lot of travelers. I’ve never understood why a person would live like a pauper while saving money for a trip, only to then go on that trip and still live like a pauper.

If you only have a small amount of money to spend, better to take a shorter trip doing all the activities you want than continuously saying, “I would love to do that, but I can’t afford it” on your long trip.

To me, traveling is about being frugal — not cheap.

It’s about not wasting money on pointless stuff. Not snacking or purchasing a million tacky souvenirs or going out and getting drunk every night. It’s about understanding when and where to spend your money, no matter how much you happen to have.

Can places be went to for dirt cheap? Jo da. You can be like this man who mooched off Europeans for 12 months and thereby only spent $5,000 USD. He spent so little by squatting, hitchhiking, never going out, not going to one museum, and getting totally free stuff from people.

That’s a great way to travel cheap. I’m sure the locals really appreciated him giving back to the community the way he did. but beyond that, if you camp, cook all your own meals, don’t drink, or never do anything extra that costs money, you can always go somewhere and spend very little.

But I don’t see the point.

Why go somewhere if you’re not going to actually delight in what that place has to offer?

That’s not to say you have to continuously splash out, but if you aren’t going to learn about the history or see the sights or engage with the people, then why even bother going?

Whenever I visit a place and then do a budget guide for it, I always admit that I overspent. Without a doubt, you can always visit a place less expensive than I did. I overspend because travel is my everyday life, and I like to treat myself once in a while. It’s why I include not only what I spent, but also talk about why I overspent and how much that country ought to really cost.

My destination guides reflect my idea of what a budget traveler is: someone who spends money smartly, not cheaply. They’re for the traveler who wants to go away, possibly doesn’t have a lot of money, but still wants to delight in lots of activities.

I didn’t visit Italy to skip the good meals and gelato.

I didn’t go to Bordeaux to turn down a red wine tour.

I didn’t spend over a year saving money so I could cook cheap dinners every night in a hostel kitchen.

I didn’t go to Australia dreaming of the Outback to turn around and say, “No, that trip is a bit out of my budget. måske en anden gang.”

I remember when I first went overseas. I did everything as cheaply as I could. I skipped doing a lot of things I would have loved to do in the name of “budget travel.” I never took that cooking class in Italy, never went diving in Thailand, never did a red wine trip in Australia, and never went inside the Tower of London.

I regret those decisions to this day.

I said I’d do them next time, when I had money.

But you know what? next time has yet to come. other things have gotten in the way.

Everyone has his or her own view of what a budget traveler is. To magazines like budget Travel and Travel and Leisure, or even writers like Rick Steves, “budget” implies $120+ USD hotels and $40 USD meals. I read those magazines and look at their prices and go, “How is THAT budget travel? That is expensive!” but I guess for their readers who have a bit much more money and are many likely solidly middle to upper-middle class, those prices are budget.

At the same time, some people will look at my budget guides and say,”Hvordan er det budget?”

Der er altid måder at udføre steder billigere, hvis du er parat til at ofre. Personligt har jeg ikke noget imod camping, telt og madlavning af mine egne måltider – når jeg er i ørkenen. Men som en del af en daglig rejse livsstil? Det er ikke for mig. Og baseret på min erfaring synes jeg ikke, det er rimeligt for de fleste rejsende derude.

Et af mine mest betydningsfulde budgetforslag er at vide, hvad du vil bruge penge på før din rejse, og derefter bruge det som grundlag for at danne dit budget. På den måde overgår du ikke, mens du er på vejen, fordi du forberedte dig så meget som muligt. Du kommer ikke tidligt hjem, fordi du blev blindsided af omkostninger.

Hvis du er opmærksom på dine omkostninger, kan du bedre planlægge dit budget og derefter være sparsommelig med dine penge – uden at være billige. Fordi du ikke får en anden chance så ofte som du tror, ​​du vil. Brug dine penge på de gode aktiviteter, du har drømt om i stedet for at springe dem over, bare fordi de inkluderer en prismærke.

Rejse er ikke noget race til bunden. Du er ikke en bedre rejsende, fordi du gik til Frankrig og valgte ikke at bruge nogen penge.

Det gør dig ikke til en budgetrejsende.

Jeg tror, ​​det bare gør dig billig.

I slutningen af ​​dagen tror jeg, at den samtale, vi har inden for budgettets rejsesamfund, skal skifte fra prioritering af “billighed” til prioritering af “sparsomhed.” En rejsende, der bruger sine penge klogt, uanset hvor meget han bruger, er en budgetrejsende.

Sådan rejser du verden på $ 50 om dagen

Min New York Times bedst sælgende paperback-guide til World Travel vil instruere dig, hvordan du mestrer kunsten at rejse, så du kommer fra den slagne vej, sparer penge og har en dybere rejseoplevelse. Det er din A til Z Planning Guide, som BBC kaldte “Bibelen for budgetrejsende.”

Klik her for at lære meget mere og begynde at læse det i dag!

Book din rejse: logistiske forslag og tricks
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Find en billig flyvning ved hjælp af Skyscanner. Det er min foretrukne søgemaskine, fordi den søger på websteder og flyselskaber over hele kloden, så du ved altid, at der ikke er nogen sten, der ikke er vendt.

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Safetywing (bedst for alle)

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Medjet (for yderligere evakueringsdækning)

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