How I Afford to Travel the World
I’m not rich. I’m not a trust fund baby, nor are my parents wiring me funds. I never won the lottery, besides that one time I get 5 bucks from a scratch off. And I pinky promise, I’m not involved in any black market business.
So how do I afford to travel so much?
I get the question all the time. I promise that with a little sacrifice and some planning, you can do it too. You don’t have to have a huge savings or a heavy wallet to follow your dreams and start crossing off those bucket list destinations. Don’t believe me? I’m going to let you guys in on my secrets: here’s how I manage to travel the world and make money while doing it, and how you can too.
1. To begin with, I have two jobs. Both of which, travel with me.
Job #1: I’m a freelance writer.
Or should I say, a free-lance writer, emphasis on the free. If you’re reading this, you obviously know I write on Medium. But my strategy goes beyond that — I write a blog, which doesn’t make me much money, but is a running writing portfolio out there for the world to find. It’s helped me land an awesome remote writing position with a digital marketing agency, and various other writing gigs for online publications. In this day and age, the beauty of online-ism is that you don’t have to be a writer with fancy credentials to start writing.
And if you’re not a writer? You’d be amazed at how many skills are needed through your computer. A site called UpWork.com is a great platform for freelancers of any skill type to find projects. The beauty of free-lance? Your laptop is your office.
Job #2: I teach English.
Teaching English is my side hustle, and a great one at that. I don’t have a teaching degree, nor was it ever something I even thought about. However, four years ago when I was looking into ways I could travel the world, I found the Language Assistant Teaching program in Spain, sponsored by the Spanish government. I could work for 12 hours a week as an English teaching assistant, and spend the rest of my time writing and traveling. It was perfect.
Turns out I don’t just love the lifestyle that teaching afforded me, but I actually love teaching. Go figure! So, I decided to become slightly more legit with a TEFL certification. I then packed up my certification, my laptop, and moved to Vietnam to teach 10 hours a week.Yep — 10 hours a week.
Teaching English is a wonderful way to make a stable income abroad, authentically immerse yourself into a new culture, and even get a visa.
2. I live in very affordable countries.
Let’s be real. Nobody ever got rich working as a freelance writer / part-time English teacher. I sure as hell wouldn’t be able to pull off this lifestyle if I were back in NYC. However, both Spain and Vietnam are extremely cheap countries to live in. Rent is about $300/month, and food is ridiculously cheap (sometimes even free). Living in affordable and beautiful places like Granada, Spain and Da Nang, Vietnam not only enables me to live an unbelievably high quality of life, but also financially allows me travel and even save. Yes, I said save.
3. I travel on the cheap.
That’s right, I just used travel and cheap in the same sentence. I promise, it can be done. I’ll start out by saying that if you’re a luxury traveler and gotta stay in that 5-star hotel and try all the Michelin-star restaurants, this approach isn’t for you. But if you’re willing to be a bit scrappy, low and behold — here’s your recipe to travel the world. Here goes:
Accommodation: Hostels over hotels, and friends over everything.
If you know what to look for, you can find some really nice hostels out there! In Europe, a clean, beautiful hostel can start as low as 15 euros a night. And in southeast Asia and South America, you can get some pretty nice digs for 6 bucks. No, not 60 — six. If you’re open to the whole hostel thing but want your privacy, look for a private room in a hostel.You still get the cheap price and social vibes, but you don’t have to hear that bunkmate of yours snore all night. When searching for you hostel (I like hostelworld) always try and stay above 9.0 rating, and read what it says about cleanliness, location and social scene.
Pro tip: I usually search for my hostel on hostelworld.com, but then book it on hotels.com. While hostelworld is great for finding cool, hip, fun places, booking allows free cancellation, and for every 10 nights booked you get 1 night free! Cha ching!
If hostels aren’t your thing, of course there’s always Airbnb, but watch out for those hidden cleaning fees.
And the best case scenario — stay with a friend! Hit up that friend you met that one time in that one hostel from that cool place you just happen to be passing through. You’ll be pleasantly surprised how open people are to inviting you into their home.
Food: It’s all about the cheap, bangin’ eats.
The best way to get to know a local culture? Ditch the mono-culture fancy restaurants that you could totally find at home, and dig up the hole-in-the-wall family-owned joint that’s packed with locals. Your taste buds and wallet will thank you.
Some tips? Walk away from the tourist streets and head towards the local neighborhoods and side streets. Get off TripAdvisor and Yelp, and ask the locals where they’re eating.
Flights: Here’s how you get the good deals.
First off, Skyscanner is my sidekick, and it should be yours too. Search “cheap flights everywhere” and it’ll tell you where in the world you can go for ridiculously cheap.
If I have a specific destination in mind, I love Hopper’s “flight tracker” option, that gives you flight price predictions and tells you the best time to purchase.
Also, always search for flights on an incognito browser so flight sites can’t track your cookies. If you’re not in incognito mode and they see looking up the same flights multiple times, they will raise the price on you. Evil, I know.
Last but not least, credit cards. Get the Companion Pass with Southwest, to get a free flight for your lucky partner (or even better, tell your partner to get it for you). Start swiping away on your favorite travel rewards credit card for groceries, movie tickets, car payments, whatever, and rack up those miles. Next thing you know, you’ll have precious flight miles waiting to fly you somewhere fo’ FREE.
And that, my friends, is how I manage to live my life on the road. Or in the air, rather.
