The Bad Bitch Travel Guide — how to see the world and experience it fully and deeply while spending as little as possible

Deciding to travel

I think the biggest hurdle that comes between a person and traveling is deciding to do it. Once you decide to go to Country X and you put your mind to it, there will be a way to bypass whatever roadblocks you think you have — whether it be school, work, money, or time. You can travel during breaks from school, take some time off work (even a long weekend!), and save up some money and go super low budget. Another big roadblock is finding travel companions. My response to that: don’t wait for people to agree to come with you! Buy your tickets and go by yourself! A lot of people hear that I travel alone, and the top responses I get are,

“Wow you’re so brave! I could NEVER do that”

“I could not do that, it must get SOO lonely”

“Isn’t it unsafe?”

“THAT’S AWESOME I LOVE SOLO TRAVEL WOOHOO HIGH FIVE”

Honestly, I am not crazy brave or anything, and I rarely (seriously, basically never) feel lonely when I travel alone. My advice for anyone thinking of taking his or her first solo trip is JUST DO IT! You’ll be so surprised at how much fun you’ll have, how many friends you’ll make, and how much you’ll learn about yourself. I love my friends, obviously, but traveling alone allows me to have a whole different experience. I like to do both!

Before I started traveling, I didn’t really know what to expect — there were so many questions and uncertainties that made me kind of hesitant and worried. I literally didn’t know what to do or what to expect if I were to step off a plane in a new place, and I think many people have the same concerns when deciding to travel or not. Like I said earlier, I’m not super brave and adventurous — I didn’t go from 0 travel experience to immediately hopping on a plane with a backpack and roughing it in a random country across the globe by myself. I slowly gained experience by traveling with different groups and organizations before I began solo backpacking. I went on a couple short term study abroad trips with my university, spent a week volunteering with a mobile medical clinic, and incorporated a little bit of travel before/after some of these experiences. I really only felt comfortable enough to travel alone semi-recently — just to prove to you guys I’m not some psycho robot who fears nothing.

ANYWAY, bottom line: everyone has enough time, money, and guts to do it — you just have to set your mind to it and get out there!

Where to go? When? How do I get started?

This is the easy part — we all have travel bucket lists, or at least access to the Internet where you can ogle beautiful destinations that your Facebook friends or National Geographic photographers have been to. I normally decide where to go based on word of mouth, pretty pictures on Instagram (yep), and just following my own travel list. However, I narrow down my choices depending on flight prices, season, and cost of travel within the destination(s). For example, I can get by comfortably with $20 a day for food, transportation, accommodation, etc. in Thailand but flying there will cost $1000–1500 round-trip. Alternatively, you can get a pretty sweet deal flying to Iceland for $99+fees and to mainland Europe for ~$50, but day-to-day costs in Western Europe will cost well over $50–75 a day on a tight budget. You can do some number crunching and figure out what will make the most sense economically for the amount of time you have. Flying to and from your destination is going to be a big (if not biggest) chunk of your budget so this should be prioritized.

For us East Coasters, I personally think you get the most bang for your buck by traveling to Central America. I’ll talk about finding the best flight deals in the next section, and flying for free with miles in the following section.

How do I buy cheap tickets?

My go-to site and phone app to search for flights is Skyscanner. It checks virtually everything on the Internet, and has some cool features to help you find the best deals. For example, you can put “anywhere” as your destination to check out the cheapest flights from your departure airport. This is how I found that it only costs $200 to fly from Bangkok, Thailand to Oslo, Norway (a 10 hour flight!!), which inspired me to go back to Southeast Asia before embarking on my Eurotrip. You can also type in entire countries as your departure and destination on Skyscanner, so that way you don’t have to go through every single airport looking for the cheapest fares. This is super useful for Europe.

Also, you may have heard that it’s cheapest to buy and fly on a Tuesday (or was it Wednesday?), and I think that’s partly true just from the copious amounts of time I spend searching for flights. I think the general trend is that weekends are more expensive, but even so, not by too much. Holidays, definitely. Anyway a good tip is to go incognito on your browser or just don’t use your personal computer when searching for flights because the invisible airline fairies keep track of your search trends and will jack up prices for that BWI-AMS flight you spent the past week searching for.

Another good tip: even if you’re not 100% sure of your purchase, you will have 24 hours after booking to cancel it. All airlines (including United) have a 24-hour cancellation policy, though some airlines have fine print like the travel dates must be more than a week in advance of booking. A good way to avoid straining your eyes to read all the cancellation rules and regulations is to book through Expedia (I always use Expedia but I’ve heard Orbitz works too) because they have a no questions asked 100% guaranteed 24-hour cancellation policy. For example, I cancelled my inter-island flight from Big Island to Oahu under 12 hours before departure because I booked it the day before with Expedia. If I booked directly with Hawaiian Air, I would’ve had to pay a cancellation fee because my travel date was less than 7 days of booking. Just watch out though because sometimes the ticket prices are higher through Expedia, Orbitz, etc. — so it may or may not be worth it.

I also like to stay in the loop with dips in flight prices through The Points Guy and The Flight Deal. I follow both on Facebook, but they have their own websites as well. I just figured since I’m on Facebook obsessively anyway, I might as well see some useful stuff on my newsfeed. I highly recommend both! I found my $300 round-trip ticket to Costa Rica with United through The Flight Deal. More on why I always fly United in the next section.

Tip: If you know you want to go to, let’s say Europe, in the next few months, I recommend signing up for emails with the major airlines that fly within Europe so you can get alerted of deals and promotions. I’m currently signed up for WOW air, Easyjet, Ryanair, and a couple others for my summer Eurotrip. You get some pretty great deals that go straight to your inbox this way, as long as you don’t mind the occasional promotional email.

How do I fly for free with miles?

Now I’m fairly new to this, so don’t expect anything life-changing. I was able to get my flight from DC to Bangkok and home from Europe to DC using miles, and I’ll still have enough left over for another one-way ticket. (Update: since writing this post originally, I decided to splurge and use up most of my remaining miles to buy a 1st class ticket home from Europe haha). Just for reference, it was 40k miles to fly from the DC to Bangkok; and 30k to fly from Barcelona to DC economy, and 80k first-class (worth it).

I’ve flown to China a few times in the past decade for family trips, so I’ve racked up some miles with United through the United MileagePlus program over the years (almost 10k each trip). I personally think this is the best reward program for me, so I’m always trying to fly with United. Now that I’m a semi-fully functioning adult, I decided to sign up for a United Explorer card.

I got a 50k mile sign-up bonus, and another 5k for adding an authorized user (my mom). I think if you’re not a MileagePlus member, the sign up bonus is only 30k — so sign up for United MileagePlus! It’s easy! You just need to spend $4,000 in the first 3 months, which is totally doable because spending money is probably the easiest thing to do in the world. This card also has cool features like no foreign transaction fees, 1 mile per $1 spent, 2 miles per $1 spent on United tickets, free checked bag on United flights, priority boarding on United flights, 2 United Club passes, baggage loss/delay benefits, and more. The first year is free, but after that it’s like $95 I think. Pro tip: you can actually weasel your way out of annual credit card fees by doing some customer service gymnastics. My mom tried cancelling one of her credit cards recently because she rarely used it and kept paying the annual fee, and the customer service representative just ended up waiving it for her to keep her a cardmember. Cool, huh?

Also, according to The Points Guy, the best card for travel overall is the Chase Sapphire card. This has similar sign-up perks — 50k sign up miles, no foreign transaction fees, and you get 2 miles per $1 spent on anything travel related! This includes Uber and some restaurants as well. I don’t actually have this card (yet) so I can’t answer too many questions about it, but a lot of the perks I talked about with the Explorer card is relevant for the Sapphire card (plus more!). I recommend just checking out The Points Guy’s article on credit cards if you’re interested in opening a card.

You may be concerned about hurting your credit score by opening all these cards. While it’s true that it will dip a little if you open a bunch of new cards, it’s not hard to bring the score back up. Unless you’re looking to purchase a house or take out a major private loan (not the government student loan) in the next year, there’s virtually no harm (in my opinion) in opening new cards. Just don’t go crazy and spend money that you don’t have!!! I think this is pretty obvious but some people apparently abuse credit cards (like all of the US).

Research — figuring out what to do and choosing accommodation

So let’s say you have the tickets for your next trip booked. Now you just need to figure out what you’re doing when you’re there! One option is to plan absolutely nothing and just show up. At the other end of the spectrum, you can research the Internet to death and create a minute-by-minute itinerary (seriously, I’ve heard of people doing this). I like to stay somewhere in the middle ground and research stuff ahead of time but not necessarily book stuff ahead of time.

This of course depends on where you’re going. For example, the top hostels in Europe will fill up ahead of time for the summer travel season. On the other hand, I had no trouble showing up without a reservation in SE Asia, Costa Rica, and Hawaii. Just do a little bit of research ahead of time to see if reservations are required for your hostel (usually nah).

So usually I’ll read about the country itself on Wikitravel or Lonely Planet and check out the top attractions through Tripadvisor to get a feel for the place and see what things I’d like to do. I’ll make a mental list of things I’d like to see and do in whatever country I’m in. Once I figure out roughly how long I want to spend in each spot, I start to scope out hostels in the area through Hostelworld or a simple “hostels in ____” Google search.

Normally, I’ll book my very first hostel ahead of time so I can just go there straight from the airport and figure my life out from there. From here, I’ll see what other people in the hostel are doing and I’ll either go with them or do whatever, all while keeping that mental list in mind. I almost always end up changing my original travel plans completely and kind of go with the flow once I start meeting people and experiencing the area more. I’ll also talk about hostels more later.

Guide books: I’ve never been a huge fan of guide books and thought they were bulky and heavy and unnecessary when you have the internet and other travelers around, but I got my hands on a Sri Lanka travel book from a hostel in Indonesia and used it semi religiously during my travels in Sri Lanka. I think I’m starting to realize that while a guide book is not integral for a country like Thailand that’s full of travelers all the time, it may be more useful in some less traveled countries or countries during their low season.

Packing

What should I bring for my 2 week/3 week/5 month trip? Actually, I recommend packing the exact same things for a 2 week trip and a 2 month+ trip. I normally take enough clothing to last me 5 days-1 week, with extra undies for peace of mind. I know this is so cliché, but LESS IS MORE! I’m assuming most of your trips will fall under the 2 week to multi-month category, so let’s talk about your backpack and what you’re bringing for that:

If you’re looking to purchase a new backpack, it could be a good idea to go to REI and try some on if you have the time. Actually, I didn’t do this at all and it ended up being fine because chances are you’re not going to be trekking for days on end by foot if you’re just going on a Eurotrip and not actual backwoods backpacking. Let’s be real, the most walking you’re going to be doing with your bag is maybe from the bus stop to your hostel. This is why instead of spending $250+ at REI for a pack that fit my specific body frame perfectly with fancy ventilation holes for excessive walking and sweating with 4000 attachments and options, I bought a pretty nice 55L High Sierra pack on Amazon that randomly was on sale for less than $70 (normally $220). I love it to pieces, but I do wish it was a little smaller. I think 35–45L would be enough for me personally, but it’s nice having the extra space in my 55L. I can make it small enough to sneak onto the plane as a carry-on, so that’s good enough for me! However, it was definitely too big for the European budget airlines so really make sure your dimensions are within range for cabin luggage if you don’t want to pay extra to check your bag.

Please learn from my mistakes and take as little as possible. I packed my 55L bag to the BRIM for my first big trip, and I ended up having to ship things home (I have a shopping problem) and it was still super heavy and hard to carry. Seriously, you’ll be surprised at how little you actually need. I’ve outlined a very generous packing list that I’d bring with me on a 2+ week trip.

My rough packing list for warm weather travel:

Clothing: Keep in mind you’ll probably buy some stuff while abroad. Also, try to be cognizant of how conservatively you should be dressing in different countries. People will know you are traveling so they’ll cut you some slack, but I think it’s still important to be respectful of local customs and cover up if it’s part of their culture. You don’t want to be that person who shows up at a Buddhist temple in shorts and a tank top only to be turned away or asked to cover up.

• 1 pair of leggings or long pants for the airplane, 1–2 pairs capri leggings, 1 pair athletic shorts, 1 pair jean shorts, 1 maxi skirt, 1 pair yoga shorts to wear under dresses for windy days or to yoga!
• 1–2 dresses that can also double as a beach coverup
• 2 plain spaghetti strap tanks, 1 plain t-shirt, 1 athletic tops, 1 cute top that I can wear out if needed
• Cardigan or light jacket for plane and chilly nights
• Rain jacket (depends on where you go and what season it is)
• Undies and socks

Shoes: depends on your main activities, but less is more again

• Sneakers for plane, walking, hiking
• Shower flip flops for questionable hostel bathrooms
• Casual sandals for walking around — I normally take my Birkenstocks or Rainbow flip flops
• Optional: hiking shoes — depends on where you go! I found them useful for Costa Rica and Hawaii because hiked a bunch, but I still think you can get by without them if you’re just doing day hikes. (unless you’re planning something HUGE like hiking the Kalalau trail on the Na Pali coast in Kauai or something)

Toiletries: 1 small bag! You can purchase most of this stuff while you’re traveling

• Toothbrush + travel toothpaste (can buy more later)
• Contacts + solution
• Shampoo/body wash/etc (soapy stuff). I have 1 tin of Lush products for this + small bottle of Dr. Bronner’s all purpose soap

Makeup: I used to be obsessed with makeup so this will be pretty detailed haha. All this stuff fits inside a tiny bag + brush holder

• Mascara: Maybelline Full n Soft waterproof mascara
• Eyelash curler: Japonesque travel curler (SOO tiny and cute)
• Eyeliner: Sephora travel pencil liner (super tiny) and any liquid liner
• Concealer: Bobbi Brown undereye concealer
• Foundation: Tarte (tip: just bring 1 or 2 sample containers full of foundation instead of the whole bottle)
• Eyebrow: Anastasia brow powder (I use this as eyeshadow too — perfect color!)
• Brushes: Ecotools small angled brush for brows, and blending brush

Electronics

• Phone (I take my regular unlocked iPhone 6s and buy a local SIM if I’m staying in a country for a while)
• Camera (I just use my phone)
• Laptop (I’ve traveled with and without. I prefer traveling without mine, even though it’s a tiny 11 inch Macbook Air — it’s a hassle to always have to make sure it’s in a safe place, but when it’s convenient it’s SUPER convenient. You should be able to find a computer or Internet cafe while traveling, so it depends on what you want to use it for)
• Chargers!

Other:

• Tweezers and nail clippers
• Head lamp if you’re camping or will be in nature-y places
• Bandaids and Neosporin
• Medicine
• Small day bag — backpack or tote
• Sleeping bag liner — I have a silk liner to be comfy in sketchy beds and a Permethrin lined liner for tropical countries or anywhere with bugs
• Tampons. Girls, they’re pretty hard to find in certain countries. Pads and partyliners are readily available in most places
• Condoms (doesn’t hurt)
• A book for when you’re on a bus, or just waiting for something in general. I like to take something I’m not super attached to so I can give it away or trade for another book with someone
• Journal!

Transportation

Sometimes you’ll have many options, sometimes you’ll have no options. I’ve ridden in a super nice Mercedes for 5 hours, and I’ve also ridden in the back of a repurposed cattle truck for a few hours as well. Here are a few tips on getting around.

In general, I like to take public transportation and avoid taking taxis as much as I possibly can. I do this not only to save some money, but also to get a better feel of local culture. I’ll normally look up public transportation options to leave the airport and get into the main city/town, and then go from there in order to find my hostel. Sometimes, however, public transportation may not be available. I’ve had to get creative at times with airport transportation. For example, I landed in Hilo airport on Big Island, Hawaii, on a Sunday. I didn’t realize until I got there that the busses don’t run on Sundays and my only option to get to town 3 miles away was to take a $20 taxi. I was NOT going to pay that much for a 3 mile ride, so I tried to figure out another way of getting to my hostel. I ended up talking to and befriending a family who just got off a helicopter tour and they gave me a lift to my hostel in their rental car. Simply being friendly and nice can get you a lot of free rides! Of course, this type of stuff is only safe in certain parts of certain areas in certain cities in certain countries, so exercise caution whenever you get a ride from someone/hitchhike.

Tips for taking public transportation:

• Keep your bags with you or within sight
• Don’t be afraid to ask fellow passengers where they’re going, etc. Making sure you’re getting off at the right stop is super useful haha
• Bring snacks (I do this just because I’m a fattie. Also, you never know if there will be a crazy delay or break down!)

If you HAVE to take a taxi, here are my taxi rules:

• Never ride with someone who seems SUPER eager to give you a ride. I’m talking like, taking your bags out of your hands eager
• Make sure they have identification and it matches the ID inside the car
• MAKE SURE there is a working meter and that the driver turns the meter on. For example, in touristy places and bus/rail stations in Bangkok, waiting taxis will refuse to use the meter so you’ll end up having to pay some ridiculous price for a ride. It’ll be hard to find a driver who’s willing to use the meter in these places, so you’ll sometimes have to walk out to a main road to hail one
• If you go through tolls, usually the passenger pays them
• Figure out ahead of time how much your fare should roughly be so you don’t get ripped off
• Keep your backpack in the back seat with you if possible. A friend of mine had her bag and some other friends’ bags in the trunk, and when they wanted to leave the driver gave them a whole new price. Obviously they got angry and wanted to leave, but he wouldn’t unlock the trunk until he got more money. So keep your bags in sight always!

Tips for hitchhiking:

• Trust your gut. If you get a funny feeling about someone, no one is forcing you to ride with them so just go with the next car that stops for you
• Get into the habit of remembering as much of the license plate of the car you’re getting into — this is useful for cabs as well

Tips for tuk-tuks:

• If possible, just don’t. They’re fun to experience once in a while but I really kind of just think they’re for show and to take tourists’ money. Metered taxis are usually going to be cheaper and more reliable, and taxi drivers aren’t going to try and convince you to visit their brother or cousin or uncle’s shop or hotel.
• If you have no other option, want the convenience, or if you just wanna do it for the experience, just make sure you get a good rate and agree on the price beforehand. You’ll also have better luck and more reasonable prices if you hail one driving down a street vs. one that’s waiting on the side of the road

Also, much love to Google maps. I search the area I’m in when I’m connected to wifi and star/favorite places I’m interested in so they’re all available offline when I go off to explore. There are some offline map apps that allow you to download entire cities, countries, etc. so that’s super useful too! Two popular ones are maps.me and Triposo.

When in doubt, just ask. Locals are normally pretty nice and will help you get to your destination. And don’t hesitate to ask fellow travelers as well! You can bond over being lost in a foreign country together and that’s fun.

Let’s talk about hostels

Like I mentioned earlier, if I’m traveling alone, I’ll book my first destination’s hostel online just so I’m not completely stranded and have somewhere to go after I hop off a plane. I don’t like planning ahead too much in order to keep some flexibility in my travels.

Ok so you’ve made it to your hostel — hooray! If you get there and it doesn’t really look like the pictures, ask to check out the rooms/bathrooms to make sure you’re going to be comfortable staying there. Pay after you’re ok with the place. I’ve only had this happen once because I normally research the hostels ahead of time, but still good to make sure you’re not staying in some dump. I’ve mentioned this before, but I normally scope out hostels using Hostelworld and will book ahead of time if it looks like it’ll fill up or if there aren’t many options to begin with. If I’m going to a place with tons of options for hostels, I’ll usually go there and scope them out in person and choose then.

There are loads of different types of hostels — big ones, small ones, party hostels, super eco/hippie hostels, super nice expensive hostels, complete dumps, etc. Just know that if you don’t LOVE your stay, it’s not the end of the world! Just go somewhere else :D

Figuring out what to do

Honestly just talk to everyone! See what people are doing, and if it interests you, go with them. If you want to go do something completely different, just tell people you’re going to _____ and anyone is welcome to join you. More likely than not, there will be people with 0 plans who will tag along. If not, then go by yourself! Just refer back to that mental list of stuff you wanted to do when you did research before your trip.

Refer back to the “Research” section for the sites I like to use.

Food

Food. My favorite! It can be challenging at times to stay low-budget while eating healthy and eating like a king. I normally will find a local market or grocery store to buy some fresh fruit and produce, and maybe some other simple things to make breakfast with. Depending on where you are, it might save you tons of money to go grocery shopping and make most of your meals (Europe, Australia, Hawaii, US in general, even Costa Rica kind of). In Southeast Asia, however, it’s basically just as cheap to eat out for every single meal because food is SO delicious and dirt cheap there.

Also, be a little bold! Try street food, and ask around to see where the locals eat. A good way to find some yummy eateries is to go to the main touristy places with the nice restaurants catered towards tourists, and then walk a few blocks away from that area. You’ll notice that the food quality will either stay the same or get better and prices will drop incredibly.

And of course, there is always Tripadvisor if you want to save some time hunting for a place.

Craving a more local experience?

Hostels are great for meeting other like-minded individuals who love to travel and explore, and you’re bound to get along with almost everyone you meet at hostels. However, if you want a taste of the local culture, staying in a hostel probably isn’t the best way to do that! I’ll sometimes use Couchsurfing, which is an app that connects travelers with locals who offer their couch, futon, and sometimes even extra room for free. If you get a good host, they’ll show you around the city and take you around to all the great local spots. I’ve had some amazing experiences through CS, so I highly recommend it.

Another really useful app (hey it’s 2016 after all) is actually Tinder. No, it doesn’t have to be a dating/hook-up app. You can totally use it to meet locals and make new friends. I’ve done this before — it doesn’t have to be a romantic/sexual relationship by ANY means. As long as you know what you want and you are clear about it and can communicate that with people you meet, Tinder can be a great way to experience a new place. I’ll talk about non-platonic relationships while traveling in the next section.

If you like the idea of Couchsurfing but the idea of staying with a random person for free doesn’t really do it for you, you can always find an Airbnb that’ll give you a similar experience. Just read up on reviews!

Safety tip: With CS, you can totally stalk your potential host’s profile and really read through their ENTIRE page. Read their reviews, look at all their pictures, and make sure you’re going to be completely comfortable staying with them. You’ll be able to message them beforehand and get a better feel for them as well. And also, it doesn’t hurt to have a back-up place to stay like a nearby hostel and means of getting there in case you change your mind and don’t want to surf anymore.

Of course, when using any of these apps or meeting ANYONE, just be careful and listen to your gut. With CS, you can read reviews and message before you stay with them.

Living and eating for free — work trades

There are loads of volunteer opportunities available around the world. However, not all volunteerism is created equally. A lot of volunteer gigs are geared towards “making the world a better place”, and this can be working in an orphanage, at a medical clinic, etc. The other major type of volunteering is to reduce travel costs — working in a hostel for example. I’ve done both, but I’ll be talking more about the second type of volunteering here, since it’s what I’ve been doing recently to be able to travel for longer and cheaper.

My favorite resource to find gigs abroad is Workaway. You pay a one-time ~$29 fee to have access to listings all around the world, and these jobs can range anywhere from working in a hostel, teaching English, building stuff, farming, working at a yoga retreat, etc. I’ve used this site to find volunteer gigs in Hawaii and Thailand, and I absolutely loved both experiences. I really really highly recommend Workaway — you’ll be surprised at how many opportunities there are and how EASY it is to work and travel! Just take some time to really read everything — not all places offer free food for example, so just read carefully and take the reviews into consideration.

Another popular site is WWOOF. I’ve personally never used this because you pay per country/continent/region for this site I couldn’t make my mind up about which country I wanted to travel to. Also, I didn’t want my options to be confined to just farming.

Also don’t forget about good old Google and word of mouth! I found out about volunteering at an animal rescue center in Costa Rica from some girls I met while traveling there. Also the Internet is full of different volunteer opportunities abroad, though you have to pay for a lot of them which doesn’t really appeal to me. Anyway, options are endless!