How to travel the world with one paycheck
That’s right! If you plan well, you can travel very affordably and work it into your budget. As a recent grad, with a big student loan, I took a leap of faith and bought a plane ticket to London, England. I then visited nine more cities in Europe for the experience of a lifetime. Here’s how you can too!
Firstly, a trip to the UK is not cheap. But compared to a trip to Bora Bora, it’s not that bad.
Step 1: Choose your destinations wisely.
This trip I planned was a gift from me to me, a post grad trip. I wanted to solo travel and experience many cultures. The best way to get that done was picking a place that would also be economical.
The UK and Europe are great and known for having trains that take you from city to city, or country to country on the low.
Another great travel destination is Asia. Thailand in particular is known for having the best views at affordable stays. And the savings on food alone is reason enough to just live there.
Find a destination that allows you to move around, and experience different activities and food.
Step 2: Choose the right season.
Summer is one of the most expensive travel seasons. Everyone is on holiday, schools are out, and the good weather just adds to more people wanting to travel. So choose an off season. Maybe around October when fall is beginning and schools are in full swing. Or Late March, Early April, when the flux of March break is up. You’ll find way more affordable flights and have more routes to choose from.
Step 3: Search routes and strategize transportation.
Routes – What cities or countries do you want to see? What cities are clustered together? What modes of transportation can you take from one place to the next?
The fun of travelling can be planning just that. Get out a map, read articles, and watch videos on the places you want to go. Then literally map it out. The best way to do this, is simply getting on google and printing a map of the cities and countries you want to see. You get a better idea of how close or how far these places are from one another. Estimate the prices to get to each destination, or the price you want to pay and list out your picks.
When I planned my Europe trip, I gave myself a max of $100 dollars in between each destination. This left trains out of the question. Other options included coach busses (my go-to was Flixbus) and ride sharing services (blabla car is quite popular – if you’re willing to ride with strangers). If the cost to get to a certain city exceeded my budget, I crossed it off my list, or put a city in between. My total budget for the trip was $500, which actually got me to 8 countries and 10 cities.
Flights – On a pinch, this will be your biggest saviour. You’ll gain the most savings by finding the right flight. Layover flights with stops are great for savings. Scour the internet for sites that let you compare alternate dates. A lot of search engines will let you choose a travel date, but also show you the flight prices for the day before and the day after the one you’ve selected. This lets you see if a particular day will be more affordable.
Google also has a feature that’ll show you average flight rates for any given day. You can use this to skim through months of flight dates, to give you a starting point for choosing the week you should be flying.
Don’t be afraid to have two browsers open and search for your flights separately, you’ll find way more options to choose from and you can save a ton by simply buying tickets separately. Buy two one-way tickets if possible!
The most helpful thing I learned was, flying to a lesser travelled city could save you hundreds of dollars. So instead of flying to Paris, like I initially wanted to, I flew to London instead. As for my departure, I flew back from Portugal. And this turned a $1000+ round trip flight into a $600 round trip flight.
Step 3: Understand your cash flow.
Typically, a portion of your income is put into savings or set aside for something fun like travel. It’s best to start doing this as soon as you can. Granted, you may only have enough money to cover expenses. But you’ve got to remember that if you have some sort of earnings, you have some sort of money, and it belongs to you first. Where you would normally head out to dinner, buy that morning smoothie, or treat yourself to that splurge; you’ve got to set that cash aside instead. This is your money, and it should be set aside in a savings account for your trip.
When it came to buying that first plane ticket, this is what I did. I reminded my self every day for about three months, that next spring I’d be travelling, and I needed to set aside money to do that. I cut down on spending on outings with friends because I realized it would benefit me more in the end. Some paychecks, I only had $50 set aside, but sometimes I had two or three hundred I could set aside. Anytime I got extra cash, I set it aside as well.
So often you put a certain lump sum of money together for important things, like car maintenance or or other major costs, but what if it didn’t cost as much as you thought? What do you do with the cash left over? Set aside that extra savings and it can help pay down for your flight too!
Before you know it you’ll have the cash you need. Now is not the time to hesitate. Buy your ticket and book that flight!
At this point you’ll have an idea of how much you can actually set aside each month for your trip, and where your shortfall may lie.
Step 4: Choose your accommodations wisely.
Let’s save some time, and cross five-star resorts off right away. Travelling on a budget means thinking outside the holiday box. To save, you won’t even be staying in hotels. You should only be staying in AirBnBs, Hostels, Capsules, or 3-star hotels, at most. Not only are these types of accommodations budget friendly, but they also add to the experience. As a solo traveller, some of your best travel gems, can be found in an AirBnB. And some of your best travel buddies can be found at Hostels.
This should go without saying, but aim to find accommodations that are walking distance from your travel route. Your stay should be minutes from the train station or airport, not only to save money, but also to help you better navigate when in new cities. This will help beat some of the travel frustration of getting lost, being late, and wasting valuable time.
When searching a city for a place to stay, the best place to start is AirBnB. Heart your favourite places, and right down the cheapest price. Then hop on to Booking.com and look up Hostels. If the prices are the same or less, choose a hostel and you’ll meet more people and have way more options for fun activities.
If this isn’t your cup of tea, or you haven’t really found anything you like, you can also use the site to check out hotels in your price range. For your accommodation budget, I recommend $30-$60 night, though this depends on the city you’re visiting.
In Milan, it was slim pickings for affordable accommodations that would also be close to coach busses and train stations, so I found a really cool Capsule called Ostelzzz for about $100 a night.
Step 5: Plan your payment methods beforehand.
This step is the most devious, because it’s usually our afterthought. After we save for a trip, book it and go, we remember that we’ll have a pay check during this time, and we blow it all on souvenirs and food.
Depending on how long you travel, you’ll most likely receive one to two paychecks while on your trip and you can alott some of that money towards trip expenses before you go.
Each accommodation will show its methods of payment in its description. This is where you’ll usually see a super cheap price with no options for cancellations. However for a couple bucks more, there is almost always a really similar price booking option that allows cancellations, as well as pay on check-in. This is key. When you choose this option, you can book all of your stays, with no money at all. Plan ahead and dedicate a portion of the pay check you’ll receive during your trip, to paying for your stays. Also have a little more set aside for emergencies and errors, I recommend at least 2–3 nights of cash.
Depending on the duration of your trip and your destination, you’ll need a budget for food, activities and souvenirs. Typically, I recommend an experience budget of $50 a day with rollover allowance. This means that if one stay has complimentary breakfast, the money you save on those days, can rollover and add to the rest of your experience budget. You should never try to hit that $50 budget each day. This is your cushion. some days you will spend less, and some days you will spend more. It’s all part of the fun of travelling, so I also recommend having a little extra set aside for just-in-case events.
A little planning can go a long a way. Travelling city to city can be exciting and tiring all at the same time. You never know who you’ll meet, and where you’ll end up. Be open minded and prepare a cash cushion to experience some magical things. The best activities don’t cost much at all. It’s all about the people you meet and the things you see. A walk in the colourful city of Lisbon can be the breath of fresh air you need to remind you that when you put you first, you can make anything possible.
