Vacation vs Travel
Two very different things that most people think are the same
Many people, at least in the US, are only accustomed to taking vacations, and this may be the case for their entire lives. This is because of in the US, we get a measly 2 weeks of vacation per year or less. This is often used for visiting families or a short vacation inside the US.
When you only get so little time off, vacation is viewed as a reward from hard work and a chance to relax and be luxurious, which is entirely fair but changes the way you plan and handle it. It’s also completely different from travel. For me at least, travel is an exercise in frugal living and experiencing different cultures.
I had only ever taken vacations before starting the trip I’m currently on. Since I lived in the US, the cultural values associated with vacations were instilled into me from childhood, as the culture does in any place you grow up and live. I was convinced that travel was an expensive luxury that you either only have little time for as a normal person, or have the privilege to do frequently if you are rich. That when you travel, you stay in nice hotels or resorts and relax by the beach, hike majestic mountains, eat fancy food, and/or see amazing historical sites. Well, it turns out all of this is bullshit.
Travel can be very cheap without sacrificing quality of life, and you can even make money while traveling to pay off your costs. In addition, seeing tourist sites for the sake of seeing them quickly becomes a dry exercise, so being embedded more deeply into a culture through a work experience is often more valuable. Websites like WOOF and Workaway give travelers opportunities to live and work with a local, being entirely absorbed into their lifestyle, in addition to making this your travel cost nearly nothing as your food and lodging are fully covered.
In addition, you can easily live very well while traveling at a budget of $50/day or less, everything included. This guy has been traveling for 8 years on an average of $15/day, financing it all by renting out a small house in Germany, and has an incredible life. Saving up for just a month or two will get you enough cash to travel for at least double as long as you’ve been saving.
So how do you keep costs low? A few simple tricks. First, keep lodging costs low by staying in hostels, airbnbs booked ahead of time, couchsurfing, and/or staying with friends when possible. Stay further out from city centers, you can always bike or take public transit in. Cook your own food — it’s easy, healthy, and saves a boatload of money. And keep frivolous tourist costs low. Seeing every museum and church and climbing every tower in each city you visit is sure to drain your account for little to no actual value. It’s pretty likely that you’ll never remember that museum or view over the city a couple months later, any money spent on it is simply indulgent entertainment for an hour or less.
Seeking out genuine cultural experiences and spending less money really go hand in hand. The vacations and tourism industry is a well oiled machine, made to extract as much money as possible from those seeking low-value entertainment cloaked as cultural education. If you avoid it, not only will you be seeking out higher value experiences, but you will be saving tons of cash.
If you are taking a vacation rather than traveling, you might easily be able to justify spending a little more as a reward for hard work, and cramming in as much as you can as you only have limited time off. While this is a fair justification, if this is the way you want to spend your time off, chances are that your life balance is off and what you really need is more time, rather than more money. Unfortunately, this imbalance is reality for nearly every working professional in the US, as two weeks off a year is simply not enough to live a healthy and balanced life. But we’ll cover the topic of balance in more depth in the future.
If this article interested you, check my new post, Introduction to Long Term Travel. It discusses the intricacies of travel in much more detail!
Photo is of a beach in along the French coast near Cannes. Beaches are often viewed as luxurious vacation destinations, but are just a normal part of life and often not frequented by those who live close to them.
