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Informative Articles

Four Ways to Free/Low Cost Travel
1. Free lodging! Find a pen friend. Maybe you haven’t thought of this. It’s the best solution to your budget problems, but you can’t have it overnight! Greek people are hospitable and so are other countries’ people if you become friends with....

Travel Canada: The Calgary Stampede
Welcome travelers to Cowtown, Canada! This two-week long festival starting the first Friday after June 2nd can showcases everything under the sun to do with ranching. Here is a short description of the attractions, events and festivities this...

Useful Tips For Women Traveling Alone
There has been an increase in the number of Americans traveling abroad - especially women traveling alone either for business or pleasure. Each country and culture has their own views of what is appropriate behavior for women. Although you may...

What you need to know about – Travel in Luxury
Luxury travel is diametrically opposed to traveling on budget. ‘Luxury’ as the term Suggests, is to have the best of everything by paying the maximum for it. If you have money and want to make your vacations a dream come true then go for the...

World Travel - Hints on how to do It
If you have set your mind on traveling around the world, you might run into the difficult task of having to make a hard choice: where do you want to go? The multitude of destinations and travel options is great, but it is also something that...

 
Inexpensive Travel

Inexpensive travel can be accomplished in two basic ways. First, get the best deals on the specific things you want. This approach is very limited though. For example, if you find the lowest price on the best hotel in Honolulu at the height of the season, you'll save money, but still have a very expensive room. Trying to get exactly what you want - or think you want - is an expensive proposition, in travel and in life.

The other approach to inexpensive travel is to be an opportunist. This may be difficult for some, and entirely unacceptable to others. Nonetheless, the travelers who get to travel the most, learn the most and do the most, are the opportunists.

When I first went to Ecuador, I went because it was cheap. If it wasn't, I would have had a great time anyhow - somewhere else. A month cost $1045, including airfare, a $130 fee for a guide to take me to the top of glacier-covered Mount Chimborazo, and everything else.

I cut the cost by taking a bus from my home in Michigan to Miami. Round-trip ticket: $158. The round-trip flight to Quito from Miami costs $256, because it was a courier flight. This meant I signed for some luggage (car parts), and could only take carry-on luggage. I never felt deprived or bored. I had a great time, eating wherever it was cheap and clean, doing inexpensive and interesting things, and traveling across the country to climb Chimborazo. I also met and


fell in love with my wife Ana.

How To Be An Opportunist Traveler

Can you drink rum at a dollar per bottle, instead of your favorite beer? Can you eat chicken instead of steak? How about visiting the free sights first, and dancing in the street festival instead of the disco?

As an opportunistic traveler you'll have more fun, and almost everything you want - eventually. Just stop trying to get exactly what you want exactly when you want it. If the guide for Chimborazo hadn't dropped his price from $200 to $130, I would have spent $2 for a bus and gone hiking on El Altar, another great Andean mountain. It would have left me with enough money for several other minor adventures.

There are many things to learn about how to travel cheap. On our last trip to Ecuador, for example, my wife and I discovered a way to save $1000 on plane tickets. Good information can save you a lot of money. A flexible, open-minded approach, however, is the real key to inexpensive travel.


About the Author

Steve Gillman hit the road at sixteen, and traveled the U.S. and Mexico alone at 17. Now 40, he travels with his wife Ana, whom he met in Ecuador. For secrets of cheap plane tickets, plus travel stories, tips and information, visit: http://www.EverythingAboutTravel.com