Many say that is only rich people who can afford to travel, that travel is very expensive and you need a lot of money to leave the city where you live and explore the world.
My travels started when I was very young and my first solo travel outside Chile was when I turned 18. At that time I was a student and not even close to have a fortune (I didn’t even had a bank account back then).
At that time I worked in many things, sometimes as a waitress in restaurants and with a catering company, I gave massages and done different “pitutos” (the Chilean expression that states doing odd jobs through someone you know) in all and random things that was possible to get some money from.
As I never liked to buy “many” things , most of the money I was gaining with this jobs (as I’m still doing this nowadays) was saved with one and only goal: to Travel and see the World.
One of the questions I get most often is about this and how or what to do to travel as much as I do. I can tell you I have not received any heritage, not even I have become rich.
I will tell you here how I’ve done it so far to travel to many of my dream destinations (my trip to Macchu Picchu cost me just under 300USD for a month including air and bus tickets) and how am still able to keep traveling for long periods of time.
Organizing life around a goal
When you have your goals clear it is much easier to make them happen than when you don’t know what you want to achieve.
When I decided that my biggest dream was to travel I undertook a life plan and I was living as austere as I could, which meant doing savings in many areas and not spend unnecessary money .
It’s amazing what you can spend each month partying (especially in alcohol and cigarettes) so I try to leave it as little as possible when I’m in savings plan. Many will say to me: But that’s boring!
It’s all a priorities thing my dears.
If travel it is a priority to you as it is for me, then you can do this savings plan and to live without all those things that you spend your money every day and that could mean your next ticket to Southeast Asia. If travel does not mean something important and priority will clearly be more difficult to save money and to not buy that overpriced underwear fashion brand.
If you really think that is very expensive to travel, so why not consider change that expensive clothing brand in which you spend most of your income? Or in everything else, as all the makeup and perfumes you pay as soon as you get your paycheck? Or do you spend on eating out several days a week?
If you do not win all the money you want in your current job you can make a savings plan and cut all those expenses that are not so necessary and can mean to save in a year enough money to travel to almost anywhere in the world, even coming from a South American country from where I come and not having big money from your current job.
Don’t wait for the perfect time to travel
If there is anything I’ve learned over my lifetime (and something that applies to EVERYTHING else in life) it is that if you wait for the perfect moment to whatever, that day may never come.
For many years I was calculating how much money I should have to go to India, and for how many days would last that money. I knew the name of each city that I wanted to visit and the name of every dish I wanted to try there, you know what happened? Years were passing and that moment could never came if I waited longer! Because that’s what usually happens in life and that perfect moment in your mind can be very different from real life!
My trip to India turned out to be wonderful and totally out of my plans, and being there I realized I could have gone on forever waiting for that perfect omentum and had spent many years before coming to my dream destination.
We ourselves are the ones who put impediments and barriers to achieve our goals, often this comes out of fear, lack of experience, insecurity, or, as I think: for listening too much others opinions.
Work while you travel
If you have some skills you can work while traveling and keep having some cash flow. Many times I have done therapies and massages while I travel, which is something I’ve practiced and studied for many years .
Many people teach languages while traveling abroad, being English and Spanish highly sought in several countries as a second language.
I guess you already know that usually Hostels are cheaper than a Hotel, there’s even luxury Hostels at not very high prices. Currently many hostels have an exchange for your working hours for a room and food, but be careful with that, many times the cost of a room is much cheaper than it would cost those same working hours. So keep it in mind to make a fair deal and that means not only a benefit to the Hostel .
There are many websites for hospitality exchange at different levels, the one I know better is probably Couchsurfing, and while it is not a place to only to find a free place to sleep , it’s wonderful to connect and meet with locals and find opportunities in the city where you want to travel and stay longer. I’ve had found very good job opportunities through whom I have met in some of these networks.
Without any doubts, the most harmful can be not try it
Many times we stop trying to fulfill our dreams. The routine can consume even the most positive and motivated and the different circumstances in life will influence our mood. I can attest to how the routine can change our state of mind and is very easy to fall into the circle to make money-pay bills and lose focus of our dreams.
Each life story is different and I have very clear that there are often situations that make it difficult to achieve the goal of traveling. Extreme poverty of course will make it much more difficult to save money to pay for a ticket, but even many people who can and try to are the most respectable travelers I know, hitchhiking everywhere and working on the most unexpected things in such cases.
Also, I always come back to the priorities topic, travel it is not as important to everybody at the same level and is equally valid not feel the need to explore and move beyond, but if that is what moves your deepest feelings of happiness or fulfillment then I can only say: Please try to avoid the idea that it is difficult or not possible to travel the world.
I’m convinced that we can do what we want if we really try.
The main impediment is what we believe we can do, or we can have. If you think to travel the world it is only for rich and you do not consider yourself rich, then you probably will not be traveling beyond your doorstep.
There are times that to do what you dream you have to take the chances. I once heard or read that if your biggest dream does not scare you a bit, then that’s not really your biggest dream.
To me the idea to travel constantly and all the time you want even gets me into little panic at times, because it’s something I’ve dreamed about for so long that I’ve gone through periods where I think it is a ridiculous dream, but now I’m working and realizing it can be true and there are still some days when I must admit that scares me to finally make this a reality and all that happiness would be closer.
Clearly this kind of life journey is not easier than one more traditional, but it is what I dream and vibrate, each has their own and should at least try to make them come true, otherwise why have all the tools and skill we have in this life? I think it is to at least try it!