Cheap Travel Tips

There are two types of cheap travel tips that can help you save money traveling. The first type is specific tips on where or how to get the best deals on the specific things you want. we try to include as much of this type of information as we can, and point you in the right direction to find more. There is a limitation to this type of approach though. If , for example, you find the best deal on the best hotel in Honolulu at the height of the season, you will save money, but still have a very expensive vacation. Trying to always get exactly what you want, or what you think you want, will generally be an expensive proposition, in travel and in life.

The Cheapest Of Cheap Travel Tips

The other approach is to be a true opportunist. This will be difficult for some of you, and entirely unacceptable to others. Nonetheless, the travelers who get to travel the most, go to the widest variety of places, learn the most and do the most, are the opportunists. Until you reach the level of wealth where you have no monetary limits, this will always be true. You'll find lots of cheap travel tips in this website that use this approach.

An Example Of Opportunistic Travel

When I went to Ecuador the first time, I went there because it was cheap to do so. If it wasn't, I would have had a great time anyhow - but somewhere else. The trip was for a month, and the entire cost was $1045, which included airfare and $130 fee for a guide to take me to the top of Mount Chimborazo (You can read that story on the page, "Climbing Mount Chimborazo.") I cut the cost by taking a Greyhound bus from my home in Michigan to Miami, and back again when I returned from Ecuador. The round-trip ticket cost $158. The round-trip flight to Quito from Miami was only $256, because it was a courier flight, which meant I signed for some luggage (car parts), and could only take carry-on luggage.

Never did I feel deprived, or bored. I had a great time, eating wherever it was cheap and clean, doing all sorts of inexpensive, but interesting things, and traveling across the country to climb Chimborazo. I also met and fell in love with my wife Ana.

How To Become 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? Being an opportunist means you'll have just as much variety, and probably almost everything you want - eventually. You just have to stop trying to get exactly what you want exactly when you want it. If the guide that took me up 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. That would have left me with enough money for several other minor adventures.

Cheap Travel Tips: The Other Pages

Really Cheap Plane Tickets is about all the ways to save on airfare. One day, when my wife and I were planning a trip to visit family in Ecuador, and I was checking into airfare costs, I discovered a way to pay $1000 less than the lowest quote we could find on one of those discount ticket websites. You'll find this little secret and more here. By the way, the whole six-week trip, which we took in 2004, cost $2400, including losing $100, and being robbed of $174.

Air Travel Tips : The most recently updated page on cheap air travel tips.

Cheap Florida Vacations shows you some of the non-disney travel options in Florida. There are great state parks right on the beach, and alligators and bubbling springs. If you have an RV or tent, there are also free places to camp - with hot showers.

Free Camping Catalog tells you where you can get a catalog (not free) which lists all the campgrounds (some free, some cheap) in the country. It also has tips on other free places to camp.

WalMart Camping is a page about camping under the bright lights. Did you know that at WalMarts and Flying J Truckstops, you are allowed to park your van or RV overhight? No charge, and not a bad idea if you are just passing through on your way to more scenic camping.

Cheap Family Vacations has cheap travel tips for family trips. There is information on where to go, what to do, and how to keep it interesting and inexpensive.

Cheap Hotels : How to find them, and how to make them cheaper.

International Youth Hostels (And Other Cheap Accomodations) explains the advantages and disadvantages of hostels. There are links to good websites related to hostels, and tips on finding cheap hotels and motels, too. You'll learn why the discount websites won't find the cheapest rooms for you.

Cheap Bus Travel is mostly about Greyhound Bus Lines, since they are almost the only large nationwide service left in this country. The page does briefly cover bus travel in other counties, and explains why it is usually better than in the United States.

Cheap International Travel has all the cheap travel tips for those of you heading overseas. We start with airfare, and include food, accomodation, and other issues. You'l also learn where itis really cheap to travel.

Cheap International Plane Tickets is about just that. Travel tips on using consolidators, courier flights, last-minute specials - we try to cover it all.

More Cheap Travel Tips

Food: Whether traveling here or in other countries, it is usually cheaper to buy some healthy snacks in a grocery store, rather than eat every meal in a restaurant. When you do eat in restaurants, it can be cheaper to to order individual items on the menu from the list of appetizers or side dishes. You also may get more variety in that way.

Accomodations: If it is a long trip, you may want to rent an apartment in an interesting city, rather than stay in motels. We did this for two months in Tucson, for about $600 less per month, compared to even the cheaper motels. Watch for hotel coupon-books in gas stations. The coupons will often save you $10 on a room you would have stayed in anyhow. If you have a conversion van, you can camp a couple nights a week, like we do, to save on motels. We love the hotsprings we've stayed at, for a $3 fee to the BLM, instead of $40 for the cheapest motel in the area.

Travel Expenses: Do more and travel less. It is often the traveling part that costs the most, due to the cost of gas, convenient fast food, and expensive hotels you are forced to pay for, because you just can't drive any further. When you find a place with a reasonable motel, and a lot to do in the area - stay for a while!

Even More Cheap Travel Tips: Read he other pages of this website. Follow the links above, and use your imagination. There are many ways to save money traveling, without sacrificing anything important.