Many travelers who are asked why they don’t travel more often agree on the answer: because we don’t have enough money. They are all kinds of people: millennials, mothers, executives, retirees… For them it’s like a break: since I don’t have a penny, I stay at home, on the sofa, which costs nothing. But for those who really love to travel, that’s kind of frustrating. It changes your life. It does not allow you to grow as a person. Your mind, in many cases, can drown in routine.
To all those travelers we must tell them not to resign themselves. There is a way out. You don’t have to be rich to travel. Nowadays it is possible to do it with very little money, or for free, and there are even people who are paid to travel. Here are some tricks and resources to achieve it:
Doing autostop
It is not a joke. Lots of people do it. And for a long time. We have already said that these tricks are not going to come knocking on your door, you must do your part. So, pack lightly, get out of the house at once, walk to a nearby road, and put up your thumb.
There are several websites that help you hitchhike and find your way. Hitchwiki is one of them, a page where they also mark the best points for hitchhiking: how to get to those points, suggestions, stops along the way, routes for your trip, etc.
Join the crew of a ship
It’s like hitchhiking but by boat. Pretty much the same. For example, you can cross the Atlantic aboard a sailboat, yacht, or commercial ship, and arrive in the Caribbean after almost a month of crossing. There are two ways to do it: “the manual one”, the one of a lifetime, going to the port and going along the dock offering your services to the skipper or captain; or easier, by going to a website like findacrew.net or Crewseekers.net, looking for the port of departure, the boat that best suits your needs and requests to be one of the crew.
hit the pedal
Riding a bike is not only healthy for your body, but also for the planet. And, last but not least, it’s free. You don’t have to put any kind of fuel in your legs (well, food, which we’ll talk about later). You mount your saddlebags, grease the chain and put on your helmet. In fact, there are many people who move like this around the world.
free plane tickets
Of course, it is possible to fly to other countries for free. Most airlines have frequent flyer or loyalty programs. They are well known, but the truth is that very few people use them. The operation is very simple: every time you buy a ticket or other products related to the company you add miles or points. The further you travel, the more miles you earn, the more miles you earn, the further you can travel for free.
Find a sugar daddy to pay for your needs
One of the simplest ways to experience travel for free is through sugar dating! Why not sign up for a sugar daddy website and offer to be a sugar baby for one of the richest men there? Imagine how lucky you would be to be accepted into the toffs’ social circle and even receive payment for your companionship!
Sugar daddies never save on valuable gifts for their sugar babies and let them live the same expensive way of life they got used to. It’s possible that a sugar daddy lets his sugar babies with him to popular resorts or rest together with other successful people. Also read how to find sugar daddy.
Become a leader
It is one of the most authentic ways to travel with everything paid. They are usually adventurous plans. If you have leadership skills and organizational qualities, you can put together a plan, convince a group of friends or acquaintances and find an agency that covers the costs of your trip. For example, YMTVacations.com gives you a free trip if you manage to unite 12 passionate travelers who want to travel together.
Be careful, a basic condition when traveling is to eat well to charge energy. You have to think that gastronomy is a fundamental part of the journey. You learn a lot about other cultures by observing how what and where they eat. That is why in this section we look for two things: the fact of eating well but also sharing, although yes, paying as little as possible.
Foodsharing.de is a website with a large following in Germany, Austria, and Switzerland. The goal is to share food for free to prevent it from ending up in the trash -either because it will expire or because it will not be consumed-. They have what they call food “rescuers”, who organize meetings every so often, where you can go (and bring your food) to eat for free. In Spain for some time now you can get information at comerporlapatilla.es about all the free gastronomic events in Spain.
If you happen to be traveling to an Asian country, head straight to the temples, they serve free food there on certain days of the week. Sikh temples, for example, give free accommodation and sometimes food. The “giving lodging to the pilgrim” is taken very seriously. The Golden Temple (the Golden Temple) for example is a good option to check out.
Sleep in local houses
What we mentioned before: traveling for free or at a very low cost sometimes means sacrificing some other things, for example comfort. As far as sleeping is concerned, for some years -since 2004- on Couchsourfing.com the traveler has been in contact with people who offer free accommodation -a sofa, couch in English- for one or more nights. You can move around the world and you stay with hosts who welcome you and share time with you. The most interesting thing about this model is that on many occasions you have local information to explore the area.
Later other formulas have emerged such as Housesitting.com or Trustedhoussitter.com, a website that puts travelers looking for free accommodation in contact with homeowners who are going on a trip and need other people to take care of their homes or pets while they are out Of course, they charge an annual fee, something that makes a lot of sense -and savings- if you plan to travel often.
Home exchange
Another great idea to substantially reduce your travel budget is to exchange your home for another. That is to say, the month of August arrives and you leave your house in Spain to a French family, and the French family lends it to you. As it is. And works. In recent years this system has grown by 30%. In fact, behind France, Spain is the second country in the world that uses home exchange the most .
Try Home exchange, Guesttoguest, or homeexchange.com to see the houses they offer in this country or any other destination. And from there, you can choose the place you want to go but also let yourself go and be surprised by the proposals that come to you.
Work in exchange for accommodation
Here we speak of pure barter: you work and they pay you with a bed. That is, an example: you travel to Japan, you work on a tea farm for six hours a day, which allows you to explore the country and its culture in a very direct way without paying for accommodation.
One of the best-known platforms is WWOOF World Wide Opportunities on Organic Farms. It is a network of farms around the world where you can spend days, months, and even a year learning and working in an organic farm environment . Another case that also works on farms but also in other alternatives such as hostels or people’s houses where they need people to help with a special task is workaway.info.
Free city tours
If you are one of those who likes to have a first-hand cultural orientation when traveling to a city, you can turn to freetours.com. Many cities now have these free tour guides (they say they don’t mean free, but free), most of them European, some in Asia, South America, New York or Australia. There are many options and highly trained and specialized guides in various topics such as history, gastronomy, nightlife or cinema.
But beware, as we said in this case, it is not free. It is true that no one is obliged to pay for this service, but it is not free. The difference with conventional guides is that the price is set by the client by paying a tip. “The will” is paid. An average of €10 is usually paid, although it depends on whether you are going with children or if it is a very large group.
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