How To Travel Full Time for $17,000 a Year (Or Less)

This is a post from a well-known blog in the freelance travel journalism world called "The Professional Hobo: Adventures of a Girl with No Fixed Address". In this blog post she made for a different blog called wisebread.com she composed an article about "How To Travel Full Time for $17,000 a Year (Or Less)". If you are a student, out of university or before university travelling of a year or more having financial tips is a huge plus as it becomes extremely pricey without the right tips and tricks. Here is a copied and pasted version of the post but to get the full effect please check out this link, also there is follow-through links on some of the tricks below that are only available on the original version. All credit goes to Nora Dunn writing for www.wisebread.com ! 

How to Keep Your Travel Costs Low

Of course, I could travel for way more than $17,000/year. The sky is the limit for what you can spend on the road, from food and accommodation to flights, destinations, and tours. I could also travel for less than this, if I made different spending choices. 

Here are a few of my secrets.

Don't Pay for Accommodations

In the entire year of 2011, I paid $173 for accommodation. And that expenditure was a function of a discounted stay at the Hilton in Stockholm as a luxurious “splash out.” The rest of the time, I had free accommodation in various forms, including...

Work-Trade/Volunteer

There are lots of creative opportunities to work in trade for your accommodation (and sometimes food) and enjoy a more immersive travel experience. Many of the sites that introduce you to these opportunities involve a monthly or yearly subscription, but in my experience it's well worth it. Here are some resources:

• The Caretaker Gazette
• Help Exchange
• WWOOF
• Grow Food
• World Help Link
• PayAway 

Hospitality Exchange

Got a few nights to kill at a given destination? Try a hospitality exchange, where locals who would like to host a traveler can put you up in a spare room or even on their couch. Good manners predicate you move on after a few days, and although it's a free stay, expect to provide a gift for your host and help out wherever you can. But there's also no better way to see how the locals live than to actually live with a local.

• Couchsurfing
• Hospitality Club
• Global Freeloaders
• Servas
• Staydu

House/Pet-Sitting

After five years on the road, I've come to crave my personal space, as well as time to work on my location-independent career as a travel writer. So when other people hit the road to do some traveling of their own, I come into their homes and take care of the property, pets, gardens, and any other chores that require attention in their absence. I tend to the home fires for periods of time ranging from weeks to months, and I'll soon be enjoying my second three-month stint of house-sitting and dog-minding on the Caribbean island of Grenada, where I have my own beautiful free beach-front villa and use of two cars. 

• House Carers
• The Caretaker Gazette (I've listed this twice because The Caretaker Gazette specializes in both volunteer and house-sitting opportunities).
• Trusted Housesitters
• Mind My House
• Housesit World
• Aussie House Sitters
• House Sitters America

Crew on Sailboats

My most recent foray into free accommodation has come in the form of volunteering on sailboats. Every boat is different in what it requires, from capable sailors or people with boat-specific technical skills to simply being an extra set of hands to share chores and provide good company. I started out with absolutely no sailing experience, and I have met all sorts of people in the cruising community and been aboard three boats in the last month alone. This is a whole lifestyle and way of travel unto itself.

• Find a Crew
• Latitude 38
• Desperate Sailors

Another way to get free accommodation includes home exchanges; check out more information on home exchange resources and etiquette.

Don't Pay for Flights

When I have to fly (which I try to do as rarely as possible), my long-haul flights are in business class, and cost less than the price of an economy ticket. I do this through the creative use of frequent flyer miles. I started out (years before I became a full-time traveler) simply as a passive collector with my credit card before delving into the world of creative frequent flyer mile accumulation through various promotions (here's the first big promotion I took advantage of in 2009).

Now I'm hooked, and always on the hunt for a frequent flyer deal, often accumulating thousands of miles each month without actually flying, which is easy thanks to my Travel Hacking Cartel membership.

Sometimes it actually works out better to pay cash for a flight, especially if it's a domestic flight. If this is the case, here are some resources and tips to ensure you get the lowest price, even after you pay for your ticket.

Travel Slowly

The slower you travel, the less money you'll spend on transportation, interim accommodation (for example, between when you land in a new place and begin a house-sitting or volunteer gig), and even set-up expenses like buying groceries/staples or wear-and-tear on personal effects like luggage.

And the slower you travel, the more immersive your experience will be, and the more likely you will be to develop relationships with locals (who may not want to invest the time and effort getting to know somebody who is simply passing through) who can in turn deepen your travel experience and help you learn what life is like around the world.

Again, All credit goes to Nora Dunn writing for www.wisebread.com ! 

Travelling Brazil:

"Belo país" a phrase to become familiar with when travelling to Brazil and it speaks volumes about the country reading "beautiful country". Brazilians take pride in the extrodinary beauty of their country, plastering this phrase in their native lanuage Porteguese all over the cities. Brazil covers half of South America, and has capitivated travellers for at least 500 years; attracting an annual 9 million tourists with numbers rising. Covering the coastline you see powedery white sand beachs, music-filled metropolies, colonioal towns and tropical islands. Inland you are are offered mesmerizing sights of different a flavour: crystal clear rivers, red-rock canyons, lush rainforest and beautiful waterfalls. Its larger and more famous attractions are the Amazon Rainforest and the Pantanal wetlands. With such diverse landscape it offers a plethora of possibilites; especially to young travelers.

Before any trip your most important and sometimes hardest task is to find an accommodation to your liking. In my previous post you can look at more abstract ways of accommodation whilst travelling that give you a more cultural experience and give you more leisurely money to spend (as you are saving!)  such as CouchSurfing and WWOOFing (to see the post click here) . However, for those looking for the more traditional accommodation it is easy to find hotels and motels located in your destination of choice. Brazil's high season is from December to March, this is when the country fills with foreign tourists and vacationing Brazilian families; so finding an accommodation on short notice will be very difficult (and the prices also rise during this time!). However, the weather in Brazil is pretty consistent so travelling during the low season May - September is ideal for backpackers and young travelers trying to avoid pesky foreign tourists and prices go down quite dramatically. Brazil has a wide selection of high end resorts (for the less adventurousness) and hotels and motels across the beaches, and of course in the big cities such as Rio De Janeiro. Booking a hotel/resort is very easy and can be mostly done over the internet or telephone. However, for those seeking hostels or smaller cheap motels you are more then likely expected to go to them while you are in the country. Hostels are very popular throughout Brazil and for a complete list of locations and names click here.

Once you have settled into the country, your adventure begins! Brazil has a plethora of diverse activities; for the food-loving, culture hungry, thrill seekers and nature lovers alike. The possibilities are pretty much endless when it comes to things to do as Brazil's landscape has something for everyone. For those interested in the natural aspect of Brazil you can become mesmerized by the Amazon rain forest that covers a major area of Brazil, one of the worlds most beautiful and largest waterfalls; Igauazu falls that borders between Brazil and Argentina and lastly the Panataal wetlands also offer a variety of activities and tours. In between these world-known natural beauties you are offered a variety of amazing landscapes full of different activities (and a lot are directed toward young, adventurous youth example: bungee jumping or para sailing!).

 For the food loving, you can visit the endless restaurants inside the cities and smaller towns. Brazilian cuisine is particularly distinct, much like its accompanying South American countries and it varies by region with different flavors and types of dishes. A lot of the food is influenced by the Portuguese heritage and the European immigrants that introduced dairy products, wheat based dishes, wine and leaf vegetables. Part of the beauty of travel is trying new things so going into a country with an open mind is part of the fun.For an incredibly well put together list of things to do in Brazil visit this lonleyplanet created list of the things to do, here you have thousands of diverse activities, restaurants, sights, entertainment, shopping, tours and hotels worth visiting that come with reviews from past travelers, a little blurb of what it is and a map of where it is. You can sit down with your travel companions and map out the different places you would like to see.

Brazil needs travel dedication and time to really soak up the atmosphere and culture. For those going for only a short time I recommend checking out the world famous city Rio De Janeiro (where the famous Christ Redeemer Statute stands) and with that go to Rio during the annual Carnival. Carnival is a great festival held 46 days before Easter. It is comparable to a six-day city wide party with parades, dancing, music and food where you experience Brazilian culture at its finest whilst meeting hundreds of new people. It is the perfect time for young people to come out and experience Brazil.

Brazil is known for its export of models, their passion futebol (soccer) and their year long golden tan, however, with exploration you can see how much more there is so much more to Brazil. Its culture radiates throughout the country's borders, it has extraordinary natural aspects, historically influenced cuisine and activities and accommodation directed towards young travelers (like you!). No journalist article, blog or magazine could really give you the actual picture of what Brazil is without you first experiencing it. And it is worth the absolutely worth it. Travel while you are young, travel while you are old but always travel. As St Augustine said "The world is a book and those who do not travel, read only one page." 

Young Travel in South America: Accommodation

Backpacking is a becoming a popular activity among North Americans and Europeans. Simply, packing up your bag with a one way plane ticket and some cash for trains seems to be the new adrenaline rush. This is most popularly seen throughout Europe and Southeast Asia however, South America accepts this type of tourism with open arms as it has become partners with programs such as CouchSurfing and WWOOF(World Wide Opportunities on Organic Farms). But is often over looked, here you can find alternative methods of travel that save you money and allow you to indulge fully into this new culture.                      
           CouchSurfing is becoming a huge role in young tourism redefining the means of travel. Established in 1999, you simply log onto the website (www.couchsurfing.org) as a surf or host. Surf being a person looking for accommodations, and host being the person willing to host the surf - simple right? The sign up and profile building may seem tedious but the rewards are worth it, you experience a country in a whole new way and ideally make friends across the globe. With that, you also save yourself the costly hotel/motel fee's and expensive resteraunt food prices that don't give you half the authenticity as a home cooked meal.  However, CouchSurfing is prepared for the apprehensive as well as it seems like a very risky way of travel; you are ideally having to trust someone in a foreign country with putting a roof over your head and food in your belly before even meeting with them in person. With that, they have a testimonials page dedicated to those who want to research how safe or how rewarding the experience was for people who have hosted and surfed (visit www.couchsurfing.org/testimonials.html). If you are still a little bit "iffy" you can simply googling "CouchSurfing experiences" and read the many blogs that talk about their person experience. All in all, CouchSurfing if given the chance is a much more rewarding expierence for those willing to take the small risks associated and welcome a country in with open arms and a open heart. 
            WWOOFing is more for the “giving-back” person looking for a really rewarding experience and more hard work per say. WWOOFSouthAmerica is a part of a world wide effort to promote the concept of organic farming, sustainable agriculture and responsible consumer habits. Member farms offer daily chores for a length of time to tourists (typically a week) where you part take in chores such as harvesting, preparing soil for planting, milking, maintaining, etc. Each farm has its own schedules and chores but you reap the rewards. You become more environmentally aware, help out the local community, and meet fellow travellers whilst having a place to stay, eat and obtain enough money to take a train to your next destination. WWOOF is an international affiliated association to get more information visit (www.wwoof.org).          
           Of course there is always the option of staying in hostels which are offered all over South America as it is the most popular option, or even cheap motels or hotels. Accommodation choice is all up to comfort level and how much you want to take from your travels.  With CouchSurfing and WWOOF you attain a more cultural experience with personal rewards. 

Introduction to Journalism Blogging:

For my culminating activity for Writers' Craft I have chosen to start a three part blog focusing on my passion; travel. It will be dedicated to students travelling beautiful South America. Each blog will focus on three different countries (from the northern tip to the southern); Brazil, Venezuela and Argentina. In each blog post I will introduce the readers to student based activities, cheap accommodations (hostels), and really interesting programs such as CouchSurfing and WHOOFING. As I have not (yet!) been to these countries, I will try and keep the writing as authentic as possible by doing  research and incorporating useful information that would be valuable for any young traveler to know!