Money

 A random assortment of thoughts on money as it relates to travel:

I have a LOT of thoughts on this topic; however, it’s really difficult to get ideas about money across on the internet without them being misconstrued sooooo I’m going to refrain from diving into the complexities of my own finances. 

I will talk a bit about some of my spending decisions when traveling just so you can get an idea of how I go through the decision-making process and also for context about what you see on this account.

It is important to remember though, that a person’s financial situation is always complex and cannot be determined simply through external observations. I like to think of each person’s financial situation as a mix of various amounts of privilege, generational wealth, luck, opportunity, hard work, sacrifices, financial decisions, etc. Someone may have a lot, none, a little, or a medium amount of each aspect, and no two financial situations are alike. I do NOT want to promote the idea that travel is accessible to everyone, because that unfortunately isn’t true (actually for most of the world’s population). But, I did want to share a few tips and personal opinions on money as it relates to travel to make it maybe a tiny bit more accessible or understandable for some people who are interested. 

The number one type of question I get about travel through DMs and face-to-face is about money. I feel like I need to address it delicately, but I also think it’s important to address, especially since I get asked about this topic at least weekly, if not more often.

#1 What people are actually paying for trips

This is something that I could write so much on, but I will simplify my thoughts a bit:

There is no magic loophole to funding travel. There are SO many ways to fund travel and some are possible for some people, while others are not. 

These may include: directly paying for the travel through earned income or savings, free travel or income through brand deals and influencing, housesitting (Trusted Housesitters), work exchanges (CoolWorks, Worldpackers, WWOOF, Au Pair, etc.), credit card points, and so many other ways that I either don’t know about or can’t think of off the top of my head.

The places someone visits and the level of luxury they choose both play a huge role in the amount and type of travel they are able to do. Eating gas station ramen, couchsurfing, and hitchhiking is extremely different financially than eating at sit-down restaurants, flying, and staying in hotels. There isn’t a right or wrong way to travel in my opinion when it comes to personal finances.

#2 Finding the right balance of comfort and budget

My travel preferences when it comes to level of luxury have evolved significantly over time…

When I started solo traveling a couple of years ago, I was willing to be so miserable just to see a new place

Currently, I would say I’m on the upper end of a backpacker budget/mentality.

My financial situation isn’t the same as it was two years ago and I also have experienced things I don’t want to experience again, so I’ve definitely shifted more towards paying more in order to be more comfortable.

I do think I need to do a better job of being clear about the type of conditions I travel in on this account…I’m not trying to be misleading but I also just don’t really think of taking pictures/videos of like…holes in the ground that I pooped in or 2 hour walks on the side of highways that I took to avoid paying $15 for a taxi

All in all, I would recommend choosing a level of comfort that is best for your enjoyment of the trip (because that is what matters), but personally I do err on the side of being a bit less comfortable to save a lot of money, because that is often the difference between me being able to afford to travel to that place or not go at all. 

For example, to be able to afford to go to Patagonia and stay for 2+ weeks, I camped for 16 nights and ate mostly dehydrated food I brought from the states, which wasn’t a big deal for me bc I do that a lot in the states, but still did get a bit old by the end. I try not to not be misleading on here, but please do remember that I’m still posting highlights and not things like the baby who cried all night at a campground or my clothes that haven’t been washed in 8 days, etc. Not complaining, just want to be clear that the pictures are like the top 1% of things I saw, and not the 99% of other experiences that were still cool but contained more elements of reality.

For the rest of my Asia posts and Patagonia, etc. I will try to do a better job of mentioning places where I splurged vs. places where I made a decision that the average person might not have made, in order to save money.

But for reference, in regards to what you see on here and how much I pay, I would say I still choose to tolerate more misery than the average person I know, but less misery than many of the backpackers my age that I meet while traveling. 

I don’t have clean-cut parameters, but I weigh decisions based on safety, the cost, the time I would save myself by choosing a certain option and what I would do with that time, and how happy I think I would be if I chose one option vs. how uncomfortable I think I would be if I chose the other. 

This looks different for every person and I would say that compared to other backpackers, I tend to choose more expensive long-distance transport options to get there faster and easier, especially because I’m really sensitive to not getting enough sleep or sleeping at weird hours.

On the other hand, I would say I spend less on food, drinks, and activities than a lot of people. This means I sometimes miss out on good food or cool experiences. I’m not into nightlife at ALL bc I hate being out at night, which ends up saving me so much money 

I also tend to forgo spending money on local transport in favor of walking long distances (this isn’t always a great idea but sometimes you get to see and experience a lot more!!).

Recently, I’ve shifted more towards less budget accommodations, as I’ve moved away from hostels for several reasons.

I share this to just to show that it’s all a balance and to provide a bit more context for some of my journal posts but again, there’s no right or wrong!

If you have questions on any of this, feel free to DM and I can share more about what I would recommend or avoid based on your personal travel priorities!

In summary, how comfortable/luxurious a trip is will really impact the overall budget for the trip and thus, how many trips a person can go on and where they can go. 

Also, we all know (I hope) that some travel influencers get free trips or portions of trips, and may even earn income on top of that from the places/brands they are paid to promote. I try to avoid these sources, or at least take them with a huge grain of salt because they will not provide an accurate representation of the place and their time there. For example, someone who gets a free flight from an airline to a certain location cannot share anything slightly negative about that place online at all under their contract, even if it has nothing to do with the airline.

All of the trips you see on this account are self-funded but not all of them are super expensive! For example, this is what my travel expenses for this fall looked like…not insignificant, but also not crazy expensive either

Also, Tyler and I travel together roughly 50% of the time, which definitely lowers costs for us both.

On this same topic of talking about sharing my travel expenses transparently on here, I wanted to talk about some easy ways to reduce travel costs that aren’t anything mind-blowing but might not be intuitive for beginner travelers.

Flights

Please see the pinned post on my Instagram about finding cheap flights! Since flights are often the most expensive part of a trip, I put a lot of time and effort into trying to get these costs down. There’s no magic loophole and you do need to be aware of a couple of things when looking for cheap flights:

1. Look at the restrictions of budget airlines so that you don’t get surprised by them later (this will cost you a lot more money). Take baggage size/weight restrictions seriously and understand the reputation of the airline and the level of comfort it provides (you should know what you’re getting yourself into).
2. Play around with different cities, airports, dates, etc. when trying to find a cheap flight. For example, I often fly out of LAX for international trips because it’s so much cheaper than flying from PHX, so I take a bus or cheap regional flight to get there and then go from there (but be cautious of booking flights from two different airlines that are not part of the same flight series…if you want to know more about how I do this, DM me). This actually takes quite a bit of creativity and usually takes me at least a couple of hours to look at all of my options and decide.

Accommodations

Hostels are often cheaper (but not in certain places and may be more expensive when traveling with someone) but come with downsides. I use Hostelworld to book these.

I am not well acquainted with couch surfing (like the type with random people) or work exchanges, but I’ve heard these can be amazing experiences!!

Booking.com is great for international hotel bookings (booking directly with hotels usually doesn’t work due to broken websites that aren’t compatible with foreigners) and is a third party brand that I trust more than others. You also get significant discounts if you book with them often and sign up for the genius program.

Although it’s not very ethical, sometimes Airbnb really does have the best options. I try to be mindful and careful about when and where I choose to book these in terms of how they affect local life. Upsides of Airbnbs include having a kitchen and laundry machine (sometimes), self-check in at any time of day or night, and often better prices.

My favorite way to book accommodations: WhatsApp! It sounds scammy but WhatsApp is THE way to book international accommodations when possible. Booking directly with hosts/homestays is so nice because you often get the best possible price, due to no third party involvement. Personally, I’ve never had a bad experience with this, and you often get so much help and personalized information from hosts. It can be hard to come across this contact info though, and language barriers can add a challenge.

Transit

Aside from being willing to walk long distances in unglamorous conditions, my biggest tip for saving money on transit is to research it ahead of time to know what you should be paying. Understanding if you’re being way overcharged or scammed is important, and the internet will often give you cheaper modes of transport if you look hard enough. I try to always take public transit when possible (info not always available on Google Maps so sometimes need to use blogs or ask locals), but when taxis/shuttles are needed, here is my biggest tip: 

Arrange transport with your accommodation!!! This is truly the best option for everyone involved. Your accommodation has relationships with drivers/companies they trust and they have a partnership where they can easily get guests to their accommodation and give business to the drivers. It is in the driver’s best interest to get you there fast and not scam you because that would reflect poorly on the accommodation and the accommodation would stop recommending them to travelers. It is in your best interest, because you will get a fair price, generally great treatment, and you can have more faith that you are going with a trusted driver. You also don’t have to spend time arranging this for yourself…almost every time I ask a host to arrange transit, I can just step outside and the driver is waiting for me and I already know what price I’m going to pay so I don’t have to worry or haggle.

Food

Tyler is amazing at finding places that balance good quality food with good prices. It is hard to find both at the same restaurant but he spends a lot of time and energy finding places that have the best balance of both. Google Maps is usually great for this.

Aside from restaurants, convenience stores and grocery stores are often very affordable, but your options are limited without a kitchen and it’s easy to grow tired of this food quickly. We try to keep a mix of good and meh food so that our morale stays rather consistent.

You should consider the costs/savings of booking places that offer free breakfasts or that have a kitchen area to prepare food when thinking about accommodations.

Credit cards

People on the internet will tell you that you can travel for free using credit cards. This is generally very false!

Doing this usually requires opening upwards of 20 credit cards, churning through them (which, if you don’t know what you’re doing, can hurt your credit score significantly), and tracking each expense, sign up bonus, and open/close dates of cards in a giant spreadsheet that can take almost as much time as a part time job. 

You can still get some great travel deals with credit cards without doing this, but the amount of time you’re willing to invest is directly proportional to how many deals you get. 

A lot of people recommend a trifecta of Chase credit cards, but you have to track your expenses so that you use different cards for different types of purchases, which gets complicated.

Personally, I don’t really have the time or energy for this, so I went with the Capital One Venture X for several reasons. Here’s what you should know about it:

At its core, it’s not really any different than a 2% cash back card, such as the Citi double cash card. It gives you 2x miles for every regular purchase (meaning you get 2% cash back in the form of miles that can be used ONLY on travel purchases). I would actually not recommend using the Venture X for everyday purchases if you don’t travel all that much, and would instead just get the same amount of cash back on a regular card, and put that money towards travel or whatever else you want to spend it on. However, if you spend more than $400 a year on travel, the Venture X might be worth it.

The annual fee is $395 but they give you $400 each year so you get a whole $5…wooo! It is important to make sure you can actually use this $400 though, otherwise you would be losing money. $100 comes in the form of miles that you can apply as statement credit towards any TRAVEL purchase. However, the other $300 comes in the form of travel credit that can ONLY be used on the Capital One travel portal. This means you would have to book a flight, hotel, etc. through the Capital One travel portal to use this. With a whole year to do so, it’s possible to find something for a good price. However, if you don’t travel that much, you might be more limited, as often times flights are more expensive on the portal than if you bought them directly from the airline, and hotels are almost always more expensive, not to mention the options are rather limited to hotels that are larger. This definitely doesn’t include things like homestays, etc. Luckily, Tyler was able to find a flight that was the same price on the portal as it was on Google Flights, so we were able to use our travel credit without losing money. ALSO: booking flights through the Capital One travel portal is the same as booking them through a third party, which I am VERY hesitant to do. I always try to book flights directly with the airline, because if there is an issue (ex. cancellation, damaged baggage, etc.) the airline will be much more limited in what it is able to do for you and third parties rarely ever help you. This means that the 5x and 10x miles that Capital One advertises for the Venture X are kind of irrelevant to me, as this only applies to travel booked through their portal, and I am usually not willing to pay the portal price or go through a third party. I also tend to book smaller, cheaper, accommodations.

So, with all that being said, it is not much different than a regular cash back card. 

However, it does have some perks, and since we are not losing any money by having the card, the perks are an added bonus:

You get access to 1,300 airport lounges for free thru Priority Pass BUT keep in mind that these are only in certain airports and terminals, have time limits for stays, may only allow entrance a couple of hours before a flight, and may be full.

The cardholder gets TSA Pecheck and Global Entry for free, which was great for me, because Tyler already has these and I’ve been wanting them but didn’t want to pay for them!

The card is very universal as it is a Visa, is highly secure, designed for international travel with no foreign transaction fees, and has an AMAZING mobile interface. The app is very well organized and it uses dual authentication but instead of trying to text you (which doesn’t work when you’re number is disabled while abroad), it allows you to just touch the card to your phone to sign in.

When I got the card, there was a welcome bonus of $750, which was nice!

If you are reading this but aren’t interested in a travel credit card, I hope it showed you that “traveling on points and miles” is not what it seems!

ALSO: a bit off topic, but I would HIGHLY recommend the free Charles Schwab debit card for any international travel that requires cash, as it has absolutely NO ATM fees. It will reimburse you for any type of ATM fee at the end of every month (I did so many withdrawals in Asia that sometimes my reimbursements were like $50).

There are a lot of things to think about when it comes to wealth, privilege, and choices about where money is spent when traveling. I definitely don’t have the right answers and am still learning a lot so I don’t feel qualified to speak on these topics all that much, but it’s important to keep them in mind.

I try not to refer to something as “cheap” and try to say that it’s “affordable on a US salary” because things are often not cheap for the people who live there. 

There’s a big debate over how to spend money when traveling and the effect that that money has on local communities. This is very different in different areas so it’s important to research this ahead of time (ex. tourist dollars have a super positive impact right now in Iraq but may keep children out of school in Vietnam).

There’s also a big debate over how much haggling should be done as a westerner. Personally, I’ve grown to be much more understanding of being overcharged and okay with paying the “tourist tax” IF I know about it upfront. What I don’t like is being scammed (which hasn’t really happened to me often) and when people ask for more money later on after agreeing on a different price earlier. For example, I would rather a taxi driver tell me a ride costs 8 USD (even if it costs locals 4 USD) rather than tell me it costs 2 USD and then ask for 6 USD later. Even though I might pay the same price in the end, I value the honesty and directness of just being blatantly overcharged haha. This varies by culture and location and it’s just my personal opinion, not the “right” way to do things. 

As a side note, just because I think it’s a funny story, there’s definitely a limit to how much I’m willing to be overcharged.

When Sophia and I were on a bike ride through the Cambodian countryside near Battambang, we came across a donut stand so I went to go buy some for us and when I asked the lady how much they were, she told me 1.25 USD (I’m converting). These were bite size donuts and they didn’t look that good so internally I was like lol no way, I could get a full size donut in the US for like 0.97 at the grocery store. But as I was walking away I heard the local next to me ask how much they were and she told them 0.25 USD (an amount I would have paid). I just thought it was so funny bc she didn’t even try to hide the fact that she was charging me 5x the local price. If she had doubled the local price she would have got my money but 5x was pushing it lol. Later, in reference to this, Sophia was like “we’re made of money, not stupidity”…like ain't that the truth.