How I Afforded Long Term Travel & How You Can Too

In October 2017 I quit my jobs and left my home in New York City to embark on my first ever long- term, solo, backpacking trip. This trip was something I had fantasized about for years and I finally got up the courage to go for it. I reached a point where my excuses for not doing it had really all just become excuses and I came to the terrifying realization that if I didn’t do everything in my power to make my dream trip happen, then it would be my biggest regret later on in life. In preparation for my travels, I did a lot of pre-planning, pre-saving, and overall research on this area that I had never been to before. I was heading to South East Asia and I planned to spend at least nine months exploring and experiencing this brand new part of the world, or at least brand new to me!

I visited beautiful temples in Bali, experienced the incredible Batu Caves in Malaysia, swam in the crystal clear waters of the Thai islands, kayaked in breathtaking Halong Bay, went to my first ever yoga retreat in Cambodia, took an amazing road trip in Northern Thailand, spent two weeks visiting wonderful friends in Australia, walked through the Marina Bay Sands in Singapore, and lived in Vietnam for three months with my then boyfriend now husband whom I was lucky enough to meet during my travels. I even finished my trip with ten days in Europe before returning back home, a changed woman.

During my time away, the one question I was being consistently asked, usually by friends, others friends of friends, and sometimes complete strangers, was “how are you affording to be gone for so long?!” As much as I didn’t mind answering it at all, and I loved talking about my process, I couldn’t help but feel as though it was a bit of a no brainer. Backpacking is an inexpensive way of travel, South East Asia, like many areas of the world, is dirt cheap, and when planned properly with a little bit of hard work, traveling can be cheap too! But what I failed to realize is that it is still a huge misconception among most people in our culture that traveling is expensive and unless you’re well off, traveling for long periods of time isn’t doable. I’m here to tell you that this isn’t true and I stand as proof, because, well, I am not and never have been rich. But I still managed to spend an incredible nine consecutive months traveling around the world and I would like to share with you exactly how I did it. I do want to make a point in saying, I in no way feel as though this is the only way or the best way to make your long term travel plans a reality. This is just the path that I took that worked miracles for me. I met many people throughout my travels that prepared very differently. A lot of them didn’t prepare at all! And that is a perfectly fine and liberating way to see the world. I, unfortunately, have been cursed with the need to plan everything and I have to have a safety net of money to feel comfortable. If that sounds like you, then this may be your way as well.

One last note. If you are looking to stay on luxurious resorts, eat at five-star restaurants, and take first class flights to all of your destinations, you may not find this blog post helpful. However, if you are interested in the incredible experience that comes along with backpacking, don’t mind a little ruffing it here and there, and are interested in really experiencing the culture of new places and meeting amazing people, then I hope I can help to make that dream come true.

Step # 1: Set Up and Stick To a Savings Plan

If you don’t consider yourself to be a good saver, I would make that your new main focus. Put together some sort of visual reminder of what you’re saving up for and use it daily to keep yourself motivated. I only gave myself six months to prepare for my trip and I bought my initial ticket right away so that I didn’t have a choice but to stay motivated towards my end goal. During this time, I worked my butt off non-stop to save money. I was working two jobs, both in the service industry, which equated to working seven days a week, with the exception of maybe a day or two off a month. I was perfectly fine with this ( I may have complained at times) because it made my savings plan come together a lot easier. On payday every week, I took a look at what I made and immediately deducted an X number of dollars and put it directly into my savings account. I didn’t think anything more of it. As long as there were sufficient funds left to pay my rent and money for me to feed myself, nothing else mattered. And I was in no way ever going to EVER touch that money again once it reached my savings account. No exceptions. I generally stuck with the same number every week but weeks where I did exceptionally good, I would add more. It’s amazing when you do this weekly, how quickly the money starts to accumulate.

Now some of you may be asking yourself, “What about the student loan I have to pay off, or my credit card debt?” At the time that I was planning my trip and working on saving, I was also in roughly $8,000 of credit card debt. I had no interest in taking that overseas with me. So my second priority, after putting money into savings, was to make a generous payment on my credit card. Generally, payments must be made monthly. Well, I made it a point to do them weekly and again I stuck with the same amount every week. As quickly as I noticed my savings account grow, my credit card debt began to drop. I never once missed a week of extending money into these two places and in the end, it paid off.

If you don’t currently think you make enough money to achieve this, look into getting a side gig. Work hard, play hard, right? Or take into account where you are spending your money and see where you can cut back. Something as simple as buying lunch a few times a week, or grabbing coffee in the mornings, adds up to money that could be better spent. Try to keep this in mind: Would you rather enjoy a nice cold beer while sitting in your living room after a night at work ( I know instant gratification sounds tempting right?) or would you prefer to be drinking that beer in the very near future while your lounging on a beautiful, exotic beach? That was the mindset I held on to every time I was tempted to make a purchase that wasn’t completely necessary or spend money that could be better used to pay off my credit card.

So, once I got my savings plan down pat and made it realistically achievable for myself, I started working on my trip planning. Which brings us to . . .

Step # 2: Planning Tips to Make Your Trip Affordable

Let’s talk about flights. Flights are easily the most expensive part of travel, but thanks to some helpful apps, a good credit card, and a little forethought, they can be reasonable. One of the best parts about backpacking throughout a specific country or region of the world is the joy of never knowing where you’re going next! Tomorrow could be a complete mystery depending on who you meet or what new discoveries you make today. This is where planning and having flexibility can collide. My way of working around this was by booking my flights for the first few months of my trip in advance and then gradually booking the rest along the way. I always gave myself about a month in between each booked flight so that I had enough time to change my plans within a country if needed. Within each country, my forms of transportation included shuttles, overnight buses, trains, and ferries. I didn’t need to book any flights within a country and if you’re willing to take other forms of transport, you shouldn’t have to either. These forms of transportation that I mentioned are extremely cheap in many areas of the world, especially South East Asia. Getting from one city to another can be as cheap as $2. Obviously, there are some pretty large countries out there and avoiding flights within them could be very time consuming and difficult. But where you can cut the cost on flights by using less expensive transportation, it will be well worth it.

I mostly used Google Flights when booking, as I never needed to be anywhere on a specific day and Google Flights shows daily prices. This allowed me to always fly on the cheapest day possible! Another great app is Hopper, which will send you notifications when a flight price has dropped or is going to raise. This can come in handy when you’re not trying to book too far in advance but are concerned with prices becoming to expensive.

I booked all of my flights on my Chase Sapphire card. Every dollar you spend gives you a point and these points add up to give you miles for flying. Ultimately, one of the next flights you want to book will be absolutley free. You can’t beat that!

Thankfully South East Asia is home to plenty of budget airlines. When I say budget I mean you can fly between countries for as low as $30. I frequently took AirAsia, TigerAir, and Scoot as they all consistently had low prices. The important thing to keep in mind when you are flying a budget airline is that there are usually “no frills” whatsoever. Meaning, you may potentially be paying additional for baggage, your physical seat, and even a bottle of water on the plane. If it’s possible to fly with only a carry on you will be saving yourself a lot of money. This was not possible for me unfortunately with how long I planned on being gone, but I did meet other travelers traveling for similar lenghts that were able to make it happen. If you are planning on checking baggage, always pay for it ahead of time online. If you wait until you get to the airport, the price can be three times as expensive. Be sure to weight your bags ahead of time as well. Overweight baggage fees are outrageous! I learned this the hard way and I’m still bitter about it.

Your next order of business is accommodation. One of the cheapest types of traveling accommodation is hostels. I still cannot believe what a bad reputation hostels have amongst people who have never stayed in one! Family members and friends of mine looked at me like I had a third eye when I explained where I would be staying throughout my travels. For those of you who are unfamiliar, hostels are a dorm style accommodation with on average four to twelve beds in a room. The beds usually always come fully made, with a locker provided to keep your valuables safe, and sometimes there’s even a privacy curtain. Bathrooms are either in each individual room or there is a separate area for toilets and showers. There is almost always a common area where you can meet other travelers and this is by far the best part about staying in a hostel- the amazing community of people that you become a part of. I’ve stayed in hostels that had a pool, others with a restaurant and/or bar attached, and many that offered a free breakfast and free happy hour drinks! Throughout the countries I visited, I found the average price of a hostel in South East Asia to be approximately $5 a night. I have heard my fair share of unfortunate stories, but I can thankfully say, I have never had a bad experience myself. Words of advice: Always keep your valuables locked up, be respectful of the other guests, and meet some amazing, life long travel friends. (FYI: I met my husband at a hostel. You never know where you’ll find true love.)

My go-to app for finding the best rated and best-priced hostels is HostelWorld. It has never steered me wrong and I find the reviews to be extremely accurate and helpful. HostelWorld allows you to search hostels almost anywhere in the world. For each property, you will find a 1-10 rating based on all of the most important things: location, cleanliness, staff, facilities, atmosphere, security, and value for money. And then each one of those factors are rated 1-5 stars. Obviously, everyone values different aspects when choosing somewhere to stay. For me, location is key! I will not stay at a place with a poor location rating because I know how much I value getting to experience the actual location of where I am visiting. For some people, it is all about atmosphere and choosing a place where there is a good social scene. I always double check the security ratings as well, because there’s no point in staying somewhere where you think you’re saving a few bucks, but don’t physically feel safe there. Before making a final decision, I always read at least a few reviews as well, because there is no better way to choose an accommodation, than by actually hearing about how other people liked their visit there.

I have been advised that it is always cheapest to book hostels through the actual hostel website, versus a third party such as HostelWorld. But I wouldn’t search anywhere else to make my initial decision.

Another option for cheap or even potentially free accommodation is through a company called Workaway. I originally heard about Workaway from a girl I met while on a short backpacking trip through Costa Rica. She had been traveling for ages and when I inquired how she keeps her travels financially going, she referred me to this amazing website! Workaway.com connects you to hosts all over the world. These hosts vary in what they offer, but a large number of them provide free food and/or accommodation in return for your services. These services can include anything from building a new hostel, gardening and planting trees, nannying children, caring for animals, and teaching others your native language. I signed up for Workaway a few months before leaving for my trip as I really wanted to do a little giving back at some point on my journey and I wanted to have an even more in dept, cultural experience. I discovered a homestay in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam that houses students in their twenties, and provides daily English classes. My service here was volunteering to teach them English. I taught private lessons in the mornings and another volunteer and I taught an intermediate level class together in the evenings. Our days were free to explore and on the weekends all of the volunteers and the students would do fun, group activities together outside of the homestay. Every night we would sit down together and share a wonderful meal prepared by the students. It felt like living in a real Vietnamese household and in a short period of time I made over twenty new, amazing friends- students and volunteers! I also got to truly experience a culture very different from my own. What I took away from this part of my journey, is that no matter what country you are born in, and no matter how differently we may do things from one another, we are all human beings and we are all incredible.

Workaway was a great opportunity to become a part of an amazing cultural experience while making an impact on someone else. It also saved me money on food and housing for two weeks! That makes a big difference when you’re traveling for a long time. Workaway does charge a yearly fee of $42 to join, and I’d say it was well worth it.

Some of these other tips may seem like common sense, but they are important to be reminded of when traveling:

• When eating out, avoid going to westernized restaurants. Anywhere advertising “western” food will be much more expensive. Also, it’s an important part of the traveling experience to try local foods and South East Asia is filled with extremely inexpensive & amazing food markets and street vendors. I’m talking a delicious meal for less than $1! You didn’t travel all the way to an exotic, foreign country to eat a hamburger anyway.
• Give public transportation a try. I did find Uber to be very prevalent throughout South East Asia and it came in handy too and from the airport. Other than that, I stuck to walking or public transport. Be cautious with taxi cabs. There are a few reliable companies and plenty of scammy ones. The scammy ones will have a meter that goes up a ridiculous amount every few seconds regardless of if you’re moving or not. I got ripped off quite a few times, specifically in Vietnam and at least I can say I know better now! Ask around your hostel or inquire with other travelers what cab companies you can trust. Side note: Don’t ever risk your safety to save a few bucks. If it is late at night, you are alone, or you’re in a place you are not familiar with, call the Uber or get in a taxi.
• Save yourself on ATM fees- Unless you plan on carrying around all of your money, which I would NOT recommend doing, your main source of getting cash will be through an ATM. By far, my biggest mistake before leaving for my trip was not getting a card that refunds ATM fees. I learned about the Charles Schwab card through some lovely girls I met a few months into my trip that explained to me how any ATM fee they get charged, will be refunded with their Charles Schwab card. I must have wasted hundreds of dollars throughout my months of traveling on ATM fees and I will never make that mistake again! Learn from mine, and invest your time in getting a “refunded ATM fee” card.
• Use your travel connections to your advantage. I don’t want this to come off in an “I’m using you” kind of vibe, but one of the greatest things about traveling is the connections you make, and thanks to those, the invitations that are extended to you, giving you the opportunity to visit new places that may have never been on your travel list before. During my nine months of travel, I visited three cities where I was able to crash with a wonderful friend that I made along the way, saving money on accommodation and having a built-in tour guide to show me all of the best places. These invitations are obviously reciprocated. One of my very best travel friends that I got to stay with when I visited Melbourne, previously stayed with me while I was still living in NYC. And I can genuinely say, any of my travel friends are welcome to stay with me, no matter where in the world I am living.

Step #3: Plan Ahead for Pricey Excursions

A great thing about visiting inexpensive areas of the world is that usually, the daily activities are pretty inexpensive as well. This, however, is not always the case and even when an excursion in South East Asia may not cost as much as it would on an island off of some country in Europe, it can still be pricey. It is worth putting a little research in beforehand to figure out what kind of excursions you will want to do along the way and find the best price for them so that the cost can be accounted for in your daily budget, which we will get to next.

When you think of South East Asia, there are a few things that normally come to mind. I would say most people immediately think of elephants! This is an important topic to cover prior to actually visiting a country that offers “elephant-type” excursions. The number one rule is to never, ever, EVER, go through a company that allows you to ride these beautiful, majestic creatures. Elephants are not meant for riding and any company that allows you to do so mistreats their animals. If you plan to visit Thailand and would like to spend a day with elephants, I’d highly recommend the Phuket Elephant Sanctuary. This wonderful company provided transportation to and from our accommodation, fed us a delicious authentic Thai lunch, and gave us hours of amazing time to feed and bath with the elephants of the sanctuary. The cost of this excursion was around $78 and well-worth every penny!

My most expensive excursion was a two day/ one night trip to Halong Bay while I was in Hanoi, Vietnam. After doing my own research and speaking to people I met along the way, all quoting me very different prices, I found a great tour for a very fair price of $100, which was a bit less than what I had been hearing from others. The tour was offered through my hostel and included meals, accommodation, transportation, along with a cruise through the very scenic Halong Bay and an amazing hike on Cat Ba island. Although $100 was closer to what I would normally spend over a three or four day period, I knew that this was something I had wanted to do since the first days of planning my trip so I made sure that money was set aside for this excursion.

I also financially planned ahead for a week long yoga retreat, which was something I had been wanting to do for ages! I felt that there was no better place to do it than in Asia and it was much cheaper than if I was to do it somewhere back home in The States. However, it still was an expense of almost $300 that if I did not prepare for ahead of time, I may have fell short somewhere along the way.

Obviously, you cannot prepare for everything, especially when it comes to the exciting excursions you will want to do. And again, one of the pleasures of long-term travel is the mystery of never knowing what places and things you will discover. The main point of planning ahead for pricey excursions is to have some of these things already covered for when you start traveling. Think of it as a financial cushion. Having my yoga retreat money already set aside and planned into my budget, gave me the freedom to randomly book a beautiful private room in a hotel for two nights over Christmas for around $85. This was my Christmas present to myself and my only time splurging on this type of accommodation during my trip. Even though this was not part of my daily budget, I was able to finanically make it work and it was well worth it! That brings us to our final step. . .

Step # 4: Stick To a Daily Budget

After putting together the list of countries I wanted to visit, even having some flights booked to them, I researched daily budgets in each place. I wanted to know what I would be roughly spending on my day to day journey and having an idea based on what other travelers suggested, I could make sure that I wasn’t overspending or cutting myself short. I found that the average price throughout South East Asia that I was able to stick to was roughly $30 a day, with a bit more in certain areas and a bit less in others. For example, in Bali, I stuck to a $35 a day budget and that worked pretty well. Throughout Vietnam, $25 a day was very easy to stick to as well as in Cambodia. I spend a month living on the island of Koh Rong in Cambodia where I spent my days lounging on the beach and the only money I spent was to feed myself. Here, my daily budget was considerably less. Obviously, budgets can be tested out once you get to a new destination and see what works for you. If $25 a day is to difficult after trying it out then you know you need to increase your budget a bit to make it realistic for you. Now, there were obviously days where I went over budget, but those days were counteracted with the ones that I hardly spent any money. I remember one of my first days in Bali, I met a really lovely girl who invited me on a tour with her. She hired a private driver to take her around to a bunch of different destinations and I offered to split the cost with her. It caused me to go over budget for the day but the experience was well worth the money. We visited a coffee plantation, multiple temples, a beautiful waterfall, and had an amazing lunch with the most beautiful view of Bali. A few days later, I spent the bulk of the day on the beach where the only money I spent was on my meals and a coconut that I drank while lounging in the sun. The lack of money I spent that day totally balanced out the day I went over budget. Situations like this happened frequently during my travels and this caused me to never be too hard on myself when I did happen to go over budget for the day.

What my daily budget did do was help me to check myself and in the long run, that helped my money to go further. If I went on a cool excursion earlier that day that cost a bit more money than I anticipated, and later that evening I meet some nice people that ask me to join them out for a few drinks, my daily budget allowed me to check myself into thinking “Okay, I don’t need that second drink. One was enough, and now I won’t go over budget today.”

This concludes my tips and steps that I personally took to make my dream trip financially achieveable. For those of you looking for suggestions on making your long-term travel plans possible, I hope you found this post helpful and you were able to take something useful from it. If you have any tips that have worked well for you in the past, please feel free to share in the comments. Thank you for reading and happy travels!