How i travel cheap and comfortably

  “If I'm an advocate for anything, it's to move. As far as you can, as much as you can. Across the ocean, or simply across the river. The extent to which you can walk in someone else's shoes or at least eat their food, it's a plus for everybody. " -Anthony Bourdain 

Travel! Everybody says they want to do it but few actually do. I started traveling internationally in 2016. My first trip was to Indonesia. That trip taught me a lot but throughout the years I have learned many more things, especially when it comes to traveling on a budget. People come up to me all the time asking me how I do it so with this article I will explain every way i have traveled on a budget for months on end if you decide to do it or even if you just want to take a short vacation for like a week or 2, whatever floats your boat. Before I get into it I just wanna say don't expect everything to be easy, life is sometimes shitty and things do happen. Just because there's a beach near you does not mean that life is perfect.

1. Buy one-way tickets

Most of the time when I travel I buy 1-way tickets. Contrary to popular belief one-way tickets are typically not any more expensive than round trip tickets. The reasoning behind that is that it's not that the ticket is so expensive, It's that spending a large chunk of money like that is unfortunately not a luxury that many people have. So for example, if a ticket is 500 dollars round trip then you might be thinking damn 500 dollars that's a lot, but if you buy a one way assuming that the one way is half the price then 250 doesn't sound so bad. The big trick with this is to plan it just in advance so that you can stretch it wisely, another example if you want to fly out in let's say January 14th and it's August 14th. So that's 24 weeks out. August 14th I would buy the first 250 dollar ticket, then maybe 12 weeks out November 14th I'd buy the return 250 dollar ticket. So in that way you're not taking much of a hit financially. Everything won't look exactly as smooth as that normally, you might pay 200 for the first one and 300 for the second one or you might even pay more in total but the whole idea behind it is not spending all at once if you're not in a financial position to do so.

2. Make your own layovers

In 2016 I noticed that most flights have connecting flights, obviously, that depends on where you go and where you're flying from. So I thought to myself what if I tried to make my own connecting flights. If I'm going to San Juan, Puerto Rico and the layover is in Miami for 7 hours and that's the cheapest ticket, It's for 150 dollars. I'd do that same thing except I'd put them individually. Book a flight to Miami myself for like say 36 dollars out of let's say Boston where I'm currently at, then another from Miami to San Juan for 70 dollars. So in total, I paid 106 instead of 150. I saved 44 dollars for the same exact flight, the same might work oppositely. So let's do the exact same thing the opposite way so that 44 becomes 88. The total amount spent was 212 instead of 300. Also what you can do is make it a little more intricate and let's say go to Fort Lauderdale, Fl instead of Miami and see if there's a lower price, It's tedious but if you want to save some money then hey shouldn't it be worth Item? Pay attention to detail and don't confuse yourself. 

3.Know the demographics of the places you fly and who travels where

In 2010 a US census showed that there are 1,177,430 Puerto Ricans in New York City alone. The number has increased throughout the years. In 2016 a census estimate said 1,494,670. Point being there's a lot of Puerto Ricans in New York. Common sense will tell you that many will go back home to visit family and friends. So with that many Puerto Ricans, they'll be a high demand in flights which they'd have to accommodate for. When the supply of a product goes up, the price of a product goes down and demand for the product can rise because it costs less. That's supply and demand for ya. The second part is who travels where. So Puerto Ricans fly out to Puerto Rico due to a large number of Puerto Ricans in New York going to visit their native land, but what about others who just like to travel to certain places. In 2016 I flew to Italy, Rome to be exact. I flew there to make my flight cheaper. I didn't have much interest in Italy, although it was a nice country. But what I found out in Egypt is that a lot of Italians travel to Egypt, so that same idea of ​​supply and demand applies to Italy but with Egypt and not for the reason of going back home but simply because they like traveling to Egypt. Instead of paying 600 dollars, I paid somewhere along the lines of 350 dollars. I took a flight from New York to Italy for about 200 and about 150 from Rome to Egypt and I also got the experience of spending a week in Italy. I'm not saying stay a week you can easily make the layover like the second principle. Distance plays a factor but I don't think as much as how many people go there or else why would Germany offer seasonal direct flights to Puerto Rico, they're not so close to one another.

4.Travel by Land

Not all travel has to be done by flight whether you're leaving your country or already there at your destination. In 2018 I was living in Puerto Rico but I had to get to New york Specifically. I found a cheap flight from San Juan, Pr to Philadelphia, Pa a direct flight for 50 dollars compared to 144 to New York with a layover, so what I did was look up bus tickets from Philadelphia to New York City. I found a peter pan bus ticket for 15 dollars. I don't know about you but I would rather be on the ground than on a plane regardless, even the hassle of the whole airport process gets annoying at times. So bam I went on a direct flight to Philly for 50 then 15 dollar bus, 65 dollars and I got there in about 6 and a half hours instead of 8 while saving 79 dollars and boosting my quality of travel cause I was on the ground on my phone, laptop, food that I bought from a spot right outside the airport. To me, I made my trip of better quality and cheaper. In 2017 I was in Mexico City and worked my way down all the way to Honduras. All on a bus. I stopped in lots of cities for multiple days, sometimes weeks, and contrary to popular belief it is not dangerous to do that. It's very normal. Incidents do happen very very rarely but hey that's life shit happens everywhere.I can be in a suburb of England and get into a car accident and die, that's just life. Incidents do happen very very rarely but hey that's life shit happens everywhere.

5.Where to stay and how to find those places

This is probably the question I get the most. Where do I stay? The answer is simple, It depends. It all depends on the cost, the location, how I feel. Sometimes I stay in hotels, sometimes I stay in hostels, sometimes I stay in Air BnB's, sometimes I stay in apartments I find. I'll break each down. Hotels, I go on a variety of different websites. Priceline, Expedia, kayak, booking.com to name a few, I put the price range of what I'm looking for and it'll tell me. Where it's located, what's near me, and what the place has and offers. It also has reviews and ratings. You can get a luxury hotel for as cheap as 20 dollars a day in certain countries you travel to. 20 in Bali, 40 in Rome. Just 2 to give you personal examples. Hostels! I know for Americans specifically, hostels are looked at in a scary way partly due to the movie hostel that came out in 2005. I assure you, I promise movies are typical rubbish that doesn't portray what things are actually. I've stayed in so many hostels throughout my days traveling, sometimes people stay by choice because they want to be around a bunch of like-minded travelers. Hostels are a fraction of the price of hostels and normally very clean and accommodating. I've seen some as cheap as 4usd a day. A hostel is a form of low-cost, short-term shared sociable lodging where guests can rent a bed, usually a bunk bed in a dormitory, with shared use of a lounge and sometimes a kitchen. Rooms can be mixed or single-sex and have private or shared bathrooms. People are typically nice, welcoming and open-minded, coming from all different walks of life and places throughout the world. If you've stayed in a college dorm and enjoyed it then hey that might be for you. Private rooms and apartments are normally available as well. Air BnB's are typically apartments, private rooms, or houses that people rent out for people daily, weekly, or even monthly. In my experiences, it's been one of the most convenient ways to travel and most comfortable. You can have a whole apartment to yourself for as low as 15 USD a day and monthly even cheaper at times depending where. Airbnb also has these hosts that are known as super hosts. A superhost is basically a local tour guide that'll help you more thoroughly in your travels. They'll tell you where to go and where not to go, how to get there and even sometimes bring you there personally. The last one typically is for long term travelers only, apartments I find. Honestly, I find them through word of mouth. I talk to people and ask around and people will direct you in the right direction. Don't bite your tongue. Opportunity comes to those that create it! apartments i find. Honestly, I find them through word of mouth. I talk to people and ask around and people will direct you in the right direction. Don't bite your tongue. Opportunity comes to those that create it! apartments I find. Honestly, I find them through word of mouth. I talk to people and ask around and people will direct you in the right direction. Don't bite your tongue. Opportunity comes to those that create it!

6. Long term travel

Last but not least, long term travel. So before I get started, I want to say that I do not expect or recommend anybody do this especially if they have life responsibilities that they can't abandon without jeopardizing their future or the futures of others. Let's get to it. If you're at a crossroads in life if you're trying to find meaning. If your young, naive maybe feel that you don't quite belong where you are, then travel. I've done so many things to save up money to travel that it sometimes blows me to think that I do them. But a lot take sacrifices that unfortunately a lot of people aren't really willing to do. I never had an amazing job, my formal education is limited but I still manage to get by. I work a lot of hours in multiple jobs, 1 job for bills, and the other for saving. I opened up multiple bank accounts so my money is distributed in different places, I don't drink, I don't smoke, I don't go out, I don't eat out and I don't buy things I don't need. I even invest in stocks not to make much money but just to have my money somewhere that I don't see or let's say remember. It sounds almost taboo in society to say you don't indulge in certain things, but if you really want something as bad as you say you do then you're not focused on the mountain in front of you you're focused on the peak of that mountain. So pretty much you save and go quit your job assuming you don 'Do some soul searching and don't forget to have just enough money so when you come back you're set, that's assuming you even want to come back. It's the 21st century to use the internet to your advantage instead of just for likes and comments from your imaginary fan base. You can leave and figure out a place to get back to relatively easy nowadays.