TravelTalk - Budget and Destinations

Funny thing about traveling a lot, I receive a lot of "you're so lucky" and "I wish I could do that".

Truth of the matter is, if you travel with me, you'd realize that traveling for long periods of time is completely possible. It's sort of like skydiving or driving for the first time,  always scary the first time, but the more times you do it,  the less stressful it is. Well, I still get the butterflies when going to a new place.

Well here are some tips for traveling cheap.

Tips for staying in budget:
-Equipment - don't spend too much money on new luggage, and clothes before you travel, if anything pack light and support the local economy (stay away from malls).
-Forget hotels. I might stay 1-2 nights at the most at a moderately price hotel during this 6 weeks. Stay in hostels, its pretty cool because you get to interact with others and who knows, if you're like me who doesn't plan their to see list, its pretty awesome.
-Avoid big cities. No Paris, No London, No anything in currency that is Francs, Pounds. For this trip, I am heading to 3 places sans Euro (Poland,  Croatia and Hungary).
-Avoid traveling in summer -  everything costs slightly more during summer time, if you do plan to travel during the summer,  plan, plan and plan. Most low cost airlines rarely have summer sales and tickets increase in price rapidly.
-Take advantage of free breakfast. (Most hostels do offer this).

In case you are running over budget... Try the following.
-Skip lunch (or share a meal, if you're traveling with a buddy). Eat your breakfast, take some muffins or croissants with you,  buy some nuts at the supermarket to get you by.
-Avoid touristy areas, try accommodation away from the city center, food and accommodation would probably be cheaper.

Someone the other day asked me about the difference between tourism and traveling.  For me it's a distinct difference, if you leave without making friends from that country - you were probably a tourist. Anyways, random thought.

On this 6 week trip, which includes 1 week in Krakow, 1 week in Netherlands, and 3 weeks in Croatia and Budapest and some extra time in Madrid, my budget is €1400, roughly $1800, but to be honest, I probably will not spend over €1000 ($1300) probably less.

For me, I do have some things working for me that probably doesn't exist for your normal traveler.

1) I'm not scared to couchsurf - in Krakow,  I am staying in a hostel the first 2 days (for roughly $29.50) and I have a host for the next 3 days in the suburbs, I haven't figured out my last 2 days, hopefully I'll have another host by then.
1A) Thanks to Hospitalityclub, in Netherlands,  I have accommodation for 5 days, with someone who've I'd stayed with previously in Rome. (PS. This is where staying in contact is key and not just Facebook, yes I still save everyone's number,  addresses and full names)
2) Yes to hitchhiking, some of you know that I love to pick up hitchhikers and I don't mind hitchhiking either, this will hopefully come in handy in Croatia.
3) Low cost airlines! Low cost airlines are awesome. Yes,  you're restricted with luggage, but I love them, haha, I traveled last February around Spain and spent less then €40 on tickets.

On this trip, I plan to be connected in every country. Yes,  that involves buying a local sim,  meaning if you plan to do the same, you'll need an unlocked phone. Don't even try your AT&T, Verizon overseas, its insanely expensive.

Well, enough about that for now, off to dinner with a friend in Madrid whom I've known for almost a decade.