Travel world for almost free

Pokayah

Hi,

I work in a high pressure job and want to take a year out to travel. I have traveled before but want to do a trip around the world. Is there any truth that people have done this for almost free? I want an adventure so I would love this challenge but would like to get a crew together also,

Thanks,

Pokayah

Carpenter

You are funny

keithclancy

Pokayah wrote: »

Hi,

I work in a high pressure job and want to take a year out to travel. I have traveled before but want to do a trip around the world. Is there any truth that people have done this for almost free? I want an adventure so I would love this challenge but would like to get a crew together also,

Thanks,

Pokayah

High Pressure job you say .. Do you fit car tyres by any chance ?

Halfbaker

This sounds excellent. Count me in, when do we start?

spurious

Pokayah wrote: »

Hi,

I work in a high pressure job

I'd say trying to travel for free would be fairly high pressure too.

grimm2005

For free? Not a chance. You could try doing it on a pittance but it'd be fairly miserable I'd say, spending your days figuring out who's couch you'll crash on tonight, basically living off scraps, dumpster diving and trying to hitch rides to your next destination which could be dangerous or impossible if you need to fly.

You're better off settling somewhere in the middle I reckon, be smart about it, live cheaply enough but not so much that you're constantly worried about where your next meal is coming from and have enough to visit places and do activities in the places you're going, otherwise what's the point. Fly with budget airlines when possible or get a bus instead of a train if it's much cheaper. Stay in dorm rooms in nice hostels and if you're staying in one place for an extended period, offer to work shifts in the hostel for free accommodation. Most decent hostels will have a very cheap or free breakfast and some have cheap or free dinners too. If you're in a very cheap country or city, get a decent hotel room for a night every now and then to give yourself some breathing room. Keep your stays shorter in very expensive cities (unless you really love the place and can afford it).

I say all that with very little experience tbf, but I generally always stay in hostel dorms on trips and love it and have had many conversations with folks who were doing the same. I think a lot of it is common sense really. Have a good chunk saved up and then also a decent contingency fund if all goes south.

jaymcg91

I've never stayed in a hostel before, I'm a freak about staying someplace that's safe and clean. I really want to be able to though, you can save ridiculous amounts of $$$$.

Pokayah

<mod snip>rephrase for an unqualified carpenter, cheapest way to do it, there are ways such as i know a fella that stayed with a family in a rural area of SE Asia, they fed him and he lived their lifestyle for 2 months, he gave them 100 dollars for it, its tips like this im looking for <mod snip>

grimm2005

jaymcg91 wrote: »

I've never stayed in a hostel before, I'm a freak about staying someplace that's safe and clean. I really want to be able to though, you can save ridiculous amounts of $$$$.

I was the same as yourself about a year ago. I had stayed in hostels before but private rooms with friends. I finally decided to give it ago, just myself staying a dorm and now I would never go back to staying in hotels. As long as you pick somewhere high rated you'll be fine. All dorms will have personal lockers to put your stuff in, most of the time big enough for a large carry on case. Also the people staying in these hostels will be like minded young travellers and students wanting to see a bit of the world on a budget. If the place is really good, they'll have great staff who sort out theme nights, make dinners and breakfasts, and get everyone together playing drinking games and such in the evening and take everyone out at night, all designed to get everyone socialising (of course you can also just use it as a place to stay if you're not into that). And anywhere decent will be nice and clean with onsite cleaning staff.