We often receive requests to post guest blogs. This week we met KC Owens who was intersted in sharing some tips with peers.
Safe and happy travels in the future, KC!
Traveling The World On Less Than
A Dime
College students generally don't have a lot of money and are often
too busy with school to make any. Between having to go to classes, do
homework, and sleep, there is very little time for anything else. But
most college students have summers off from classes and those who value their
free time use summer vacation to travel the world. For many, this is the
final opportunity to go on extended vacations before joining the work force and
working full-time. Everyone's final summer vacations are treasured and
there is no better way to spend your time than traveling the world.
How to Fund Your Trip
Financing a trip around the world is far from trivial but is
possible to do without racking up a massive bill. Working a part-time job
while in school isn't easy but with good time management skills, it is
possible. By saving a few dollars from each paycheck, enough money can be
saved throughout a school year to spend the summer traveling.
When a part-time job doesn’t give you enough money to travel, do what I did. I did a little research and found out that you can use a student credit card to help fund your travels. This may sound crazy, but it helped me fund my travels by giving me the option to borrow money for expensive plane and train tickets and then repay the bank once I returned home and continued working and going to school. This way, I didn’t need all the cash up front before my trip. Also, the card helped me buy food and museum passes while I was abroad; I didn’t have to carry as much cash on me (which was safer) and I was able to exchange currencies automatically!
Why not Work?
Once on vacation, there are several ways of making the trip inexpensive.
The World Wide Opportunities on Organic Farms (WWOOF)
program allows students to work on organic farms around the world. It
costs $40 to become a member of WWOOF but the program makes a whole world of
work opportunities available. Generally, the workers on the farm are
given room and board in addition to some meals. The program is also an
excellent way to meet like-minded travelers from different corners of the world
and I would highly recommend using their resources to help offset your costs.
Overnights
When not staying at a WWOOF farm, there are many inexpensive
places to stay while on vacation. Most areas have hostels in every town
and rooms are generally less than $40 per night. The Hostelworld phone app has a comprehensive
list of hostels in areas all over the world. Most hostels have bunk
beds and shared rooms separated by gender. While lacking privacy, the
advantage of this set up is being able to meet other travelers from around the
world who are also looking to travel inexpensively. Generally, hostels
also have a kitchen area to prepare meals, which is far less expensive than
eating at a local restaurant. Unfortunately, hostels are popular and
sometimes fill up, especially in small towns and villages. Checking in
with a hostel immediately upon arriving in town will help ensure a bed to sleep
in for the night.
Traveling the world doesn't have to be an overly expensive affair.
By saving a bit of money and borrowing the rest to cover an airplane
ticket and some food and transportation costs, one can travel around many
places in the world for very little money. The advantage of
traveling gives you the opportunity to interact with many people who are on
similar missions to see the world.
KC Owens has written and submitted this article. KC is a college student
who loves traveling, college life, fitness and a good survival kit. He enjoys
studying different cultures, meeting new people and leaving his footprint
somewhere most people only read about.
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