Alyona CheA couple of days ago, me and Kostas completed an online travel quiz, and the result showed that we are both completely low budget travelers. Maybe for many friends, it was surprising that, despite being a woman, I can choose e.g. cooking rather than eating outside, or sleeping on the beach, rather than paying a suite if there are no budget rooms in the area. But the truth is that in my own eyes, we are not too thrifty travelers, at least by comparing our expenses to many backpackers we have hosted and met.
So I thought to write, what we never regret spending money during a trip on, what low-budget solutions we really enjoy and what we can not stand paying for at all.
We never save money on a trip for:
- Museums, theater tickets, interesting events, excursions you cannot go yourself, and other valuable in our eyes experiences. Yes, we are looking for good prices, but without a second thought I will pay 150 euros for a boat ride in the Jokulsarlon ice lagoon. However, there are very few possibilities I will spend the same amount of money in a restaurant, even if it has thousands of positive reviews. Unless the restaurant itself is an “experience”.
- Child food. No explanation needed, Ektoras always gets fresh, healthy, well-cooked food, whatever it means for us in terms of time or expenses.
- Coffee in cafes with a view. We can not resist, and yes, we can pay an illogical amount for a cup of simple black coffee, if the place has an amazing view of the Alpes landscape.
- Travel insurance, essential everywhere.
- Transport expenses. We will take an internal flight, rent a car, anything, to see a new place, even for one day.
- Cleanliness of accommodation. We can compromise up to a point, but in general … Let it be far, let it be old, let it be 5 square meters, but it has to be clean.
We really like these solutions, which are very economical:
- Free camping, especially in Greece! Even though, according to the law free camping is illegal in Greece, the truth is that the authorities and locals are very liberal to it, as long as you respect the environment and follow common logic.
- Couchsurfing. We have met incredible people, veing really close with several of them! Unbelievable experience, both when hosting someone and when being hosted.
- Stay in a hostel, as long as it has a good level of cleanliness.
- Walking in cities, instead of taxi, metro, bus. In Lisbon and Porto, for example, every day we walked about 30 km. You get lost, you see things, you discover something new.
- Picnic in the nature. It requires some preparation, you have to carry stuff with you, but we like it very much.
So, this is what came to our mind. Some people may have the same way of thinking, others have different priorities and compromises while traveling. Tell us your point of view, what are the things you never save money on a trip?