Young people around the world like to travel around and see new things, meet new people and create memories. That said, we all know that traveling requires ‘time’ and ‘money’.
Students often have the luxury of free time but the number one issue that most students face is the lack of bank balance for such excursions into the unknown.
Traveling on a Student’s Budget
Luckily, there are ways to travel at relatively low expenses and still see the world and experience everything it has to offer. Plus, traveling only makes your resume and background story for a future career more interesting.
1. Hitchhiking
The most popular way of traveling cheaply (or even for free) is hitchhiking. Finding a Good Samaritan every once in a while shouldn’t be too difficult. All it takes is raising your hand next to the road and hitching a ride to wherever the driver is headed and is willing to take you.
Paying for lunch or for drinks along the way is a great way to repay their kindness and keep moving on. Just remember to be careful about hitchhiking and don’t be afraid to be picky about your drivers – some people might want to do you more harm than good.
2. Volunteering
Many student organizations offer free travel and accommodations for their volunteers, offering you a great way to travel cheaply. While you will have to do some volunteering along the way, it still beats paying for your own expenses.
You will not only see new places but also learn new skills and meet new friends, which is a whole other benefit to volunteering that you should consider.
Also Read: 7 Smart Tips to Make a Perfect On-budget Vacation
3. Cruising and crewing
Many oversea cruise lines look for bartenders, housemaids, chefs, etc. All the time. Yes, these jobs exist and they offer a great way to travel the sea and earn some money along the way.
It’s a great way to travel around at literally no expense and even end up in the positive when you are done with cruising. If sea or homesickness is not a problem for you, definitely think about cruising.
4. Travel internships
There are agencies and firms out there that pay for people who travel around and promote their brand. Just imagine traveling the world in a Coca-Cola minivan. It offers the company cheap publicity and marketing and it gives you a chance to travel around the world at no expense whatsoever.
While you will have to take photos of everything you are doing and abide by the contract of the company that is financing you, this is a minor issue when you take into account everything that you are getting.
5. Flying smart
Not all flying companies have high costs. You can easily find cheap flights all around the world if you look in the right places. One such website is Ryan Air and while you can’ travel to literally any location, you can still find a huge number of cheap deals on offer.
Look for cheap flights and providers that can help you travel to your desired location as cheaply as possible. You will probably have to adjust your dates accordingly and travel light, but it’s a great way to spend as little money as possible and still see the world.
6. Freelancing
While not a method of travel itself, freelancing gave birth to a type of people you may have heard of – digital nomads. These people travel around the world with nothing but their backpacks and laptops. They work wherever they end up sleeping that night and travel around for very low prices.
They can afford all of that because they are freelancers – all of their work is done online and there’s no need for a static job placement. Supreme Dissertations is now hiring students, take a look at the website in order to take a peek at what it means to be a freelance translator and write for a living. Think about freelancing the next time you are thinking about traveling the world at an affordable price.
7. Trade labor
You can combine hitchhiking with trading labor wherever you travel. Some inns, hostels and family businesses will happily offer you food and shelter in exchange for labor. You can work a couple of days in each place and move on along your journey, hitchhiking along the way.
This is a cheap and effective way of travel if you are in going through a rural village area where people are more welcoming and willing to trust strangers.
8. Travel Contests
You and your friends can apply for a travel contest that pays for all of your expenses in exchange for meeting certain criteria. These are usually racing around the world with little to no support from the organizers, apart from the media coverage and an instant way out if you give up.
These adrenaline-fueled races and competitions are a wonderful way of bonding with your friends and creating memories that will last a lifetime. How many people do you know that took such a challenge? It’s risky, exciting and most importantly – you get to travel the world cheaply.
9. Couch surfing
Perhaps the oldest trick to traveling cheaply, Couchsurfing has been around for a while. You can sleep at someone else’s place provided that they allow for couch surfers in their home and then move on once you get some rest.
Couch surfing is also a great way to meet new people and pay very little for your travel expenses when you put everything on paper. While not many people will let you stay the night because they don’t know you, those that let couch surfers crash for a night have often been couch surfers themselves.
Yes, You Can Travel
Traveling for on a small student budget takes some ingenuity but it’s certainly possible. The important thing is to always stay in touch with someone back home and have a way out should you get stuck. Traveling completely isolated from your real life can have huge consequences and it’s quite risky.
While it’s smartest to travel in groups, traveling this way is one of the best experiences you can have. Being a modern nomad and traveling around with only your backpack at hand is a wonderful experience that everyone should try at least once.
Author Bio
Ashley Kornee is a blogger and freelance writer. She always tries to write about ordinary things in a creative way. You can find her on Facebook and Twitter. She’s now working at Supreme Dissertations as a content manager.
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June 2, 2018 12:02 pm Leave your thoughts