Ask HN: How to travel cheaply? | Hacker News Reader

Ask HN: How to travel cheaply?

20 pointstdfx24 comments

I'm in a position where I can make a living with just myself and my laptop. With no limitations besides ATMs and internet access, I'd like to avoid the "nesting syndrome" that most people my age (25) seem to acquire and go see if there's some other place that I'd prefer to be. There's really no part of the world that doesn't interest me, but my potential travel companions are much less gainfully employed and we need to get around for a lot less than the prices I'm seeing on international flights.

I'm looking for peoples' ideas and experiences in traveling on a significantly reduced budget and avoiding typical tourist traps. Also, any ideas on local employment would also be great as I would not like to support my fellow travelers financially.

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This applies at least in Vietnam/Thailand, but don't reserve rooms beforehand. If a place has a website, it probably means that it's expensive ($50+ instead of $10-$20), but doesn't necessarily mean it would be any better. Rather try to travel off-season, walk along a beach and ask to see the rooms of acceptable looking places. Check that the water heater and toilet etc. work. If you need wifi, you can open your laptop before even going and see if it picks up any networks.

If you fly in asia, don't trust Kayak/Orbitz solely to find flights. There are some local airlines that are much cheaper that might not be listed there, for example check out http://www.airasia.com/ for some really nice prices (Bangkok -> Vietnam costs ~30 euro). I don't have a solution for long haul flights, except do a lot of searches on different travel sites on different dates. Sometimes changing the dates by just a few days can take 30% off the price. Airlines are already competing so fiercely with each other that I would guess their tourist class seats are sold at very slim profits, so I don't know how they could go much cheaper.

Two kind of obvious things: If you can find a reason to go to your destination on business, you can deduct it as an expense. Depending on your tax rate this could be a huge help. Hotels are always sold by room and not per person, so sharing a room with a friend halves your cost.

I second Thailand. Just don't come here looking fer luv. I'll seriously track you down and smack if you go to boobie bars and then blog about it. Nothing in this world could be lamer than that.

If you're interested in beautiful beaches, great food and young city life, you'd do well here. If you come to Bangkok shoot me an email at mbenjaminsmith [at] gmail [dot] com. My co-founder and I will take you out for a night on the town.

Ditch your travel companions. The best way to travel is alone. You are more free that way. Meet new people along the way, but ditch them also when it's time to move again.

A bit off from what you want, but for an extreme - see Steve Roberts's book "Computing Across America". In the 1980s he outfitted a bicycle with computers and solar collectors and so on and set out to ride all around the US.

His current project is setting up a sailboat to live on; he blogs about it here http://www.nomadness.com/blog/ . The book gives a lot more detail than he does online; he has also done other projects and sells books about them from his older web page http://microship.com/ .

Okay, I suppose I could answer the question, here is a way you could do this...

Let's use Asia as an example. It's super cheap to live in a place like the Philippines. I'm in a two bedroom house in a great city for only $120 per month. I can get by on food here for about the same as rent or less. The visa costs around $60 per month average but you can stay here for 16 months before you have to do a visa run.

Want to travel more? That's another area where the Philippines shines. You can fly anywhere in the Philippines on domestic flights for like less than $30 per ticket and often much cheaper. You can get flights to places like Hong Kong, Singapore and Bangkok for as low as $60 each way.

With cheap expenses like that, your travel companions could live with you in a foreign country while you ditch them for other trips, while keeping your place in the Philippines as a base between travels.

Working is tricky. Bad economy means most things have bad pay. With expenses so low, it wouldn't take much to figure out how to get by with odd jobs done remotely through sites like Odesk or Elance. I hear foreigners can get call center gigs (likely some sort of language training / management) here. Also, there are lots of Koreans who will pay to learn English (the reason many of them are here) but they likely won't pay much. In any case, you really don't need much to get by.

If you wish to travel around Europe internally, Ryanair can be quite cheap. You can sign up for email alters here:

http://www.ryanair.com/en/about/register-for-offers

(I'm not affiliated with them in any way).

Just bear in mind it's best to have very little hand luggage, be mindful of taxes and charges and that you will often get dropped quite far from your destination (Paris Beauvais rather than Charles de Gaulle etc).

I remember seeing on TV how a young guy in the UK had signed up for last minute offers (a couple of pence per flight in some cases) and he and his mates would dash to the airport and take whatever flight was available to whatever country at that time. They would come home again from Prague or wherever after a cheap weekend away. One way to avoid the nesting syndrome you mention.

Here's a map of all the destinations Ryanair fly to, you can cover Europe quite cheaply as you will see:

http://www.ryanair.com/en/cheap-flight-destinations

I'd second that, but the pricing can be inconvenient sometimes. I remember I was in Spain trying to get to Morocco, and I found a Ryanair flight for .01 (yes, that's 1 cent) with about 40 or 50 bucks worth of taxes and stuff. The trouble was, the flight back was like $400 or something. For me, it wasn't a huge deal since I was just buying 1-way tickets, but I can see how it might not be convenient at times. I ended up not going to Morocco for other reasons, but Ryanair's pretty great if you're cash strapped and don't mind a little discomfort on the road.

A full-time traveler wrote a massive guest post on my site describing how she travels for $14,000/year: http://www.iwillteachyoutoberich.com/blog/cheap-travel/

$14,000 a year is actually a ton of money when you are traveling. I traveled/lived for two solid years in Central/South America and Asia for less than $20,000. It's pretty easy to do. Just don't fly much, stay in cheap rooms $5-6 a night was usually my limit, eat the cheap (and delicious) food you find on street corners in so many other countries, and plan to take the cheapest transportation you can find. That's about it.

I bought an around the world ticket once. The bang for buck is pretty darn good, atleast when I bought it. Last I looked the prices had gone up a bit, but it was still an excellent value if you have the time to utilize it. If you're interested in it and want more details, i'm more than happy to provide you with more info. There's a lot to see so you might as well get started sooner rather than later.

It's a couple of grand for the ticket itself, but if you enjoy being on the road then it's a small cost. Time's much much harder to come by, so if you've got that and the drive and excitement to spend it well you're a rich person :)

Based on my experience, the cheapest way would be:

1) Airbnb for a affordable room / stay at friend's house

2) cheapflights.com

3) PACK minimalistic - http://www.fourhourworkweek.com/blog/2007/07/11/how-to-trave...

4) Try everything you can to pay for bills(such as internet). If you're going to any US city, it shouldn't be a problem.

Oh and have fun!

I'm trying to do exactly the same thing - I recommend using Adioso for flight search and Airbnb for accommodation.

If you know how long you plan to travel and it's enough time to see a lot of stuff, an around the world ticket is worthwhile. Cost has gone up a little since I bought one, but if you've got the time and the drive, it's worth the money.

If you are eligible, you can look into working holiday visas (here is info on Australia's http://www.immi.gov.au/visitors/working-holiday/462/). Rent a camper and follow the harvest. Just work a few weeks on a few weeks off.

If you really want to travel cheaply, don't use airlines.

If want to cross oceans you can work your way on merchant ships or pay a little bit if you want to just chill. Train is good in many parts of the world. And of course, if you have a solid bike, then there are few limits.

how would you go about making arrangements for traveling on a merchant ship? sounds interesting

For freighters take a look at http://wikitravel.org/en/Freighter_travel and findacrew.net

I've never seen "work your way on merchant ships" as an option, but the "pay your way on a merchant ship" is actually more expensive than flying in most cases, since it takes a long time. I'd still like to try it one day.

Crewing a yacht, if you have sailing, cooking, etc. experience, is also an option.

Trains in the US are more expensive than flights (for long haul routes), but in other countries, are a good deal. However, even in Europe, low cost carriers are price competitive with trains. Costs a lot more per minute, but the flight is much faster.

Actually I've found that if you're travelling between European capitals, trains are basically always more expensive than airplanes. The only time trains can really compete on price is if you're travelling between places without a reasonable airport. The cheapest way to get around Europe is probably still bus, but that is hardly a comfortable way to travel.

That's interesting. But what about after factoring in the cost of transporting yourself from the airport to your destination?

I'd imagine trains mostly go to the city centers while airports are more on the outer limits.

Airlines are pretty much the cheapest way to travel next to the bus.

http://www.airbnb.com

For slightly longer stays (weeks to months) subletting on Craigslist is an incredibly cost-effective option which comes with locals for roomates as an added bonus.

http://www.couchsurfing.org is similar but free. If you're the social kind (or want to be) then it's the best way to travel on the cheap and fun.

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