Traveling the World on a Budget, Part 1: Planning

I think it’s safe to assume that most people our age, post-grads, young professionals and quarter-life crisis individuals have the dream of traveling the world. So what’s stopping us? Well, I can name a few things…

Money

Oh, and did I mention MONEY?

I see friends traveling the world and get green with envy wondering, how in the world are they able to travel?

Well, I’m here to tell you it’s not as hard as you think it is. With a little budgeting and imagination, touring the three, may I add, priciest cities in Europe was very doable.

So I’m here to break it down for you, and give you some tips and tricks on how to travel on a budget.

Plan of Action:

Step 1: Choose your travel destinations. When you decide what cities or countries you want to visit, everything else can be planned out. You want to make sure you select the places you are willing to commit to. An old friend of mine agreed on this trip, (we’ll call her “Elle”) and after brainstorming, we selected 3 cities: Paris, Barcelona and London.

Step 2: Choose your dates. These dates can be broad to begin with. A day or two can be moved, but once you have the dates and how many days you’ll need, it will be easier to figure out how long you will stay in each city. Summer seemed like the best bet for Elle and I. We decided 3 days in each city would be enough and it fit in our schedule perfectly. We would spend 9 days in all 3 cities and 2 days traveling. 11 days total. Done.

Step 3: Choose the order of your visit. This doesn’t seem like a necessary step, but trust me, it is. Flight prices can drastically differ coming and going from different cities. Traveling from London to Barcelona was more expensive than going from Paris to Barcelona. Also note, some cities are cheaper flying into from your home airport. It costs a lot less to fly into Paris from Washington D.C (home) than flying into London. That is how we came to the decision to make Paris our first stop. It took Elle and I countless hours of researching, changing and rearranging plans, but the struggle pays off in the end.

Step 4: Once you have all the locations and dates down, it’s time to pull the trigger and buy your tickets. I’m sure you’ve heard this, but buying your tickets on Tuesday evening will be your safest bet. What I suggest you do is buy all your tickets at once. It may seem steep, but once you have your flights bought, your trip isn’t just a dream, but a reality.

Step 5: Accommodations. There are many different places you can stay from hotels, and hostels to Airbnb’s. Hostels were a strict no for me. I’ve seen too many movies to trust them. Hotels are ideal, but are a lot pricier than the Airbnb option. Airbnb may seem sketchy for some, but I think it’s great. All our Airbnb’s were in great locations, which is something you can look for when booking your stay. Our hosts were nice and accommodating.

So, there you have it!