How To Travel The World (For Free)
How To Travel The World (For Free)
Do you want to travel for free to another country or city?
Learn the only three things you need to travel the world, how to travel for free (on a budget), and how to maximize your fun while doing it!
How to travel the world content:
Let’s start to travel the world.
1. The Only Three Things You Truly Need To Travel
To travel the world, you only need:
Health, Time, and Money!
You seriously don’t need anything else!
If you don’t have time because you have important responsibilities like a job or a family to take care of, you can’t travel the world.
But it’s also the one that’s easier to solve.
If you don’t have time, you make the time, as Arnold Schwarzenegger always said. Not having enough time is just a matter of money and proper planning for most people.
Because if you have enough money, you can find a way to quit your job and travel with your kids if you want it bad enough.
But if you aren’t healthy enough or don’t have enough money, that’s a different case.
2. How To Travel On A Shoestring Budget – For Free
Do you want to travel the world but have no money?
Fear not; the following tips are exactly what you need.
Learn how to travel on a shoestring budget, save money, and earn more money while traveling.
Let’s start with the two most important money maximizing concepts:
Or in other words: Don’t be bound to when and where you travel!
That’s how you maximize your travel time and money because holiday seasons and prominent tourist attractions will drain your funds faster than any flight you book.
When you are not bound to an exact time and location, you can pick the cheapest travel destinations and time periods for your vacation.
In the following paragraphs, you will learn how to travel on a budget, save money on transportation, housing, and living expenses, and most importantly: how to do it all for free, if you want to.
But remember: Nothing is truly for free in life! Because you will need to invest more time and energy to save money and travel for free!
3. Save Money on Transportation:
What is the best mode of transportation? And also Cheap?
Here are the best tips on how to save money on transportation while traveling:
3.1 Hitchhike
If you want to save as much money as possible, there is no way around hitchhiking.
It’s free, simple, and doesn’t cost any money.
Moreover, you will meet new and exciting people.
Is it for every region of the world? Also, no.
But if you want to travel the world for free, this is the way to go.
Are you concerned about your safety?
Here Are 3 Safety Tips:
- Don’t wait on the side of the road for a car to pick you up. Instead, ask people to give you a ride. For example, at the last gas station in the city, heading out in the direction you want to travel. This way, you can pick the person you want to go with if they agree to take you.
- Take a photo of the car you are getting in and send it to a friend.
- Listen to your gut.
Also, girls will have it easier than guys to find a ride.
Of course, it always depends on your luck, the time of day, and where you hitchhike. But mostly, waiting twenty minutes for a ride can be a long time for a woman, whereas men might typically wait an hour or even longer.
Increase your chances of being picked up:
- Have a sign with your preferred destination.
- Dress in appropriate nonviolent and clean clothes.
- Create a project out of your hitchhiking journey that you can show other people. Maybe even with a website or blog so that people will feel safer sharing their car with you. Also, it’s more fun, and people might even organize your next ride or overnight accommodation for you.
In general, the world is a pretty safe place, and people like to help other people, no matter where you are. Try it out.
3.2 Go By Bike or Walk
Yes, but it can also be one of the most life-changing things you will ever do.
Time slows down, and as Alan Watts said:
“Real travel requires a maximum of unscheduled wanderings, for there is no other way of discovering surprises and marvels, which, as I see it, is the only good reason for not staying at home.”
Take the path less traveled as the journey is the destination when you travel.
Just stay away from freeways and superhighways as it’s no fun walking or riding next to them.
3.3 Use Buses, Trains, Or Ridesharing
The next best thing to walking, biking, or hitchhiking is to use buses, trains, or ridesharing apps like BlaBlaCar.
Depending on the country, you can find cheap deals and even meet locals if you are lucky and not too shy to say: “Hello, how are you?”
3.4 Fly For Cheap
Compare cheap flights, hotels, and car hires with metasearch and aggregator websites like:
But also, use traditional search and go directly to the airways website, as not all airways are on price checker and metasearch websites.
You also might never know who offers the lowest price in real life.
If the price of your desired flight suddenly jumped up, use private browsing, switch your device, or change your IP. Some websites increase their prices if they recognize that you repeatedly check out the same offer.
Extra Tip: Travel at night to save money on accommodation.
4. Save Money on Housing:
Here are the best tips on how to save money on housing and accommodation while traveling.
4.1 Do you have friends you can visit?
Visiting and staying at your friend’s place is the best, even when you have enough money to stay in a hotel.
Not only can you reconnect with your old friends, but they can also tell you what you need to see and do.
Just make sure to host them when they are in your city.
4.2 Couchsurf
4.3 Hostels or Airbnb
Airbnb as a Group or Use Hostels
4.4 Last Resort: Camping
Camp in a park in the city or around the city as a last resort. It’s free if you have all the camping material, but it might not be legal in every country.
5. Save Money on Living Expenses:
Save money on your living expenses by asking yourself these questions while traveling:
The best places don’t always cost the most money.
- Do you need to visit the most expensive countries or could you have as much or even more fun in cheaper countries? The same goes for cities!
- Do you need to see every tourist attraction or can you leave some out? Especially the expensive ones. Many of the best tourist attractions are for free anyways, like big parks or free museums.
- Could you learn more about people and the country by going off the beaten path?
- Do you need to eat out at fancy restaurants? Or can you buy your meal at the next supermarket for one-quarter of the price and cook at home?
If you want to make your travel money last longer, decide what’s truly important and what can be left out.
Depending on what you do, you can go from spending a few hundred euros a day to a few dollars. It all depends on how you decide to structure your travel.
And let’s be honest, do you need to see another church, another temple, or another museum? After a while, unless it’s genuinely one of the greatest temples or churches in the world, probably not. If you travel long enough, you will understand what I mean. One temple becomes the next, especially if you have seen 30, 50, or 100 already.
6. Save Money Before Traveling:
- Do you need that new iPhone?
- Do you need to eat out every day?
- Do you need to spend money on new clothes?
Or would it be better for you to save a few hundred or even a few thousand dollars and add that money to your travel budget?
Look at your expenses and find ways to save more money. Every dollar counts while traveling.
Then increase your income!
7. Earn More Money Before Traveling:
Do you save enough money to travel?
Earn more money before you start your big adventure:
- Take extra hours at your job
- Freelance
- Sell your stuff
- Donate blood
- Ask your parents or grandparents (But don’t start a GoFundMe)
- Wish for flight tickets or travel money as your birthday and Christmas presents
- Start a second job
Remember traveling is a luxury. Most people I know that travel a lot do it either by extension of their job, or they worked hard and made a lot of money, and or made other sacrifices and didn’t eat out, saved every penny, or moved back to their parents.
Travel is a luxury, but if you have a half-decent job and make traveling your priority, you will be able to travel the world even if it’s only on a shoestring budget.
8. General Travel Tips
Here are some general travel tips.
8.1 Get Health Insurance
Get the right health insurance! Inform yourself what your health insurance covers and, if necessary, add another travel insurance. Depending on your country, some can run as low as 10$ for 50 days. But in the unfortunate case that something terrible happens to you, it will be worth the cost by a tenfold.
8.2 Get The Right Vaccination
Go to a doctor and get the necessary shots.
8.3 Travel Light
Do you need three pairs of shoes, eight t-shirts, and four pairs of pants?
Less is better. Look at all the stuff you want to take with you and edit ruthlessly. You probably don’t need as much stuff as you think you need. Especially leave the just-in-case items at home. Because in case you can buy some new t-shirts or pants.
And let’s be honest, that’s what you will do either way. You can thank me later when you travel with a light backpack and see other people traveling with twice as heavy bags.
8.4 Be Aware Of Pickpockets
Be aware of pickpockets in tourist areas, especially if you look like a tourist or a foreigner.
If you travel long enough, it is only a matter of time till something gets stolen from you, so be prepared for it, but you don’t have to make it easier for the pickpockets.
Don’t let your valuable stuff out of your sight, especially at beaches. I heard so many stories from people getting robbed at beaches.
If you have valuable stuff in your backpack
Never carry belongings on your back; it’s like having a sign saying rob me.
Keep your purse or backpack in front and place your hand over it.
9. How To Travel For Free
Nothing is truly for free. Especially traveling, because if you are not paying with your money, you are paying with your time, nerves, or health.
Or somebody else is paying with their car, food, or home for you.
Here are the three main things to travel for free:
- Hitchhike or Walk
- Sleep in a tent or find someone that lets you sleep at their home.
- Find work from time to time, for example, on farms.
It’s definitely not for everyone, but it’s doable if you genuinely want to do it!