Do you want to know our secret on ways to travel the world for FREE?
If you are a traveler, you certainly know that traveling can be far too expensive. The good news is that there are ways out there to travel cheaper and longer. You may even end up traveling for free!
All you need to do is to challenge your comfort zone and think outside of the box. Even better, be outside the box or as I prefer to say, get rid of it! You need to play your cards right in order to be able to travel more and avoid paying too much.
Here are the 3 smart ways you can travel the world cheap or for free.
#1 SAVINGS
Are you tired of people saying you can’t save money if you don’t earn a ton? It doesn’t matter how much you make. The only thing to consider for money-saving is to spend less than your income.
These are some easy ways to increase your income:
1. Do you love animals? Be a puppy-sitter and earn some extras.
2. Find part time jobs.
3. Consider freelancing
After getting or increasing your income, count your monthly earnings and cut down your expenses. It’s important to write down every single penny you spend to avoid unnecessary costs. Mint is an app to help you monitor your income and outcome.
These are some expenses you could limit:
• Accommodation:
– Find a roommate. Fewer expenses and more fun!
– Join AirBnB and rent your apartment or a room for a couple of weekends per month.
– Bargain for better deals for your phone, mobile, internet contracts, etc.
• Transportation:
– Use public transportation to avoid expensive taxis and gas for your car or motorcycle.
– Buy a monthly ticket for public transportation.
– Try services such as Uber.
• Entertainment:
– What about home parties or gatherings with friends?
– Do it like a student! Have pre-drinks at home before a night out to spend less.
– Avoid costly events, festivals and parties.
• Food and grocery shopping:
– It’s time for you to learn how to cook!
– Avoid eating out. Search for Super Market deals.
#2 BUDGET TRAVELING
Learn how to manage your travel budget and create the perfect long-lasting travel experiences. Discover some cool tips and hacks to improve this skill and make saving cash a breeze. These tips will help you spend less for your airfare, accommodation, transportation and activities.
1. Do it like a local
Don’t treat yourself as a tourist if you are not willing to spend all your savings. Touristy areas tend to be way more expensive when it comes to your stay, food, drinks or activities.
There are websites and apps out there ready to help you create a real local experience. Couchsurfing is an excellent way to meet locals. Stay with them or let them guide you to explore insights into the local culture.
Instead of entering touristy restaurants, go to local pubs and join happy hours, local fairs or festivals. Look for bargains and shop from local markets.
See Also: The Top 6 Travel Locations for Single Men 2016
2. Passes and Discounts
So many offers and discounts are in front of us when traveling, but we tend to avoid them. Even if you are not able to find any, use your negotiation skills.
Check out discount stores. Many of them sell all kinds of tickets at a discount, passes, gift cards, etc. Visit a tourist information point even if you don’t consider yourself as a tourist. You can find discounts, free maps, and free events to join, so why not.
Use museum passes. Many of them will pay for themselves, and you will be able to keep coming back, or visit other sights that might otherwise not be worth the expense.
Additionally, make sure to negotiate deals. You can get great discounts when personally contacting an airline, a hotel, a rental, etc.
3. Group Traveling
Traveling alone isn’t a wise thing to do if you want to travel cheap. If you’re a solo traveler, find or form a group of people who are traveling the same destinations as you.
Case in point, reserving a hotel is not solo travel-friendly. Lots of hotels charge supplements for single travelers; single rooms tend to be quite basic and stripped down. Double rooms are cheaper and quad rooms are only a little more expensive than the double ones.
On the other hand, group discounts are literally everywhere! Whether that’s a tour, train tickets, a festival, etc., most service providers are willing to give over 10% discounts for small groups.
Do things as a group, even if you are a solo traveler. You’ll be surprised with the offers you can get for a group booking or the money you save when sharing your hotel room or getting group tickets. Check out Lifeky to organize a group travel and find travel buddies.
4. Avoid travel agents and touristy finding services
Go direct to the source to get an offer for the best accommodation. Agents charge fees and mostly offer high-priced rooms without discounts.
Use guidebooks. They are easy to find online for many services you might need when traveling.
See Also: 5 Common Travel Fears and How to Overcome Them
5. Services provided by nonprofessionals
More or less, we are all familiar with the sharing economy solutions and services provided by nonprofessionals. There are several websites, platforms and even blogs out there providing these kinds of services and most of the time, they are great value for money deals.
Do your research! Apart from the ones we’ve mentioned already, there are several local nonprofessional services out there.
#3 FREELANCING
Providing online freelancing services as a way to fund your travels is a very good idea for two reasons:
- Be your own boss. You can work whenever and for as many hours as you wish, from any place around the globe. All you need is your laptop and some creativity.
- Sell value, not time. A significant part to consider is that you need a job that brings in income without the need to spend hours and hours of work, as your primary occupation is to travel.
To succeed as a freelancer and generate revenue you need to follow a couple of rules:
- Create real value based on your skills and expertise, not your time.
- Commit to your job as you would do if you were Amazon’s CEO or at least as a small business owner.
Does it sound too stressful? Don’t worry! You don’t need an MBA at Stanford to profit as a freelancer. What you need to do is to feel and act like a professional and spend some time to answer these questions:
- Product – What kind of services are you willing to produce?
- Clients – Who would purchase your services?
- Distribution Channels – How will you reach your customers?
- Metrics and Automation – How will you fasten your work and count your results?
- Brand name – What do your clients have to say about you?
- Costumer experience – How will your customers be tremendously satisfied?
To answer the questions, follow the steps below.
STEP 1: List your skills!
Don’t miss out any of them! People tend to skip qualifications they believe are too obvious or not valuable enough. You will probably skip a skill you think isn’t useful enough or too noticeable. For example, you might be relationship advisor expert or you have skills in interpreting dreams. You will be surprised at how many services you’ll come up with.
STEP 2: List skills you could acquire easily.
Learn and list skills close to your field of knowledge which could be obtained in less than a 20-hour study. It could be a landing page design, basic video editing, etc.
STEP 3: Google your skills and potential skills listed and seek out opportunities globally.
Check out freelancing platforms like Fiverr or People Per Hour. Try to identify services in high demand and get inspired!
STEP 4: That’s your product.
Sum up what you have discovered. Combine your skills to provide services in high demand and get clients. No, you don’t need to be a professional designer, developer or an expert in any field to be able to provide services. Come up with the need you could cover in some way better than your clients do themselves. This means higher quality, or faster or cheaper services. For instance, you might be an excellent writer and able to compose great product reviews and in half time. So, that’s your product from now on!
STEP 5: Find your clients and distribution channels.
You can find online freelancing platforms to sell your services. To give you an idea…
- Sell blog posts at Zerys.
- If you are a designer, 99designs is ideal for you.
- For custom projects, visit freelancer.
STEP 6: Start. Test. Automation.
Create 6 to 10 different service offers, start promoting them in 1 to 3 different platforms and find where you gain the most results. Keep the services and channels that fit you the most, and automate them for your time management strategy. For example, if you are a PPT presentation creator, find the highest in demand template and use only this one.
STEP 7: Create your brand.
- Ratings are vital when freelancing. Don’t risk losing them! To get a high rate:
- Reject “problem-creator” clients.
- Refund directly dissatisfied customers.
- Ask testimonials from satisfied customers.
STEP 8: Create a great customer experience.
Customer experience even in big corporations and firms is based on two principles:
- Happy customers come back and suggest your service to others.
- What excites customers the most is an even better experience than the one expected.
Remember, always be kind, enthusiastic and a professional.
#4 ORGANIZE A GROUP TRIP & FUND YOUR TRIP
What about organizing your dream trip for a group? This is one of the ways to travel the world for free.
As an individual, you can be a nonprofessional trip planner and share it with ideal co-travelers. If you feel incapable of organizing your trip, finding friends to join you, and have no budget, use your creativity to:
- Create an amazingly unique plan and convince travel buddies to follow
- Place yourself among top travel pros using a unique selling point
- Fund your trip taking advantage of group booking discounts
All you need to do is follow the steps below:
1. Capture the idea
What kind of trip could you organize? You have a hint about what you would like to plan but it isn’t clarified in your head yet. If you can fit an overall travel experience in within three lines, keep going! You are on the right path, and you can explain your idea to third parties.
2. Create a social trip
Figure out your plan’s details and imagine the overall experience. What’s your secret sauce that would make your idea irresistible?
The magic formula you’ll figure out yourself is that it’s all about social traveling. It’s not about the destination nor the activities. It’s all about people! At the end of the day, it’s whom you live it with that you’ll remember.
That’s why you need to make sure to prioritize the human factor and answer the question “Who would you like to live it with?”. To define the perfect co-travelers, firstly you need to clarify what could bond you. Is it a common interest, hobby or personality? Let your shared values lead you to the answers on what to do and where to go.
3. Bargain for the best deals
What if I told you that you can approach travel service providers, ask for an offer and get a discount that could fund your trip participation? When seeking for a group booking instead of a single booking, you can indeed achieve a lower price and a better deal. Makes sense right?
Providers are willing to give over 10% discount for a group of 10-15 individuals. Do the math! Don’t hesitate; it’s up to you to find the best deals and reliable providers offering the best “value for money” deals.
All you need to do is start your research, make some phone calls, write emails and there you are. When best offers are on table, you can choose the most valuable.
4. The presentation. Where to say what and how?
The first thing to consider is which channel to choose. A self-created website, world of mouth, or social media? They are all different options. That’s why you need to set some criteria.
The perfect channel is the one that will lead you to the ideal co-travelers. Make sure to reach them. The most tested channels are found online. My suggestion? Keep it digital! This is how you can ensure your message will be heard and gain supporters. You should even consider the viral effect.
Secondly, what are you going to say via the selected channel? The best way to show people they can trust and like you is to represent yourself. Tell them your story, be honest, and let them know what makes you a great trip organizer.
What travel experience do you have to offer? You don’t need to focus on scheduling the trip day after day; that would make you a tour operator. Share a flexible travel plan full of creative ideas and inspiration. Keep in mind the sequence: Who. What. Where. Last but not least, present your offers and what your negotiation skills have achieved.
You’ve got it so far but do not know how to make your presentation outstanding. I have some tips for you
- A catchy title will attract more potential co-travelers. Ways to travel the world for free (or at least, much more cheaply than you’d expect) is already a catchy idea.
- Make it interactive. Use videos and photos for each topic explained above. They will make you presentation appealing, and you’ll gain attention. Additionally, they are easy to share!
- Add some fun. A funny story and some humor are more likely to bring attention and make you likable. Keep your content updated.
5. How to sell it
You have a great plan and presentation, but are you going to fulfill your travel desire if you are not able to find co-travelers? Gain specifically targeted traction to reach people you would like to join.
Lucky you, the web provides ways and tools to find, approach and engage like-minded people. I would like to share some excellent tips, even top marketers all around the world use:
– Uniqueness. One-up what “competition” offers and be unique.
– Social Media. Share the plan on your Social Media and ask your online circle of friends to share.
– Create real value. That could happen through a blog post. Are you a blogger? Perfect, but even if you are not, consider guest blogging in targeted media.
– Let Google find it. You could spend mere $10 on Google AdWords and gain targeted followers and potential co-travelers.
– Communities. Even if you are not willing to pay anything, the magic tool called “Social Media” is an awesome way to find travel buddies. Exclusive travel apps or mass social networks are both perfect. Find targeted Facebook groups, or Google Plus communities, join and share your plan. Get them involved, ask for their feedback!
– #Hashtagtime. Use hashtags that match your idea on Twitter, Instagram, etc. People you are looking for — people who are also looking for ways to travel the world for free — will search for you through them. Even consider creating your own hashtag to describe your idea.
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