A few people have asked how we can travel being so broke. Ok,
we aren’t super broke. The bills get paid, and we have a little left over
sometimes for little luxuries like movies and dinner out, but we save our
pennies for trips, and here’s how we afford them:
1)
Airbnb.com. One of the biggest expenses of
traveling is lodging, and this has been our life saver. This is how we stayed
in the Outer Banks, NYC, and Boston. Basically people with extra space in their
house rent it out for super cheap. Our place in the Outer Banks was a legitimate
bed and breakfast, but our place in NYC was literally a bedroom and bathroom in
the apartment of 2 guys who just needed the extra income to pay rent, and our
place in Boston was a floor of a house a single lady rents that we split with 3
of my classmates who also attended the AAPA conference in Boston. There’s all
kinds of options on there, and we highly recommend it. It's safe, you make a profile so hosts can screen you, the hosts have profiles and reviews (we don't stay places with <5-10ish reviews), etc. Also, we don't travel to sit in our room. We travel to see wherever we're going! So our standards is somewhere clean and safe to sleep and shower.
2)
Eating is a big part of our travel experience. We
do splurge on at least one great meal a day. But we don’t eat out breakfast,
lunch, and dinner every single day. Typically we just buy a bag of bagels and
some fruit for breakfast to eat wherever we’re staying, have snacks to carry
with us during the day, split lunch, and have an awesome dinner. Also, alcohol
is expensive people. Sure, on one nice dinner I’ll get a glass of wine or if
there’s some interesting local beer, Seth will get something. But if you’re
going to booze it up, just stay home. Being drunk in NYC is the same as being
drunk at home, and you may as well save yourself the expense of going all the
way to NYC.
3)
Honesty, we don’t spend a lot of money when we
go places. We really just like to walk around and eat good food. In NYC, we
made lists of places we wanted to see on different parts of Manhattan, walked
all day to see them, and spent on eating (splurged on ice-skating in Central Park
on Christmas Day. WORTH IT). In the Outer Banks, the beach is free, the
National Seashore (so amazing) is free, the lost colony
of Jamestown is free, I think it was $10 to go up in the Bodie Island lighthouse,
but other then that what did we do? We walked around and ate. Boston was the
same. The things to do in Boston is see all the historical sites and walk the
Freedom Trail. So I guess it depends on what you want to do. Museums cost
money, so usually we forgo those unless there are discounted/free days. We do
our research ahead of time of the places to see and don’t go on guided tours
that cost money. We don’t like to shop, and we take advantage of free
entertainment at our restaurant choices. I guess I would have liked to see a
show on Broadway in NYC or go scuba diving in the Outer Banks, but for our
budget, we still had awesome trips without those things.
4)
Other big expense of traveling: actual
transportation. We drove to the Outer Banks (only 5.5ish hours). To save on
parking and gas, we drove to DC and took a bus to NYC (way more convenient
anyways). We, by some miracle, got round trip tickets from Charlotte, NC to
Boston for $120/each. But a major saver is when we arrive places, we walk. A
LOT. MILES. EVERYWHERE. Subway tickets, gas, taxis, etc., add up quickly, and
also you just see more when you walk. You'll discover places you normally wouldn't have and you really experience a place how locals do by just walking around, and that's what we like. Anyways, it helps to have your lodging in
a strategic location to allow for this.
Hope this is helpful for somebody! Our trips are by no means luxurious, but we are seeing and doing lots!
