Without a doubt the most expensive part about travelling around the world is the accommodation. Just about every other part of the travelling process has some easy workaround to cut down on costs, but there’s no way of getting around the fact that you will need somewhere dry, warm, and safe to sleep every single night.
Fortunately, the costs of accommodation can be lowered significantly for the traveller that knows how to budget properly and who isn’t afraid of making a few sacrifices here and there.
Staying at Hostels
Hostels remain one of the cheapest ways to get a hold of a warm and safe place to sleep for an extremely affordable price. Also commonly known as backpackers, a hostel generally offers a dormitory-style room with many bunk beds with amenities that you will often have to share with a number of people. It might not always be ideal, and there are plenty of challenges that come with this kind of travelling, but it does come at a much more affordable price. It also means that you don’t have to worry about having to sleep on the streets if you find yourself in a financial position where you can’t afford the costs of a hotel room.
Couch Surfing
Couch surfing is the act of sleeping on the couches of people as you travel across the country. There are a lot of ways of going about this, and there are even online services that are dedicated to ensuring that the person providing said couch is offering a safe place to sleep.
While the idea behind this is to have a place to crash often at no cost, many travellers might offer their skills or a bit of labour as a way of paying back the favour of letting them have a place to sleep. It won’t work for every traveller, but if you find yourself in a bind with nowhere else to go and very little money in your pocket, couch surfing remains a viable option.
Work Exchange Programs
Like various wagering sizes in mobile pokies in NZ, these come in a number of shapes and sizes, but the general idea is that you provide skills, labour, and time in exchange for a safe place to sleep. Sometimes a work exchange will even come with three square meals a day, and if you’re particularly lucky, you might even make some money on the side.
It has become one of the very best ways to travel the world on a budget, and it can often mean working on a permaculture farm or staying in a hostel in some of the best cities across the planet. Combine this with cheap meals and public transportation and it can prove to be an extremely affordable way to get around a country while also experiencing much of that country’s food, culture, and language.
Workaway and WWOOF are two of the biggest names in the work exchange scene right now.