| There are two ways to save money traveling. | | | | bus and gone hiking on El Altar, another great |
| The first way is to get the best deals on the | | | | Andean mountain. That would have left me with |
| specific things you want. There is a limitation to | | | | enough money for several other minor |
| this type of approach though. If , for example, | | | | adventures.More Secrets Of Cheap TravelPlane |
| you find the lowest price on the best hotel in | | | | Tickets: My wife and I were planning a trip to visit |
| Honolulu at the height of the season, you will save | | | | family in Ecuador. The cheapest airfare from |
| money, but still have a very expensive vacation. | | | | Traverse City, Michigan to Quito, was $1720. Out |
| Trying to get exactly what you want, or what | | | | of curiosity, I checked Miami to Quito, and it was |
| you think you want, will generally be an expensive | | | | only $404. Airfare from Traverse City to Miami |
| proposition, in travel and in life.Be A Travel | | | | was $300. Book two separate flights and save |
| OpportunistThe other approach is to be a true | | | | more than $2000! The discount sites aren't set up |
| opportunist. This will be difficult for some of you, | | | | to search in this way (yet), so you have to do |
| and entirely unacceptable to others. Nonetheless, | | | | this on your own. By the way, the whole |
| the travelers who get to travel the most, go to | | | | six-week trip, which we took in 2004, cost |
| the widest variety of places, learn the most and | | | | $2400, including losing $100, and being robbed of |
| do the most, are the opportunists. This will be | | | | $174.Food: Whether traveling here or in other |
| true until you are so wealthy that you have no | | | | countries, it is usually cheaper to buy some |
| monetary limits.The first time I went to Ecuador, | | | | healthy snacks in a grocery store, rather than eat |
| I went there because it was cheap. If it wasn't, I | | | | every meal in a restaurant. When you do eat in |
| would have had a great time - somewhere else. | | | | restaurants, it can be cheaper to to order |
| The trip lasted a month, and cost $1045, which | | | | individual items on the menu from the list of |
| included airfare and even the $130 fee for a guide | | | | appetizers or side dishes. You also may get more |
| to take me to the top of glacier-covered Mount | | | | variety in that way.Accomodations: For a long trip, |
| Chimborazo.I cut the cost by taking a bus from | | | | you may want to rent an apartment in an |
| my home in Michigan to Miami, and back again | | | | interesting city. We did this for two months in |
| when I returned from Ecuador. The round-trip | | | | Tucson, for about $600 less per month, |
| ticket cost $158. The round-trip flight to Quito | | | | compared to even the cheaper motels. Watch for |
| from Miami was only $256, because it was a | | | | hotel coupon-books in gas stations. The coupons |
| courier flight, which meant I signed for some | | | | will often save you $10 on a room you would |
| luggage (car parts), and could only take carry-on | | | | have stayed in anyhow. If you have a conversion |
| luggage.Never did I feel deprived, or bored. I had | | | | van or RV, you can camp a couple nights a week, |
| a great time, eating wherever it was cheap and | | | | like we do, to save on motels. We love the |
| clean, doing all sorts of inexpensive, but interesting | | | | hotsprings we've stayed at, for a $3 fee to the |
| things, and traveling across the country to climb | | | | BLM, instead of $40 for the cheapest motel in the |
| Chimborazo. I also met and fell in love with my | | | | area.Travel Expenses: Do more and travel less. It |
| wife Ana.How To Become An Opportunistic | | | | is often the traveling part that costs the most, |
| TravelerCan you drink rum at a dollar per bottle, | | | | due to the cost of gas, convenient fast food, and |
| instead of your favorite beer? Can you eat | | | | expensive hotels you are forced to pay for when |
| chicken instead of steak? How about visiting the | | | | you just can't drive any further. So if you find a |
| free sights first, and dancing in the street festival | | | | place with a reasonable motel, and a lot to do in |
| instead of the disco?Being an opportunist means | | | | the area - stay for a while!Steve Gillman first hit |
| you'll have just as much variety, and probably | | | | the road on his own when at sixteen, and |
| almost everything you want - eventually. You just | | | | traveled alone across the United States and |
| have to stop trying to get exactly what you | | | | Mexico at 17. Now 40, he continues to travel and |
| want exactly when you want it. If the guide that | | | | backpack with his wife Ana, whom he met in |
| took me up Chimborazo hadn't dropped his price | | | | Ecuador. |
| from $200 to $130, I would have spent $2 for a | | | | |