Cheap Travel Secrets

There are two ways to save money traveling. The first way is to get the best deals on the specific things you want. There  is a limitation to this type of approach though. If , for example, you find the lowest price on the best hotel in Honolulu at the height of the season, you will save money, but still have a very expensive vacation. Trying to get exactly what you want, or what you think you want, will generally be an expensive proposition, in travel and in life.


Be A Travel Opportunist

The other approach is to be a true opportunist. This will be difficult for some of you, and entirely unacceptable to others. Nonetheless, the travelers who get to travel the most, go to the widest variety of places, learn the most and do the most, are the opportunists. This will be true until you are so wealthy that you have no monetary limits.

The first time I went to Ecuador, I went there because it was cheap. If it wasn't, I would have had a great time - somewhere else. The trip lasted a month, and cost $1045, which included airfare and even the $130 fee for a guide to take me to the top of glacier-covered Mount Chimborazo.

I cut the cost by taking a bus from my home in Michigan to Miami, and back again when I returned from Ecuador. The round-trip ticket cost $158. The round-trip flight to Quito from Miami was only $256, because it was a courier flight, which meant I signed for some luggage (car parts), and could only take carry-on luggage.

Never did I feel deprived, or bored. I had a great time, eating wherever it was cheap and clean, doing all sorts of inexpensive, but interesting things, and traveling across the country to climb Chimborazo.

How To Become An Opportunist Traveler

Can you drink rum at a dollar per bottle, instead of your favorite beer? Can you eat chicken instead of steak? How about visiting the free sights first, and dancing in the street festival instead of the disco?

Being an opportunist means you'll have just as much variety, and probably almost everything you want - eventually. You just have to stop trying to get exactly what you want exactly when you want it. If the guide that took me up Chimborazo hadn't dropped his price from $200 to $130, I would have spent $2 for a bus and gone hiking on El Altar, another great Andean mountain. That would have left me with enough money for several other minor adventures.

More Secrets Of Cheap Travel

Plane Tickets: I were planning a trip to visit family in Ecuador. The cheapest airfare from Traverse City, Michigan to Quito, was $1720. Out of curiosity, I checked Miami to Quito, and it was only $404. Airfare from Traverse City to Miami was $300. Book two separate flights and save more than $2000! The discount sites aren't set up to search in this way (yet), so you have to do this on your own. By the way, the whole six-week trip, which we took in 2004, cost $2400, including losing $100, and being robbed of
$174.


Food: Whether traveling here or in other countries, it is usually cheaper to buy some healthy snacks in a
grocery store, rather than eat every meal in a restaurant. When you do eat in restaurants, it can be cheaper to to order individual items on the menu from the list of appetizers or side dishes. You also may get more variety in that way.

Accomodations: For a long trip, you may want to rent an apartment in an interesting city. We did this for two months in Tucson, for about $600 less per month, compared to even the cheaper motels. Watch for hotel coupon-books in gas stations. The coupons will often save you $10 on a room you would have stayed in anyhow. If you have a conversion van or RV, you can camp a couple nights a week, like we do, to save
on motels. We love the hotsprings we've stayed at, for a $3 fee to the BLM, instead of $40 for the cheapest motel in the area.

Travel Expenses: Do more and travel less. It is often the traveling part that costs the most, due to the cost of gas, convenient fast food, and expensive hotels you are forced to pay for when you just can't drive any further. So if you find a place with a reasonable motel, and a lot to do in the area - stay for a while!

Are you a Traveler?

I’m making an assumption that at want point in your life you’ve been a tourist. You’ve carried a map, a camera, maybe even had a tour guide. You’ve traveled to different destinations, relaxed on remote beaches, climbed stairs in buildings you see on television. You’ve done all of these things but some how when you get arrive home, all your left with is a short memory, and a few photographs.


Vacations are nice every once in a while, but it doesn’t make sense to me why we will travel thousands of miles to sit in hotel rooms and watch movies, or lie on a pool deck and catch some rays. These are all things that we can do where we are from, I want you to think about being a traveler not a tourist. You want to soak in as much of the new country and culture that you can rather than bring as much of your culture to them. It’s really quite simple. In one step you need to forget about your way of live, and adopt theirs.

It’s simple things like the mindset that we have when we go abroad, and what we bring. Don’t bring all of the things that we depend on in America. Bring what it is that you are going to need to survive and stay healthy during your visit. The more comforts you have, the more you will depend on them, and the less you will step out to become the traveler you ought to be!


Put yourself out there. Locals are always interested to interact with foreigners, and it’s best to take advantage of this. Meet people that you can share life with while you are in their country. Immerse into their culture and be open to new idea’s. A lot of times we are closed to new idea’s and we miss out on opportunities for better things to come along. Be open, willing and accepting.

If you want to be changed, and to experience you need to leave the tourist at home. Bring out the inner traveler in you and see the world in the way that it was meant to be seen.

Travelling To Spain - The Spanish Regional Travel Guide

Up to 60 million visitors travel to Spain every year to delight in the country’s 315 sunny days and its rich and diverse history and culture. As a result the Spanish government spend millions of Euros per year on the travel and transport infrastructure to service the country’s growing population and its ever growing numbers of visitors.


Therefore Spain has to be one of the easiest and most affordable of the world’s popular destinations in terms of its accessibility - particularly from the UK and Northern America. For example there are cheap flights available from all British airports to main and regional airports across Spain daily and direct flights from the main Spanish hubs to the US daily. As an alternative for British and European travellers there are fantastic countrywide train, coach and ferry links and great access for those who prefer to travel by car.

This article breaks down the main Spanish travel options by region.

Northern Spain – The easiest way to access this region is by plane from one of the main UK airports flying directly to Bilbao or from the US to Malaga with transfer to Bilbao. It’s possible to connect with Iberia flights for connections across the North and throughout Spain. Alsa and Eurolines have sophisticated coach networks and it’s possible to travel all the way across Europe to Bilbao or San Sebastian and then pick up local coaches or rail connections. You can also sail from the UK port of Plymouth to Santander with Brittany Ferries, or you could take the P & O route from Portsmouth to Bilbao.

Castile and La Rioja – The cheapest way to access these regions is possibly to fly to one of the main Spanish hubs – Barcelona, Bilbao or Madrid for example, and then either drive or get connecting flights. You can connect with Iberia for flights to Logrona in La Rioja or Valladolid in Castile. Castile, Rioja and Navarre are serviced by an excellent road network which makes getting around simple and again, Alsa coaches will connect you with major and minor destinations across the regions and the entire country.

Aragon, Navarre and the Pyrenees – As these regions are easily accessible by car or coach from Madrid it may be best to get a cheap flight to Madrid and then drive the E90 to the heart of the region. You could consider getting a connecting flight to Zaragoza in the middle of the region which is a good jumping off point for explorations in this stunning part of Spain. Alternatively access to this region can be made by rail or coach. Eurolines coaches will connect you with Pamplona or Zaragoza; Eurostar rail will take you from the UK to Paris and from Paris you can catch an overnight high speed rail link to Madrid…from Madrid the options are varied, from local rail and coach connections, car hire, and local flight connections with Iberia.

Costa Brava and Costa Dorada – As we move east to the beautiful Northern Catalonian coastal regions of the Costa Brava and Costa Dorada, so accessibility increases. Barcelona airport is the main airport for these regions and it welcomes cheap UK and US flights. You can then connect to Girona in the Costa Brava region or Reus in the Costa Dorada region. Barcelona itself has an underground train network for access throughout the city, and if you want to travel further afield the Spanish rail service RENFE has many mainline and local services servicing both regions. The main coastal road in Costa Brava is the A7, with the A2 taking you west away from Barcelona and the C32 taking you south from Barcelona into the Costa Dorada. Barcelona has a port with ferry services to Genoa, Rome, Mallorca, Menorca and Ibiza.


Central Spain and Madrid – Central Spain’s main airport is Madrid and it welcomes direct flights from all the major UK and US airports and some of the smaller ones as well. As Madrid is such a major city you can imagine it acts as an important travel hub for the whole of Spain. Coach and rail networks and main auto routes all radiate from the city. Madrid has two main stations with trains departing for regional and international destinations, and the city has an underground metro system as well.

Costa del Azahar – The main travel hub of this region is Valencia with the city’s airport enjoying direct UK flights. To access the rest of the region you can take advantage of the RENFE services from Valencia or enjoy the city via the FGV trams and underground trains. If you want to travel from the coast to Madrid take the N430 and A3; to explore the coast take the A7. Again, Eurolines coaches operate connections to towns and cities in this region including Valencia, Sagunt and Vinaros. And last but not least, Valencia is a port city and has ferries running across the Mediterranean with destinations including Malta, Ibiza, Italy etc.

Costa Blanca – Most visitors for this region enter via Alicante airport. With the Costa Brava well serviced by roads and Alicante airport offering great car hire opportunities many people prefer to access the rest of the region by road, though RENFE, Eurolines and Alsa offer excellent rail and coach alternatives.

Costa Calida – Murcia is the main airport for this region, though Alicante airport is also accessible affording visitors and residents an extra opportunity and advantage. From Murcia there are a number of major train services including direct links to Madrid. In terms of roads, again the Costa Calida is a region with an excellent network of major roads and routes: the N340 runs from Alicante through Murcia to the Costa del Sol, the A7 hugs the coast and local, national and international coach lines service the area. In the port town of Cartagena a passenger terminal was built in 2003 which now serves as a destination for some of the major cruise liners on their way to and from destinations around France, Greece and the Black Sea Coast.

Costa de Almeria – You’re spoilt for choice when it comes to airports serving this region, you can fly to Alicante or Murcia and travel by road or rail into the region or you can fly direct to Almeria airport. The cheapest flights are often to Alicante. RENFE have mainline train services from Almeria to the city of Granada, Eurolines, Alsa and Enatcar all offer coach services across Costa de Almeria. The major routes in the region are the N340 which runs from Costa Calida through the town of Almeria and on south to the Costa del Sol, the A92 which connects with Granada and the A348 which connects Almeria with the Alpujarras. In terms of sea access, Transmediterranea have ferries from the port of Almeria to Northern Africa.

Costa del Sol and Andalucia – If you can’t get a flight to this region of Spain you must be doing something wrong – or maybe just hoping to travel during peak season! The main airport is Malaga and nearly every single airline you can think of flies from almost every single UK and US airport you can think of! If you can’t get a flight and you’re in the UK you might consider driving to the Costa del Sol! In which case your best bet would be to sail from Plymouth to Santander or from Portsmouth to Bilbao and then travel the 900 or so kilometres south. If you start off in Bilbao you’ll need the A68 and A1 to Burgos, or from Santander take the N623 to Burgos – then from Burgos travel via the N1 to Madrid. From Madrid head to Granada, from Granada head for Malaga…phew! Alternatively get a Euroline coach all the way from the UK to Estepona or Malaga or travel from Paris on the fast night train to Madrid and connect with the AVE fast train to Cordoba which in turn connects up with regional Costa del Sol services.

Costa de la Luz and Gibraltar – You can either fly to Gibraltar or Jerez in the region or make use of the many cheap flights to Spain that land in Malaga. There are ferry services between Tarifa and Algeciras in Spain and Tangiers in Morocco, bus and rail services across Europe and through Spain to the Costa de la Luz and strong road links with the E15 serving Gibraltar from the mainland.

Whatever your final destination you should be able to find cheap flights to some of Spain’s main airports and then use local and regional travel services to access your destination of choice; as I hope I’ve shown, the whole of Spain is incredibly easily accessible.