Traveling is something that has always been a passion of mine. I think attempting to immerse yourself in another culture and trying to put yourself in situations you would not normally be in is the best way to learn things. Oftentimes people ask me, how do you travel so much? When it comes down to it, it's just about setting aside the time to actually do it. By planning in advance and checking many, many sites, there's always a way for you to find an affordable way to travel.
You always have to think about what you want to do and where you want to go and who you want to go with. Websites such as Kayak and Airbnb make traveling really easy to plan and also very cost effective. Kayak is a website that automatically sorts through every other airline website and shows you the best prices. Google Flights is also an amazing website for this as they also show you the prices of flights on the days surrounding your preferred days of travel. This makes it easier to see if you can save money by switching up the days that you are flying. Airbnb is a favorite of mine and is where people rent out their home or a room to travelers. This gives you the option of interacting with the hosts and they give you great ideas about where to go and what to see.
My friend and I went to Ireland in January 2016. We bought the plane tickets in July 2015 due to the fact that it was so cheap and then in the following six months made a list of all the places we want to go in the things you want to see. We then figured out where our lists overlapped and used Google Maps to plan the most efficient route for our road trip. We ended up covering over 1,200 miles of Ireland in 9 days. We had the pleasure of staying on an actual sheep farm while in Ireland through this site and that was definitely a highlight of our trip. We realized the plane tickets were probably such a steal due to the fact that this was prime flood season in Ireland. This made for a very eventful and often detoured tour of Ireland, but an otherwise unforgettable trip. I've learned so much by traveling and by meeting other people from different cultures and different places and I know that I never would've had that experience if I did not put myself out there.
I did a college tour right after graduation to Italy and Greece. It was the busiest 14 days of my life, but I would not change it for the world. I had the ability to go to all of these places and see all of these things and though the schedule was very fast-paced I know I would not have done it on my own. This option of going with a guided tour is a great choice for people who do not speak the native language of the country they are going to. These tours also create schedules for you that would be otherwise difficult to plan. We were able to go to the Coliseum, the Roman Forum, Vatican City, and the Pantheon all in one day. I can only speak for myself here, but I know I would not have had the patience or the knack to plan all of those times accordingly.
Europe has always been a dream of mine, but there are also a ton of beautiful and amazing sights to see here in North America, and all over the world. Affordable is a very relative term to different people and that’s why traveling means many different things to many different people. I am a huge fan of road trips as this can sometimes be the most cost effective way to travel. Simply taking to time to go visit your friend that moved three states away after college can be an adventure. It’s about expanding your circle and seeing that there are ways of living other than your own.
