I live on a conservative budget but I also travel internationally — four countries in the past year. That’s despite living in a city where international flights are more likely to involve several legs. There’s a lot of time waiting in airports and random locations. It’s a perfect recipe to accrue costs before you’ve even arrived at your destination. A coffee on the way to the airport, a croissant while waiting for departure, a snack box on the plane… you can spend a day’s budget on travel food alone.

That’s why it’s important to consider your budget from every angle and start planning well in advance.

It’s true that traveling with a lower budget can be inconvenient. For example, there was the time my friend and I arrived in Chicago after 8 hours of travel. On a bus. In a snowstorm. At 2 am. With six hours till our flight to Quito, Ecuador. Oh what a night. Thank goodness for the “Open Now” filter on our map app — it guided us to a nearby Dunkin’ Donuts where we waited out the flurries. Yet because of our planning and intentionality around budget, these moments didn’t get us down. They provided a chance to see a part of Chicago we hadn’t seen before. They provided amazing bonding opportunities. And they allowed us the financial freedom to engage in some truly special experiences once we were in Ecuador.

When I travel, I love to honor my own future and try to avoid the consumerist mentality by staying frugal. But how do you do that? It all comes down to how you get there, what you bring there, what you do there, and who you know there. Here are my tips for making travel possible.

My trip budgets

First, a word on budgets. These are inclusive of transportation, lodging, food, stuff purchased ahead of time, and stuff purchased while abroad.

The week-long trip to Banff National Park in Canada cost around $400 per person, not including personal purchases like gifts (I bought less than $50 worth of gifts). That’s $57/day.

A six-week trip to Ecuador and Colombia cost less than $1000. I went to Ecuador with a friend and Colombia on my own. That’s $24/day.

And the four-week solo trip to Spain came in between $1000 and $1500, which included some equipment purchases that I consider long-term travel investments. Without those purchases, the budget would come in around $1000. Using the higher price, that’s $50/day.

Think about it: every trip, every journey, every day of our life happens on a budget. The thing we can control is the size of that budget, and how our spending aligns with our deeper values. That’s why one of my first steps in planning a trip is to decide how much I’m open to spending.

How much do you spend to exist each day in your day-to-day life? How does it compare to what you spend while traveling?

Travel tips

Keep these in mind to stay in line with your budget and financial values while traveling.

How you get there

When my friends and I went to Banff, we drove one of our cars (22 hours one way). We chipped in for gas and took turns driving. Apart from a sleepy and cranky half hour around 4 am when none of us was able to drive, the trip went smoothly. (Recommendation: Don’t rely on your phone’s signal for music, since the places you’re traversing might not have good reception.) (Another recommendation: If you are too tired, don’t force it; better to all take some time to sleep until someone’s awake, as we did, than to push forward in a dangerous state.)

Traveling to Ecuador, Colombia and Spain, I used one of the many fabulous flight discount email lists. There are a bunch out there, but I use Scott’s Cheap Flights.

Scott’s Cheap Flights has a free version, which is where my friend saw the tickets for Ecuador. For a low fee, you can get access to the premium list, which just means you get more flights emailed to you. I subscribed once I knew I was headed to Spain. Choose your departing airports and the regions you want to travel to. Our Ecuador tickets were half-price and my Spain tickets cost less than half the typical amount. Just know that you will need to be ready to jump on a deal when you see it, or watch the list for a while to see which deals are likely to recur. You may encounter limitations on which days you can travel, or how long the trip can me. My trip to Spain was one month because the deal didn’t allow for a longer duration.

Sometimes the cheaper flights depart from a non-local airport. I’ve used Megabus and low-cost flights to reach those airports rather than pay the higher price from my home terminal.

What you bring there

You’ll see posts listing the perfect wicking shirt, travel dresses, eye masks, and things with hidden pockets. Here’s the honest truth: you don’t need most of that. To cut down on commercially-motivated bloat and spending, think instead about the functions you want to fill. Amass items that serve multiple purposes. Decide which items will bring you the most joy and prioritize your budget on those.

Finding cheap, useful gear can take time. I have a running list of travel gear that I want. In advance of a trip, I scope out garage sales, Craigslist and Goodwill. I only recommend this if you actually enjoy budget shopping. But, honestly, it doesn’t take that long to do a 10-minute scope of the Goodwill on your way home once a month. Many travel and outdoors stores also have annual sales.

Consider the costs of items at your destination. Ecuador and Colombia have markets with cheap clothes and supplies. Spain has Decathlon, the discount sporting goods store I’m obsessed with (visited it three times in the four weeks). I love checking out local markets and seeing what’s different and the same compared to my home region. One of the things people often seem surprised by, that I now emphasize: people live their lives in the places we travel! They buy things, wear clothes, have hair that they wash, get cold sometimes, have headaches that they treat with medicine, etc. You will most likely be able to find what you need at your destination. (Do look into this — some things, like technology, may be more expensive or harder to find.)

That said, planning ahead can save you time and money.

Where I save

Here are a few substitutions to save money, double up on uses and decrease the weight you carry:

• Instead of an eye mask: a wide headband that can be pulled down over your eyes
• Instead of a travel pillow: a sweatshirt (I usually want to take it off once I’m on a plane or bus anyway)
• Instead of fancy travel socks: just regular socks, dude, come on
• Instead of that wicking quik-dry shirt: a spandex shirt that you bought for $7 at Target or Goodwill (if the purpose is that it dries quickly you can definitely get that for less than the $30-90 at your local outdoor recreation store)
• Instead of a high-tech secret pouch for your passport and wallet: stick those in your bra or sock; sew a secret pocket into your leggings; buy $12 leggings that already have a secret pocket, or even the more expensive underwear with pocket; bring outerwear that includes an interior pocket
• Instead of a dedicated travel clothesline: paracord
• Instead of a $50 travel handbag: find a bag that has the key features of a cover or lid, locking mechanism or ability to turn the opening toward your body while carrying; or just be careful with your stuff, remembering that most people in the places you visit carry regular handbags and they do just fine
• Instead of a fancy backpack: … a non-fancy one. May help make you less of a mark for theft, too

Where I spend

Here are the things I did spend more on:

• Hiking backpack
• Hiking boots
• One pair of compression socks that double as hiking socks and also look stylin 😉
• Travel infinity scarf with hidden pocket (this does quadruple duty as a way to dress up an outfit, a pillow, eye covering, and a way to stay warm)
• Packing cubes (held off on these for a while, but they really bring me so much joy whenever I pack and unpack)
• Good phone that has a fantastic camera (that way I don’t have to get a second camera)
• Portable power bank to charge my phone
• Silk sleep sack that repels bed bugs
• Travel health insurance

What you do there

This has to do with lodging as well as the food, activities, and travel you undertake at the destination.

Lodging

Consider the surrounding environment. You may get a great deal by staying outside the namebrand centers. In Banff, we found an Airbnb 40 minutes away from the actual town of Banff. The small town of Golden had beautiful scenery, fun restaurants, and its own small hiking and adventure scene. It wasn’t too inconvenient to drive into the Banff area for more well-known attractions. Just took a little more planning, which was definitely worth it given the money we saved.

When it comes to choosing the accommodation, flexibility goes a long way. I’ve only stayed in hotels a few times. At least in the countries I’ve been to recently, the hostel and Airbnb scenes are thriving. Companies like Booking.com are standardizing offerings and ensuring their listings fit the descriptions online. The key to success in this area is to check reviews thoroughly.

In Spain, hostel stays in dorms cost $15-20 per night near the City Center of Madrid. The inns along the Camino cost $5-15 per night. Hostels in Colombia ranged from $5-15 for a dorm room. In Ecuador, we paid closer to $50 per night for a stay in an upscale hostel in the mountainous paramo — and planned the rest of the trip accordingly to manage the impact on the budget.

If a scan of these accommodations on a booking website leads you decide they’re not right for you, then look at higher price levels. You might still find they’re more reasonable than you think. When doing this research, try to gauge prices using local comparisons — don’t start out with your country’s local pricing as a benchmark for quality.

Food

It’s an easy equation to understand. If you eat out, you tend to spend more. If you eat at restaurants that are branded in a familiar way to the ones you see in big cities in more developed countries, you’ll also spend more. So if you want to spend less, find places off the beaten path and save the expensive meals for a special occasion.

Be intentional with your snacks, as well, and do some research on what foods you can purchase and eat on-the-go without getting sick. In areas where the water may cause some digestive distress, fruits that you peel are a great option.

Consider buying food to prepare yourself. Local grocery stores and markets are fun to explore and are usually priced very reasonably. The key to making this work is to stay at places with kitchens. In Banff, we made an early stop at a grocery store for eggs, meat, rice, greens, fruit, OJ, and other staples. We ate well!

On the way to Ecuador, we saved money in transit by bringing food. My friend and I both showed up for our flight with packets of tuna. She brought along a bag of rice and dried seaweed, all of which we mixed together when we had a spare moment and a bit of hunger. I personally like to bring a chunk of bread, some cheese, apples, avocados, and a small tin of olive oil when I travel. And I’ve adopted the seaweed approach — what a great way to add some umami and depth to savory dishes.

Activities

Sometimes you just really want to go to that expensive museum! Sometimes you want to see the same theater show five times! (Okay, that never happens to me, but whatever…) You want to zip line and take bus tours and ride horses! It’s okay! Just recognize that there are things you can do which will cost more, and other things that cost less. Consider making a list of the things you know you want to do, and where. Then check the costs.

These tend to cost more: famous attractions, things that are listed in guidebooks, places with extra amenities, experiences provided a language that isn’t that place’s main language, places that incorporate non-native stuff (think, like, a ski hill in a warm climate), things you arrange before the trip, basically anything that people who hear you’re going on a trip will tend to bring up. Had you heard of it before starting to plan? Then assume it probably costs a bit more.

These cost less: less famous attractions, places local people spend time, free events, self-guided tours, things provided in the local language, things you coordinate while there, free events, walking around

For English speakers in a country where English isn’t the main language, try to avoid booking aimed primarily at English speakers. For example, if you want to book a jungle tour in Ecuador, you will soon find that the companies with websites in English tend to charge more than the companies that simply have a storefront in a town adjacent to the jungle. Consider what you can arrange when you’re in the country itself, when you will have access to multiple alternatives for a given activity, and when you can talk with local people (hotel or hostel staff are great) about where to find good deals.

The costs of daily life also add up. Rather than do all my grooming before I leave, I now plan to get some services abroad. Haircuts are cheaper in the places I’ve been traveling, as are manicures. These days I do a treatment with henna before I leave, and save the cut for when I’m in the country.

Travel

Most of us don’t just travel to one place and stay there. We visit different cities, sometimes different countries, all in a short amount of time. You may spend significant time and resources to get from place. By plannning ahead and organizing your time efficiently, you can save tens to hundreds of dollars.

The biggest way to save is to research your travel in advance. Find out which amenities are available, what they cost, and how much they matter to you. For example, in Spain, I didn’t see much difference between the various forms of long-distance transportation. It came down to price, scheduling and whether you preferred the flexibility of being able to stand up and walk around on a train.

Timing matters. In Spain, interstate train and bus tickets rise in price as the travel date gets closer. Availability will be better, too. Once you figure out how you’d like to travel, see if the company has a website with prices and dates. If I were going back to Spain, I would buy my train tickets online right after booking my flight.

Once I know my origin and departure points in a country, I get onto Google or the Lonely Planet Thorn Tree forums to find posts written by people who traveled the same stretch. I always look at several sources. These are more important when official information is hard to come by online.

When I traveled from Ecuador to Colombia on my own, I relied primarily on accounts from other travelers. Here’s a thread on the Ipiales/Tulcan border crossing. As people cross, they return to the thread and share their experience so other travelers have the most recent information.

My host family had information about how to start the journey via bus, but they didn’t have recent experience with the border. I’m grateful to my host mom for boarding the bus alongside me and scoping it out in the most motherly fashion, but after she got off and the bus left the station, I was on my own — just me and the accounts of other travelers.

About your safety

Never compromise on security. In some areas, there is strong guidance around when to travel and how. Certain stretches of road are not safe at night because of road design or the chance of robbery. Some bus companies pick up new passengers along the side of the road, which raises the possibility of robbery. I planned the timing of bus trips carefully to ensure I was in a secure place during the times of day when crime was most likely to occur. And I did research to find out which bus companies were the most secure.

Consider your tradeoffs: How long will each transportation option take? Can you walk or take public transit? Will you limit your more costly trips to a certain number per day or per trip? What are the risks with each method? Sometimes you will risk being late for an event. Other times you risk missing a flight. In rare cases you will risk bodily harm. Be sure to know what the risks are and how to address them. In one city, I was careful to use only the modes of transportation my hostel recommended. However, when I made a local friend, my options expanded since he knew how to navigate the area.

You likely have more choices than “Pay a lot” or “Be unsafe.” Ask around, know where you’re willing to flex, and no matter how you travel, always stay alert and aware of your surroundings. There is no 100% safe place — not even the place you come from.

Who you know there

When I looked over my Ecuador and Colombia budget, I was shocked. How could it come in under $30 per day? Then I remembered the 2+ weeks I spent funding little to none of my daily life. This wasn’t a scam or the result of dire straits. It was the result of the best part of traveling, possibly, when you think about it — the people we knew.

When we started planning the Latin American trip I actually freaked out a bit because I hadn’t had good experiences traveling solo. I wondered if I’d feel lonely, adrift, tetherless. So I reached out to everyone I could find in the areas covered on the itinerary. As a result, I got to stay with a former host family, a cousin, and a friend! I honestly love staying with friends and family because it gives a different window into the place. I didn’t realize it until writing this piece, but staying with local friends has been a cornerstone of nearly every international trip I’ve taken.

Even when I took a train to Kolkata, India, by myself, I ran into a family I knew (which is completely mindboggling because there are literally two families I know in that city) and staying with them for a week. (This was back in 2009, so I haven’t included the budget details elsewhere in this post.) In Banff, four of us stayed together in an Airbnb. In Colombia, I met new friends at a hostel and we did some activities together, from pooling money to take a dance lesson to going on a hike. None of these were purely financially-motivated, but the reality of cost savings does exist here.

Whether rooming with a travel buddy or building relationships with local friends, consider how you can honor the people who offer time, company and insights. Bring small gifts along for people you meet along the way. If you know who you’ll be staying with, consider bringing bigger gifts. It was such a joy to leave a piece of Minnesota culture with our host family in Ecuador.

This is a dimension that’s harder to control, but you can still take opportunities to build relationships where you find them.

Do you consider travel to be a solo endeavor or do you look for ways to connect with people as you go?

Final notes

Where’s the spreadsheet?

You don’t see any day-by-day budgets or spreadsheets in this post. That’s because I don’t keep spreadsheets while traveling. My planning comes on the front end, where I do block out a budget and make sure I understand what needs to happen to stay within it. From there, I make decisions according to those principles. This is partly a time-saving measure. My non-travel spending gets saved automatically into a budgeting app, but travel transactions are so often cash-based. As long as I’m staying basically in budget, I don’t find value in spending the time to tally up those cash transactions. If you would find value in seeing my pre-trip spreadsheet, let me know!

Traveling with others is a different story and we have typically done pretty detailed tracking in those cases. When I traveled with three other peole, we kept our receipts and created a huge spreadsheet to tally everything up, then split it out. When I traveled with my friend to Ecuador, she preferred to pay each other back as soon as possible after each purchase.

If you have traveled and kept a daily record of spending, however, I would love to hear why you find it useful. How do you make it work for you?

Spending money is okay

I do want to make the final observation that when it comes to traveling, money, and our values, often we will find that spending money is a fantastic decision. It’s not always necessary or helpful to bargain to the lowest possible amount. Think about it — you want to travel and see cool places, and support those places so others can see them, too. You want the location that hosts you to thrive! Spending money, if you have it to spend, can be a fantastic way to recognize the value of what you have experienced.

Please do not think that a successful traveler is the one who spends as little as possible. Avoid arguing with vendors and try to reframe the idea that people are trying to take advantage of you. Budget so you can pay what people ask for purchases. If you prefer, find nonprofits, arts institutions, and other organizations where you can donate money. Make sure your impact on the places you travel is as positive as possible.

This post is simply intended to give people options so they can make decisions that align with their resources and values. To be honest, my goal is to some day be able to travel and spend more money — not necessarily on where I stay or what I eat, but strategically, in ways that will support local economies with long-term stability and sustainability.

How do you live and travel according to your values?