Scott’s Cheap Flights is one of the biggest and best deal-finding websites on the internet. I check them regularly when I’m on the hunt for a new trip. They are just unmatched in the deals they find (at least for the US market). Its founder, Scott Keyes, recently wrote a book sharing all his insider tips and tricks called Take More Vacations: How to Search Better, Book Cheaper, and Travel the World. (Disclosure: I blurbed it. It’s really good.)

Over the years, Scott and I have become friends because of our mutual love of saving money when we travel. I sat down with him to talk about his book, the secrets to finding cheap flights, and what to expect in a post-COVID world. (While some of his tips are US centric, for those outside the states, there’s still some information here you’ll find useful.)

Nomadic Matt: Tell everyone about yourself. How did you get into this?
Scott: After I graduated college and began working as an underpaid journalist, I realized that my hopes of traveling overseas were entirely dependent on my ability to find cheap flights. I threw myself into the subject, researching and testing and figuring out why airfare behaves the way it does and all the things one can do to get the best possible price on flights.

It all culminated in 2013 when I stumbled upon the best deal I’ve ever personally gotten in my life: nonstop from NYC to Milan for $130 roundtrip. Though I’d had no plans to visit Milan, when I saw that fare it was, of course, a total no-brainer. There’s nowhere in the world I wouldn’t go for $130 roundtrip!

When I got back from that flight, word had spread to my friends and coworkers, and one-by-one they kept coming up to me with the same request: “Hey Scott, next time you find a deal like that, can you let me know so I can get it, too?” By the time the 8th person had asked me, I realized I wasn’t going to be able to remember everyone I needed to let know, so I turned to the simplest solution: start a simple little email list. I had no idea at the time, but in that moment, Scott’s Cheap Flights was born.

Why did you write this book?
There’s this weird conundrum in our lives: we all want to travel more than we actually do.

I figured there could be two possible causes: time and money. Not enough time is certainly the case for many, but I don’t think that’s the case for most people. Turns out more than half of Americans don’t use all their vacation time, and collectively we leave around a billion vacation days unused every year.

Instead, it’s the expense and hassle of booking flights that stymie so many of our travel dreams. And that’s because airfare is the most uniquely torturous thing we buy. The fact that this thing we need in order to travel is so volatile and incomprehensible leads us to overpay for flights or, worse, pass up would-be trips.

Think of it this way: if you had a promo code that made all your future flights just $200 roundtrip, would you travel more than you do today? For most of us, that answer is yes.

In other words, unless you happen to have a trust fund, cheap flights are the key that opens up the world.

Who do you think Take More Vacations will be helpful for?
Anyone who dreams of traveling more than they actually do, and anyone who gets anxious every time they buy tickets because they have no idea how to avoid overpaying.

One of the biggest misconceptions in my world is that cheap flights have to be inconvenient flights. Not true! The flight that led to me starting Scott’s Cheap Flights, for example, was a nonstop United flight I found from New York City to Milan for $130 roundtrip, including two checked bags.

Similarly, another major fallacy is that cheap flights are only for people with complete flexibility. I devoted an entire chapter of Take More Vacations to the subject of flexibility because so often I see travelers unwittingly sacrifice their ability to get cheap flights by telling themselves “I don’t have flexibility.”

Of course, someone with complete flexibility has better your chances of scoring a good deal than someone whose dates and destinations are locked in stone. But one of the costliest mistakes people regularly make is thinking about flexibility as an on/off switch rather than a dimmer switch. “I don’t have flexibility” is a self-imposed trap that will ensure your travel dreams never become more than that. The more flexibility you can find for yourself, the better your odds of getting a cheap flight.

This book isn’t just for 22-year-olds taking a post-graduation trip to Europe. It’s for anyone hoping to travel more and better.

If it’s true that we’ve been living in the Golden Age of Cheap Flights, why do people so many people still overpay for airfare?
First and foremost, it’s because airfare behaves like nothing else we buy. When you buy bagels, the price is essentially the same on any given day, and it mostly depends on how many you buy. But when you buy flights, the price is extraordinarily volatile. The same flight that costs $800 today may cost $300 tomorrow and $1,300 the next day. And the price of a flight bears little relation to how far you travel. It generally costs more to fly from New York to Des Moines than from New York to Barcelona, for instance.

Given the complexity and volatility of airfare, cognitive biases cause us to overpay for flights. For instance, most of us employ loss aversion when we’re booking flights; we fear a $300 increase more than we relish a $300 drop, so we pull the trigger on an expensive flight because we’re worried it’ll get even more expensive.

Recency bias is another one; if the fare stays put for a while, we may pull the trigger because we figure that’s just what the trip costs, without realizing that fare is likely to soon change. There’s also sunk cost fallacy—we get invested in the idea of a specific trip, and despite expensive flights, refuse to consider elsewhere.

And finally, good old procrastination! We put off buying tickets too long and wind up booking flights last minute when they are, invariably, expensive.

Why do you think so many false myths about cheap airfare (buy on Tuesday, clear your cookies, etc) persist when they are so clearly wrong? 

I think it’s because airfare is so confusing. Prices are constantly jumping around, seemingly at random, and sometimes fares seem to make no sense at all, like recently when flights from Pittsburgh to Tokyo were available for $316 roundtrip while a flight from Pittsburgh to Philadelphia cost $312 roundtrip.

That confusion leads people to see patterns that aren’t actually correct or helpful but seem to be a reasonable enough explanation. In the same way, a penny that comes up heads three times in a row isn’t actually “due” for tails on the fourth flip, people make inferences about airfare because it offers some solace for a difficult-to-understand purchase.

And, so even though, as I explain in Chapter 9, it’s not the case that clearing your cookies makes flights cheaper, and it’s not the case that flights are cheapest to book on Tuesday at 1pm, these myths persist because they explain what seems inexplicable. Fortunately, you and I are out here doing our best to mythbust!

In Chapter 3, you discuss how the way we’ve been searching for flights is backward. Tell us more about that.

Almost every overseas vacation I’ve taken in the past decade has been a trip I didn’t plan to take.

Roundtrip to Milan for $130. Osaka for $169. Barcelona $222. Brussels $225, twice.

I hadn’t planned to visit Italy or Japan or Spain before buying flights to those very countries. It’s not that I wasn’t interested in seeing those places—come on, it’s Europe and Japan—but, like most people, I have thousands of places I’d love to visit if airfare was no concern.

What prompted my interest in those specific trips, in other words, was the fact that fares had dropped so precipitously.

The way most of us book our flights is a three-step process that probably sounds familiar:

• Step 1: Pick your destination
• Step 2: Pick your dates
• Step 3: Check for flights

We say we want cheap flights, but by setting airfare as the least important priority, is it any surprise that so many of us end up overpaying for flights? Knowingly or not, the most expensive mistake we make when booking flights is choosing a trip rather than choosing a fare.

Fortunately, there’s a better way, and it’s elegantly simple: Take that same three-step process and flip it on its head.

• Step 1: See where there are cheap flights departing your home airport
• Step 2: Pick one of those cheap destinations
• Step 3: Pick one of the cheap dates

You’re allowed to have preferences, of course. I’m just encouraging you to put airfare in context. Few of us would go to a restaurant, reject the waiter’s offer to look at the menu, and order the ribeye with zero consideration for price or other options.

But that’s exactly what many of us do with flights.

We set our heart on one specific vacation, price be damned. If Prague is at the top of your list, would you still pay $1,000 for flights if you knew there were $250 flights to Paris?

What are three things you want people to take away from this book? 
First, the way we traditionally search for flights is harming your ability to get a good deal. We all say we want cheap flights, but our normal way of searching for flights inadvertently undercuts our ability to get cheap flights.

Instead, in many cases, the secret to getting cheap fares—and thus getting three vacations for what you used to pay for one—simply boils down to making them the top priority. That doesn’t mean only traveling to nearby cities or taking inconvenient flights; on the contrary, with a better approach, you can fly almost anywhere with cheap (and good) flights.

Second, recognizing that airfare is exceptionally volatile. Destinations don’t have a single, stable price. Flights to Japan aren’t normally $202 roundtrip, except occasionally when they are (like they were just a few weeks ago). Today’s expensive flight may be tomorrow’s cheap one, and vice versa.

Finally, cheap flights don’t just save money; they lead to better trips by letting you experience more at your destination. They lead to more trips and boost your interim happiness because you know the next one isn’t far off. And they expand the types of places you visit and let you discover places that appeal to you personally, rather than the average tourist.

You’ve searched millions of flights. What are some of the crazy insights you’ve learned about airlines in that time? 
My favorite part about airfare is the funny anomalies. For instance, we all think of Thanksgiving as an exceedingly expensive time to travel. And it is—for domestic flights. But Thanksgiving is actually a hidden gem for cheap international flights. That’s because all those people flying home to visit family and eat turkey are, by definition, not flying overseas. With less competition for international destinations, the fares are often quite cheap.

Similarly, I love the anomaly of how when you’re traveling somewhere remote, it can be cheaper to split your trip into multiple itineraries rather than one. I call this the Greek Island Trick.

Say, for instance, you want to fly from NYC to Santorini. If you search that route on Google Flights, fares often come back upwards of $1,600. But if you search for flights from NYC to Athens, those regularly go on sale for as little as $350 roundtrip. And once you’re in Athens, you can hop a ferry or budget flight on to Santorini for as little as $50. So by splitting your itinerary, you can wind up saving 75% off normal prices, and even take a few days to visit Athens before heading over to Santorini!

Where do you see airfare going in a post-COVID world? I see short-term deals but long-term increases. What are your thoughts? 
There’s a lot of concern that as travel demand rebounds, that’ll be the end of cheap flights. But here’s why, on the contrary, I think the future of cheap flights looks really bright.

First, while the pandemic certainly woke many people up to how far airfare had fallen, what many people missed was that since 2015, we have been living in the Golden Age of Cheap Flights. The pandemic didn’t cause cheap fares. The pandemic *illuminated* cheap fares. So if a resurgence of travel interest leads to pre-covid airfares, we should be so lucky!

The reason I’m so bullish on the continued long-term availability of cheap flights is that airline business models have been revamped over the past few decades. Go back 40 years ago and airlines made most of their money on economy fares. Today, airlines make most of their money from other revenue streams: selling credit cards and miles, premium tickets like business class, corporate contracts, cargo, and so on. In other words, airlines can afford to sell you $250 flights to Europe or Japan because those fares are far less consequential to their bottom line than they used to be.

I think it’s likely we’ll see headlines over the next few months about average fares going up. Indeed, Airlines for America’s analysis already shows that average fares have been steadily increasing since February.

And yet, during that time period, we’ve found roundtrip fares like $124 to Hawaii, $378 to Greece, and $202 to Japan. The key point to remember next time you see a headline about flight prices increasing is this: You can’t book average fares. You can only book available fares.

Last question: You’re a man who takes a lot of flights. Do you have a favorite experience?
This is going to be sappy so I apologize in advance, but my favorite flight experience is flying with my young daughter. I’ve taken thousands of flights in my life, and while I still love being in the air, the magic has faded just a bit. But not for her! Everything about flying, from the seats to windows to the noise to the turbulence to the liftoff to the majestic views from 30,000 feet, getting to be reminded by her how special it is, and getting to experience it through her eyes, is incredibly fun.

Scott Keyes, is the founder and Chief Flight Expert of Scott’s Cheap Flights, a website that finds and shares the best flight deals on the web. He’s also the author of Take More Vacations: How to Search Better, Book Cheaper, and Travel the World, which is available on Bookshop and Amazon. When he’s not on a plane, you can find him at home in Portland, Oregon.

The post Take More Vacations: Advice from Scott Keyes appeared first on Nomadic Matt's Travel Site.

Teaching overseas is one of a great way to earn money while you travel, stay in one place longer, and get to deeply experience another culture. I spent years teaching in Thailand and Taiwan and they were some of the most impactful experiences of my traveling. Living in a foreign culture, trying to get by day to day, and learning to create a life for yourself is a surefire way to become a more confident you and give you a deeper understanding of yourself.

I get a lot of emails from people about teaching overseas and one of the most asked about destinations is Spain! While we’ve written about the destination before, I wanted to add in another perspective from someone who just did it last year.

Natasha is a local Austinite who graduated from school and moved to Spain for a year. Here she is explaining how she did it and how you can too!

Tell us about yourself!
Natasha: I was born in Atlanta, Georgia, but my family moved to India when I was two months old. After a year, we moved to Australia, where I grew up until I was 9. Then we moved to Vancouver where I stayed until I was 15.

I consider myself to be from Australia, Canada, and the US in almost equal parts, and ethnically I am Indian and Pakistani. I double-majored in international relations and Latin American studies at UT-Austin.

In my free time, I make YouTube videos about travel and I am devoted to health and fitness. I also cook and practice yoga.

You recently spent some time teaching in Spain. Tell us how you got started doing that. Was it easy to figure out the process and find a job?
I studied abroad in Madrid in college. While I was there, I met some people who were English-language assistants and kept in touch with them after I returned home. I knew I wanted to take a gap year and travel after graduation, so I reached out to them and they told me about different programs I could apply for.

I looked into a few, but the government program “Auxiliares de Conversación” was free and had good reviews, so I chose to apply to that one. It allows Americans and Canadians to visit and work as teaching assistants. You’ll be paired with a teacher and help the students learn English. (There are similar programs for people from other English-speaking countries as well).

The application is quite daunting. It required an essay, two letters of recommendation, a lot of legal paperwork, and other forms. The essay I wrote was about a page long, essentially a letter of intent explaining why I was interested in the program and the qualities that make me fit for the position.

The program also requires an official college transcript as well, but it accepts applicants from diverse educational backgrounds. so as long as you show keen interest, have good letters of recommendation, and have decent grades you should be fine!

I didn’t decide to join this program until the beginning of March, but I would suggest starting the process as soon as it is available in January. That will give you more time to jump through all the bureaucratic hoops. After receiving your acceptance, I suggest booking your visa appointment immediately, as these fill up fast!

Did you have any prior teaching experience? Is experience necessary?
I didn’t have any teaching experience, and the Auxiliar de Conversación program doesn’t require you to. As long as you have (or are completing) your bachelor’s degree and are a native English speaker, you are eligible.

What was an average day like?
You are only required to work 12-16 hours a week with this program, so a workday is typically about four hours. Since we’re English-language assistants, we are paired with an English teacher and don’t have to create a curriculum for the whole class.

On an average day as an auxiliar, the teacher I worked with would mostly have me walk around and assist students with the activities she had assigned them to do. Since I was an assistant and not the main teacher, my job mostly consisted of providing help like that.

The teacher for the younger grades would have me work one-on-one with students that were falling behind or had special needs, to give them more attention, but we usually worked on the same activities as the other students. For about 10-15 minutes of the class, I would sometimes give a presentation or play vocabulary games, such as Bingo or Hangman.

I was never required to teach an entire lesson, but I would occasionally have to manage small groups of students. This allowed them to participate more since they would not be as shy to speak English (and it’s easier to control a few students than a whole class).

Regarding the actual teaching, it was the easiest and smoothest part of my time in Spain. As long as you can keep the students interested and engaged you won’t have any issues.

Did you have any unexpected challenges?
Many! I lived about an hour’s walk from my school, which was inconvenient and isolating. It took me a while to figure out the bus system, so adapting to my location was the first challenge.

However, the biggest challenge I faced was having to come back to the US for a month, because I didn’t have a visa. I was informed that I didn’t need a visa prior to entering Spain, but upon arrival, I would need to get my NIE (Número de Identidad de Extranjero) and I would be set.

Well, when I arrived, I was the only applicant without a visa. I went to eight different foreign consulates, and no one knew if I had to leave Spain to get a visa. Ultimately I had to fly back to the US, score an almost-impossible-to-get appointment with the Spanish consulate, and get my visa. The bureaucratic system is slow and very tedious, so try to talk to former auxiliares if you can (there are lots of Facebook groups for this).

What is one thing you wish you knew before you started teaching?
I wish I knew that one person’s experience could be very different from the next. I had an amazing overall experience; however, parts of my life didn’t go as I expected.

I went in expecting to make great connections with my colleagues more than anyone else, but the environment at the school I worked at wasn’t very welcoming. A lot of teachers at my school didn’t live in the community (they commuted from pueblos as far as an hour away). This made it hard to form close friendships. Moreover, my school was comprised of teachers who were still completing their exams, so every year the teachers changed schools. That meant that the sense of community was not very strong.

Fortunately, I became friends with other auxiliares in my area and was welcomed warmly into their community. I became friends with teachers at other schools, took trips with them, and received lots of help with life in general in Spain.

What kind of salary can auxiliares expect?
Auxiliares earn a “scholarship” rather than a salary. I was paid 1,000 EUR/month ($1,100 USD) during my contract. I would say that one should expect around 700-1,000 EUR per month ($770-1,100 USD) (or about 15 EUR/hour ($16.50 USD). Auxiliares in Madrid received the same “scholarship” as I did, but the cost of living in that region is much higher.

If you are paid 700 EUR, you usually work 12 hours a week instead of 16, and you can definitely try and teach private English lessons to earn more.

What are your top three tips for someone interested in teaching in Spain?
1. Arrive with at enough to live off of for at least three months. I was fortunate to live in a city with decent prices for accommodation. I had two roommates and spent around 250 EUR/month ($275 USD) on rent. Groceries, rent, and transportation were my main expenses, around 650 EUR ($715 USD) for all of those (plus some miscellaneous things). This left me with just a bit of money to use for travel.

In the Valencia region, the government was three months late to start paying us and always late by at least a few days to a week after the first paycheck. Since it’s not a lot of money, you’ll want to have a lot of savings. That way, if you’re paid late, you will have enough money to get by.

2. Research where you want to work. I chose Madrid as my first choice and Andalucía as my second. I would have also liked to live in Barcelona, but that wasn’t an option. I applied late to the program and existing auxiliares have priority for where they are stationed. As a new applicant (and a late one), I was sent to Valencia.

When choosing regions, be aware that a region does not necessarily mean you will end up in the city it’s named for. By that I mean, the “Madrid” region does not only mean the city of Madrid but rather the entire region around the city. Regions are like states, and so you could end up living two hours (or more) from the capital of the region.

You should also take into account the language spoken in the region. Where I lived, people spoke Valenciano just as much (if not more) than Spanish, and school was conducted in valenciano (a dialect of Catalan). Luckily, Valenciano has similarities to Spanish.

However, if you’re placed in the Basque Country (northern Spain), they speak Euskara, which has no similarities to Spanish. So if your goal is to practice or learn Spanish, make sure you choose to live in a region that speaks it.

Weather is another aspect to consider. While in the summer it is warm almost everywhere, winters can be quite cold (more so in the north). If you’re not a fan of cold weather, consider living closer to the south and the sea.

There are auxiliar Facebook groups and blogs that have plenty of information and anecdotes about different regions, which can help you make your decision.

3. Learn some Spanish. Understand that you could be placed in a pueblo very far from a big city, so brush up on your Spanish a little. It isn’t mandatory to teach English, but it will really come in handy if you’re in a smaller location and want to connect more with the locals (and your colleagues).

Want to Learn More About Teaching Abroad?

Here are some helpful posts about teaching English overseas to help you learn more:

• The 9 Best Places to Teach English Overseas
• Can You Teach English Without a TEFL?
• How Emily Taught English to Fund her RTW Adventure
• How Oneika Gets Teaching Jobs Around the World

For more teaching tips and advice you can follow Natasha on Instagram and YouTube.

Note: Experiences in this program can vary wildly from region to region. Some auxiliars will need to make lesson plans and teach classes while others might not have to do either. Challenges will vary from region to region so just keep that in mind when applying!
 

myTEFL is the world’s premier TEFL program, with over 40 years of TEFL experience in the industry. Their accredited programs are hands-on and in-depth, giving you the skills and experience you need to land a high-paying job teaching English overseas. Click here to learn more and start your TEFL journey today! (Use code “matt50” for 50% off!)

The post How to Find a Job Teaching in Spain appeared first on Nomadic Matt's Travel Site.

In 2010, I decided to spend the summer in NYC. I was two years into blogging and was making enough where I could afford a few months here. Still new to the industry, NYC was where all the legends of writing lived and I wanted to start making connections with my peers.

It was that summer I met Jason Cochran, a guidebook writer from Frommers, editor, and the man I would consider my mentor.

Though we never had any formal mentor/mentee relationship, Jason’s writing philosophy, advice, and feedback, especially on my first book, How to Travel the World on $50 a Day, has been instrumental in shaping me as a writer. Much of his philosophy has become mine and I don’t think I would have grown to where I am without him.

Last year, he finally published the book he’d been working on about tourism in America, called Here Lies America. (We featured it on our best books of 2019 list).

Today, we’re going to go behind the scenes of the book and talk to Jason on what does lie in America!

Nomadic Matt: Tell everyone about yourself.
Jason Cochran: I’ve been a travel writer for longer than I’ve felt like an adult. In the mid-‘90s, I kept a very early form of a travel blog on a two-year backpacking trip around the world. That blog became a career. I’ve written for more publications than I can count, including for a prime-time game show.

These days I’m the Editor-in-Chief of Frommers.com, where I also write two of its annual guidebooks, and I co-host a weekly radio show with Pauline Frommer on WABC. For me, history is always my way into a new place. In many ways, time is a form of travel, and understanding the past flexes a lot of the same intellectual muscles as understanding cultural differences.

So I have come to call myself a travel writer and a pop historian. That last term is something I just made up. Dan Rather made fun of me once for it. “Whatever that is,” he said. But it seems to fit. I like uncovering everyday history in ways that are funny, revealing, and casual, the way Bill Bryson and Sarah Vowell do.

What made you want to write this book?
Before I began researching, I just thought it would be funny. You know, sarcastic and ironic, about Americans going to graveyards and places of suffering just to buy lots of tacky souvenirs, eat ice cream, and wear dumb t-shirts. And, that’s still in there, for sure. We’re Americans and we like those things. Key chains will happen.

But that changed fast. For one, that would have become a very tired joke. It wouldn’t carry for three hundred pages. Things clicked for me early on, on the first of several cross-country research drives I took. I went to a place that I wasn’t taught about at school, and it clicked. I was at Andersonville in rural Georgia, where 13,000 out of 45,000 Civil War prisoners died in just 14 months. It was flat-out a concentration camp.

Yes, it turns out that concentration camps are as American as apple pie. The man who ran it was the only Confederate officer who was executed after the war. Southerners feared the victors would hang their leaders by the dozen, but that vengeance never materialized. Not for Jefferson Davis, not for Robert E. Lee—the guy who ran this camp poorly got the only public hanging. And he wasn’t even a born American. He was Swiss!

But that’s how important this place was at the time. Yet most of us have never even heard of it, except for a really bad low-budget movie on TNT in the ‘90s in which all the characters bellowed inspirational monologues as if they thought they were remaking Hoosiers.

So just getting my head around the full insanity of Andersonville’s existence was a big light bulb—our history is constantly undergoing whitewashing. Americans are always willfully trying to forget how violent and awful we can be to each other.

And Andersonville wasn’t even the only concentration camp in that war. There were a bunch in both the North and the South, and most of them had survival rates that were just as dismal. So that was another light bulb: There’s a story in why our society decided to preserve Andersonville but forget about a place like Chicago’s Camp Douglas, which was really just as nasty, except now it’s a high-rise housing project and there’s a Taco Bell and a frozen custard place where its gate once stood.

And did you know that the remains of 12,000 people from another Revolutionary War concentration camp are in a forgotten grave smack in the middle of Brooklyn? We think our major historic sites are sacred and that they are the pillars of our proud American story, but actually, how accurate can our sites be if they’re not even fairly chosen?

What was one of the most surprising things you learned from your research?
In almost no instance was a plaque, statue, or sign placed right after the historic event in question. Most of the monuments were actually installed many decades after the event. In the case of the Civil War, most of the memorials were erected in a boom that came a half-century after the last bullet was fired.

If you really get close to the plaques and read past the poetic inscriptions, it quickly becomes clear that our most beloved historic sites aren’t sanctified with artifacts but with propaganda placed there by people who weren’t even witnesses to the event. There was a vast network of women’s clubs that would help you order a statue for your own town out of a catalog, and they commissioned European sculptors who cashed the checks but privately grumbled about the poor taste of the tacky kitsch they were installing all over America.

We’re still dealing with what they did today. It’s what Charlottesville was about. But most people don’t realize these statues weren’t put there anywhere near the time of the war, or that they were the product of an orchestrated public relations machine. By powerful women!

I wrote a line in the book: “Having a Southern heritage is like having herpes—you can forget you have it, you can deny it, but it inevitably bubbles up and requires attention.” These issues aren’t going away.

Places we think of as holy ground, like Arlington National Cemetery, often have some pretty shocking origin stories. Arlington started because some guy got pissed off at Robert E. Lee and started buying corpses in his rose garden to get back at him! That’s our hallowed national burial ground: a nasty practical joke, like the Burn Book from Mean Girls. Dig a little and you find more revolting secrets, like how the incredible number of people buried under the wrong headstone, or the time the government put the remains of a Vietnam soldier in the Tomb of the Unknowns. They pretty much knew his identity, but Ronald Reagan really wanted a TV photo op. So they sealed all the soldier’s belongings in the coffin with him so that no one would figure it out.

They eventually had to admit they’d lied and gave the soldier’s body back to his mom. But if a thing like that happens in a place like Arlington, can the rest of our supposedly sacred sites be taken at face value at all?

It goes a lot deeper. At Ford’s Theatre and the surrender house at Appomattox, the site we visit isn’t even real. They’re fakes! The original buildings are long gone but visitors are rarely told that. The tale’s moral is what’s valued, not the authenticity.

What can visiting these sites teach us about how we remember our past?
Once you realize that all historic sites have been cultivated by someone who wanted to define your understanding of it, you learn how to use critical thinking as a traveler. All it takes is asking questions. One of the most fun threads in the book kicks off when I go to Oakland, a historic but touristy cemetery in Atlanta. I spot an ignored gravestone that piqued my interest. I’d never heard of the name of the woman: Orelia Key Bell. The info desk didn’t have her listed among the notable graves. She was born around the 1860s, which was a very eventful time in Atlanta.

So I took out my phone and right there on her grave, I Googled her. I researched her whole life so I could appreciate what I was seeing. It turned out she was a major poet of her time. I stood there reading PDFs of her books at her feet. Granted, her stuff was dreary, painfully old-fashioned. I wrote that her style of writing didn’t fall out of fashion so much as it was yanked down and clubbed by Hemingway.

But reading her writing at her grave made me feel wildly connected to the past. We almost never go to old places and look deeper. We usually let things remain dead. We accept what’s on the sign or the plaque as gospel, and I’m telling you, almost nothing ever reaches us in a state of purity.

I figured that if I was going to probe all these strangers, I had to be fair and probe someone I knew. I decided to look into an untimely death in my own family, a great-grandfather who had died in a train wreck in 1909. That was the beginning and the end of the tale in my family: “Your great-great grandfather died in a train wreck up in Toccoa.”

But almost as soon as I started looking deeper, I discovered something truly shocking—he had been murdered. Two young Black men were accused in rural South Carolina for sabotaging his train and killing him. You’d think at least someone in my family would have known this! But no one had ever looked into it before!

Here Lies America follows their trail. Who were these guys? Why would they want to kill him? I went to where their village used to be, I started digging into court documents from their murder trial. Let me tell you, the shockers came flooding. Like, I found they may have killed him because they wanted to protect a sacred old Cherokee burial mound from destruction. There was this crazy, larger-than-life forgotten story happening in my own damn family.

My experience with that poet’s grave has a happy coda. Last week, someone told me that Orelia Key Bell and her companion are now officially part of the guided tour of Oakland. The simple act of looking deeper had revived a forgotten life and put her back on the record. That’s what visiting these sites can do—but you have to look behind the veneer, the way I do with dozens of attractions in my book. This is the essence of travel, isn’t it? Getting to a core understanding of the truth of a place.

A lot of what you wrote showed how whitewashed many of these historical sites are. How do we as travelers dig deeper to get to the real history?
Remember that pretty much everything you see at a historic site or museum was intentionally placed there or left there by someone. Ask yourself why. Ask who. And definitely ask when, because the climate of later years often twists interpretation of the past. It’s basic content analysis, really, which is something we’re really bad at in a consumer society.

Americans have it drilled into them to never question the tropes of our patriotism. If we learned about in grade school, we assume it’s a settled matter, and if you press it, you’re somehow an insurgent. Now, more than any other time in history, it’s easier than ever to call up primary sources about any era you want. If you want to go back to what our society really is, if you want to try to figure out how we wandered into the shattered shambles we’re in today, you have to be honest about the forces that created the image that, until recently, many of us believed we really were.

Do you think Americans have a problem talking about their history? If so, why is that?
There’s a phrase, and I forget who said it—maybe James Baldwin?-but it goes, “Americans are better at thinking with their feelings than about them.” We go by feels, not so much by facts. We do love to cling to a tidy mythology of how free and wonderful our country always was. It reassures us. We probably need it. After all, in America, where we all come from different places, our national self-belief is our main cultural glue. So we can’t resist prettying up the horrible things we do.

But make no mistake: Violence was the foundation of power in the 1800s, and violence is still a foundation of our values and entertainment today. We have yet to come to terms with that. Our way of dealing with violence is usually to convince ourselves it’s noble.

And if we can’t make pain noble, we try to erase it. It’s why the place where McKinley was shot, in Buffalo, lies under a road now. That was intentional so that it would be forgotten by anarchists. McKinley was given no significant pilgrimage spot where he died, but right after that death, his fans paid for a monument by Burnside’s Bridge in Antietam, because as a youth, he once served coffee to soldiers.

That’s the reason: “personally and without orders served hot coffee,” it reads—it’s hilarious. That is our national mythmaking in a nutshell: Don’t pay attention to the place that raises tough questions about imperialism and economic disparity, but put up an expensive tribute to a barista.

What is the main takeaway you’d like readers to take away from your book?
You may not know where you came from as well as you think you do. And we as a society definitely haven’t asked enough questions about who shaped the information we grew up with. Americans are finally ready to hear some truth.

Jason Cochran is the author of Here Lies America: Buried Agendas and Family Secrets at the Tourist Sites Where Bad History Went Down. He’s been a writer since mid-1990s, a commentator on CBS and AOL, and works today as editor-in-chief of Frommers.com and as co-host of the Frommer Travel Show on WABC. Jason was twice awarded “Guide Book of the Year” by the Lowell Thomas Awards and the North American Travel Journalists Association.

The post Here Lies America: An Interview With Jason Cochran appeared first on Nomadic Matt's Travel Site.

You meet a lot of interesting and smart people when you run an online business and travel the world. One of the people I’ve met is best-selling author Mark Manson. We had orbited each other for many years and finally met when he moved to New York City.

We’ve been “real life” friends ever since.

His first book, The Subtle Art of Not Giving a F*ck, became a runaway hit, selling over 8 million copies. (He wrote a post about how travel made him the person is today, which laid the foundation for that book.)

Now, Mark has a new book out today called, Everything is F*cked: A Book About Hope. I received a copy to read in advance and it’s a really incredible book about philosophy and how to live a life of meaning and challenge in our modern times. It gave me some good food for thought about issues or perspectives I hadn’t thought about before.

Today, Mark and I chat about his new book!

Nomadic Matt: You have a new book out, Everything is F*cked: A Book About Hope. Let’s talk about it. What would you say the core of this book is about?
Mark Manson: At its heart, this book is a look at how to develop and maintain a sense of hope for ourselves and the world — and how these hopes affect us. We generally see hope as an unequivocally “good” thing, but I call that idea into question in this book.

Would it be a considered follow up to The Subtle Art?
I’ve been calling it an “expansion” of the ideas from Subtle Art. I think it’s a deeper analysis and more complex application of the same concepts—values, pain/suffering, and our definitions of success. It’s kind of like the calculus to Subtle Art’s algebra or the chess to its checkers.

What inspired you to write this book?
Well, just looking around at what is going on in the world. We’re living in a weird time in that materially, the world, as a whole, is the best it’s ever been (less poverty, violence, more wealth, people living longer, etc.), yet mentally and emotionally, people are struggling more than ever with finding hope and meaning in their lives.

And what’s interesting is that it’s the people from the wealthiest and most stable parts of the world who are experiencing these philosophical struggles the most.

On top of that, I’ve noticed in my own life, that as an older millennial, all the promises of my youth have turned out pretty ugly. From the internet to my country and to my assumptions about relationships, friendships, community, it feels like there’s a lot to be justifiably upset about — yet things are objectively better.

I’ve had my own struggles with finding meaning and hope in my own life, despite the fact that, on paper, everything is awesome. So, in that way, this book is kind of my own way to sort through these issues.

Since this is a travel website, let’s talk about your book and travel. How can travel make us less f*cked? Or can it?
I think anything that increases human empathy is hugely important and beneficial at the moment. I also think anything that can cause you to confront your own value systems and question them is incredibly useful.

Travel does both of those things very well.

It’s a bit ironic that by connecting the world more than ever before, we’ve also come to objectify cultures more than ever before. Everything is about “the ‘Gram” so to speak. I think a highly conscious and culturally engaged form of travel is still paramount.

Like anything, travel can become an escape from one’s problems rather than a pursuit of some higher understanding. So, it’s important to always make sure you’re on the right side of that equation.

One aspect of the book I found really interesting was the formula for life and how it relates to being a better person (especially in relation to travel). Can you describe this idea a little bit?
The Formula of Humanity comes from the philosopher Emmanuel Kant and essentially says that the driving force behind all of our decisions and actions should always be people. That more than emotions, more than culture, more than group loyalties, our first principle should always be to treat people (both ourselves and others) with dignity and respect.

And I think travel forces one to practice this.

It’s easy to sit on one side of the world and criticize people on the other. But when you go there and discover that 99% of the people are good, decent people and actually value the same things you do, it makes empathy more possible.

What can people learn from your book that they can apply to their lives?
I think there are five points that people can really apply to their own life:

• Why self-discipline requires understanding your own emotions.
• Why trauma and loss cause emotional dysfunction and how we can overcome that dysfunction.
• How every belief system is ultimately a little bit religious and we need to be careful about that.
• How to be more resilient.
• How to be freer in a world of constant distraction and diversion.

You talk a lot about how our feelings brain being in control and that we live in a feelings economy, where emotions run rampant. Can travel temper that in any way? Can travel show us how not to be keyboard warriors?
Unfortunately, there’s no way to NOT be irrational and emotional, as much as we’d sometimes like to. The key is to not resist or attempt to change our emotions but simply work with them, rather than against them. Things like anger, anxiety or even despair can be highly useful if channeled properly. The key is to develop the skill-set to channel them.

I think like a lot of things, travel amplifies who you already are. If you’re selfish and intolerant, then your travel experiences will reflect that. If you’re magnanimous or curious, then they will reflect that. A way that travel can be useful is that it is a tool to force you to work on aspects of yourself that you wouldn’t otherwise be able to work on.

Do you struggle with being alone or caring too much about what others think? Travel alone.

Used to being pampered and upset over every little thing? Go take a train through the Indian countryside. That’ll straighten you out real quick!

You mention a lot of philosophers in your book (which I enjoyed because I got a lot of book suggestions). What are some good books to read around this topic?
It’s exciting because I feel like philosophy is becoming cool in our culture. It makes sense because as all of our basic needs are taken care of, these questions of existential meaning, purpose, and what to hope are more at the forefront of our minds, and those are all philosophical questions.

If you’re a complete newbie to philosophy and want to get a basic understanding of the Western canon, I recommend a book called Sophie’s World by Jostein Gaarder. It’s a fun fiction book that acts as kind of a primer to the most important western thinkers.

If you’re into eastern philosophy, DT Suzuki’s books are a nice introduction to Zen Buddhism. The Tao Te Ching is highly readable and thought-provoking. And Alan Watts’ books are indispensable.

And if you want to see how applications of ancient philosophy are incredibly useful in today’s world. Check out Jonathan Haidt’s The Happiness Hypothesis or Ryan Holiday’s The Obstacle is the Way.

You talk about how we need pain to grow and, I think, part of experiencing pain is getting out of your comfort zone. What can travel teach us about pain and growth?
Painful travel is the best kind. It’s like going to the gym for your mind and your understanding of humanity. My first trips to India and Africa were two of my most difficult and uncomfortable trips and today I think back to them fondly because they were incredibly formative to my understanding of the world.

India was shocking because of the quantity of beauty and human suffering squished into such confined spaces. You could see one of the most beautiful things in your life and one of the most horrific things in your life, all within a few blocks of each other.

Africa was eye-opening because when you really get out in the bush, you get a real sense of how little humans need to be happy. It’s cliché to say that money and possessions don’t make you happy, but when you see with your own eyes people who are feeling just fine owning nothing more than a goat and a robe, it’s quite profound.

China was probably the most alienating place I’ve ever been. I’ve never felt so foreign in my life. It’s the only place I’ve been where I’ve really gotten the sense that I did not matter, at all. And just having to sit and live with that feeling for the two weeks I was there was quite impactful.

I think it’s easy to forget how resilient the human spirit is, how many places it can flourish, and how easily it can be happy. The first time you see a child shit on the side of the street, it suddenly grants a lot of perspective the next time you complain about bad Wi-Fi.

Ultimately, I argue that a growing issue in the world today is that we aren’t challenged enough and that we don’t have meaningful struggles, so we have to invent meaningless ones to take their place and maintain a sense of hope.

Travel is a way to constantly challenge yourself. Whether it’s traveling to a poor country or forcing yourself to study a language or physically testing yourself through hikes and biking across continents. It’s indispensable.

Finally, in your own words, why should people buy this book?
Because it’s fucking awesome! And, as with my last book, I utilize stories and examples from all over the world and from a number of different cultures to make my point.

There’s a soldier from Poland and a monk from Vietnam and historical fiction about Isaac Newton and a vignette about Friedrich Nietzsche and his over-sized mustache. What’s not to love?

(Matt says: And it really is great like he says! Pick up a copy, especially if you enjoyed his last one!)

Mark Manson is a blogger, entrepreneur, and the best-selling author of The Subtle Art of Not Giving a F*ck, which has sold over 8 million copies worldwide. He specializes in writing personal development advice that doesn’t suck. His website MarkManson.net is read by over 2 million people each month.

His new book, Everything is F*cked: A Book About Hope is now available. He lives in New York City.
 
 

The post Everything is F*cked: Reflections on Hope and Travel with Mark Manson appeared first on Nomadic Matt's Travel Site.

Over the past few years, there has been an explosion of people giving up the daily grind to live and travel in vans, RVs, and other nontraditional abodes. While traveling in an RV has been something people have been doing for decades, new sharing economy websites, better resources online, more modern vans, and a growing community that can provide support have made it easier for anyone to travel full-time in an RV.

What used to be traditionally and predominantly an activity for older, retired, or family travelers is now something people of all ages are trying to do.

One just has to look up #vanlife on social media to see!

(An aside: I hate the #vanlife movement. The faux Instagram movement does nothing for me. Just a bunch of millennials searching out that perfect sponsored photo and talking about how woke they are (for the most part)).

But #vanlife aside, RV travel is a wonderful way to see the world.

“How do you travel in an RV?” is one of the questions I’m most asked.

So today, we’re going to the experts and talking full-time RV with nomads Marc and Julie from RV Love. This couple joined my blogging program a few years ago, hoping to find a way to spread the gospel of living and traveling in an RV to the wider world. (Spoiler: they did. And they just published a book with Simon & Schuster about it too!)

They’ve been driving around in their RV for nearly five years and, today, they share their wisdom about how to travel by RV:

Nomadic Matt: Tell us about yourselves! How did you get into this?
Marc and Julie: We’re Marc and Julie Bennett, full-time RVers since 2014, living, working, and traveling in our motorhome as we explore North America and the world! We met on the dating website eHarmony while both living in Colorado in 2010, married in 2011, and hit the road three years later!

Why did you pick traveling in an RV as your way to get around?
We knew we wanted to do a lot more extended travel while we were still working. We get such little vacation time here in the USA, and we didn’t want that to limit our lives. So we started exploring different ways to bring more travel and adventure into our everyday life without Marc having to give up his job as project manager of operations, which he was able to do from home.

We considered international travel, but there were two main reasons why wasn’t a fit: the challenge of time zones, and more specifically, we wanted to travel with our dog Coda. Plus, we love to drive, so RVing was really the ideal solution for us. We love that wherever we go, we’re always home, and we’re not living out of suitcases.

We’re both passionate about driving, so it makes sense that we would choose to live and travel by RV, although we usually prefer more sporty rides when it comes to entertainment, as we both have a love for sports cars and convertibles.

What’s life like living and traveling around in an RV?
We just entered our fifth year on the road full-time as RVers, and we recently changed from a 2012 36’ gas Class A motorhome to a 1999 40’ diesel motorhome! We bucked the trend and went bigger (and older and cheaper, but much higher quality), and we’re actually doing a complete remodel of our RV this summer.

Traditionally, we spend about 80% of our time in campgrounds and about 20% dry camping, but we recently installed a big lithium battery bank and solar system on our RV, so we plan on spending a lot more time camping off the grid out in nature in the coming years. We try to spend 2-3 weeks in each location, but that varies on where we are, the weather, and what projects we have on our plates. We moved pretty fast in our first 3+ years, having visited all 50 states while still working full-time.

This year, we have so many big and exciting projects on our plates, we’re really feeling the need to slow down, catch our breath, and get caught up on our content! We tend to wing our plans a lot more than we used to, as we’re more comfortable and confident RVers now.

An average day depends on whether you have to work or not. We love that we no longer have a commute and that the views outside our windows change every week or so. Nature is a big part of our everyday life, so it can be easier to get in more walking, hiking, biking, or kayaking. We definitely get to see more sunsets — that’s a big thing for a lot of RVers.

RV life is still life. You need to go grocery shopping, make meals, do laundry, pay bills, and do housework. Then there’s RV maintenance and repairs! There’s almost always something to do on an RV — tighten screws, replace parts, troubleshoot issues, check your tire pressure, fix whatever’s broken.

Upon arrival at a destination, it usually takes less than 30 minutes to set up. It may sound like a hassle, but if you’re staying a week or more, it becomes a small percentage of your time. And RV life can be as social as you like. We tend to mostly stay in campgrounds, so it’s not too difficult to meet new people. And we also go to RV rallies to meet up with our RVing friends, who we stay in touch with online. It can take a little time to build your RV community, but if you put yourself out there, it can happen pretty quickly!

Do you need a lot of mechanical skills to do this?
When you’re traveling around in an RV, if you aren’t already handy, you’ll learn to be! It’s definitely an advantage to become somewhat mechanical and familiar with simple tools. The RVing community is very helpful and supportive when it comes to finding answers for issues you may have — whether online (in social media groups) or in person. At RV parks and campgrounds, you will usually find someone reasonably experienced and mechanically oriented nearby. If you are not skilled or it’s a complex job, you can usually find a local or mobile repair person to perform needed maintenance or repairs.

We recommend sticking with a less complex RV when starting out. The more simple the RV, the more reliable and easy to fix they are likely to be, and you can tackle many repairs yourself. As full-time RVers driving a Class A motorhome, we only need to take our RV into repair facilities 2-3 times per year on average.

Many RV repairs are fairly simple, and that’s when YouTube and Google are your friends! One of our favorite YouTube channels is the RV Geeks, who make DIY how-to videos to help you make simple repairs and upgrades. It’s often more convenient (and definitely cheaper) to do many RV repairs yourself. And you may even want to consider an extended service contract to cover your RV for repairs outside of the manufacturer’s warranty period and help limit repair costs.

Are there any personality traits you think are necessary for living in an RV?
Flexibility, adaptability, resourcefulness, and a sense of humor! Just like any other kind of travel, things don’t always go the way you want, RVs break (or break down), and travel plans go awry when you least expect it, so you need to be able to find a creative solution, often on the fly. It really helps to be handy or at least be willing to have a go at DIY fixes. RVers learn to become much more self-sufficient pretty quickly.

Anyone can RV if they really want to. It doesn’t matter about your age, life stage, relationship status, or financial situation. In our book, we share the inspiring story of 69-year-old Frieda who hit the road solo after her husband passed away and drove to Alaska to celebrate her 70th birthday. She’s been on the road for two years now and is still going strong.

Another great case study from the book is Nik and Allison (31 and 30). They share why they decided to RV and explore the country before they started a family. They follow the FIRE philosophy (Financial Independence, Retire Early) and save more than 50% of their income so Nik can be a stay-at-home dad. RVing for a year and a half while still working allowed them to do a lot of travel affordably while keeping them on track with their financial and life goals. 

There really is no “one way” to RV, just the right way for you. That’s why, when writing our book Living the RV Life: Your Ultimate Guide to Life on the Road, we wanted to create a roadmap for people that would help them hit the road and thrive, keeping them on track with their personal goals while they’re doing it. That’s been a big part of our own success. We’re almost five years in now and still living and loving the RV Life. Now we’re showing others how they can do it too.

A lot of people are embracing RV/van life these days. Why do you think that is?
We think it’s a perfect storm of several things colliding simultaneously:

1. A lot of people are questioning the traditional American Dream as a path to success or happiness — the idea of postponing your life, travels, and experiences until retirement just doesn’t really make sense, and of course, the future is promised to no one. Why not travel while you have youth and health on your side?
2. Technology is enabling us to live and work from pretty much anywhere, and more companies are allowing people to work remotely, and more people are starting their own businesses.
3. Then there’s social media and FOMO! With the increased awareness that RV or van life is possible through watching people’s YouTube channels, Facebook pages, and Instagram feeds, other people are beginning to realize you can travel and see cool places, and live or work in forests or by lakes — and they want to do it too. America has long been famous for iconic road trips — and RVs and van life offer the ultimate freedom: exploring the country on wheels.

How much money will people need before they dive into RV life?
It’s a good idea to pay off as much unsecured debt as possible before hitting the road. Less debt lightens your load and allows you to really enjoy the freedoms of RV life.

It all depends on how you want to RV, and your budget. Generally, we recommend people try to save up a few months of living expenses to get started, and as a backup for unforeseen challenges and expenses. Life happens, and you just never know when you may be hit with an unexpected expense or expensive RV repair.

As a guide, as long as you plan and budget carefully, and make a good RV purchasing decision, it’s possible to RV full-time for about $2,000–$3,000 per month. Some do it for less, and others do it for way more. But across the board, we find most RVers end up spending about the same in their RV life as they did in their regular life.

Just like in traditional life, you just have to plan to live and travel within your means. Plus, your ability to earn an income while you travel is a huge factor. If you can work from the road while you RV — as was the case for us — it can be a pretty simple trade.

For example, we sold our townhome and traded our mortgage payment, HOA, utility bills, and two car payments for:

• A used RV, which we financed
• A less-expensive car that we paid cash for
• Campground and fuel expenses

What we previously spent on home repairs and maintenance for our home is now redirected to our RV. Same goes for RV insurance and roadside assistance. We tend to spend a bit more on eating out and entertainment, as we’re always on the move and experiencing new places. But it’s easy to save money by making meals in your RV, and there’s no shortage of things you can do for free, like hiking, biking, and kayaking.

Many people (like us) are able to work remotely with just an internet connection. Some work seasonally, then take a few months off to travel and explore. Other careers, like nursing, hospitality, agriculture, and construction are highly transferable to new locations, especially for seasonal work. For some lines of work, it can actually be easier to find jobs by having the ability to follow the work around the country.

We have met people who live full-time in vans or RVs frugally, for less than $20,000 per year. And we have seen others who spend well over $60,000 per year. Like all other forms of travel (and life!), expenses are variable, depending on how you do it.

What tips do you have for people who aren’t sure what RV, van, or trailer they should get?
Buying an RV can be expensive, and buying the wrong RV can be even more expensive! Like anything with wheels, RVs depreciate (hard), and so doing your research in advance pays off. Before you even set foot on an RV dealer’s lot or go check out the RV you found on Craigslist, ask yourself:

• Who is traveling with you? 
• How much do you plan to travel? (weekends, part-time, full-time)
• Where do you want to go? (campgrounds and RV parks or off-grid camping in national forests?)

Generally speaking, you’ll want to choose the smallest RV that you feel that you can comfortably live in. Smaller RVs offer more flexibility to access more places. Larger RVs are more comfortable for extended travel but will be more limiting in terms of where you can take them, especially if you want to stay in national parks and do off-grid camping.

Don’t overinvest in your first RV — it’s the one that will teach you what is most important to you and your travel style. Start out by buying used. You will avoid the steepest part of the depreciation curve. Plus, you’ll have a much better idea of what’s important to you when it comes time to buy your second RV. It’s possible to nail it with your first RV purchase, but not without a lot of research and clarity around your priorities.

What are some common pitfalls to avoid when starting out?
Full-time RVing is not a vacation, it’s a lifestyle. It’s exciting when you start. You want to go everywhere and see and do everything. Try to create a sustainable travel pace from the beginning. Stay longer in an area. It’s cheaper – in terms of fuel and campground fees – and you’ll really be able to immerse yourself, explore, and even feel like a local for a while.

Second, it’s easy for people to think they need a big RV to be comfortable, especially when coming from a bigger home. In the RV lifestyle, your environment and views are constantly changing, so your world feels a lot bigger, even if your living space isn’t. It’s easier to live in a smaller space than you might expect, especially with way less “stuff.” Remember our advice above when it comes to choosing the right RV, so you can avoid that expensive mistake.

And finally, it can be hard to resist buying gadgets and gear before you even buy your RV! Every RV has cupboards and storage of different sizes and shapes, and you won’t know what fits where until you have your RV. Save money by hitting the road with the essentials, then spend some time traveling before investing in too many upgrades or gear. You’ll want to make sure they are going to be a fit for your preferred travel style. You can always buy what you need as you go. Don’t take too much stuff! You need less than you think and can get what you need as you travel.

Do you have any recommended companies for vans/RVs? What about resources for finding where to camp/park?
It’s a good idea to consider renting an RV or van first, to see if you even like the lifestyle. You can rent RVs from rental companies or from private individuals using a platform like RVshare, which gives you more variety in the types of RVs you can choose from.

This is really useful for helping you decide what kind of RV is right for you, before buying one. It may seem expensive, but making the wrong decision isn’t cheap either! Many large RV dealerships rent RVs, there are large rental chains like cruiseamerica.com or www.roadbearrv.com, but if you want to rent an RV from individuals for more variety, consider doing so via rvshare.com.

It is difficult to make specific recommendations about buying RVs, as there are hundreds of manufacturers, models, and types, and RVs are not like cars. The options, features, and price range of RVs vary widely. That said, we generally recommend buying a preowned RV, as they are usually more affordable, and, contrary to cars, you will generally experience fewer issues with a well-maintained preowned RV than with a brand-new unit. That’s because every RV — much like building a new house or condo — will have a “punch list” of items that need to be fixed for the first few months (or more) after you drive it off the dealer’s lot.

You can find RVs at RV dealers, on websites like RVTrader.com, as well as on Craigslist or Facebook Marketplace, and from friends and family. Local RV parks often have a community notice board of RVs for sale, too.

If you want to camp for free on public lands, there are websites like Campendium.com and Frugal Shunpiker’s Guides to find free camping areas. And there are thousands of RV parks and campgrounds around the country, which you can you find online, through apps, and in camping directories.

You can also look into camping memberships that offer discounts on your stays. For example, we spend a lot of time in a campground membership network that literally saves us thousands of dollars per year. Other websites and apps we recommend include CampgroundViews.com, Campendium, and AllStays. There are a ton out there, and you can find many more resources in our book and at our website, RV Love of course!

If you want more information, Marc and Julie Bennett are RVers who live, work, and travel from the road full-time, and since hitting the road in 2014, have visited all 50 USA states, plus Canada and Mexico. They are co-authors of Living the RV Life: Your Ultimate Guide to Life on the Road, and you can follow along on their journey via their website RV Love as well as their social media channels!

If you’d like to dive deep and get hands-on help on starting your own RV life, they also run online courses at RVSuccessSchool.com. As a Nomadic Matt reader, you can get 10% off their course with the code NOMADICMATT. Just input the code when you sign up!
 

The post How to Live and Travel Full-Time by RV appeared first on Nomadic Matt's Travel Site.

Last December, Heather won our round the world trip contest and was gifted a trip around the world worth $50 a day! In January, she started backpacking her way through South America on a budget. Today, she’s written a blog post about how she’s been able to stay on budget for the last 36 weeks and the lessons she’s learned as a new traveler!

After over ten months on the road, it’s time to update the community again on my trip! Since the last update, I spent two weeks in Brazil, a month exploring Morocco, and two months in Europe watching the World Cup.

Now, I’m in Tanzania exploring Africa!

After so long on the road, I think it’s time to answer the question that really drove the contest in the first place:

“Is budget travel possible on Matt’s $50 a day recommendations?”

One of the reasons Matt sponsored this trip was because he wanted to show everyone that travel is possible on his suggested budget of $50 a day. He wanted a living case study for the ideas in his book!

After tracking all my expenses — including my flights, travel insurance, and incidentals — I’ve spent $14,450 or $56 a day so far. I’ve not only found sticking to Matt’s budget feasible but not at all demanding (especially with a little creativity).

After Africa, I’ll be flying to Southeast Asia, where I’ll end my trip. I suspect that will lower my overall costs even more!

How I stayed on budget

At the beginning of my trip, I went to the Galápagos Islands, which are not backpacker-budget friendly, so I had some work cut out for me to get back on budget.

I saved on housing costs by Couchsurfing and staying with friends. In Chile, I stayed with friends I met in Colombia. In Paris, I stayed with a friend I met in Brazil. I’ve been overwhelmed by the number of kind people who offer me help, especially with accommodation, as I travel, expecting nothing in return. The travel community is extremely warm and open. It makes friends of strangers.

I’ve been balancing out other expenses by also keeping my transportation costs low. I opted to take the longer, cheaper way to get from A to B. In Brazil and Europe, I used BlaBlaCar to save money.

In Morocco and South America, buses were my go-to option — they were cheap and easy. I booked a limited number of flights and tracked prices so I could book them at just the right time if possible.

Food has been the only place I haven’t cut back. I’m a foodie and, as Matt always says, what’s the point in traveling if you don’t eat the local food! In South America, this was usually easy. There were tons of lunch specials around and cheap local food so I was able to eat on a budget.

In Europe, it was much harder. Food was by far my biggest expense but I have no regrets. A girl’s got to eat!

Here are my costs broken down by region:

Here’s the breakdown of my spending by category:

• Housing: $2,874
• Transportation: $2,632
• Food: $4,687
• Travel insurance: $1,040
• Activities: $3,217 (such as tours to Machu Picchu or the Sahara, diving, a safari, shopping, etc.)

However, that’s not to say it’s all been super easy. I’ve made a ton of rookie mistakes. Even though I’ve read countless articles and books on traveling, once you’re on the road, you tend to get caught up in the moment. It’s one thing to read about it, it’s another thing to be there doing it!

And that can lead to a bunch of easily preventable mistakes! For example, some of the “doh” moments I had:

• I spent 16 EUR on coffee as I was walking with a friend I met in Rome. It was SO hot and we just wanted to get off our feet before going to the Vatican. Big mistake! We even forgot to ask the prices. Since it was so close to the attraction (something I normally never do), each cappuccino was 8 EUR — and I got two! Oh, man were we pissed.
• When I was in Morocco, just before going to the desert, I went to the supermarket to buy three day’s worth of snacks for lunch. I had heard that lunch was not included in your tour price (already ridiculous, at 86 EUR for three days!) and the tour guide, of course, only takes you to expensive lunch places. I did buy a bunch of groceries — 130 dirhams’ worth ($14 USD). But then I ended up eating at the restaurants anyway because I felt too awkward not eating with everyone and too tempted to order a nice chicken tagine instead of eating trail mix.
• Looking back, I would have done a self-guided tour of the Sahara. I knew that before I did the tour, but I was lazy and tired, and I wanted to get out of Morocco. Being lazy is a quick way to burn money — and often also a quick way to have a less special experience.
• I met some really interesting people in Buenos Aires who invited me to dinner. One of them was a local expat who was eager to show us that Buenos Aires “isn’t all meat anymore.” It was a great place, but that dinner was about $25 USD, which was almost my budget for the whole day! Then we had drinks afterward as well.

My Advice for Others: How to Save Money When You Travel

Backpacking isn’t like vacation travel. When you travel on vacation, you have little time but more money. When you backpack, the opposite is true: you have time, but little money.  If you seek too many comforts and conveniences, you’ll blow your budget and have to go home early!

If I were to give advice to others, my main piece of advice would be to take a minute before your trip to think about what expenses you anticipate and what you are willing to spend. (Matt talks a lot about this.) Ask around for the right price for experiences, food, and lodging so that you have the most accurate information. The time you spend researching will help you better budget you money.

On the road, I would suggest doing two things: first is to write down everything and, second, is to forego convenience.

In his book, Matt says, “It’s the people who don’t write down their expenses that go home early.”

Speaking for myself, I can say this is completely true. There were a few days here and there where I would be so caught up in the experiences I was having that I completely forgot to write down my spending. Afterward, when I sat down to recall what I had spent, I realized I was not thinking about these costs and how they fit into my budget.

Writing them all down helped me be mindful how much I was spending. It allowed me to make adjustments to my spending as I went. It’s because of that that I haven’t run out of money yet!

Even more important is foregoing convenience. Backpacking isn’t luxury travel. The majority of the time, there isn’t someone to port your luggage, drive you directly to your lodging, or arrange your day trip or tour. But walking when you can, sharing a ride with other travelers, asking for help from a kind stranger, or arranging your own itinerary — all those are free or nearly free.

Staying on budget has become second nature to me now. It’s not hard once you internalize the strategy and learn to think outside the box. When you do that, you can spend your energy on why you are traveling in the first place: for new experiences and new friends.

I’m ten months into my yearlong trip. Some moments whizzed by. Others felt like they lasted forever. But, overall, it has been everything I hoped it to be – and also unlike anything I expected.

As Heather keeps going with her travels, we’re going to follow along to get more details about her trip, experiences, roadblocks, budgeting, and everything in between! You can follow her journeys on her blog, Heather-Dannyelle.com, as well as on Instagram. She will also be sharing some of her experiences here!
 

How to Travel the World on $75 a Day

My New York Times best-selling book to travel will teach you how to master the art of travel so that you’ll get off save money, always find deals, and have a deeper travel experience. It’s your A to Z planning guide that the BBC called the “bible for budget travelers.”

Click here to learn more and start reading it today!

The post RTW Update: How Heather is Traveling on a Budget appeared first on Nomadic Matt's Travel Site.

Last year, I gave away a trip around the world. After going through thousands of entries, in the end, Heather was the winner.

She has had some amazing adventures already, and now and it’s time to catch up with her and find out about her trip, how the budgeting is going (is she doing $50 a day?), and some more lessons learned as she makes her way across South America.

Nomadic Matt: Hi again! First, let’s catch up! What have you been up to since your last update?
Heather: Since our last update, I spent two months in Peru and now I am in Chile.

I really loved Peru. When I first left for this trip, I didn’t think I would even go to Peru, because I wasn’t sure I could do Machu Picchu, and it didn’t seem right to go to Peru and not see it.

After a few weeks, I met a few travelers who told me how I could do Machu Picchu on a budget, and so I ended up spending two months in the country! (There are a ton of pictures from my time in Peru on my Instagram and more stories on my blog.)

Speaking of budgets, how’s your daily budget going? Can you give us details on how much you are spending per day and where the money is going?
In Peru, I had a much easier time staying on budget. In my first month there, I spent about $600 USD. Northern Peru was so cheap. I couchsurfed a few times and took a camping trip, so it wasn’t hard to stay on budget.

My second month I spent quite a bit more, about $1,200 USD. I found the south a lot more expensive, and I’ll admit I was being overindulgent. There were so many restaurants in Cusco and Arequipa that I wanted to try!

In the north, I couchsurfed in Cajamarca and we ate at his place. I spent 10 soles (about $3 USD) on a bus to Namora (outside of Cajamarca), 10 more soles on a taxi to get to the lake we were visiting, 10 soles for the boat ride, 10 soles for lunch, and 6 soles for the bus ride back. In total, that’s about $14 USD — and it was that much only because we did an activity. Some days our only activity was attending Carnaval, so I might spend just $5 USD that day.

The next week I took the tour through La Cordillera Blanca. It cost 320 soles ($99 USD) to take the four-day tour, plus the entry ticket to the park was 40 soles. My per-day budget in Peru was about 100 soles ($31 USD), so that tour ended up costing less than my daily budget and I got to do an incredible hike.

However, in the south, a typical day might include grabbing coffee with some friends, eating a lunch out, walking around, eating dinner, grabbing drinks, then sitting in the plaza. Some days that was the full agenda, yet it was so expensive.

On our last day together, we decided to eat lunch at a fancy restaurant with a renowned chef, and we spent 100 soles each on that lunch alone. But it was delicious, so it’s hard to regret! For the equivalent of $30 USD, I had a cocktail, a glass of wine, an appetizer, and a full roasted lamb leg with sides that I split with a friend.

How do you stay on budget?
The easiest way I’ve found to stay on budget is to avoid tours. For instance, here in Chile I see pamphlets advertising day trips to Valparaiso for about 55,000 CLP ($90 USD), not including entrance to the museums or lunch. I took a local bus on my own and spent maybe 20,000 pesos on the whole day.

What’s been one of your biggest “budgeting” mistakes? Something that’s made you go “damn, that was dumb!”
My biggest weakness will always be food. I wrote last month that I wasn’t spending that much on food. That was true in Ecuador and my first month in Peru. All that changed when I got to southern Peru, where there are a lot more restaurants and the tourist trade is thriving. My first four days in Cusco I basically camped out at an American-style café, ordering coffee after coffee and 2-3 desserts while I worked on writing and other maintenance tasks.

Boy, was that dumb. I told myself it was TLC, but I didn’t need to indulge that much. I had to learn to balance working in a coffee shop with not blowing my money, by staying in the hostel instead to work — but without going crazy from being stuck inside all day. I’m actually still learning how to do that.

What have you learned so far about yourself?
It feels like I learn something new about myself every day. If I had to pick one thing, I would say I’ve learned that I’m more outgoing than I realized. When you meet a new person on the road and you hit it off, it’s really surprising how quickly you bond. I think it’s partly due to the time crunch — you both know there’s only so much time before you part ways, maybe to never see each other again — and partly that you are both experiencing something new and exhilarating during travel and that tends to bond people together.

I wouldn’t ordinarily be that open to new people back home, but on the road, I’ve met so many amazing people and I love it.

What’s one stereotype/perception you had about South America that you think has changed by actually being there?
The number one stereotype is that South America is a dangerous place, especially for a woman. I did feel wary for a bit in the beginning in Ecuador, mostly because people kept warning me to be safe.

After a while, I learned to take that with a grain of salt. In all honesty, I think the fact that I don’t look like a gringo helps, because I’m not often targeted as much as other travelers I’ve met. There have been very few situations where I’ve actually felt unsafe.

More often, I encounter a lot more people who are concerned for me and go the extra mile to be hospitable and helpful. For instance, I was walking in Valparaiso the other day with my DSLR camera out, taking pictures of the street art. No fewer than four times, a local came up to me and told me to be careful and put my camera away. I thought this was very odd. Four times is more warnings than I received possibly in my entire time in Peru!

The woman who gave me the last warning told me to follow her, and she lead me to the colectivo terminal to make sure I got safely out of a dangerous area. Initially, I was worried she was going to try to scam me, but she asked for nothing in return.

Time and time again, I am surprised by the kindness of strangers. I think people look out for one another more here than we do in the United States.

What’s been your favorite activity?
It’s gotta be Machu Picchu. I know it’s cliché, but it really was wonderful. I met great friends, and we did things like visit hot springs and zip-line. And finally, finally seeing Machu Picchu was a dream come true. It’s every bit as beautiful as it looks in pictures, and it just felt epic to be there.

What’s been your least favorite?
Rainbow Mountain, without a doubt. It is not as magical as people claim. It was freezing at the top (we are headed into winter here), the trail is most ugly (worn down by lots of tourists), and overall just unimpressive.

What are your plans to give back while on the road?
My cousin connected me with a friend in Brazil to get involved in some of the protests and outreach work that has been happening since the shooting of Marielle Franco. I just need to finalize the details when I get to Brazil next week.

I’m also extremely excited because I found an organization to volunteer with in Tanzania. I fly there July 17th, and I will be helping teach English and basic computer skills for a few weeks. Hopefully, I will do more volunteering after that in Kenya and Ethiopia.

What’s the worst thing that’s happened? Do you think it could have been prevented?
Everyone is going chuckle at my penchant for losing things, but the worst thing that has happened was that I lost my GoPro on my Rainbow Mountain trek. I was so mad at myself because I usually wear it on a wrist strap so that I can’t lose it. So of course, the one time I didn’t wear it, I lost it when I climbed up on a horse to get up the mountain. That’s my lesson for being lazy.

On my way down I was crisscrossing the mountain looking for it when someone told me their guide had it and to meet them at the bottom of the mountain to get it. That was stupid. I should have stuck with that person because when I got to the bottom, my guide made me get on the bus and wouldn’t let me wait and wouldn’t help me find the other guide.

It was so frustrating to know that someone had it but I had no way to get it! I lost a time-lapse I took of the fog rolling off Machu Picchu and photos from the trek as well. It’s been a month now and it still bothers me that I lost those pictures.

All things considered, that being the worst thing means nothing bad really happened to me at all. My sister jokes that I lose so many things on the road that by the time I come back I’m going to have an empty bag.

Where are you going next?
I head to Buenos Aires tomorrow morning for a quick four days. Then I head to Iguazu Falls for two days and Rio de Janeiro for two weeks.

Then I head to Morocco for a month. I hope it’s not too hot. And Ramadan begins in the middle of next month, so I’m interested to see what that’s like in a Muslim country. It’s going to be the biggest culture shock for me so far, and I’m anxious to see how I react.

In the following months, Heather will be navigating Europe, Africa, and Southeast Asia. As she keeps going, we’re going to follow along to get more details about her trip, experiences, roadblocks, budgeting, and everything in between!

You can follow her journeys on her blog, Confidently Lost, as well as on Instagram. She will also be sharing some of her experiences here!
 

How to Travel the World on $75 a Day

My New York Times best-selling book to travel will teach you how to master the art of travel so that you’ll get off save money, always find deals, and have a deeper travel experience. It’s your A to Z planning guide that the BBC called the “bible for budget travelers.”

Click here to learn more and start reading it today!

The post How Heather is Traveling South America on a Budget appeared first on Nomadic Matt's Travel Site.

What would you do with a free trip around the world?

Last year, I gave away a trip around the world. After going through thousands of entries, in the end, Heather was the winner. Her story was powerful. She’s been on the road a little over a month now and it’s time to catch up with her and find out about her trip, how the budgeting is going (is she doing $50 a day?), and the lessons learned.

Nomadic Matt: Heather, congrats on winning! You’ve been on your trip for about a month. First, how did you feel about winning?
Heather: Thanks, Matt! Winning was, in a word, surreal. I’ve never felt so dazed in my life. I’ve never won so much as a raffle prize before, so I didn’t actually believe you for at least a solid week. I kept thinking it was a dream, and I was scared to tell people in case it was. My little sister asked me if I was sure it wasn’t a human-trafficking scheme!

Overall, I feel so loved and supported by my friends and family and extremely, extremely lucky.

I’ve been trying to imagine what my mom would say if she were here to see this. I don’t have much of a frame of reference, since I only really started traveling after she passed. However, I’m sure she would be shaking her damn head at this trip! She would definitely think I’m crazy. And I know she definitely wouldn’t understand leaving my stable job to do this.

In the end, though, I know she wouldn’t try to stop me or dissuade me. She would be happy for me; it just might not have been her first reaction. “Stop talking crazy” might have been the first thing!

Where are you going on this trip?
I’m spending the next few months in South America. I originally planned to stay in Peru for three weeks, but I might end up staying for six because there is so much I want to see here! I chose to spend a lot of time in South America because it’s been my dream to backpack here for so long.

I also just love the huge diversity of life and cultures here, and the interaction between indigenous cultures and Spanish colonialism. There are also so many amazing sites (such as the Galápagos, the Amazon, Machu Picchu, etc.). There is so much to learn and soak in.

I leave for Lisbon on May 2nd, and then I want to see Morocco, Greece, Turkey, and East Africa before heading on to Southeast Asia.

It was really hard to choose which countries to visit — my list was originally about 36 countries long! But my friends talked me down and convinced me that it was better to go in-depth than to keep hopping around and tire myself out. I have the rest of my life to go and see the rest of the world.

Where have you been so far?
I spent a few weeks in Ecuador, including the Galápagos, before I moved on to Peru. I’m working my way south and east, eventually to Brazil.

The first week I spent in Quito. While there, I was hosted by friends of my family. I mainly rested and planned the trip, including getting my visa to Brazil at the consulate there.

I was so focused on closing up my life in LA and getting out quickly that I had put barely any thought into my trip. I just left. Taking the time to plan really calmed me. My hosts were really gracious and took great care of me.

After that, my sister came down and we spent a few days in Baños, Ecuador, which was fantastic! I jumped off a bridge and we went canyoning down some waterfalls. We also did a day tour of the Amazon. I had mixed feelings about the tour — I tend to hate planned excursions like that, and there was a part of the day that included an indigenous show that felt forced and disingenuous. It made me a little uncomfortable.

I also spent 10 days in the Galápagos, which was insanely beautiful. It was hard on the budget for sure, but the islands are so well protected. Now I’m in Cajamarca in the north of Peru enjoying the Carnaval celebrations. It’s madness. I’m really not much of a partier. My host is so generous and accommodating, so I’m really enjoying my time here.

How’s your daily budget going? Any big surprises?
I’m definitely running a deficit right now, because of the trip to the Galápagos, but I knew that going in. (Some other expenses too, such as paying for the visa to Brazil ($160 USD), contributed to that as well.) Everything is super expensive on the island. Last-minute cruises for four days are about $1,000 USD, and eight-day cruises start at about $1,700 USD. I opted out of a cruise and decided to do the self-tour, which was a bit more challenging but still an amazing experience.

Hostels on the island are basically $20 USD everywhere, which is about twice as much as on the mainland. But I did find some ways to save money. For instance, I found a restaurant on Santa Cruz Island that served a great $5 USD lunch.

I’m feeling OK about the splurge, though, because I’m saving in other ways. For instance, I bought my flight out of South America to Europe on points. That saved me about $700 USD. I plan on buying most of my flights on points. I’m also doing a lot of Couchsurfing in Peru (and Peru is cheap overall).

Not counting the Galápagos, in the first month, I spent about $600 USD, including my hostels, food, activities. Hostels are generally costing me $10 USD a night, and meals are rarely more than $10 USD each; lunch is usually much less.

In Baños, for instance, we met the owner of an arepas restaurant and just ate lunch there every day. Now, in Cajamarca, between Couchsurfing and the cheap cost of living, I would be surprised if I’ve spent more than $30 USD in the past five days. Breakfast is $1-2 USD, and we took a 30-minute ride bus outside of the city, which cost 5 soles, or about $1.50 USD, each.

Also, looking back on my journal of expenses, I would say I’m spending too much on transportation. I would attribute this to taxis. When I’m out and about, sometimes people tell me it’s unsafe to walk and I should take a taxi. Or, for instance, when I was staying with my family friends in Quito, their house is pretty far from the city, so I would find myself taking a taxi rather than walk the 40 minutes to the bus stop.

If I’m feeling unsure about the situation I’m in (at night or if I don’t see many solo walkers around), I take a taxi. So I think I could cut back or find other ways to avoid feeling unsafe.

Speaking of safety, how do you feel about your safety as a solo female traveler? Is South America safe?”
Yes, I generally feel safe. I’ve only had a few problems. The caveat is that I really don’t go out at night that often (I’m more of a morning person) and tend to stick to the ‘safe’ areas. I get a lot of people warning me to be extra safe and that always freaks me out. I would like to be more adventurous and I’m trying to balance that desire with the practicality of being safe.

The first month is always an adjustment. How are you going to stay on budget in the future?
I’m a huge planner, and taking the time to think through my “must-haves” really helps. I’ve also found that not rushing and going slow helps cut down expenses. I’m trying to take my time and stick to the activities I will really enjoy. For instance, paying admission to see a cathedral almost never makes my list.

A lot of guides online mention churches as the must-sees. I ignore them completely unless there is something different about them. For example, I paid for a tour in Lima to see the catacombs but, other than that, I’d rather use the money elsewhere.

What are some of the lessons you’ve learned so far?
I am learning how to not stress about plans or money, which was something my mom was always trying to teach me. I’m literally living my dream, and it’s foreign to me not to have something or someone to worry about. “If you’re gonna worry, don’t pray. If you’re gonna pray, don’t worry,” is what she would always say. I was never very good at it (to her dismay), but I think she would be happy with how I currently am. My belly is always full and I’m seeing something new every few days. What more could I ask for? Next up, to work on my patience…

What’s the worst thing that’s happened? Do you think it could have been prevented?
Yes! My phone got pickpocketed! It was completely preventable. I was in Baños and I needed a rain jacket because it rains every other second there. I wasn’t used to the pockets and my phone was hanging out slightly. I was just completely comfortable — it’s very safe there, so I didn’t think I had to worry. I noticed it was gone almost immediately. I was pissed because I just paid off that phone so that I could take it on the trip! Sigh…

Finally, what’s been your favorite moment so far?
My favorite moment is a tie between jumping off the bridge in Baños and snorkeling with sea lions and turtles in the Galápagos. Both moments were surreal. I loved jumping from the bridge because I’ve always loved heights. When I watched the video of my jump, it seemed to happen so quickly. But in the moment, the fall felt like it took forever. It felt so long that I forgot I was tethered and almost felt like I was flying. I would do it a thousand more times.

The water in the Galapagos was so clear and beautiful and the animals were so unafraid and curious. The chance to observe up close and interact with them was so beautiful. I loved feeling as though I was part of a different world. I just want a million more moments like that.

In the following months, Heather will be navigating South America, Europe, Africa, and Southeast Asia. As she keeps going, we’re going to follow along to get more details about her trip, experiences, roadblocks, budgeting, and everything in between! You can follow her journeys on her blog, Heather-Dannyelle.com, as well as on Instagram. She will also be sharing some of her experiences here!
 

How to Travel the World on $75 a Day

My New York Times best-selling book to travel will teach you how to master the art of travel so that you’ll get off save money, always find deals, and have a deeper travel experience. It’s your A to Z planning guide that the BBC called the “bible for budget travelers.”

Click here to learn more and start reading it today!

The post The RTW Trip Giveaway: A Winner’s Update (Part 1) appeared first on Nomadic Matt's Travel Site.

I first met Staci when she came to one of my meet-ups in New York City. She wanted to thank me for helping her travel the world.

See, for her, it’s not as simple as just getting on a plane and going somewhere. Staci was born with a rare genetic condition that has left her deaf, with fused fingers and jaw, and a host of other medical issues. Determined to not sit on the sidelines, Staci has worked hard to overcome the obstacles before her so that she can make her travel dreams a reality.

So, without further ado, here’s Staci!

Nomadic Matt: Hi Staci! Tell us about yourself!
Staci: My name is Staci and I’m 28 years old. I happen to have Nager syndrome, a super rare genetic condition wherein I was born with fused jaws, fused elbows, four fingers, and deafness, to name some fun facts about it. I’ve had many surgeries to correct a lot of issues and increase my quality of life.

I was born in Seattle and moved to an incredibly rural town in New York when I was ten. I’ve always had an interest in languages and other cultures.

Even though I’m deaf, I easily excelled in Spanish past my third-grade hearing classmates because I found it fun and challenging. My other loves are history and art and yes, they got combined into a bachelor’s in art history and museum professions.

I like anything that challenges me, and I hate being stagnant.

How did you get into travel?
When I was growing up, my family made various trips around the United States, but it wasn’t until my senior year at a small high school for the deaf that I went to Italy and Greece with the senior and junior classes.

There, I finally experienced what it’s like to travel, even though I felt stifled by the chaperones and the itinerary. But it gave me a taste, and I wanted more. I became addicted to the idea of freedom.

In 2010, I was supposed to go to Montreal with a friend for spring break, but she had to drop out. I went ahead anyway and experienced the freedom of solo travel: I could do whatever I wanted without any set plans. I loved it.

I took off for Germany, in March 2011, which kick-started my months-long trip through Europe. I didn’t tell my family for a few weeks, because I didn’t want to be discouraged and made to stay home.

I explored Germany, Austria, Slovenia, Croatia, Bosnia, and Serbia.

I fell in love with Belgrade and stayed there for two months until I had to return home in August due to a broken arm.

In 2012, I went to Nicaragua for spring break. It was my first taste of Latin America, and I knew I wanted to learn more Spanish.

Then in 2013 and 2014, I went to Mexico, which quickly became my favorite country—one that I want to move to in the future. I felt connected there and I could be as independent as I wished.

It was also easy to get more of my special food at a large grocery store, even if it was expensive compared to local food. In 2015, I headed to Ecuador on spring break, and in 2016, I found a cheap flight to Iceland—seeing the northern lights was easily the highlight of my week there.

2017 featured a birthday trip to the Philippines, my first Asian country. Recently I spent a month in Mexico visiting my friends and hanging out like a local.

What’s been the biggest lesson so far?
Budgeting. I had zero ideas about budgeting on my first huge trip and overspent so much. I have gotten better with it, but I still struggle. For example, my mom had to help me with a $130 domestic flight in Iceland because I was so horrible at budgeting.

Another struggle is overpacking. Even if I manage to pack a just week’s worth of clothes, it’s too much, because I have to also bring many bottles of my special food.

How did you fix these mistakes? How did you get better at them?
Well, as for budgeting, I learned that I need more money than I thought, so I saved more. Now I also tend to focus on places that are cheap for the most part, and if my original plans fall through, I have backup plans so I don’t have to spend unexpectedly or borrow money. I have gotten better with money, but I do still slip up.

When it comes to packing, I try my best to pack only 3-4 bottoms and several dresses, but I still have a tendency to pack too many shirts. Being short in height, a lot of my clothes are on the small side, which it makes it easy to overpack my backpack. I do try to pack two pairs of shoes max, besides flip-flops, but my favorite waterproof Dr. Martens shoes definitely take up a lot of room when I’m not wearing them. I stuff socks into my shoes, and I always roll my clothes.

Since I do have a habit of going shopping while traveling, I try to not pack too much, only to end up with an even heavier backpack when I return. When I was in Europe the first time, I shipped things home because my backpack was getting heavy with stuff I got for my family and with cold-weather clothes I no longer needed in warmer weather.

Now, I basically layer as much as I can if heading to a cooler place.

What resources are out there for deaf travelers?
Seek the World by Calvin Young is a good resource for deaf travelers since he is deaf himself. He has a very active Facebook page, and he shows the different finger-spellings and signs of various countries. He also links to other helpful resources that encourage more deaf people to travel.

Another option is No Barriers by Joel Barish. He posts vlogs in which he meets deaf locals around the world and asks them about their jobs and lives. He’s also the founder of DeafNation, which is focused on deaf “language, culture, and pride.”

How do you communicate if sign language is different in every other language?
I always have my iPhone with me, but I also carry my notepad in my purse when using a phone is not ideal (safety or it not being charged). There’s also international sign language, but I don’t know it, although I do know a little bit of Mexican Sign Language. I also used to be able to speak, but a medical complication happened so, at this moment, speaking is not possible. I am the worst at lip-reading, and even though I wear hearing aids, I just prefer to type things out.

You mentioned you have a fused jaw so it’s hard to eat. Do you only travel for short periods? How do you get around your medical needs when you travel? Do you just carry everything with you?
Nager syndrome makes eating difficult. I recently had surgery to open my jaws, and it was the first successful surgery to do that; however, I still can’t eat solid food because I need therapy to get those unused muscles to work and other fun medical stuff.

All the challenges I faced were related to my food. Running out is easy to do, and I can’t just bring five boxes or 16 bottles since I travel solo and it would exceed the check-in weight limit for flights and make packing impossible for me. Everywhere in Europe, and even in some other countries, I cannot find my special food and I’m left without many options for nutrition due to my fused jaws. Soups cannot fill me up, and smoothies, milkshakes, etc. are not a solution either, because it’s too easy to lose weight, which is a very bad thing for me.

It’s also extremely easy for me to choke on a small pieces of food, so I can’t just eat peas, rice, or corn, and I don’t like mashed potatoes.

My food is for nutrition purposes, and I drink about 7+ bottles a day to fill me up. Traveling for several months at a time depends on if I’m able to get my food or not. I cannot find Ensure Plus anywhere in Europe, whether at pharmacies or large grocery stores, so forget about my staying there long-term. At least in Mexico, I could find it easily and therefore can stay there for several months if I wish, but it’s expensive and the cost eats into my budget.

As for taking my food with me when I fly, I always hold up the TSA line because they need to test my food—and on occasion open a bottle (then I drink that bottle at my gate). I always carry a doctor’s note to show to the agents, and I try to be as pleasant as I can to make everything go smoother and quicker.

When I had a layover in Taipei on the way to the Philippines, security and customs were more intense with my food, and I was nervous that they would not allow me to bring it with me even though I showed my doctor’s note, but luckily I had no issues.

I do carry everything with me when I travel. I love that international flights allow free checked bags so I take advantage of that, but even so, I often have no room for food in my checked backpack. So my carry-on bags are incredibly heavy with the many bottles I bring. If I do manage to pack food in my checked backpack, even when they’re stuffed in a garbage bag to prevent food from spilling all over my things, I always find the garbage bag ripped apart because of TSA inspections to make sure everything is OK.

Is there a big community of travelers with your condition that you can get support and information from?
Well, since my condition is incredibly rare and requires so many surgeries to improve our lives, it’s not a large group, probably hundreds of people. However, every two years, the Foundation for Nager and Miller Syndrome hosts a conference somewhere in America. I do not go to these much, because usually I’m one of very few who use ASL (or the only one), and often it’s hard to relate to others whose experiences are very different from mine.

There’s also a private, international Facebook group for people with Nager syndrome and their family members, but since it’s a private group, I’m not going to share it because we don’t want bullying.

What have been some of your favorite experiences?
One of my favorite experiences was seeing the northern lights in Iceland. That week, it rained pretty much every day and snowed one day. But on my last day there, it was sunny for once and that night was clear, so I was able to see them.

My other favorite experience was the Philippines, because it was an amazing country, even if I couldn’t stand the heat. I got to see tarsiers (a kind of primate) and the Chocolate Hills, and swam in the comfortable waters of Palawan.

But my number one favorite thing to do is to travel to many amazing places and learn about them and their culture. I’m a huge history and art nerd, and I get so excited when I visit historical sites and museums such as El Tajín, Teotihuacán, Museo Nacional de Antropología, and Museo El Tamayo in Mexico, or El Museo de Arte Precolombino Casa del Alabado, a museum dedicated to pre-Columbian history in Quito, Ecuador.

What’s your number one piece of advice for new travelers?
Make the effort to meet locals on your travels. Couchsurfing and Airbnb are my favorite ways to meet locals when I travel.

It’s awesome to learn about the culture of a place you visit.

But again, I’m a huge art and history nerd and so am incredibly interested in learning about cultures and languages. Even though I’m deaf, I’ve never had any problems communicating, and for some odd reason, even though I’m shy as hell, I’m more outgoing and willing to chat it up with people outside of America.
 

Become the Next Success Story

One of my favorite parts about this job is hearing people’s travel stories. They inspire me, but more importantly, they also inspire you. I travel a certain way but there are many ways to fund your trips and travel the world. I hope these stories show you that there is more than one way to travel and that it is within your grasp to reach your travel goals. Here are more examples of people who overcame obstacles and made their travel dreams a reality:

• Traveling the World Blind: An Interview with Dan
• How Jim Didn’t Let a New Disability Change His Travels
• Racism on the Road: An Interview with Alex
• How this 70-Year-Old Couple Bucked Tradition to Travel the World

How to Travel the World on $75 a Day

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The post How Staci Didn’t Let a Medical Condition Prevent Her Traveling appeared first on Nomadic Matt's Travel Site.

One of the most popular budget-travel apps is Couchsurfing. It’s a social network website that allows you to connect with locals abroad who can share their insider tips and advice or provide you with a free place to stay.

I remember I used it when I was first traveling and stayed at this lovely home in Athens. Since that first trip, I’ve used it dozens of times to meet people, hang out, and save money on accommodation.

Celinne, on the other hand, created — and used — her own personal social network. She traveled the world only by staying with friends and friends of friends. She reached out on the web and found strangers willing to open their homes to her. Not only did this help her lower her travel costs, but it also allowed her to meet wonderful, fascinating, and kind-hearted people.

To me, travel is about the human connections we make — and she found a way to make some great ones. Here’s her story, what inspired her to do this, and what she learned along the way.

Nomadic Matt: Tell us about yourself. Who are you? What drives you?
Celinne Da Costa: My love story with travel dates as far back as I can remember: I was born in the heart of Rome to an immigrant Brazilian mother and a German-raised Italian father.

Since leaving Italy, I’ve gone from living in the quintessential suburbia neighborhoods that American dreams are made of, to frenziedly exploring Philadelphia while balancing my studies at University of Pennsylvania, to adventuring my way through every nook and cranny of New York City.

Last year, I left behind my corporate advertising job in the city to design my dream life from scratch. I began with a journey around the world, in which I harnessed the power of human connection and kindness to stay with 70+ strangers in 17 countries across four continents.

Eighteen months later, I’m still traveling full-time and writing a book about my experience circumnavigating the globe by couchsurfing through my social network.

What fuels your passion for travel?
Travel accelerates personal growth and challenges me to become the best version of myself. There are so many beautiful places in the world, but after a while, they begin to blend into one another. What truly makes travel valuable is the lessons it can teach you, if you are willing to be present and pay attention to your environment.

Travel has helped me develop the humility and goodwill to learn from people that I meet along the way. It has pushed me to understand my insignificance on this planet, yet still take actions that will positively impact others.

Most importantly, it has challenged me to open my heart to others and live in the moment. Ultimately, travel is not a matter of what I see, but who I become along the way. I don’t need to see the entire world. I just want to feel it run through my veins.

Tell us about this long adventure you were just on. How did you think of it? How long did it last? Where did you go? What did you do?
I didn’t want to just quit my corporate 9-5 job on a whim and travel the world without a plan. I wanted to make travel into a lifestyle, not a sabbatical, so I decided to design a project that would:

1. Incorporate my main passions (travel, writing, and making connections with interesting humans)
2. Create opportunities for a lifestyle change once I was done.

I challenged myself to design my dream life, attempt to live it out for six months and re-evaluate once I got there.

That’s where the idea of my social experiment came from: I circumnavigated the globe by couchsurfing through my network. I wanted to reincorporate real human connection back into my life.

During this time, I never used Couchsurfing since everyone who hosted me was connected to me somehow (friends, friends of friends, people I met on the road).

I ended up being on the road for nine months for this project, and having 73 hosts in 17 countries across 4 continents: I passed through Europe, the Middle East, Southeast Asia, Oceania, and the United States.

How did you actually find hosts to host you? How far ahead did you know where you were going to sleep? 
There were no websites involved! Only sheer human connection. All the interactions were initiated by me and were enabled by my phone (texting, voice notes, calling) and social media (mostly Instagram and Facebook).

I reached out to everyone I knew telling them about my project and asking whether they knew someone they could connect me with. I kept moving from one connection to the next until I found someone willing to host me. As my project grew and people started finding out about it, hosts started to reach out to me through Instagram.

I only had a one-way ticket to Italy (where I’m originally from) booked – everything else was on a whim. I had a general trajectory of where I was going, and I would add or subtract places depending on my hosting situation.

There were places I wanted to visit no matter what, so there were often times when I was down to the wire and didn’t find a host until super last minute. Other times, I had hosts lined up months ahead.

It always worked out — I was only left without a host once, in Croatia. I ended up renting a cheap room last minute, but luckily, I did make some local friends on that trip so I’ll have a place to stay if I return!

What was the furthest connection with a host that you stayed with? How did that happen?
My furthest connection was seven degrees in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. It was: my mom’s friend’s girlfriend’s client’s client’s co-worker’s friend. It was crazy how it happened. I kept struggling to find a place, and each person would pass me along to someone else they knew until eventually, someone was available and willing to host. This happened several times during my travels — I also had plenty of five- and six-degree connections. I was taken aback by how dedicated people were to finding me a place to stay.

Did you ever meet someone on the road and stay with them? Or did you strictly stay with friends of friends?
Yes, all the time! There was never a point when I had all my hosts lined up – I usually had my next couple of destinations planned, and everything else up in the air. I was constantly meeting and befriending travelers on the road, and upon hearing about my project, a vast majority would offer to host me without me even asking.

For example, I met an older gentleman for all of 30 minutes as I was leaving a meditation retreat in Nepal (which, funny enough, was also part of my project: my Kathmandu’s cousin worked so I was his guest). Despite knowing me so briefly, he offered to host me in Tasmania. I ended up visiting his and his wife’s farm (located in the middle of nowhere) six months later with another host, and it was amazing.

Four complete strangers ended up spending an entire evening sharing stories about our travels and philosophies on life over a feast of freshly caught crayfish and vegetables picked from their garden.

Tell us a few host stories that completely surprised you when you were on the road.
If there is anything I learned from meeting hundreds of people during my travels, it’s that there is so much more than we could ever fathom going on below the surface of a human being. It is our nature to categorize things.

With people, it tends to be by culture, race, geography, religion, etc. If you make an active effort to put these categories aside, sit down with locals, and demonstrate some basic interest in their lives and stories, you’ll find that each person is their own universe.

In fact, the most incredible nuggets of wisdom I’ve gotten came from people who didn’t even realize their own brilliance.

One of my favorite encounters was with Maung, an older gentleman that I met who was a hotel manager in Myanmar. After some conversation, I found out he smuggled cows to Thailand for a living when he was younger, and was a commander in the guerilla fighting movement against the oppressive regime alongside a monk who later became famous for his humanitarian efforts towards orphaned children. What a story!

Then, there is Adam, the Italian-American host I fell head-over-heels in love with (spoiler: we broke up). We grew up less than an hour away from each other in the US yet I found him while he was living in Australia.

Lastly, I’ll never forget asking my host Anna in Bali whether she knew of a spiritual healer and her telling me that she lived with one. That week, I spent most of my evenings sitting on their porch in an Ubud village, discussing the meaning of love and happiness as they proceeded to school me on life with their wise Balinese philosophy.

What challenges did you have Couchsurfing around the world? How did you deal with them?
I could never predict the comfort or location convenience of my accommodation, so I really had to learn to go with the flow and not set any expectations.

I’ve stayed in penthouses with my own private room, bathroom, and maid, and I’ve also stayed in cots on the floor of a village with a hole for a toilet. It’s funny because some of my most “uncomfortable” hosting accommodations ended up being my richest and best experiences, and vice versa.

Also, “reading” my hosts was a challenge. Their reasons for hosting me were so different: some wanted to pay it forward, others wanted to actively show me their city and pick my brain, and others were only offering a place to stay but didn’t necessarily want to socialize. I had to sharpen my people skills so I could stay respectful and intuitive to people’s boundaries (or lack thereof).

What are your tips for people who are inspired by your story and want to do this on their own? What are some great resources you suggest to use?
Identify what you are passionate about, and try to build your travels around what works for you. My project was successful because I tapped into my strengths and passions.

If you’d like to create a project around your travels, I suggest you customize it around your preferences: if you are an introvert and hate talking to people, for example, spending hours a day chatting with people and asking them to host you may not be the best idea.

Make your journey fun by catering to what you really feel comfortable and happy doing, and make sure you do some planning ahead of time.

My best resource was fellow travelers who had also done round-the-world trips. When I was thinking about doing this trip, I reached out to full-time travelers on Instagram, asked friends if they knew people who went on long travel trips, and did a lot of “blog surfing.”

I had so many Skype calls with strangers who had just finished round-the-world trips before I left for my own. Talking through my doubts, fears, and confusions — and being reassured that I would be okay made me so much more comfortable with leaving.

Specifically, my trip was inspired by one of my mentors Leon Logothetis, who is the author of the book (and now TV show) The Kindness Diaries. He traveled the world on a yellow motorbike relying on people to offer him gas, food, or shelter, to prove to himself and to others that humanity was kind.

Other books I also read that prepared me for the trip were Vagabonding by Rolf Potts, The Art of Travel by Alain de Botton, and A New Earth: Awakening To Your Life’s Purpose by Eckhart Tolle.

How do you make your money last on the road? What are some of your best tips?
My top tips for people trying to make it work financially on the road:

1. Know your weaknesses, and plan for them – I’m terrible at numbers and never budgeted before, but I knew I would have to if I wanted to make this work financially. I created an excel sheet and for the past 18 months, have been documenting and categorizing every single expense so I can track where I need to cut down if necessary.

I also knew I’d go crazy if I didn’t occasionally treat myself to something I liked but wasn’t necessary, so I gave myself a monthly “frivolous stuff” allowance.

2. Always remember that you can barter or negotiate – Traveling and negotiating on the road taught me that currency is not only monetary — it is social as well. I did not have abundant funds, but I did have a skillset: I am a brand strategist by trade, as well as a writer, social media influencer, and content creator.

When negotiating with dollars didn’t get me anywhere, I would offer my services in exchange for goods or services of similar perceived value. In many areas of the world, people respond favorably to a favor exchange.

If marketing isn’t your skillset, that’s totally ok too! I’ve seen people barter all kinds of skills for experiences of places to stay: for example, exchanging farm work or teaching English for room and board, helping a small business with coding a website in exchange for free tours, etc. The possibilities are endless!

3. Embrace the minimalist lifestyle – When I’m on the road, I live a very minimalist lifestyle. I only travel with a carry-on to keep my belongings to a minimum, I hardly buy souvenirs or clothes, I walk or take public transportation whenever possible, and I buy most of my food at the grocery store.

I normally don’t pay for culture and history-related activities or tours; I email places ahead of time, tell them about my project and that I’m a writer (in addition to having my own social media following, I also write for some major publications…both which I achieved by creating this social experiment).

Since I stay with locals, I don’t pay for accommodation, which helps tremendously.

Were your family and friends supportive of your traveling adventure?
Surprisingly, yes. I was originally nervous to tell my family and friends about my plan to quit my job to travel around the world by sleeping in random people’s homes – I really expected them to try to talk me out of it.

Although a handful of them did, the vast majority had a response along the lines of “Yes! You need to do this!”

I was overwhelmed by the support, how much they believed in me, and how they supported me along the way, emotionally as well as by connecting me to potential hosts. I couldn’t have made it without them!

What’s on your bucket list?
Oof, am I allowed to say every country in the world? If had to narrow down to five places that I’m itching to see, they are: Peru, Bolvia, Antarctica, Japan, and the Philippines.

Now I just need to find hosts there!

Do you have any advice for people that feel like Couchsurfing is something dangerous that they could never do?
Yes! The first rule is probably the hardest to internalize: you have to trust people. We live in a world that is constantly inundating us with news of what terrible humans we are, but that is not the case at all.

I found all over the world that most people are good, and want to help. I have enough stories about people who went out of their way in kindness for me to fill a book (and that’s why I’m writing one!).

Of course, there are exceptions, and that’s where my second piece of advice comes in: trust your intuition. Western society particularly values mind over heart, and that’s something I learned to question during my time in Southeast Asia. It’s important to use rationality and logic when moving through life, but there is something about intuition that just cannot be quantified.

Listen to what your gut tells you. If something feels off, remove yourself from the situation, no questions asked.

Overall, I’ve surfed over 100 couches in the past couple of years and I’ve only had one bad experience which I quickly removed myself from before it escalated. Statistically, that’s a 1% weirdo rate.

Believe that people are good, and that’s the world that will manifest for you!
 

Become the Next Success Story

One of my favorite parts about this job is hearing people’s travel stories. They inspire me, but more importantly, they also inspire you. I travel a certain way but there are many ways to fund your trips and travel the world. 

I hope these stories show you that there is more than one way to travel and that it is within your grasp to reach your travel goals.

Here are more examples of people who overcame obstacles and made their travel dreams a reality:

• How Angela Travels the World as an Au Pair
• How Oneika Gets Teaching Jobs Around the World
• How Helen Successfully Traveled and Volunteered Around Africa
• Why Trish Sold Everything She Owned to Travel
• An Interview with Lee Abbamonte, the Youngest American to Visit Every Country in the World

Celinne Da Costa left behind her corporate advertising job in the city to design her dream life from scratch. Follow her journey at Celinne Da Costa as well as Instagram and Facebook or pick up her book of short stories, The Art of Being Human. 
 

The post How to Use Your Social Network to Travel the World appeared first on Nomadic Matt's Travel Site.