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