Updated: 1/5/2019 | January 5th, 2019
While many of us dream of traveling the world (or at least taking a few months off from work in pursuit of adventure), it’s not always feasible, even for those with the best of intentions. A lot of things can get in the way.
I frequently talk about long-term travel and round-the-world trips, but I know that realistically, not everyone can or wants to enjoy this style of travel. I don’t think traveling the world is hard, but I also know that what I do isn’t for everyone.
Some people just want to go on a cheap vacation for a few weeks. Not everyone has the time or luxury to take an extended trip.
So what do you do when you only have a short amount of time and a short amount of money?
What are some budget vacation ideas that aren’t about traveling the world?
Even if I won’t find you backpacking Cambodia for three months or walking the Camino de Santiago, there are many ways to get on the road and see the world without breaking the bank! Here are eight cheap travel ideas if you are cash-strapped and/or time-poor:
Cheap Vacation Idea 1: Be a Local Tourist
How often do you visit the tourist sites in your own city? Hardly ever, right? I know New Yorkers who have never seen the Statue of Liberty and Bostonians who have never walked the Freedom Trail. I once took a Dutch friend on a tour of Amsterdam because, despite growing up there, she had never seen the local attractions that lure millions of visitors to the city every year.
We’re all guilty of this. It took me five years to see the Jim Thompson House in Bangkok (even after living there), and I’ve still never been to Bunker Hill in Boston despite spending the first 24 years of my life there.
We always put it off until tomorrow, because when we live in a city, we think there is always a tomorrow.
We get so caught up in our daily lives we forget that we can have a cheap vacation in our own city. We don’t have to go anywhere!
If you’re short on time and money, there’s no better way to spend some free time than to wander your own city. No matter what its size, it has a number of wonders that you’ve never seen or even known about because you just don’t like! We’re busy leading our lives and following our routines. It’s normal but let’s look at your home with new eyes.
Be a traveler in your own town!
Important tips: When you become a local tourist, check out of your house and into a hotel, hostel, or guesthouse. It’s important to get out of your familiar environment because if you stay home, you’ll find something to do around the house and create excuses for why you can’t sightsee. Moving to a different location can help give you that feeling of adventure, excitement, and unfamiliarity.
Moreover, be sure to go to your local tourism office and get a city tourism pass. These cards allow you to see a wide range of local attractions for free or reduced prices and can be your way to see your local sites on a budget. They aren’t just for outsiders!
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Cheap Vacation Idea 2: Travel Regionally
Travel brings to mind faraway and exotic destinations. It invokes images of all the places we’ve dreamed of and seen in movies. Because of that, few people look in their own backyard for adventure — as my Aussie friends always tell me before they jet off somewhere, “Mate, you’ve probably seen more of Oz than I have!” — but it offers just as many places to travel.
I could say the same thing as my Aussie friends. I grew up in Boston, and from there, I could visit New Hampshire, the woods of Maine, the bed-and-breakfasts of the Berkshires, or the farms of Vermont. New York was a four-hour car ride from home. How often did I do that? Not often enough!
Exploring your own region is an underrated and often overlooked aspect of travel. It gets the occasional lip service in magazines, but driving across the United States made me realize how much our own countries have to offer us and how often we overlook that for some foreign place.
There’s something special about being a stranger in your homeland and realizing you really don’t know much about it as you thought.
We think because we’re born in a place we understand it but every country has regional differences that make it unique and, unless we travel to see and experience them, we’ll never fully understand the place we call home.
Driving across my country (the U.S.) taught me a lot about it. It gave me a deep appreciation for it, the people, and the diversity within its borders. It broke down stereotypes and misconceptions I had about the different regions in the US. My time exploring my own backyard was just as important to my growth as any trip to a foreign country.
If you’re on a limited budget, can’t afford a flight or a trip to exotic lands, or just want to do something different, don’t forget that you can always travel your own country. It can be just as powerful as visiting another country.
Cheap Vacation Idea 3: Go to National Parks
The great outdoors present a great chance to go somewhere on the cheap. Camping, after all, costs very little money. Camping fees in national parks are as little as $15 USD per night in the United States, $15-40 CAD in Canada, $10-60 AUD in Australia, and $17-22 NZD in New Zealand. And in many places in Japan and Europe (especially Scandinavia), you can camp on public lands for free. Additionally, you go camping stocked with all your own supplies and accommodation (i.e., a tent), so you don’t have to worry about spending lots of extra money. Your food bill can be whatever you spend on groceries and nothing more.
You don’t need to love camping to spend time in the national parks, either. Personally, I hate camping. I’m not the camp-in-a-tent kind of guy; I need toilets, beds, and hot water. Luckily, many parks provide cabins. While hiking the Grand Canyon, I stayed at a national park lodge at the bottom. I had a room in a dormitory, but for a few nights, it was the cheap accommodation I needed.
There’s almost always a park nearby and spending a few days with nature is not only good for your wallet but also good for your soul.
Along these same lines, Camp in My Garden is a website that lets people camp in someone’s backyard (or garden). Got an RV that needs parking? Check out RV with Me, which finds cheap parking and overnight solutions for RV owners!
Cheap Vacation Idea 4: Book a Last-Minute Cruise (or Book Far in Advance)
Cruises are normally very expensive, affairs with a seven-day Caribbean cruise costing over $600–700 USD per person for a small interior room. And, if you’re traveling alone, you often have to pay the price of two people since not many cruise lines offer single traveler rooms!
But, if you’re the last passenger running onto that ship, you can find some sweet deals.
Cruise lines always offer incredible last-minute deals. No ship’s captain – or cruise company – wants to leave with half the cabins empty. If you wait until a few weeks before departure, you can find some really amazing deals as cruise lines scramble to find passengers. Plus, cruise operators always throw in some on-board amenities, free upgrades, and cash vouchers to sweeten the deal.
The website CruiseSheet often has cruises as low as $30 per day! (It’s the best cruise booking website in the world!)
Conversely, if you book over a year in advance, cruise lines also offer amazing low fares for early birds.
Cruises are the one form of travel for which I recommend visiting a travel agent if you’re part of a big group. They have wonderful working relationships with the operators and can score better packages than booking online.
After you book, keep an eye out on prices, because if they drop, you can often call your travel agent or the cruise company itself to get a partial refund or vouchers to use for dining and alcohol on the boat.
READ THIS —> Click here to read my guide to finding super discounted cruises (and how to save money once you are on board.)
Cheap Vacation Idea 5: Think Outside the Box
Forget Mexico and go to Guatemala. Skip Paris and head to Budapest. Forget Italy and see Greece (it’s really cheap!). Ditch Brazil and take on Bolivia instead. The list goes on and on. There are countless cheap alternatives and budget destinations around the world!
Travel counter to the prevailing trend.
Zig when everyone zags.
If people are going in the summer, you go in the spring or winter. Skip the popular destinations and head off the beaten path a bit.
Contrarian travel will save you a bundle of money. It’s like reverse commuting. While others heading into the city in the morning for work are stuck in traffic, you breeze the opposite way hassle free. The same is true for travel.
The more you are a contrarian in where – and when you go – the better off you’re wallet will be. Plus, you’ll enjoy destinations more because there will be fewer crowds. No one loves a crowd!
READ THIS –> Click here for 10 Destinations to Visit on a Budget to help give you ideas on where you to go!
Cheap Vacation Idea 6: Book a Last-Minute Tour
Just like cruises, tours are best booked last-minute. Tour companies need to fill the seats just like cruise companies, because once that trip departs, they still have the same costs. Last-minute tour bookings work the same way as cruise bookings.
Why are tours so cheap last-minute? Well, think about how people plan vacations. You get the time off work, you book your vacation, you buy your flight, and you go. Since people pre-book, prices are higher in advance because these companies understand booking patterns and then price accordingly. As departure time nears, companies know people aren’t likely to turn up and book on departure day, so they sweeten the price to increase bookings. So take the time off work, wait until the week before, see what’s cheap, and then go.
My favorite company, Intrepid Travel, often offers 15–30% discounts on last-minute tours.
Cheap Vacation Idea 7: Become a House Sitter
Accommodation can eat into the cost of a trip big-time. You might get a flight deal, but then accommodation — even if you can find it cheaply — might push the cost of your trip into unaffordable territory. A way around that is to stay somewhere for free. While I like Couchsurfing, it’s hard to do that for two weeks without annoying your host. A unique way to overcome this is to house-sit for someone while they are on vacation. You get free accommodation, a kitchen to cook in, and the chance to explore a destination in depth. It’s a pretty unique way to travel and one that I know a lot of world travelers take advantage of. You can even do this in your own region too, to cut down on transportation costs.
READ THIS —> How to Become a Housesitter
Cheap Vacation Idea 8: Grab a Cheap Flight
Nowadays, you don’t have to guess where the cheapest flight from your home would be. You can look up a whole list of flights (from cheapest to increasingly more expensive) using a site like Momondo or Google Flights. With those sites, you can type in “(the closest airport to you)” for your departure city and “everywhere” for your destination. Then a list of the cheapest flights appears in front of your very eyes, so you can choose where to go within your budget. This is how I decide where to go when I don’t have a specific place in mind. It’s a great tool!
Here are some other great airline booking sites where you can find deals:
- Skyscanner – Skyscanner has a very intuitive platform that lets you search for an open-ended trip. If you’re not 100% sure where you want to go (or when) then start your search with Skyscanner.
- Kiwi – Kiwi recently updated their search platform, making it much more intuitive and user-friendly. You can also search multiple cities and countries at once, making this a must-use platform when looking for budget flights.
- AirTreks – If you’re looking to plan a multi-city trip, AirTreks offers great deals for round-the-world adventures with multiple stops.
***
Not everyone can jump overseas at the drop of a hat or spend six months backpacking around Europe or Asia. A fancy vacation to Mexico may be out of your reach. But while you might not have a lot of time or money, luckily there’s more than one way to see the world. These cheap vacation ideas may be exactly what you’re looking for!
Travel is simply the art of going somewhere new and different and exploring everything the place has to offer. It doesn’t matter if you have two days, two weeks, or two months. Use these cheap vacation ideas and go explore – on a budget!
Want more? Read these articles to get more specific destination ideas for where to have a budget vacation:
- Five Destinations Under $30
- Cheap Places to Visit on the US Dollar
- 10 Best Places to Travel on a Budget
Want to Learn How I Travel the World for Free?
Stop paying full price! Download our free guide to travel hacking and learn:
- How To Pick a Credit Card
- How To Earn Miles for Free Flights & Hotels
- Is Travel Hacking Really a Scam?
Book Your Trip: Logistical Tips and Tricks
Book Your Flight
Find a cheap flight by using Skyscanner or Momondo. They are my two favorite search engines because they search websites and airlines around the globe so you always know no stone is left unturned.
Book Your Accommodation
To find the best budget accommodation, use Booking.com as they consistently return the cheapest rates for guesthouses and cheap hotels. I use them all the time. You can book your hostel – if you want that instead – with Hostelworld as they have the most comprehensive inventory.
Don’t Forget Travel Insurance
Travel insurance will protect you against illness, injury, theft, and cancellations. It’s comprehensive protection in case anything goes wrong. I never go on a trip without it as I’ve had to use it many times in the past. I’ve been using World Nomads for ten years. My favorite companies that offer the best service and value are:
- World Nomads (for everyone below 70)
- Insure My Trip (for those over 70)
Looking for the best companies to save money with?
Check out my resource page for the best companies to use when you travel! I list all the ones I use to save money when I travel – and I think will help you too!
Earn on the Road
Also try CouchSurfing your way through a country. If your only major expense is transportation and food, in many countries you can travel on nearly nothing.
Also, if you’re in Europe, sign up to Ryan Air’s newsletters. Hop on board the £5 flights that come your way every once in a while and take spontaneous, extremely cheap trips whenever they come up.
Cheers 🙂
Gene
hi there. ive never tried CS but want to try.. can you share you experience? did the host take you around their city to show you sites? was it during the weekend, since most people work? how did it actually play out? thanks!
Stephen
House sitting is a great way to go for digital nomads, too.
Marilynn
Also, if you have a decent home you can trade houses. I was going to go that route but it is too confining for me. I want to wander.
John
Great list Matt. I work in a different city each week, and that has made coming home on the weekends seem like a vacation to me. I’ve been slowly working my way through all the tourist sites I missed for the first 25 years of my life, and I’ve discovered some incredible attractions and museums that I never thought twice about before.
Alex
Excellent list. I especially like the first two suggestions. Now that I’m location independent and living in Thailand, I think about what I would have done with the luxury of this much time back home in New York. I would have seen and done much more! And when I go home to visit I look forward to doing just that.
Gene
location independence is definitely an attractive goal!
whats the “secret”..advertising revenue via blog traffic? this market just seems so saturated. or is that not neccessarily the case?
thanks!
Adam Costa
Dude, I’m with you on Guatemala. We’re here right now (in Antigua) and it’s really cheap.
$800/month for a really nice apartment
$3 lunches (called “almuerzos”)
$7 steak dinners with potatoes, veggies and tortillas.
Oh… and did I mention a litre of rum is $7. WOO-HAA!
Marilynn
I LIVE half the year in a condo on the Sea of Cortez in Baja Sur, Mexico. The comment that gets to me the most is, “I could never afford that.” Excuse me, but we were not wealthy, we just made a decision and made a plunge to buy back 20 years ago. Can you imagine cashing in half your retirement savings to buy a condo in a foreign country? Well IT WAS OUR RETIREMENT and now it is MY retirement. Take the risks, they are the pay offs.
AnitaMac
Great list Matt. Love the concept of being a tourist in your home town! Recently did a photography challenge which had me looking at my home town differently. Was great fun to get out there over the duration of the challenge, open my eyes and look at things in a different light. I/we run around like crazy getting on with the business of life – it is great to slow down and stop to smell the roses! Have not tried the house sitting option, but have friends who have, and love it! Keeping that on the radar for the future!
Marie
2nd here for Guatemala, especially for families. We took our kids (4 and 7) last summer and it was surprisingly stress-free. Our American friends thought we were nuts, but it totally worked, and was cheaper for two weeks (even including our airfare) than driving to and staying at the beach.
Hana
Great tips here, Matt — especially about being a local tourist. And I’m just as guilty as anyone. I know more about other countries than I do about my own.
How about visit a friend or relative?
You might think you don’t know anyone who lives anywhere interesting but you just might be surprised. When I asked my parents about this the other day I found out that a cousin of mine had recently moved to Argentina and another was working in Prague! I had no idea . . .
Aleah
Great ideas, esp thinking outside of the box. Contrarian travel is something every traveler or backpacker should do. At least that´s what I tell myself while I´m huddled in front of a heater while it´s snowing outside. I´m solo backpacking in Europe now when there´s a cold snap and it´s great, there´s no other tourists around. That is, if I get over the cold and go out do my backpacking thing away from the heater and forget how warm it is now in the Philippines where I come from 😉
Nic Maybe
This article really comes at the right time for me. I was just recently thinking about how much I’m missing travelling since I’m working full-time and that I should try to travel more – even if it’s just for a weekend. It’s not that I haven’t been thinking about it, but I always find an excuse not too. It’s too expensive, one weekend really isn’t enough to go anywhere, there’s too much stuff to do at home – and things like that. None of these things are true. I’m living in Germany, so there are a lot of places suitable for a weekend trip. I’m living close to 2 airports (one of them with access to budget airlines) and to one of Germany’s best connected train station, so I basically just need to get out of the house and jump on a plane or train. I also like the idea of being a local tourist. I’ve seen a couple of sights around here, but there’s plenty of more things to explore. I used to live in Tokyo for a while and I used almost every day off to explore the city and its surroundings. I want to get back into this habit because I’ve had so many great experiences exploring places I’ve never been to and I’ve met a lot of interesting people through travelling. I’ll start planning right now 🙂
Abenteuer Weltreise
Excellent tips here – especially about being a local tourist. It is a better way to take a vacation in your own city, if you’re short on time and money. No matter what the size, your city has a number of wonders just waiting to be explored.
Your blog contains lots of information about how we can plan our vacation in budget. You can also take help from the book “World Travel Adventure” where you can find information on financing options, accommodation and the bureaucratic procedure when planning your trip around the world.
Chris
All good ideas. Travel as a local is such a great way to see a country, in particular. I saw so much of South Korea living there as an expat that I might never have found traveling around the same amount of time.
Jenna Smith
I think traveling your local area is a great tip! A lot of people don’t realize the great stuff just minutes from their house! I live in Ohio and there are plenty of interesting places to see but people only “feel” like they’re on vacation if they’re at least two states away. I’m going to make it my goal to see at least three Ohio attractions over the summer. Also, camping is a really great way to get out! A bunch of friends and I drove to Virginia Beach a few springs ago and instead of spending a lot of money on a hotel we camped and it was surprisingly fun! It was super cheap and the idea of “roughing it” made it more interesting!
Thanks for the other good tips!
Jenna
Kae Lani
Wow! Creative! I didn’t know that booking a cruise last minute would be at a discount. I always imagined they would be like flights and triple in price as the date for departure drew near.
Thanks for such great ideas!
Adrienne Morton
Awesome list. A couple more things have been useful to me, in my very cheap world-traveling:
•Dont forget that you can easily work at a hostel pretty much anywhere & then board very cheap.
• Camping in the Caribbean (St. John! Jost Van Dyke!) is so different than camping in New England, etc. Its hot & there’s gorgeous night-swimming all over. Bring a mosquito net & love it.
•Grab some good cash AND food AND meet great people who you can stay with by working as a barback overseas. You don’t have to have a work visa for this, trust me.
Yvonne
Great list! Also think about:
House or apartment trades
Look at the local Craigslist from the city/region where you want to go. Sometimes free or cheap opportunities crop up
Check out bed & breakfasts or homestays…their prices are usually substantially less than hotels and often come with some meals
Get on the email list from the airlines that service your local airport and check out their specials. My son recently got a flight to Kauai (Hawaii) for $116 on Alaska Air!!!
Jane S.
Become a WOOFer. My kids did it a few years ago and lived in Hawaii for 9 months. They worked from 7AM till noon at a B&B and in return they got free lodging and meals. There are WOOFing opportunities all over the world. My son’s friend worked in New Zealand on a yacht, not a true Woofing experience but a great one nonetheless.
Swats Wishner
Catching up on your favorites, Matt. I like this one as well. Lots of good tips and feedback. I have always thought that traveling like a tourist made you a tourist, which I always refused as a caricature. I would much rather hang with the locals, eat what they eat, see what they see, go see a band play, get to know some families, etc. The best way to do that is either to meet folks on the road, or meet folks at home, then catch up with them when they move abroad. Military families and marooned business folks could probably use the company and the familiar faces. Crash on their couch, do their dishes, take them out to dinner, make their lives a little better. Sounds like a blast and I don’t do it enough. Anthony Bourdain has a great perspective on this. #swatswishner
Brigid
I like the idea ‘Think Outside The Box’. Traveling can be very expensive and can limit how long or far you travel. I want to stretch out my travels for as long as possible so have chosen to settle down for a few months in a beautiful city in Bolivia called Sucre. It’s incredibly budget friendly a great place to do Spanish school (at only $5 and hour!), and there are many wonderful organisations to volunteer with. On a side note…love the idea of traveling in your own back yard!
Lea
Great blog! I just traveled across Europe and stuck to the less-popular destinations (such as Serbia, Romania, Slovakia, etc.) AND it was off-season, and it was amazing how affordable and un-crowded it was. Everywhere I went was surprisingly unique. Most people don’t think about venturing outside of Paris/London/Spain/Italy and don’t realize what they’re missing out on.
Hannah
Hello Mr. Matt,
I will be going to Europe this coming April 2016. I’ll be there for 25 days. I will be traveling in 7 countries. How much do you think I need for a pocket money? I will be traveling alone. Thank you so much. God bless!
Izzy
Fantastic ideas for travellers on a budget! (as we often are!) I agree that you should swap expensive locations like Paris for something not only cheaper, but also a bit more quirky and less well trodden, like Budapest. My tip here would be swap Costa Rica for Nicaragua – it’s more beautiful and far far cheaper!
David Pearlman
Good ideas. For accomodations, I would highly recommend hostels. (not a sexy 21st century idea like Air B&B or Couchsurfing), but not only will you pay as low as $5.00 per night (as I did in some countries)-but you will also meet amazing people also travelling on the cheap.
Leila
Love these ideas – national parks are the best! Btw in Australia camping in national parks can cost as little as $3AUD, and you can camp almost anywhere for free outside the cities. But food in those outback towns is often ridiculously expensive, so stock up in bigger places. Big love from Down Under
Sabrina
Great List! I love the idea of being a tourist in your home town, or home state. I’m looking forward to going home (after 2 years abroad) and doing all the things I put off!
Puneet
All the ideas really help and especially the 5th one. Traveling to non-commercial places is really a great idea to save on your budget. Really going to help a lot if one follow these ideas. Keep on posting interesting articles like these.
Hanna
Great post with some really great ideas! I try to be a tourist in my own country and where I live as much as I can, but sometimes you just have to go somewhere else too… 🙂