You Don’t Need to Be Rich to Travel
I don’t know what it is about the terms “rich” and “travel” that society has seemed to put together but unless your talking about how “rich” in thought, character, and experience you will be when you travel, then they have nothing to do with each other.
I was recently watching an old movie called Wall Street and heard Charlie Sheen’s character say he wanted to make insane amounts of money so that he could leave the game and ride his motorcycle across China.
Wait a minute! I rented a motorbike in Indonesia for $3/day so I can assure you that insane amounts of money are not needed to ride across China or any other part of Asia.
Sadly, most people think like this. The experience of travel and vacations has constantly been sold to us with a “cash value”. Somehow society has been coerced into thinking that the experience of travel is intertwined with the amount of money you can spend on such a trip.
What bullshit.
True travel is all about the mindset, not about the money. It’s a way of finding adventure in your normal life at home as well as on the road. It starts with the decision to embrace life’s curiosities, learn about yourself, and to see, feel, and experience things that are foreign to you. True travel places you completely out of your comfort zone to learn about yourself in ways you’ve never imagined.
No money is required, just a mindset to embrace the unknown.
In fact, I’m willing to say that hoards of money will actually make your travels less rewarding unless you already have the mind of a vagabond – a privately meaningful manner of travel that emphasizes creativity, adventure, awareness, simplicity, discovery, independence, realism, self-reliance, and the growth of the spirit. Staying in lavish 5-star hotels and pampering yourself at every corner is not true travel.
This is just an offspring of tourism wrapped in a pretty package and sold off like jewelry. Sure it can be fun sometimes but true travel and the real experience that travel brings comes from exploring the unknown. It comes from mixing in with locals and learning about the culture. It comes from challenging your fears and pushing your boundaries. It comes from not knowing where the road will take you but committing yourself to whatever adventures it brings. That’s travel!
The mindset starts at home. You don’t actually need to travel far away to experience true travel. All you need is a curiosity to see, feel, and experience things that are foreign to you. You just need to place yourself in unfamiliar territory. Go outside your comfort zone and learn about yourself by trying all sorts of random things. Join a dance class, a yoga class, a sport you have no clue about, a meditation group, or go white water rafting, or jump out of a plane.
Whatever it is, as long as it’s different, exciting to you, and makes you uncomfortable and unsure at first. This is travel. Having a zest for life every day you wake up. When the time comes for you to visit a completely new place somewhere else in the world, bring this mindset with you.
As for the cost, it’s almost never as expensive as you think it will be, especially if you’re truly looking for an adventure in developing countries and hostels. Use your work time as a learning experience to fuel your desires for the place you’re going to visit. Learn the tools and tricks to help make the trip cheaper. You can fly to countries for next-to-nothing by using points from credit cards. You can stay for free in unfamiliar territory by couchsurfing or working part-time for hostels. If you want to travel long-term, you could always work while traveling as well, especially these days when many people are becoming location independent.
Either way, you’ll be surprised by the hospitality of like-minded souls as you traverse the planet.
This is all about embracing curiosity and pushing your boundaries.
Grow your spirit, feed your soul, and have fun.
Hey Matt, fantastic article! Thanks for contributing to the series.
I totally agree with what you’re saying. Though I don’t have much experience with travelling luxuriously, I have spent quite a while travelling on a shoestring and even travelled for basically no money at all, which I wrote about here;
http://www.beyondnorms.com/index.php/2010/08/free-travel/
Travel is about the experience of new things, not trying to find a more ‘relaxing’ version of home, and for these experience, money is rarely a priority.
In fact, on of my friends has just left to spend a month living in Eastern Europe for free; he’s staying with a local, and then moving on to do some ‘organic farming’. The opportunities are out there, all you have to do is search hard enough!
Exactly yes! There’s all types of creative strategies. Some would argue that your losing what you could be making at home (which is true) but to me, travel is worth every penny! 🙂
You’re totally right, you don’t need a lot of money to travel, of course that is a relative to your expectations. I know for me it would be cheaper to travel, then to stay in one place.
In certain parts of the World you can travel for 10 dollars a day. That’s not going to buy you 5 star accommodations but it’ll get you 5 star experiences.
I’ve done the prepackaged travel thing, cruises in my case. It’s more like going to Disneyland then traveling. The same giftshops in the same constructed tourest traps. You may get to see a lot in a short time, but you don’t really experience much.
You’re totally right, you don’t need a lot of money to travel, of course that is a relative to your expectations. I know for me it would be cheaper to travel, then to stay in one place.
In certain parts of the World you can travel for 10 dollars a day. That’s not going to buy you 5 star accommodations but it’ll get you 5 star experiences.
I’ve done the prepackaged travel thing, cruises in my case. It’s more like going to Disneyland then traveling. The same gift shops in the same constructed tourist traps. You may get to see a lot in a short time, but you don’t really experience much.
Yeah, Staying at resorts, eating buffet food, and sitting by a pool or beach for a whole trip is not for me. Or just going to all the “tourist” destinations and taking a picture and then leaving is such a waste. There’s so much more out there and out of all my experiences, the best ones were the random adventures I would go on when other travelers or locals would invite me. Spontaneous has worked best for me. Whenever I plan on seeing something typical, I’m always disappointed.
I TOTALLY agree with this.
Whenever we say we’re traveling to Europe or anywhere else (Asia for instance), people wonder how much money it will cost.
Generally, the price we quote them is too low for what they’d normally stay in. We stay in the cheapest motels/hotels possible, we buy local food, we walk until we have blisters, and we really try to be as local as possible to get the full effect of traveling.
When I was saying I wanted to visit Asia as a tour, my friend told me to drop by Thailand.
Thinking it was a beautiful country with a rich culture, I agreed it would be cool to see the entire country and their way of life, she stared at me blankly and said: No, go to Thailand for the cheap massages. Forget the scenery, stay in a 5-star resort and chill out on the beach
Clearly, we have different objectives when we travel. If I wanted to “chill out on a beach” I’d do it for cheap in my own country. Or better yet, not bother spending the money at all.
hahha yes agreed. I’m not a fan of going on the same vacations every year to play golf and relax. I’m sure it’s fun once in awhile but I much rather see new places and meet people. Out of my 6 months in Australia, I think I lied on a beach for 2 hours and then I got bored. I know many who go places to shop. This along with going to Thailand just for massages seems so off balanced since the flight and time off make it far more expensive than just getting a massage at home.
I would say the most expensive part about travel is “not working” for the time your there if you choose not to do so. But travel has given me all the best memories that I will happily take to my grave one day 🙂
Great article Matt! I’m reading a book right now where the author talks about the difficulty in doing something is not actually doing it. The difficulty is in actually thinking about doing it. I think this whole “Life Beyond Norms” series is going to show people that in many cases what we “think” is not necessarily truth and it is often our own thoughts that hold us back. Travel with little money is the easy part. Thinking and believing that you can travel with little money is the hard part.
Fantastic article!
Lots of people tend to think about costs of traveling in terms of what they see in the catalogs they pick up at travel agencies in the shopping center. A few months ago I came back from a 20-month long trip and money is one of the most common questions I get. You have no idea how often I hear “this must have cost you lots of money”. And it’s usually followed by “how did you get all this money to travel?”.
But money really is the smallest issue. I know lots of people who could easily afford traveling, but they prefer new plasma tv or a new car. It’s all the matter of priorities.
Absolutely, it’s all a choice for the most part. Growing up I actually wanted the huge house and three car type of lifestyle. I’m not sure when it changed but gradually once I started to think about how happy I already was without it and how much more of an experience was, I decided on that. As I mentioned in another comment, the most expensive part of travel is leaving work behind. So one could argue that your losing all the money back home but if your more concerned with making money and not enjoying yourself, then what’s really the point of it all in the first place?
Great article Matt. Totally agree – it’s believing that travelling is cheap that’s the hard part.
It’s a good reminder too. Sometimes we forget that all we need is curiosity to make our experiences as rich as they can be.
I’m in Singapore at the moment and have taken for granted that I’m in such an amazing place. What was new has now become familiar. Time to get curious again me thinks!
haha Singapore sounds amazing. I’ve only been to Japan and Indonesia in regards to Asia but loved every minute of it. My only problem with travel is that now I get sad If I’m just sitting in an office for an extended amount of time. Theres to much out there and so many memories waiting to be created. Were only here once so might as well make it count right?
It’s also actually made me enjoy home more in some ways to. I did some hiking in New Zealand and one of the guys I met asked me if I ever hiked the Canadian Rockies. I only live an hour away and I had to say no. I made sure once I got back to get my ass out there and start hiking and skiing.
Hey Matt! Great article! Well said. I trust that you are enjoying your adventurous life