Many people dream of traveling more, but not all realize their dreams. One of the reasons is often called a lack of money for travel. But practice shows that traveling does not require huge amounts of money, the world now offers many opportunities, you just need to be creative and make an effort. A blogger named Arno shared travel options for free or very cheap. It is worth warning in advance that these methods are not suitable for couples with children, as well as for those who by travel means a beach holiday in luxury hotels.
Work on a cruise ship
Not a single sea cruise can do without service personnel: on board we need cooks, waiters, maids, animators, etc. This is seasonal work, so if you are young, not yet attached to one company, then you should try this option. You will not only be able to visit exotic places, but also earn money. True, there will not be much time for entertainment.
Teach english
If you are passionate about English, want to practice it and travel, then pay attention to the programs that offer to pay for tickets, accommodation and meals in exchange for the fact that you will work as a teacher. Specialists are required in countries such as China, Japan, Malaysia.
Become a volunteer
A huge number of volunteer programs are now offered. To search for suitable offers, special services have even been developed. More than 100 countries offer more than 3,000 programs annually. This is not completely free, but much cheaper even than traveling alone. Employment of a project participant is usually 4-5 hours a day, 5 days a week. The rest of the time you can devote to studying the country and communicating with people. In order to feel comfortable, you need to know a foreign language at a basic conversational level. The advantage of this option is that you do not need to have special professional skills.
Accumulate miles
This is the easiest way for those who want to reduce travel expenses, but are not ready to become a volunteer or to somehow especially strain. To accumulate miles, you need to pick up a debit or credit card with the appropriate program, and then just pay all expenses from it. It is important to carefully study the conditions of the program, find out the cost of annual maintenance, the size of the commission. Read all the documents yourself, do not count on the fact that the bank employees will honestly tell you about all the pitfalls of the card.
Work for housing and food
Not very often, but you can find offers to work in an exotic country for paying for tickets, accommodation and meals. I myself personally met this option: in Malaysia, a good Russian-Canadian family needed a Russian-speaking nanny for children for one month. Work was not paid, only flight and food, a room was allocated in the house where the family lives. I even went through an interview on Skype, my candidacy came up, but the circumstances were such that I had to refuse.
House Exchange or Couch Surfing
This method helps reduce living expenses. The bottom line is that when you plan a trip to a country, you put up your house for an exchange. As long as you live in someone’s house in another country, people from there live in your house. If this option scares you, you can try couchsurfing. In this case, you first live with someone as a guest, and then receive return guests at your home.
Use crowdfunding
This is a kind of public sponsorship, when strangers get money for your project.But here you need to understand that it’s unlikely that anyone will pay for your desire to just see the world, it must be some kind of project that benefits people, for example, research or something else.
In a word, there are a lot of options to see the world for little money or completely free. But to realize them, you will need to make an effort, but if you travel - this is really your dream, then it’s worth trying for it.