People are always talking about traveling when you're young. Traveling helps a person expand their mind and introduces them to different people and cultures. It's usually happens when someone studies abroad or takes a personal trip (i.e. backpacking through Europe).
My question is how do you afford it? Coming from a low income family, it's hard to see how people can afford to pay for these extravagant trips to foreign countries on their own. Is it even possible to pay for it on your own?
Unless they've been working and saving for the trip since the beginning of high school, if not earlier, I don't see how it can be done out of the student's pocket alone. How much has to come from parent contribution?
I can see how studying abroad is a solution to the above problem. Travel and living expenses are significantly cheaper through an institution, especially with the help of financial aid. However, I would like to know how much one usually spends on extraneous travel and other expenses? Also, how much of the host country can one really experience and explore when held under the time limitations and restrictions of school and study?
I would really like to go and explore the world before the end of my college career, but it doesn't seem financially feasible at the moment. My parents don't have much money, nor do I have much saved up.
To be honest, I ideally want to backpack through part of Europe. I want to see different countries and experience life as a vagabond for a short time. I just don't know how I'd be able to pay for the experience.
Does anyone have suggestions on how one can travel on an extremely low budget? Has anyone done it? If so, I'd like to hear your story.
Comments (9)
U SHOULD JOIN THE WORKING HOLIDAY SCHEME.
I'll be really honest with you. I was applying to a study abroad thing, and it turns out my financial aid won't even cover half of it. I'll literally have to drown in private student loan debt for it. Dream #1 ruined for me! Yay!
I'd say just do a summer tour or something. Frankly, Europe is fairly expensive and if you're short on funds... save that for later. Why not a few countries in Latin America (Argentina, Perú, Costa Rica, etc)? Or Asia?
And yes you can pay for it on your own. My boyfriend moved to Hong Kong, backpacked through Europe, went to Dubai, all on his own (he worked his butt off though!). And he wasn't even 23! Yes, it can be done, but you literally need to save every little penny you get.
literally it's hard for a student form low-income family to do lots of travelling, but you should try applying for an exchange program, it can solve the problems normally faced by students when they study abroad - the restriction of tight schedule of school but meanwhile you can enjoy benefits through the institutions. For me, i plan to spend about 50000 HKD for 6 months here - Germany. While i can travel around Europe without experiencing other cultures shallowly as I can travel with students from other european countries.
I've been there. No financial support from parents at all. But i managed to survive 3 years in university plus three months in Europe last year and another two this year.
Last year, I joined a 4-week english immersion programme and spent a month in Brighton. The programme is funded by my uni and all i had to pay in the 4 weeks was my lunch. Right after the english immersion in brighton, it was spanish immersion. Again, i got some about 1400 euros subsidies from uni and got to spend two months in Spain. Before coming back home, I spent two weeks wandering around Barcelona, Valencia and Paris.
This year, I went visit the european friends that i met last year in spanish class. I went to Cologne, Dresden, Prague..... Got to stay at their places with their family. It's a really good way to travel. you can actually get into the locals' life and you can save a lot of money on accommodation. In my two-month trip, I only paid for hostels for six nights.
It's true that coming from a low income family, it's hard to see how people can afford to pay for these extravagant trips to foreign countries on their own. A wonderful and meaning trip doesn't have to be extravagant.
I can tell you that it's totally possible to save up and travel in europe. It only depends on how much you want it. If u want it bad enough, you'd give up hanging out with friends after class and really save up. It's hard, but once you save up enough, when holiday comes, you will be enjoying the trip you earned.
a little tip, join everything offered by college that allow u to get overseas.I'm interested in languages and i think it is really nice to take a language course which allow u to meet friends from all over the world. What's more is that you can stay in a place long enough to really know it. And it's cheap.Small towns are usually so much more exotic than big cities and they are always cheaper.
If you don't want it enough to make some sacrifices, stop being jealous.If you really want it, go for it.Wish you a wonderful journey soon :)
I went through college, and study abroad in France for 4 months, without any help from my family at all.
Here are some tips, but they're realistic ones I promise lol.
Look for deals to go abroad. Sign up for airfarewatchdog.com and select the cities you're interested in visiting. Sometimes there are great deals! And also look up couchsurfer.com in addition to use hostelworld.com to book hostels when you travel.
I've found roundtrip tickets to Europe for as low as $350. It will still cost a lot of course, but it doesn't take thousands of dollars. If you book hostels ahead of time, or find places to crash at through couchsurfer.com then you can save a lot of money. I've been in hostels in Spain that cost 8 euros a night and slept in train station before. If you're smart enough to realize that "roughing it" really is roughing it, then you should have no problem. Of course, this is assuming you're willing to rough it.
Food wise - pack peanut butter and buy bread along the way; splurge on a meal once in awhile, especially if the region is known for it. I've survived for 3 days only on grapes and oranges bought at an open air market in france bought for 2 euros. Water can be the biggest problem, depending on where you wanna go. I was in Europe so water wasn't a big problem. Buying bigger sizes is better but it's heavier obviously til you drink it.
Clothing - buy powder detergent in small packages if possible; bring clothing that are made of materials that are easier to clean (like those jersey-like material: they can be wrung out and very little time is needed for them to dry, and they're very breathable!") You can do laundry in sinks at your hostels.
ALWAYS HAVE AN EMERGENCY SUPPLY OF MONEY just in case.
And best advice I can think of: Try to learn about the people and culture of the places you go to. When you're friendly and open-minded, and even try a little to speak their language, people will go out of the way to help you, language barrier or not.
Good luck! And have fun traveling! Have some common sense and you should be fine.
A lot of airlines have discount tickets so choose to visit during off season. When I went to Europe back in 2005, I stayed with my penpal and at cheap hostels. Also, Eastern Europe is generally cheaper so you should check them out (esp. Prague). It's possible to travel on a budget if you take time to plan ahead to find the best deals.
I used a credit card.
Yeah. Don't do that.
Save, save, save...then go but stay in smaller towns where lodging isn't so expensive. Public transportation is amazing in Europe - don't even think about needing a car. If you can, find a suitable traveling companion to share expenses. Get a good book, like Fodor's, so you know in advance what things cost.
You can start by traveling to countries that are near your home country so that airfare will be relatively cheaper. Look also for countries which your own country has some agreement or treaty that waives visa requirements. To have meaningful travel experience, you need not go to Europe or other exotic places. Try to discover the places of your own country first. Chances are you might not even have known they were there.