Traveling Cheap for the Young and Broke – Step IV

At the end of the day what you’ll discover is that planning an awesome adventure is a series of choices. Once you clarify what you want to accomplish with this specific trip, your choices will be much easier to make. For example, you can invest $500 in a peaceful elegant spa hotel with a massage, bubble bath and dinner, or you can invest that same $500 in a beautiful weekend hike with camping, kayaking and cycling.

Grab a notebook and write down any ideas that come to mind. Is there a city you really want to explore or a particular monument, national park or cruise that is at the top of your list?

In my first post , I wrote about the element of time. Depending on your destination, timing can have a critical impact. For example, a weekend trip within 400 miles of your home provides many more opportunities to control costs, than a weekend trip that is 1,000 miles from your home.

Let’s say you want to plan a fun weekend on the town in Chicago. If you live within 400 miles, that would be about a 6 hour drive or bus ride. More than likely the cost of either of those options would be fairly comparable once you take into consideration of gas, tolls and parking, or taxi’s, rides or metro fees.

STEP IV: Define your purpose for this trip. This will help you stay focused on investing in activities and experiences in line with your purpose.

Next time we’ll start talking about number crunching and resources to help you $ave.