I often have people ask me: you've been going here, there, and everywhere lately - how do you afford it?
The truth is, I'm lucky in some ways - I have family spread throughout Canada and into the US, and I have friends and connections across several continents. I've had a few worldly experiences at a pretty young age - they've made me braver, more social, and more motivated to get out and explore. I've also worked at least one job continuously since grade 10, living at home, and building my savings to put toward travelling.
I've also gotten pretty good at researching, and good at "making do" with less-than-luxury situations.
Whether you're about to enter your 20s, or about to leave them, opportunities to travel are out there. You just need to find and seize them.
In this post I'll discuss a few key areas to consider when you're planning a trip, each with their own opportunities to seek bargains:
flying: where to go, how to get there, and tricks for making it cheaper
The most expensive part of travelling is flights (especially these days, prices just keep getting worse). The smartest way to go about it is to look for a flight deal, and then plan your trip around that.
the best websites for flight deals:
Google Flights - This is my go-to for planning flights. Their Go to Anywhere feature actually makes it easy to explore where is cheap and when. I generally use it to find the airlines with the best deals on the place I'd like to go to, and then I usually like to book directly through the airline website.
Expedia - I this site similarly to how I use Google Flights - find the deal, and then book directly through the airline. Unless it is multiple separate tickets - which scares me. More on that in another post). It's less useful than Google Flights when you are looking to explore various destinations at various times, but just as useful if you have a time and place in mind.
Student Universe - if you're super broke and willing to go through multiple tickets (which can be a mess - be warned), this website is excellent for pulling together the cheapest possible path by any means necessary. I flew home from Switzerland to Scotland last summer by booking through Student Universe, and I was scared I would get to the airport and my tickets wouldn't exist. But it was fine!!
when you're going far, go long or wide
My reality for some of the biggest trips I've done is that I didn't have the choice of where to go. The opportunity I was pursuing - an internship, a dance competition, a performance - was set in a particular location at a specific time, and I had to meet it there. I couldn't say oh, it's cheaper to fly there in X month, so I'll do that.
This means I couldn't always get a cheap flight deal, I just had to bite the bullet and drop a bag. The question then becomes: how can I make the most out of this? I go long or wide.
I'll extend my trip over a longer period of time, maybe giving me a chance to road trip or take trains to different locations. Booking your flights on multi-city trip can be more expensive than a simple round trip, but it's allowed me to turn single opportunities into entire journeys.
getting around: making public transport your friend
I seriously don't know how people survived in foreign places without phones. Google Maps genuinely runs my life when I'm abroad.
When I get to a place, I'll usually buy a local transport pass at the train station. Wherever I want to get, I just put it in Google maps and do whatever it tells me. Truly putting my life into Google's hands. On that note, having a portable charging block with you is helpful in these situations.
In North America, the options for public transport are usually quite sad if you're not in a major city. Getting cabs is simply not in the budget, but I will sometimes end up taking an Uber or other ride sharing service. I'd always choose this over a cab - the convenience of the apps is just unbeatable.
It can be a bit painful for me to pay for a ride - but when I think back to taking the TTC from downtown Toronto to Peason airport at 4:30am and being actually scared, I know that it's worth it sometimes.
finding cheap travel accommodations
that hopefully don't have some sort of rodent infestation
This is where a lot of my travel budget goes. I wish I had a quick trick for a one-stop shop for finding deals, but I usually shop around. Sites I frequent:
how to get over that fear you have of hostels
I get asked about this more often than anything else: how can you bear staying in hostels all the time?
My answer: I'll get picky about where I stay when I marry rich.
Hostels are usually the cheapest option for accommodations, so I simply make do.
The hardest part about hostels for me is just the awkwardness. Part of me loathes entering a dorm room and having stinted meetings with strangers from everywhere. It does get exhausting, but after a while you just get used to it. You get desensitised to the endless introductions and being in each other's personal space.
Sometimes (even for the most antisocial among us), the awkward meetings can even be... pleasant? In Edinburgh I once spent 45 minutes talking with a woman from Georgia about classical Scottish art and her husband's PTSD from the war in Afghanistan. In Interlaken, I practiced my french skills with a woman from Geneva while staring at a map in the lobby. The list of examples goes on.
I've only had one truly bad hostel experience, and that was at Euro Hostel Glasgow in Scotland. I was travelling with a male friend at the time, so we booked a mixed dorm (usually my preference would be a female dorm whenever possible). The building itself was decent enough, though slightly grimey in the way hostels sometimes are. Around 2am, an obviously very drunk man came into the room, taking on the phone with someone on speaker.
He spent a half an hour slurring and swearing at his friend on the phone, taking videos with flash and commentating with spirit on how crazyyyy it was that he was spending the night in this hostel where people were currently sleeping. His tone was just enough to be considered aggressive, and I decided to attempt to not bring attention to myself. I worried that if he realised there was a girl in the room, things would take a turn.
After about 15 minutes of his chatter, one of the middle aged men staying on a lower bunk got up. This was the conversation:
"Hey man, we're trying to sleep. Can you put in headphones?"
Scottish man pauses his phone conversation.
"Haven't got any."
Other man just stares at him. Both of them are completely stone faced.
Other man just gets back into bed without argument.
I lose hope. Why did he give up so easily? And where do men get the audacity?? "Don't have any". The nerve LOL.
My friend and I are texting from across the room. "Are you scared rn? I'm scared rn."
He continues blasting music and singing along between phone calls. This guy clearly has a colourful social life to be taking so many phone calls in the middle of the night. The man in the bunk under me finally loses it:
"Dude, can you just shut the f--- up?"
(This was the wrong approach to take)
"AUGH AND WHAT ARE YE GONNE DO ABOUT IT MATE? ARE YE GONNE COME UP HERE AND MAKE ME? DO IT BRO MAKE ME SHUT THE F--- UP"
Etc. Etc.
The man on the bottom bunk of my bed is stunned into silence. At some point during this I desperately searched the hostel's website for someone to contact. I ended up sending their front desk an email along the lines of "I'm currently in room __ and a crazy man is disturbing everyone and threatening people if you could send someone up that would be great xxx".
(No one came or answered the email)
Eventually he tired himself out and went to sleep.
I slept for about 3 hours before my friend and I got up to leave for the airport. As we were checking out, the front desk person politely asked us how our stay was. There was a beat of silence as my friend and I contemplated the events of the night.
"Good thanks". (We would rather die than complain).
I don't want to scare you off of hostels. That experience was certainly an outlier. The vast majority of my hostel experiences have been much more positive! The first time I stayed in a hostel, I was nervous and confused as to what I should be doing. But when you learn to buckle down through the awkwardness, hostels can be awesome.
my favourite hostels I've stayed in
Mountain Hostel, Gimmelwald, Switzerland This place was amazing. Gimmelwald is a mountain village outside of the ultra-touristy Lauterbrunnen. It's not accessible by car and hard to get to - if you're using the train, you have to travel to Lauterbrunnen, take a 20 minute bus ride, and then take the cable car (!) up to Gimmelwald. From the cable car station, it's a 5 minute walk.
The hostel itself looks like a classic Swiss Alpine wood house, with a jaw-dropping view of the alps on all sides. This place manages to be #1 on my list despite my having stayed in a 12 person room with bunk beds that adjoin with only a curtain between you and your neighbour. It was also completely infested with house flies at the peak of summer. There was only one shared bathroom for over 30 people staying there.
The view and proximity to hikes was unbeatable, and the vibes were great. There was a restaurant and bar, breakfast provided, and cats everywhere (one even slept with me in my bunk one night). Watch out, the cats will try and charm you into giving you their breakfast. Even though this place didn't have the best facilities, it was a 10/10 for experience.
the view from the dorm bedroom... to die for.
This place is your classic hostel experience right in the middle of Edinburgh. My dorm room was clean and quiet, with those large windows overlooking the street that you see all over that city. There was free breakfast, and it was within close walking distance of lots of hotspots. I actually didn't use any public transport in Edinburgh because I could walk everywhere I wanted to see from the hostel!
This hostel is located in Kensington Market, one of my favourite areas in Toronto. It has free breakfast (are you sensing a theme? I almost exclusively stay places where they feed me), a rooftop patio with a great view of the CN Tower, and clean rooms. I'll definitely be staying there the next time I go to the city.
This place isn't in the most polished area of Nice, but it's within walking distance of the old city and the beach - so I wasn't complaining. The rooms are exceedingly small, but we had a balcony overlooking the street. There was a bar and restaurant on the main floor that was reasonably priced (and served free breakfast!!!), and an outdoor patio that was really cute to sit on. The staff here were exceedingly kind!
If you're going to see a concert or a hockey game, there's literally nowhere better to stay than here. It's a 10 minute walk away from the Bell Centre, and a 5 minute walk from a Metro Station. The rooms were big for a hostel, and very clean. The basement bar (with free breakfast, duh) was great vibes and the building looked newly renovated.
Honourable mention: Restaurant & Hostel Rendez-Vous, Kandersteg, Switzerland
This doesn't make the top 5 because logistically, it's not very nice - there's no free breakfast (gasp!), it, like #1 on the list, was a 12 person dorm on adjoining bunk beds (and this one didn't even have curtains separating you from your neighbour!), and there was no storage in the room so everyone's stuff was just splayed out on the floor.
There's no reason for this place to be a favourite, and yet it just is. The location is amazing, particularly if you're in Kandersteg to hike to the famed Oeschinensee alpine lake. The place was notably quiet while we were there, with only a handful of other people staying at the time. I was here during my first time in the Swiss Alps, and the magic washed over us in waves. The town was quiet; we roamed in tall grass, swam in the ice cold lake, and ate Pringles while the moon framed itself between distant peaks.
my top tips for saving money while travelling
Eat like you're at home. AKA - buy groceries, attend markets, and eat simple meals often. Go out to restaurants as a treat. I swear you will save so much money.
Don't buy all of your drinks at bars or restaurants. A little grocery store beer goes a long way price-wise.
Public transport. Like I mentioned earlier, using Uber or a taxi is not my preferred method. Even when I'm dragging around half of all my belongings in a giant suitcase, I'm hard pressed to spend $20 on a cab when it could be a $2 bus ride.
The internet is your friend for finding cheap things to do. If you're looking for cheap or free things to do, just search cheap activities in ____. I guarantee you someone has written a blog post about it.
making friends on the road
Earlier I mentioned that I'm lucky having places to stay with friends and family when I'm abroad. How does one get to that point? The somewhat unfortunate truth is that you have to start somewhere. You have to build your network of international friends by getting out there!
if you're really excited about being social, my #1 recommendation would be to volunteer with an international organisation, do an exchange, or work in a setting like a hostel.
These settings, which intentionally attract people who
are from everywhere
like to travel
like to meet new people
are literally the perfect environment to make friends who
are from everywhere
like to travel
like to meet new people
It can be scary - especially for those of us who can feel shy. But when you put yourself out there, people will always be there to meet you!
The two experiences that I see as growing my network of friends would be my time in Iceland and my time dancing in Switzerland.
In Iceland, I was working for an organisation that brings in volunteers from around the world. It wasn't always easy, and I often struggled with overcoming cultural barriers as we lived and worked together. But I can now say that I would have people that I would message if I was ever travelling to Ireland, Mexico, Spain, Italy, Guatemala, and several more.
The first time I went to Switzerland, I was performing in a show with 49 other dancers from Canada. I knew at least half of them, even just by their face or name, because of my long history travelling for dance competitions. I got to make so many new friends throughout my 2 weeks there - one of whom I had never met before, but ended up becoming a close enough friend that we travelled together again the next summer!
The second time, I was with 88 other dancers primarily from around Australia. I definitely see Australian couch surfing in my future.
Through experiences like these, I've been able to connect with others over periods weeks or months. I've made connections with people with whom I have similar interests and yet are different enough from me to make me grow in perspective.
I turned 18 as the pandemic was starting, and so my start into life after high school was very solitary. For me, moving beyond that odd suppression meant trying to see myself as outgoing and curious about the world; rather than the introvert I had felt like for the first (small) part of my adulthood.
safety and comfort for solo female travellers
I'm often asked if, when travelling solo, I ever feel unsafe or scared being in an unfamiliar place. I think that women from anywhere can relate to feelings of discomfort and fear when you're not secure in your environment, particularly when alone.
We've all heard the unlimited horror stories, been approached by and yelled at by men, and felt scared for our safety at one time or another. When that is happening in a place you where you don't know anyone, don't know your way around, and don't speak the language, it's a whole lot more scary.
So how can we move through the world without putting ourselves in danger and mitigate unnecessary risks? How can we keep our spirit of adventure AND ourselves alive?
getting comfortable starting out
If you're not an experienced traveller, start small. Explore areas close to home while you get comfortable navigating public transport, walking around and going sightseeing by yourself, and asking for help from sane-looking strangers when you need it. Any confidence I had when I started going on trips by myself came from lessons I'd learned going on solo dates around my hometown, and road trips with friends and family. Travel with someone if you're nervous, and gain some experience trusting yourself in a new environment.
where to go
I think it's a common misconception that the more expensive a city or country is, the safer it is, and that cheaper places are generally more dangerous. This generalisation only serves to cut you off from possibilities - be creative and smart about your destinations!
Researching your destination can help you to understand any cultural factors that might influence your safety. Some countries are safer for women than others. If sticking out in a crowd makes you feel uncomfortable or unsafe, go places where there are people who look like you. Go where you speak the language, or where tourism in a language you understand is the norm.
start with the "safe" places
More reputable travel blogs than this one can list off countries that have low crime rates and a high degree of safety confidence for travellers. I can only offer one high recommendation:
Iceland is objectively one of the safest places to travel, particularly for women. In 3 months, there was only one time I felt unsafe (long story short - drunk and raging middle aged men are a risk wherever you go). Hitch hiking is pretty commonplace, locals were welcoming, and the crime rate is one of the lowest in the world.
Once, when I had tired of dragging my rolling suitcase on gravel, I simply put the bag (containing my laptop and all other earthly possessions; before the days of AirTags) in a bush on the side of the road. I left it there for a few hours, and of course it was still there when I came back. Iceland is a 10/10 on the safety scale.
finding reputable places to stay while you're on a budget
When you're on a tight budget, it's often your accommodations that will take the hit. How do you find a cheap place to stay that isn't unsafe?
Always read reviews. If a place has less than 30 reviews, I'm wary of it. If it has less than 10, I'm not staying there. Pay attention when you're reading them to the dates on the reviews, and the assumed gender of the person writing it.
Look up the neighbourhood. Whether it's a hotel, a hostel, or an Airbnb, try and look into the area it's located in. The interior photos of your hostel might be clean and new looking, but that Google Street View might tell another story. TripAdvisor and Reddit are usually helpful for a local's opinion on the safety of a specific neighbourhood.
Spend more when you need to. Are you really going to enjoy yourself on a trip if there's never a time you feel comfortable and secure? If an extra $20 per night will allow you to fall asleep without worrying about your door being kicked in or your stuff being stolen, then you should just spend the extra $20.
Don't be afraid to leave. If you arrive at your accommodation and something feels off or you feel unsafe, don't feel obligated to stay. If there are other options available to you, explore them and find another place to sleep. When money is tight, it's worthwhile to know the difference between discomfort (my bunkmate was really unfriendly and my bag doesn't fit in the hostel locker) and genuine unease (I don't feel safe here and I'm leaving now). Trust your intuition.
It's a sad reality that travel can look quite different to young people depending on their gender. I feel like I encounter stories all the time of young men venturing out into the world sleeping on the streets, getting into cars with strangers for cheap transport, and making friends everywhere they go.
It's simply not that easy for women. We have to be wary of our surroundings and not trust too easily. It's quite sad, but there are people who would take advantage of a woman hiding in dark corners all throughout the world. The odds of me or the vast majority of the women I know hitch-hiking alone in a foreign place are slim to none.
We can't let it stop us from exploring. If you hear the world calling your name, you must simply find a way to meet it as safely as possible!
my safety tips for solo travel
Protect your information. Keeping the logistics of where you're staying, how inexperienced you are, and how alone you are to yourself. If you were a creep looking for someone to creep on, who would you target? I'll tell you who: someone who is alone, doesn't know their way around, has no one looking out for them, and is open with sharing their info. Never tell strangers you're travelling alone. This leads me to #2.
Lie. Not to everyone, but lie liberally and whenever it feels necessary. You don't owe strangers the truth when it feels unsafe. Are you travelling alone? No, I'm on my way to meet my boyfriend/uncle/brother. Where are you staying? At the home of my friend/father/aunt. Are you alone? No my boyfriend/dad is on his way to meet me. Is this your first time here? No, I have family here and have visited several times. How long will you be staying? I'm leaving tomorrow.
Share your itinerary. Share where you're staying and when with people back home. If you're lucky to know someone in the area well, share it with them as well. If you don't know anyone, maybe tell the front desk of your hostel/hotel that you're going out for a hike and if you don't check back with them before the end of the day, you've probably fallen off a cliff! Having someone, anyone know where you are at all times is essential.
Use an ESIM. Being able to access the internet for maps, contacting people, etc. can be a lifesaver. ESIMs are also SUPER cheap compared to purchasing a physical SIM card or paying for roaming. I've used Airalo in the past and never had any issues.
Research! Learn all you can about the place you're visiting. For example, are there certain streets to avoid at certain times of day? Is there a mafia there? Will the public transport stop running at 8pm and leave you stranded somewhere? Use Reddit and TripAdvisor to help here!
Blend in. Standing out as an obvious foreigner can attract unwanted attention. Dress for the occasions and talk a few notches quieter than the nearest American!
Crowds can be your friend. Particularly at night, you don't want to find yourself walking alone. This is a pretty common standard for women - stick to well-light areas, don't take that shortcut through the dim park, and walk near that bachelorette party pack if you can.
Stash your cash. Store your cash and valuables in different places. Ie: don't keep everything on your person. I've learned this lesson - I lost my wallet (or it was stolen - still a mystery) in Toronto with all of my Canadian cash, bank cards and my driver's license. I was continuing on to Arizona, and THANK GOODNESS I had my American cash and passport in my locker at the hostel. Having just a bit of cash and a copy of your ID/Passport/Insurance separate from your everyday stuff can be a lifesaver.
cheap solo travel for beginners
Have you ever heard a middle aged or older person say something about wishing they'd traveled more when they were young? Well I have. Often when I talk with an older family member or acquaintance about travel, they say something along the lines of "do as much of that as you can while you still can".
When you're young, it can feel like there are so many barriers to travelling - time, money, having no one to go with you, fear, and confusion. If you don't force yourself to overcome them, those barriers aren't ever going to go away. They'll just be replaced with new ones - getting time off work, bigger money commitments, lack of energy, etc.
The only way to move past your barriers and see the world in the way you've been dreaming of is to DO IT. If no one will go with you, go alone. If you don't have the money, go somewhere closer and do it in a less glamorous way. Don't let the apprehension that comes with being a beginner let you miss your opportunities.
Being a beginner is a beautiful thing - you make stupid mistakes, waste money, feel awkward, and get sweaty and exhausted and lonely. You also get to learn from those mistakes, shape your worldview, meet incredible people, and greet the unexpected with a grace and excitement that only youth can bring.
Whatever the thing/place/experience you're dreaming of, don't wait!!!
do you have a question about travel? I'd love to explore it! send me a DM and let's chat 💚 @chroniclesofk8
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