How To Finally Travel On A Budget…It Is Actually Easier Than You Think.
/Travel is something that most people desire on some level. Some can’t do without going away somewhere warm at least once a year and then others are just fine never leaving the safety of their own backyard. If you are the explorer type and love learning about and immersing yourself in different cultures, then this is the thread for you.
Let me begin by saying that everyone’s situation is different, so whether you are a family, single parent or just plain single…what I am about to suggest may not work for your individual situation, but who knows I may just spark an out of the box idea that can work for you.
The best way for me to begin is by telling you my experience with wanting to travel but not having the disposable income to take on such an expenditure. I am a Motor Coach driver by trade, so I was already travelling a lot throughout Canada and the USA for work. However, I wasn’t very good with my money. So travelling personally wasn’t on my radar at the time. I was on a regular run with a company that was sending international students to NYC on 4 day trips. I did that type of trip for a few years and made a lot of friends from around the world. I was invited to go to Spain, France, Italy, Switzerland, Brazil, etc. After many invitations I finally wrapped my head around the possibility of travelling abroad for my first vacation outside of North America that was not the Caribbean. So I settled on visiting France and Spain…it would be 7 days in France and 11 days in Spain.
Being a Motor Coach driver that is never home, how am I going to earn enough money for me to go on this trip with the time frame I was looking at? I was working with the same tour guide week in and week out and he gave me an amazing idea. Why not leverage my opportunity as a driver who crosses the border like he was doing as a Tour Guide. As a driver we have up to 56 passengers on a bus, so my first tactic was to sell water. Yes you read this right, I sold water on the bus. Keep in mind that it is the summer season in NYC so it is hot. Now if you wanted to buy a bottle of cold water in NYC it will cost you $2 a bottle (at least it did many years ago). So I sold cold water out of a cooler 2 for $1. It was crazy as the water sold like…water, but not just to my passengers. People off the street were buying the water as well so I would go through 6-10 cases over a 4 day trip.
Next was the border crossing coming back into Canada. Being away for more than 2 days allowed us to bring back alcohol and/or cigarettes duty free. So having a bus with 56 passengers, I was able to bring back at least 4-5 bottles of alcohol and 4-5 cartons of cigarettes on top of what I was carrying across. All I had to do was find someone on the bus to claim them, that had no interest in bringing back anything for themselves. Selling the alcohol and cigarettes was a piece of cake once I got home because you saved a ton on the duty.
So after selling water, cigarette cartons and alcohol all summer and into the fall. I was able to make enough money to purchase a return direct flight from Toronto to Paris to Barcelona to Toronto. I was also able to carry $800 Euros for spending money and had the time of my life. Now to lessen my expense, I also leveraged my friendships and was able to stay with friends which saved me a lot of money as hotels were not cheap back then. All in all I spent 7 days in the city of Versailles and 11 days in Barcelona.
If you are stuck and wishing Calgon…take me away (you probably have to be my age to remember that commercial), then maybe you need to think outside the box and become a hustler. There are many opportunities to make some side cash and if you do it right then you could be going on your next vacation very soon.
My ideas may not fit everyone, but if you have an idea that you want to share then by all means leave a comment below and If you like what you read then be sure to give this blog a thumbs up!