In this day in age is it still possible to travel the world on the cheap?
This depends on a few factors really, such as how you want to travel, when you want to travel, where to, but i think more importantly is how flexible you are with your plans. I will cover the later towards the end of the post.
How…
There are so many ways in which you can now travel the world, for most people the chosen choice is by either train or plane. However there are other ways you can travel, you can choose to cruise your way around or indeed if you are not in any hurry you can even book yourself onto a freight container. Admittedly this will take you around 6-8 weeks to get to Australia for example and around £4,000 but this only works out at about £82 and that includes your accommodation, meals and possibly even some entertainment in the officers quarters.
I get that this method would not really be the first choice of many would be fellow travellers.
Planes still offer the best value for money, you can get a flight from London Luton through to Sweden for just £10.00 !!!! thats ridiculous, a single ticket to Sweden for a tenner. Oh yes that includes all taxes but not any hold luggage you would need.
When and Where…
You need to know when the off peak times are for visiting these places, for example flying to Florida during the hurricane season would be cheaper than travelling over the thanksgiving period. Equally going to Asia over the Chinese new year would be far more expensive than going later on in the year for example.
The difference in prices can range from a few pounds up to hundreds of pounds. The same would also go to how far in advance you book you flight, i’ve read on here that 52 days before your due to take off is the best along with booking with one hand rubbing your stomach at 2.13am on the 2nd Thursday of the month (ok so we made the last one up). But seriously, the sooner you can purchase your ticket the better you will be, and matched with a Travel Insurance policy and as long as you are covered would not only get a good deal but also money back if you needed to cancel (again you need to be covered first).
Flexibility…
Oh flexibility, this is in my opinion the most vital out of them all.
If you really have no problems in where you will go next, i would suggest apps and websites like SkyScanner. I have started my journey in the UK, selected a date and then said fly me anywhere. This will bring you up with the cheapest countries you can fly to on that day (this is where i found the Sweden for a tenner). All you do then is decide how long you wanna stay in that area, then choose that airport as your departure and then choose Everywhere as your destination and just continue from there until you either run out of money or get bored.
I managed to book our entire European trip for 6 weeks travelling to 14 countries for £258 each!
If i compare this to eBooker who i called and asked if they did a multi-stop european ticket only to be quoted £202 just for the first 4 flights of my journey. I was then quoted over £600 for the next 4, i was like you can stop there amigo. I think i will look for these myself.
Admitted these are shop hops in effect, but it is certainly worth doing a lot of digging because spending the time beforehand can save you literally hundreds if not thousands of pounds.
