Almost every twenty-something complains about how they would like to travel more. Guess what? You can travel more. I will spare you any motivational tips. I want to outline some tactical tips to help you travel more:
Plan ahead.
The first step always involves asking around to see who out of your group of friends is interested in traveling (always ask girlfriend first).
The second step involves figuring out who will actually have the money to travel. Everyone would love to travel but the reality is that most 20 somethings simply can’t save up for vacations.
The next step is picking out a destination that everyone can agree on. This is usually the biggest pain in the butt about booking a vacation with your friends. The best way to get through this stage is to have everyone answer a fundamental question.
What are you looking to do? If you want to get wasted all week and go clubbing, consider Cancun, Mexico. If you want to lay on the beach and have someone serve you drinks as a lady friend applies more lotion on you, then anywhere down south will work. If you want to visit churches and historic landmarks then go to Europe and make sure you don’t invite me.
It’s very simple. Once the group collectively figures out what they want to do it’ll be much easier to pick out a destination. If different people have different travel ideas then maybe you shouldn’t be traveling together. Travel with people that have similar goals. You don’t want to go scuba diving alone while everyone is on the beach playing beer pong.
The final step involves collecting money from everyone. If you don’t mind doing the leg work then you can collect money from everyone and take care of the payment. (Hint: If you want to build your credit rating, it helps when you make large payments and pay it off immediately. Just make sure you have the cash first.)
Sacrifice a little.
Don’t ruin your life by going straight from work to sleep, but do make a few minor changes. I’m willing to go out less often in the city to bars and clubs, so that I can travel to foreign destinations more often. Plus the drinking is so much funner when you’re topless with shorts on in the middle of a January snow storm.
We can all make some minor financial changes so that we can have some money left over to travel.
Save small amounts over long periods of time.
I find it funny when someone complains about the price of a trip.
$1,000? I could never afford that!
The irony of the above statement is that when you go out in the city three times a week you end up spending more than $1,000 after a few months. Nobody ever wants to run the numbers.
I save $20 a week for every trip I plan on taking after a year or so. Saving $20 a week is pretty easy for most us. Just have a few less beers at the pub or buy a less popular brand of jeans.
What’s with the travel post?: As you read this I’m probably either laying on the beach or ordering another round of drinks on a resort in the Dominican Republic. I will back on Saturday but the posts never stop.
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I don’t have a GF so can’t speak from that angle but I would never base my trips off of a girl. Base your trips off of where you want to go and worse comes to worse if no one wants to go then travel alone. I have done this twice before and it’s an amazing growing experience to travel on your own.
Hah! It’s true, you don’t have 1 girlfriend Mr. Craig, but you may have MORE than 1
But yeah, planning ahead and asking friends is KEY. I blow up all those online sites until I find the perfect price for me (sometimes not always perfect, but as close as I can get). One hour of work here can save hundreds of dollars – even if it bores you to death.
Europe is really not all about “visiting churches and historic landmarks” by far – check out Amsterdam. It’s pretty awesome.
Just trying to have a taste of DC J, ha.
Actually trying to book a flight down to West Palm/Miami in Feb, any cheap flight recommendations?
@Craig Cheap flight recommendations:
Orbitz, Travel Zoo (many last minute deals under the top 20 section), PriceLine.
When you get a girlfriend you’ll understand what I mean
As for the solo traveling- I’m envious of you. I’m anxiously awaiting my opportunity to get up and do something on my own. The whole full school thing/limited free time really restricts it.
What has been your favorite trip thus far?
My favorite trip so far has to be Amsterdam. Generally when vacationing with friends we tend to not go too far from home so it’s not really expensive. It’s also helpful if you can stay with friends in those places.