Number 7: Don’t make your itinerary tight. I think one of the best things about travel is finding things you didn’t plan for. These are often time-consuming from the perspective of an itinerary, but they tend to be free or cheap, and they add unforgettable uniqueness to your trip. That interesting store or cafe across the street, that smaller path not on the main tour. Something someone tells you about that they just discovered themselves. Follow that lead! Remember, free stuff is cheaper than the expensive stuff.

I took a side trail on a scooter ride once, and found a spectacular view of a harbor that none of the other tourists got to see.

Nelson's Bay in Barbados

I could give you a million examples. When you have a choice, the more adventuresome one is usually better.

Numbah 8, dahling: Luxury and cheap don’t usually go hand in hand. Some locations, such as Southeast Asia, are known for being inexpensive, and we’ll get into some of that later, but the general rule is that fancy costs money. Luxuriasts make their living creating luxury. They gotta eat, y’know, and you’re the one paying their wages. Luxury is artificial. It’s fantasy. Somebody else does the dishes (okay, maybe that’s a meaningful luxury) but do you really need a chocolate on your pillow? Your spouse could put one on your sleeping bag for maybe 1% of the one in the fancy, sterile bedroom. And a chocolate on the sleeping bag is a surprise and delight. (Spouses, take note.)

What you get for your money is reduced risk. The food at that interesting cafe might be terrible. The small path might lead to a dump (I took one once and it led to a large pile of conch shells. No guarantees. But with the risk are the unexpected delights.

Just don't let something unforeseen happen to your chocolates

Actual cheap places coming up!

I have another general rule of thumb or two about cheap travel coming up, but this is too interesting to pass up. Here’s a link to the original post:

http://calabarboy.com/2010/10/11/the-true-size-of-africa-kai-krause/

…and here’s a map of Africa, the US, and a lot of other places to scale.

Click to show at full size

If you plan to visit Africa, better plan for a long trip.

This one’s a tip:

Consider renting out your house while you are gone. To someone in, say, Sweden, a visit to the town that hosts the Kalmar Nykel (sailing ship that brought Swedish immigrants to Delaware, where this blog originates) and is so close to DC and NYC might make a pretty attractive vacation. Subtract the rent from the cost of your vacation.

The Kalmar Nykel in Wilmington. Click to enlarge.

Organizations are out there that broker house exchanges. Or just plain rent it short-term to a doctoral student and family for the spring term. Figure out your own creative solution. (And share your idea in the comments.)

Principle six: Natural wonders tend to be less expensive than man-made attractions. For example, there’s a fee to go see the Mt. Rushmore sculptures, but you can drive through the badlands all day for the price of a tank of gas, which you’d have to spend anyway to get to Rushmore.Let’s don’t even mention theme parks.

Everybody sees Mt. Rushmore from the front; here's a profile view. Don't forget to buy a made-in-China souvenir at the sucker gift shop.

Free, and you can go exploring

Okay, maybe I come across a bit cynical here, but the principle remains. Anything made with tourists in mind is expensive, anything that’s already there is cheap.

By the way—I forgot to mention last time that you don’t have to volunteer, you can go somewhere for education, a seminar, or maybe secure a temporary transfer or go to a convention for work. Add a day or two on your own and you have a discounted vacation.

This principle isn’t exactly a “how to spend less” rule, but it makes a good rule of thumb:

The less you spend, the more you will interact with the locals. Tourist attractions tend to be set up to isolate tourists from “furriners” and make it easy for the “guests” to spend money. Take a bus tour. You’re with the other tourists. When they stop, where do they do it? At places to buy stuff, where the locals are people whose livelihood is selling to tourists. Those beautiful luxury resorts, to be truly luxurious, are isolated from the (often poor) people of the country. People spending money on themselves don’t want to be bothered by beggars.

Exotic Zanzibar. Tourists are on the beautiful beaches, not here

Of course, this locale would disturb anyone’s vacation (but see the next principle). But if you get out into the countryside, away from the slums, in a lot of countries the people are making a living and getting by. They’re a pretty interesting place to visit, and you’re more likely to pay the local rates. Yes, you won’t have a liveried waiter at your every beck and call, but you’ll have real life experiences that you’ll never forget. All this suggests the next principle.

Principle 4: What if you volunteer instead of vacation? I never heard of a missionary of any flavor who wouldn’t love to have some folks come and help out. What skills do you have? Someone in an exotic locale can use them. There are lots of quasi- and non-governmental organizations out there, too, if something like that is more your style. Here’s another view of Zanzibar:

This guy is helping out in a school

Seriously—consider doing some good instead of just spending money on yourself.

More next time. What ideas do you have to share?

So I’m sitting here in the exotic 896 Diner just south of faraway Newark, Delaware, enjoying a huge meat-lover’s omelet made from three of my own hens’ eggs, and I realized I had left my notes at home. My notes for this post. It was to be the beginning of a series on general principles for traveling cheaply before I got into the places to go to travel cheaply.

Well, I like to travel cheaply, so I remember some principles without needing my notes. I’m not going to tell you to sleep next to your motorcycle, though I have done that. Part of the adventure, dontcha know.

Principle 1: Get out of town. Especially the town containing the airport you flew in on. These urban centers get a lot of tourists, and the folks there tend to capitalize on the tendency of tourists to spend money. The farther off the beaten track you get, the more you will be offered prices that the locals pay.

A corollary of this is: Stay away from things aimed at tourists—shopping areas, tours, chains, and other tourists. For example, suppose you’re taking a simple trip down the interstate. You can pull off at a truck stop near the highway and get a decent meal (it’s a good idea to pick the place with the most tractor-trailers in the lot), but if you go a couple miles into the local farm community, you can eat at Kitty’s Koffie Kup, that has absolutely no atmosphere, but it’s where all the locals eat, you get a really good meal, and pick up some local color to boot.In fact, you might find out about something nearby that’s worth checking out. The county park, town museum, a nice antique store, some local geological feature.

This isn't the Koffie Kup, but you get the idea

And that leads to

Principle 2: The slower you travel , the cheaper the trip. Most of the best foreign really good deals will be noticed and experienced by the backpackers—people who pack lightly enough that they can carry everything with them. They get off the big commercial tour bus and rent a bike so they can explore the countryside. We’ll cover this in more detail later. The idea is like that visit to the farm community. Sure, you’re not making highway speed, but the trip itself is better. And the local sights are generally free.

Next time: a few more principles for cheap travel.