Worldwide Travel Misconceptions 101

Need a conversations starter?  Ask a person where their favorite place to travel is!  I have been doing this for years now and not only will a persons interest perk up, but so will the quality of conversation.  By doing this I have not only made a ton of friends.  I have also learned about some of the most exotic, interesting, inexpensive places in the world.  I have also learned about some of the nastiest, boring and expensive places to go also.  It is also great because a person will seldom forget that conversation.  Take a few tid bits here and there and you can put a pretty impressive adventure together for surprisingly cheap.  There are so many worldwide travel misconceptions out there it would blow your mind.  We hope to make expensive travel nothing but a delusion for you. So be prepared and take some notes, here it comes.  

Getting to know the basics for traveling abroad is one of the most important steps you can take when preparing to worldwide travel.  There are many misconceptions when it comes to traveling.  It is not where common people travel to that costs them a lot.  It is how they travel.  Many people have this mentality that they have to save up a ton of money so they can travel for a week or two through out the year.  The truth is that the way they are traveling is what is costing them money.  It is possible, very possible to travel many places throughout this world, do it very inexpensively and not sacrifice quality.  

One common questions is to use a travel agent.  Well, that depends.  Finding a good worldwide travel agency or global travel agency is possible to help you on your trip.  A lot of times they know their area and are paid on the backend from the hotels.  However this is not the only source to use.  This worked great for me one time when I called a travel agent the day of, looking for a hotel around $50 in Sedona, AZ.  Usually it is impossible to find a hotel for that price in Sedona.  However, the agent knew of a new hotel that was empty and would accept a 30% discounted price.  

One reason people believe traveling is expensive is because what they budget for a vacation is what they spend, and many people only travel during certain dates, not surprisingly the majority of those being holidays.  This automatically locks them into a schedule and higher rates.  For example Sally and Sue are planning a vacation to Cancun, Mexico.  Sally wants to go Spring Break and budgeted $4000 including airfare and hotel.  She wants to fly on the weekend only stay a week and return the following weekend.  It will be very easy for Sally to spend her whole budget.  Sue only has $700 and wants to travel to Cancun.  She decides to travel in January when flights are cheap and finds a very nice time share rental posted on Craigslist for $30 per day.  She flys on Wednesday to save on airfare and spends 7 days in Cancun.  This scenario is very plausible.  With a little research and time spent on traveling a little bit differently you can see the world for pennies on the dollar compared to most travelers.

Worldwide travel is an art....sometimes it feel like it is a lost art.  It is just like anything, the more you practice it the better you will become.  You will find out little simple things that will take you amazing places, for example the east bank of Turkey is just a pretty as Greece, in viewing distance of each other and about 3 times as cheap.  Also, during a recession is a great time to travel because places that thrive on tourism are offering tons and tons of deals.  

There are many resources (books, websites) out there that will direct you to your dream vacation.  It does take a little time and research, but it will all be worth it when you are spending a year in the South Pacific living in a bungalow for $2000 per year.  Chris Surfs is an avid global traveler for the past 30+ years.