Traveling around the world on a shoestring budget means you can travel longer and work less to save for your trip. While it’s hard to ever become the No Impact Man there are ways to live on a shoestring, eat simply, buy like a spendthrift and enjoy your time meeting new people instead of shopping at Home Depot to repair the house that holds you while you work.
The first thing you need to know, and I am sure you have heard about it, is that booking sites for rental cars, airfare and hotels use tracking software to know from which country you’ve entered the site and they can count how many times you check prices on a page. Notice the prices going up higher every time you check?
It’s not likely such a demand for what you want but the company knows you are checking and automatically puts the price up every time. There are a handful of reliable VPN companies you can use to block your location and in some cases toggling between countries can get you better rates. I use VPN Express when I need a temporary VPN, and Surfshark is just fine too – just take a top 5 VPN download and you are good to go. I’d pay with PayPal because it’s easier to get your money refunded if the software doesn’t work the way you intended. And it’s safer than giving your credit card.
Cloaking your location can also work for getting good rates on cars but after 5 years of having to rent cars every year, sometimes for a couple of months at a time, I’d given up on all the comparison sites and I’d just stick with Autoslash. I’ve had personal help from guys like Chris over there. While you don’t have options to find electric or hybrid cars these can come up in your search results and you can filter the best choices out later according to your budget and location.
How to find places to stay: every country in the world has sustainable, local cost options. But you need to get into the mindset of the people there first to understand how to travel with less impact and how to travel sustainably. In countries like Turkey you don’t have to Google for LEED hotels. You can stay at small, family-built pensions that offer home-cooked meals. Turkey is also one of those countries where you don’t need a car to travel far and well. Small buses and even larger ones traverse the country in a web – making it easy for you to get on and get off with ease and your budget intact.
Countries like Canada, less so. Lodging is relatively expensive, but with the enormous scale of provincial and national parks you can camp for about $40 USD a night during peak summer months. Provincial parks will let you stay in wild camping zones for an even lower rate and if you have a map of the Crown Land you can probably figure out ways to camp for free out in nature.
So when sustainable travel budgeting choices you make on the internet are important. But don’t make too many choices. Book a few nights and then figure out from the locals how to do more with less. Each country has its tips and tricks and if you want to act like a local go out and meet some.
