Most advice on international travel on a budget focuses on: cheaper hotels, street food, free activities, walking instead of taxis. That's optimizing the wrong variable. Accommodation and food costs are fixed within narrow ranges. Flights? Flights vary 500-1000% based on destination flexibility. The expensive way to travel: locked destination + locked dates. "We want to go to Paris for spring break" = you'll pay whatever airlines charge because you have zero negotiating power. The cheap way to travel: flexible destination + locked dates (or locked destination + flexible dates). "We want to go SOMEWHERE for spring break, wherever's cheapest" = you have maximum negotiating power. Google Flights: search "anywhere" with your dates locked. Shows cheapest destinations globally from your airport. Skyscanner: search "everywhere" with date flexibility. Shows cheapest times to travel to specific places. Result: $1,000/person flights become $50-150/person flights. Not by finding "deals" on expensive routes. By choosing routes that are cheap by design. International travel on a budget isn't about suffering through hostels and skipping meals. It's about flexible destination selection that makes flights *the most expensive component* dramatically cheaper. My kids have been to 20+ countries. Not because I have unlimited money. Because I optimize for cost by choosing destinations based on flight prices, not Instagram popularity. You can travel extensively. Or you can travel to specific places on specific dates. Pick one. Comment if you want the credit card points advanced strategy. 🆘🇺🇸 #TikTokCreatorSearchInsightsIncentive
@nomadveronicaTranscript
I know it's perceived that traveling internationally can be very expensive, and while that sometimes is true, specific destinations on specific dates can be very expensive. It doesn't have to be that way. And as somebody who lives internationally, I want to share some advice with you about figuring out how to travel internationally that you might not be aware of. I mean, it's the most expensive way to travel is to have a specific destination in mind on specific dates. So let's say you want to go somewhere for your kid's spring break and you pick Italy. I want to go to Italy for spring break. That's what I'm doing. And you go look at flights that are on a specific day. You have no wiggle room. And then you look for flights home on that other specific day and you have no wiggle room. That's the most expensive possible thing that you could do. Instead, you should be looking for a wide range of possibilities. And this is why I've been able to take my kids to 20 countries is that I do not look for a specific city on a specific date. Instead, I'm just sort of always looking for where could we go. So my kids have a school vacation. I don't pick a place. I look at if we were to leave the day of vacation, you know, vacation starts. They get out of school. Could we leave that evening? I'll look at flights on that day, but I will put everywhere as the option for the destination. On Google flights, I believe you put everywhere and on sky scanner. You put anywhere. And then you search for the whole world. And you can find the cheapest flights. So I look at my airport. I say, okay, from the Lisbon Airport, what are the cheapest flights to leave that afternoon after the kids get out of school? And then that becomes the destination because it's the cheapest. So instead of spending $1,000 per person, we're spending $100 per person or sometimes even $50 per person, depending on how great the deal is that day. But you are just stuck on the idea that it has to be a certain place and it has to be the certain date. And that is driving the budget for your international travel way, way up. I know it's not always possible for people to travel like off of school breaks. And so you have to fit in on those school breaks, but that's why you have to keep that location totally flexible. All right, the more flexibility you can have on dates and location, the more options that you're going to have that are going to be inexpensive. I mean, we have stayed entire months in a five star hotel because we've chosen the off season for that place. We went to Cairo in December and stayed at a five star hotel for a month because it was cheap on the off season. Now, if you want to take it to the next level and start doing points and miles hacking, that's a whole other conversation. The credit cards that my family uses always benefit us to the point where we are getting free hotel stays, free flights, getting to fly in pods, you know, having that luxurious travel lifestyle without paying any money other than the taxes and fees. That's like the expert level of traveling on a budget. And I'm happy to talk about that more. If you're interested, just let me know in the comments.
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