Labor Day Weekend was a couple weeks ago for you Americans. The weather is starting to cool a bit, sweaters are pulled from the closet and leaves are beginning to drop to the ground.

Of course, here in Australia, the opposite is happening. Sunny days are just beginning to out number dreary ones. We’re pulling the extra blanket off our bed and starting to leave the door open on warmer afternoons. As the sun becomes more frequent I find myself being pulled outdoors. My restless legs are starting to stir and I can’t help idly browsing Skyscanner and AirBnB more often.

We still have 4 months to go, though, until we’re off to Southeast Asia. Until then we’re trying to lay low and save up money. So how do travel addicts like ourselves, or those that aren’t able to travel, keep entertained while staying still? Here’s how we make staying at home feel like a vacation:

Read A Travel Book

It’s incredible how far books can take you. Seriously, I’m not trying to get too Reading Rainbow here, but books can transport you to just about anywhere in the world. My all-time favorite activity is reading a book set in the place that I’m traveling in. I took Jack Keraouc’s Big Sur on our road trip to Big Sur. Jules and I slowly relished every word of Gabriel Garcia Marquez’ 100 Years of Solitude while in Colombia. If you can’t read a book in the country that it’s set, the next best thing is to let that book take you there.

If you need some inspiration, here’s a good list.

Plan Your Next Trip

This is going to sound like BS, but planning a trip can be almost as fun as actually traveling. According to science, a large part of the happiness boost that comes from vacationing is actually from the planning stages. Even if you’re not sure when you’ll actually be able to take your trip, planning it out can be a great motivator. Once you’ve discovered destinations, tours and hotels you’d love to check out, you’ll be more inclined to start pinching pennies so you can actually go! The anticipation and excitement of choosing where to go and creating an itinerary can be a lot of fun. Go on! There’s no harm in looking!

Connect With Travelers

You may not be able to travel at the moment but you can still get in touch with other travelers. Sites like Couchsurfing and Meetup host get-togethers where you can meet travelers or ex-pats from another country. Swapping travel stories with other backpackers will make you feel like you’re back in a hostel, chatting with others about your latest adventures. If you’re interested in learning about a certain country or region, find meetups that are based around that theme. Check out a language exchange night or a foodie group!

Explore Your Own Backyard

It’s crazy that backpackers can travel the whole world and barely explore their own backyard. Okay, not your actual backyard (although setting up a tent and having a camping night in your own yard is always a win), but explore your area! Go on a weekend road trip. Set airfare alerts for cities in your state. Take a staycation and get to know every nook and cranny in your city. Host a Couchsurfer for a drink or coffee and show them what is so unique about what you’re from. You don’t have to travel halfway across the world to remember how special home is.

It’s time again for some of the best travel tips from our favorite bloggers! This weeks addition looks at the best way to save on accommodation. Most travelers would agree that the cost of accommodation is the one thing that eats away at your precious savings the fastest, therefore, if you can cut some corners you’ll definitely be able to stretch out that trip at least double the length. This week our favorite travel bloggers give us some of their best travel tips in regards to house sitting, living like a local and CouchSurfing. 

Enjoy free accommodation – Crazzzy Travel

Couchsurfing, is an online service which allows you to find a couch in someone’s apartment, absolutely for free. It is well-developed all over the world, so you’ll have no problem finding a host wherever you are, whether it’s in the northern provinces of Thailand or in New York City.  In order to arrange free accommodation send a couchsurfing request, accompanied with a nice letter, explaining why you travel and why you want to stay with your host. Don’t forget to give back to the community – host people, bring some really nice gifts with you, prepare your national meals, and keep in touch with people you meet on your travels. It is totally free of charge and allows you to learn more about everyday life of the locals.

Live like a local – AngloItalian

Seeing as we’re traveling in our second year on a budget, that should only have been big enough for one person to travel 12 months, we’ve gotten pretty good a living cheaply and living like a local. Buying products where the locals do at the markets instead of bigger supermarkets and convenience stores is a great start, but the key is your choice of accommodation. Using housesitting we’ve spent most of the past half year staying in local houses completely for free whilst the homeowner is away, leaving us to get really integrated with local life, whilst saving money along the way too.

Become a house sitter – Charlie on Travel

If you want to be a long-term traveller, house sitting is an excellent way to do it. House sitting gigs tend to be weeks or months long, which means you can keep travel costs down by having a semi-permanent base. Though staying in one place isn’t for everyone, house sitting gives you the opportunity to get off the tourist track, engage with the community and get to know the local people and lifestyle.

In Costa Rica, we were living well for less thanks to our house sitting assignment in a little barrio in the mountains. But house sitting isn’t all gorgeous views and sunshine, we also had eight dogs and one cat to look after, as well as a deadly snake in the garden! Taking care of someone else’s home and pets is a big responsibility and involves a lot of trust on the homeowner’s part. If you’re going to be a house sitter, that’s awesome, but make sure you’re prepared and committed.

Liked this article? Check out our other Budget Travel Tips From Our Favorite Bloggers.

Welcome to second installment of the best budget travel tips from our favorite bloggers. After the success of the first collaborative post we couldn’t wait to get another article out there showcasing some more amazing tips!

This collaboration not only helped us network with some fantastic blogs, but it has also helped expand our own own knowledge of budget travel. Check out the tips and book that trip!

Always stick to local transport – eTramping

If you want to save a lot of money when traveling the world, you should definitely avoid taxis and travel around the country using local transport instead – trains, buses and subway. It makes a huge difference when it comes to saving, trust me. Usually most of the cities you’ll travel to have a number of train stations, so you can often move around the city with a pass. Also, if you’re planning on being in a city for a few days, a travel card for the bus, tram, and metro will often save you money on buying single tickets.

Another cheap alternative is to rent a bike and experience a town or city at your own pace. Some cities are more geared up for cyclists than others, for example Amsterdam is a cyclists’ paradise!

Plan ahead – Have Blog Will Travel

The days of carelessly backpacking through Europe on a whim are no more. With many European cities hosting large festivals, concerts, and events year-round, the cheapest and best accommodations frequently book up and must be reserved well in advance to ensure you’re getting the best deal. Booking transportation early, a month out for trains, longer for flights, is also crucial to scoring a great deal. We made the mistake of overlooking our train reservation from Paris to London and ended up on an overnight bus to avoid paying nearly $150 US dollars per person for the train. Unfortunately, most last minute tickets are similarly overpriced. In addition to planning ahead, staying flexible when booking can also be crucial to saving money. While those traveling on specific dates are forced to pay a set rate, travelers with more flexible schedules can shop around, adding or subtracting days from their itinerary to get the best price possible. It’s a balancing act but well worth it for the sake of your budget.

Find cheaper flights – IndieTraveller

The cost of flights often makes up a significant slice of any travel budget. Fortunately, you can make substantial savings on your tickets by digging around a little. The differences in price can be so huge sometimes that the savings can easily represent weeks of additional travel. That’s why rather than going with the first flight option I can find, I will happily spend some time researching the options.

Momondo and Skyscanner are two great search engines for cheap flights. I’m especially fond of using Momondo as it has a bunch of great tools for finding the right flight. Be sure to play around with the dates and consider alternative airports nearby. Some budget airlines are not included in these search engines however. Search the name of the airport on Wikipedia and you will typically find a list of budget airlines going there, which then lets you search with these airlines directly.

Sometimes you get lucky by finding a super cheap flight. Recently I flew very cheaply from Colombia to Peru by purchasing a ticket in combination with a return flight via Ecuador. Bizarrely this return ticket was cheaper than any single ticket I could find, so I simply flew to Peru and never used the return. Dig around long enough and you might find such a ‘glitch in the Matrix’ and benefit from a cheap ticket most people would not know about.

Research the local cuisine before you leave – Cook Sip Go

Knowledge is the strongest tool to ensure you eat well on a budget while traveling.  Before you leave, block off an hour to research the cuisine of the destination online.  As food connected to a place can evoke pride and passion, there are many blogs, websites and Wikipedia pages dedicated to providing information on national and regional cuisines.  This approach is a big money-saver and the key is figuring out the everyday or staple dishes.  Given their importance to the population, staple mains and sides will be widely available at a good price.  You’ll be able to find these foods at market stands, food carts and small restaurants.  These places cater to locals, who will not tolerate touristy rates.  Even if you’re stuck in a restaurant that targets foreign visitors, don’t be afraid to order off-menu.  The national foods are usually available and will be cheaper than the pizza or burger.  And they’ll taste much better.  Your knowledge of everyday foods impacts more than your travel budget.  Ordering locally-sourced dishes also supports the farming community and reduces the emissions necessary to transport the ingredients.  A little bit of research can benefit many.

Check out Part 1 if you missed it, or read all about our best budget travel tip!

Or maybe you’ve got something different you’d like to share?

Recently we posted an article revealing our number one tip for budget travel. And it got us thinking, while our tip has worked great for us, it’s only one of the many awesome budget travel tips out there. We took to our favorite travel blogs asking them the question; what’s your best travel tip for saving money and traveling longer?

Join us as we hear about the best budget travel tips from some of our favorite travel bloggers!

Learn how to score crazy deals on flights – Backpack ME

If you travel with a limited budget (or just want to be smart about your expenses) it is important to keep an eye on the things you pay for on a daily basis. But, more than that, it’s essential to try to save on the major expenses as that is exactly what will make a difference in the big picture! For us, and many other travelers, that translates into booking the best deals on flights.

Flexibility of schedule is key on scoring the best prices on flights: if you don’t limit your search of flight to a specific date, but instead a period of time, you are much more likely to come across sweet deals. Other than that, be prepared to face long lay-overs or not so straightforward routes if you want to save more money. After dozens of flights on all sides of the world, we’ve perfected some techniques to score crazy deals on flights no matter where we go.

Bargain your way through the world – Bunch of Backpackers

One of the best ways to save money during my travels was to bargain. In tourist areas this is almost always possible, wherever you are in the world! I bargained for tours, souvenirs and accommodation. So, what’s the secret to great bargaining? The number one rule is ‘Be friendly’. A smile can make the difference. It’s important that the person that you’re bargaining with starts liking you and eventually is willing to help you out. So, now let’s move on to the more practical tricks. Everyone knows the walk-away technique. When the owner calls you back you know you were close to a ‘reasonable’ price. If not, you may have aimed to high. But no worries, you can always go to the next shop/stand/hotel.

This is also essential: always check different places and do your research to get a rough feeling for the price. When you shop around don’t carry too much money with you! The chances are that prices rise once they see your big banknotes. Another tip is to try not to be disappointed once you closed a deal. It’s tempting to think ‘Ow, I could have maybe gone a bit further down’, but there is really no point in that. Ask yourself how much you think it’s worth for you and just be happy that you already bargained some of the price down, and maybe grant the owner a bit of extra profit! Final tip: don’t be shy, you can always try!

Think in local currency – The Crowded Planet

Whenever people ask us how we manage to stay on the road for months at a time, our answer is always this: start thinking in the local currency. If you’re traveling around developing countries it’s very easy to fall into the trap of converting to the euro or dollar, thinking everything is so cheap and splashing out on swanky dinners and pricey drinks. Don’t get me wrong; there’s no problem with the occasional splurge, but it must be occasional! What we usually do, in the first couple of days somewhere new, is ask around to get a rough idea of costs; hotels, food, local transport and so on. This way we can keep track of what we spend and avoid being overcharged. And of course, we never, ever convert. You’ll think twice before parting with 250 rupees, but 3.11 euros? I guess not.

Finding the best food – Mytanfeet

A few of our best budget travel tips are about finding food. Yeison and I love to eat and try new foods,but we believe that you don’t need to pay a ridiculous amount of money to eat authentic and tasty food. Whenever we’re in a new place we ask the cab drivers where the best and cheap place to eat is. Cab drivers always have to eat out, so they are a great resource for cheap and tasty local food and they usually know which ones are open late or are twenty-four hours.

For grocery shopping, we always ask the locals to find out where they do their shopping. Buying North American or European brands in Central America is always more expensive, so to cut down on grocery money we try to buy local brands as often as we can. It helps to do some research online before you go, but you can’t always find that information so it’s best to ask the locals when you get there. For a few minutes of asking around you can save a lot of money by finding out which one is the (normally) cheaper local grocery store compared to the expensive tourist one.

Have you got something different you’d like to share?

If you’d like to be a part of this ongoing series send us an email at contact@dontforgettomove.com

Recently we’ve been getting a decent amount of emails from readers asking for travel tips and advice. The number one question we constantly receive is “how do you afford to travel?” which really translates to “how can I afford to travel?”


Well, listen up because we’re about to divulge our best budget travel tip. This simple tip will not only save you a ton of money, but will actually bring you a more authentic travel experience. Okay, I’m starting to sound like one of those pop up ads that promises you can melt belly fat with one weird trick. But seriously, if there’s one secret that has saved us from wasting our money while backpacking, it’s this: live like a local.

Too simple? Hear me out.

Even the cheapest countries can be expensive to travel in if you live like a tourist. Restaurants, hostels, tour companies will take advantage of any opportunity to gauge the price up at the sight of a gringo.

Living like a local not only means saving a ton of money, but truly experiencing a country, as well. So how do you live like a local? Try eating at a hole in the wall restaurant and ordering whatever delicacy is featured on the menu (or more likely, hastily described to you by the ladies behind the counter). Find a friendly local who will offer you a spare bed/couch/ space of floor to crash on. Ask that friendly local where he buys his beer and then sneak that beer in a water bottle so you can drink with his friends on the steps of the main plaza. While you’re drinking like a local, your backpacker counterparts will be spending 3 times as much on overpriced shooters at the gringo bar. Suckas.

{ enjoy some vending machine beer! }

Living like a local is not for everyone. It takes guts and a sense of adventure. You might have to wake up at 4 am just share a seat in the back of a pickup squeezed in between a chicken and a curious toddler. Of course you could be kicking back in an air-conditioned van, but then you’d be $30 short and wouldn’t have met Pedro, your friendly new local tour guide.

Living like a local means traveling authentically. This is where that whole tourist vs traveler idea comes into play. There’s nothing wrong with taking a vacation, spending your days lounging by the resort pool drinking margaritas, but you’re not really seeing the country. Unless you’re taking advantage of a strong currency exchange, why bother traveling across the world to do something you can do in your own backyard?

Not that there’s anything wrong with a vacation. Everyone needs a few days poolside. But traveling, real authentic, living like a local traveling, is so much more than that. It’s not all beautiful white sands and pristine rainforest. It’s smoggy gritty, moto-taxi filled streets, people yelling in different languages, stomach churning food and harsh realities.

Living like a local means not shying away from those parts of a country that make you feel uncomfortable and squirm in your seat. It means examining those parts head on and experiencing them wholly because visiting somewhere as a foreigner means taking that place as a whole, with its good and bad.

So if you’ve got the guts, give it a try. Skip that party hostel and try Couchsurfing instead. Eat the street food, no matter what you’ve been warned. Hop on a local bus, even if you don’t speak the language. Pedro is waiting!