I’ve decided to spill the beans on my three best kept travel secrets.
Some of you may have figured out tricks similar to these along your travels, but this is the first time I’m letting these three out of the bag.
1) Finding a great hotel without paying full price. Usually, you can find all the fancy hotels in one place. It’s usually a new and booming neighborhood. Go there. Now find a side street and walk one block over. This is probably the neighborhood that used to be ‘it’. If it’s not one block over one way, go one block over the other. It’s close. Find a place that looks clean but a little run down. Chances are that you will be able to get a wonderful room for half as much, don’t be afraid to bargain. These places need your business. Same thing goes for restaurants, but don’t expect them to bargain. I’ve used this in China, Morocco, and Ireland among other places.
2) Museums. Let’s face it, museums are often BORING and overpriced. Instead of paying to go into museums, find the nearest university and take a walk through their libraries, galleries, and ethnographic collections. FREE and you might even find a lecture. Also, if you are on a budget, the food at universities is usually dirt cheap. I’ve done this in Canada, Italy, Indonesia and plenty of other countries too.
3) Women’s shoes and handbags. If, like me, you are a man who travels by himself a lot, you may want to have that extra seat next to you on the bus reserved. You can pay for it and then argue with the guy who wants to sit there anyway, or you can pull out a pair of women’s shoes and put them on the floor or a woman’s purse and put it on the seat. I like to use the purse best since I can keep brick a brack in it and it actually helps. Just tell the person that wants to sit there that you think a woman is already there. He’ll find another seat. Then you can take a nap. I’ve done this in Morocco, Germany, and Malaysia…and not to mention the USA.
Got more great tips? Why not share them by commenting below?
Vago Damitio is the Vagabond in Chief. He is also a writer, blogger, traveler, adventurer and teacher. He has spent his life mastering how to have incredible adventures on minuscule budgets. Someday he hopes to have the option of using gigantic budgets for miniscule adventures.
