5 Easy Steps To Becoming A World Traveler.

Traveling is amazing. I love to travel as you should know by now. I’ve been to over 30 countries and I want to help you become a traveler as well. Traveling the world isn’t as daunting of a task or goal as you may think it is. Here are 5 easy steps to help you!

GET A PASSPORT! This may seem obvious but it’s not. It used to be that only 1 in 10 Americans have a passport. That was 20 years go though. With the changes of laws requiring Americans to need passports to go to Mexico and Canada, that has changed. Nowadays in 2021 the number is a little over 1/3 at 37%, according to YouGov.com. That almost 40% and while up from the !0% that it used to be, that means still less than 1 in 2 Americans have a passport. You cannot be a world traveler without one. Your passport is one of the most important documents you’ll ever own. It’s literally your ticket to the world. Get it!
SAVE SOME MONEY UP. I used to think traveling the world cost a lot of money. Honestly I had no idea. It just sounded like it would you know? I honestly thought traveling the world was solely for like rich white people. My baaad. I was just ignorant and it took an old colleague of mine named Sydney to enlighten me. Thanks Sydney! There are soooo many round trip tickets from America to other countries for $400-$700. Round trip yes! It all just depends where your focus is. I remember I used to go to all the employee stores in Oregon. I’m talking adidas, Nike, and Columbia and you know what? On facts I’ve spent that amount of money in them stores before and all I had to show for it was material things. Today I see the value in experiences and memories over things. Because I don’t even own a lot of that stuff anymore but the experiences I have from traveling have changed me for the better forever. So spend wisely.
BUY YOUR FLIGHT TICKET. First, make sure where you’re going doesn’t require you to have a visa. Get your visa straightened out before you buy your ticket. According to CNN.com, the United States of America is tied for the 7th strongest passport in the world. Americans are able to travel visa free or visa-on-arrival to 187 countries. That’s a lot of places to choose from. There’s many ways to get cheap tickets too! I look through Kiwi.com, Hopper, and SkyScanner.. There’s Google Flights, Priceline, and Momondo. Those are good for finding low cost tickets to destinations you want, if you know where you want to go. However, if you just want to travel and don’t really care where, Scott’s Cheap Flights is a great way to go. It’s a membership service that finds cheap flights and error fares from airlines for $49 a year plus tax. That way you can find the cheap flights first and plan your trip around the dates instead of choosing the dates and trying to find a flight. Get it? Good.
FIND A PLACE TO STAY. I use the apps Hostelworld and Hotel Tonight for cheap places to stay. The average hostel is less than $20 a night and Hotel Tonight offers prices slashes on nice hotels around the world if hostels aren’t for you. And then there’s also Airbnb which is in between hostel and hotel prices. You can go with the cheapest price and/or the place you feel the most comfortable with. Look at all the pictures and read the reviews! It only benefits you to see what other people who have already stayed there say about the place. Also, leave an honest review when you leave. Make it as detailed as you would want if you were reading it and were trying to decide where to stay.
WHAT TO DO ONCE YOU ARRIVE. See if there’s a free walking tour. Most places have them and they’re usually pretty cool. Doing this will help you to familiarize yourself in your new location and you’ll also meet other travelers doing the same thing. A good example of this is the first time I ever went to Tirana, Albania. I went on the tour and spent a few hours learning all about Tirana with 6 other people, mostly Americans. I ended up spending the entire rest of the day with them and the rest of my time there with them. We did everything together, it was so cool. We went clubbing, went on a cable car to top of Mount Dajt overlooking the city. Still friends to this day and I will for sure link up with them anytime we are in the same place. Just be sure to give a little gratuity to the tour host as they work very hard to give you knowledge and show you their city. A show of appreciation will always get you further in everything in life.

“The traveler sees what he sees. The tourist sees what he has come to see.” - Gilbert K. Chesterton

If you have any questions, please leave a comment and ask!! Traveling the world isn’t as hard as you may think. Going to other places and seeing other cultures will change you in the best of ways. I can’t even stress to you enough how much I’ve been changed. Hanging out with people that most of the world never gets to meet is an amazing feeling. You can have many week long trips around the world for under $1000. That’s including a round trip ticket, a place to stay, and food. For food, I recommend definitely trying some local cuisine and hitting up some affordable restaurants. To keep costs low however, I suggest going to the market and buying food to make yourself at your place of lodging. It will always be cheaper to grocery shop and cook than to eat out. I ball on a budget baby! Now go out and make plans to travel. The world is a beautiful place, I can’t wait for you to see it.

This is type of fun you can have with the new people you meet.

This is the type of cool stuff I wouldn’t have seen or known about bid not for the walking tour.

The cable car to the mountain in Tirana.

The ride the top was kinda scary, I won’t lie. 😅 🇦🇱

Pasta is super cheap and easy to make. I’ve eaten it for weeks at a time in order to save money. You do what you gotta do!

Travel the world! Meet people from other countries you wouldn’t normally have the chance to meet. They’re pretty awesome.