Friends headed to Europe often ask how much money they should budget for their trip; how many drachmas they’ll drop in Greece; how many francs it costs to see France. I hate questions like these.
A shoestring traveler’s daily expenditures depend on several, wildly vacillating factors, such as the rigidity of your itinerary, your traveling pace, and what you can tolerate in the way of threadbare sheets and shared bathrooms.
If pressed for a response, I evade the issue by mumbling about fluctuating exchange rates. I could tell my inquisitors that if they stay in hostels, subsist on cheese sandwiches, splurge once a week in a two-star restaurant, travel only on overnight, second-class trains and allow themselves a mid-morning cappuccino on odd-numbered days, they’ll spend $32.50 per day, not including tips, taxes and public restroom fees. Unfortunately, I can’t bring myself to do so.
A while ago, I stopped making strict travel budgets, since it seemed silly to decide on an arbitrary monetary figure, then wrestle my movements and amusements in line to meet that number. I am not, after all, Alan Greenspan.
But I still strive to keep my expenses to the barest minimum, which requires consistent hunting for the very cheapest accommodations and transportation, spurning restaurants for grocery stores and snapping photos instead of snapping up souvenirs.
If you’re vigilant, you don’t have to tally up expenses because you’re already traveling as cheaply as you can.
But many tourists don’t want to stay in hostels or limit their diets to bananas, chocolate and bread. Even if you consider my style of travel less a vacation than an exercise in self-deprivation, there are still a few financial strategies that will stretch your deutsche marks and lire a bit farther.
First, keep in mind that the faster you travel, the more you spend and the less you see. Fight the impulse to ricochet from Rouen to the Rhineland to Rome. Instead, spend your entire vacation in one region. Happily for shoestring travelers, in many destinations the local custom is to scrimp.
A few years ago, while traveling through Spain, I saw Madrid, Segovia, Toledo, Cordoba and Granada in two weeks. Then I got off the train in Seville, headed for the most historic neighborhood in the city–a jumble of narrow alleys and tiny plazas shaded by orange trees–and found a $10 room in a pension called the Buen Dormir (“Good Sleep”).
A month later, I was still there, and not simply because I was sleeping so well. I’d fallen in love with Seville and with the lifestyles of Sevillanos. In the morning, at a nearby cafe, I ate my pan tostada (toast) standing up at the bar with everybody else. In the afternoons, I knew where to find good tapas (appetizers), and after dark, I joined Seville’s most interesting and affordable night life. Whether I wanted to listen to flamenco music, drink cheap beer with university students or even dance with gypsies, I learned where to go. Spending a month as Seville’s most frugal hedonist, I learned more about that city than any other in Spain.
Another thing to remember is to head into the hinterlands of any given country rather than staying in the cities. Things are always cheaper in a country’s more remote areas. I could have saved even more pesetas on my visit to southern Spain if I’d headed for the relatively isolated reaches of Andalucia.
In Albania last year, I saved a great many leks by escaping Tirana, the capital, for the country’s rugged, mountainous north. It’s unfortunate that Albania, currently embroiled in political feuding, is unsafe to visit, because my visit to the villages of Valbone and Theth was as astonishing as it was inexpensive.
After trekking with a local guide over a high, remote pass, I stayed with villagers who plied me with kos (homemade yogurt) and raki (a strong, clear plum liquor). While I sat in their shady yards, gazing up at snow-laden peaks, my hosts explained the ancient, elaborate system of blood feuds with which they keep the peace. The experience cost about $15 per day.
You don’t have to go somewhere as untracked as northern Albania to reap the benefits of rural travel. Europe teems with villages that are quiet, historic and hospitable. Pick one on a map and go there. You’ll have an unforgettable vacation, learn more about Europe than ever before, and more than likely you’ll have no need to even think about a daily budget.
