Travel Tradeoffs: What Is The REAL Cost Of Budget Travel?

 

Last month I provided an update on our overall impressions of traveling for one month. Now, two months in, I’d like to reflect on something different – travel tradeoffs. Specifically, what do I feel like we’re giving up on by being out on the road?

Sometimes I look at what we post on the blog and think that maybe, just maybe, it comes off a little “too rosy”. Everything must be amazing when you’re hiking in Busan, visiting temples in Kyoto, Holidays in Costa Blanca, and volunteering in Yangshuo, China.

Even typing it out now, it certainly sounds pretty cool. And it’s true, we’re definitely enjoying ourselves, enough so to continue. It is, after all, what we worked so hard for planning a year and saving for two years. However, that does not mean that sometimes I don’t wish I could trade a day here or a weekend there for what’s going on back at home; birthdays, college roommate reunions, Thanksgiving dinners – everything comes at a cost. It isn’t all playing with monkeys and penguins.

Here is what I believe the cost of prolonged, budget travel is:

Comfort

Dissecting some of our posts over the last two months, we do seem to allude to a few less than ideal living conditions at times. There was the oven in Osaka, as well as the gross bathrooms in Yangshuo. For the most part though, we don’t dwell on them. It’s just become accepted that some nights we have to kill a few mosquitoes, step on a few bugs, or even request for a blow dryer so we can warm ourselves before bed. In fact, just the other day while staying in a hostel on the summit of Zhangjiajie, we encountered a room so cold, I slept in 3 t shirts, a sweat shirt, 3 pairs of boxers, my bathing suit, and pants (everything I own). I never had to do that at home, not even during the coldest of winters.

You’re probably thinking “We’ll, if you just spent a little more money, you wouldn’t have these sorts of problems.”

For the most part, I’d say you’re right. But not always.

Some places are just too remote to offer luxury accommodations – I doubt it’s in the Ritz Carlton’s business strategy to open a hotel on the summit of Zhangjiajie. So, for the time being, if you want to see the sites you have to be prepared to sacrifice a few comforts.

Family and Friends

Naturally this one ranks above the rest and is likely the one that everyone already knows about.

But we must meet a bunch of people on the road, right?

Meh.

We’ve interacted with a bunch of people on the road, exchanged glances, quick chit chat here and there, maybe even a full on sit down conversation. But in most cases, we’re simply passing through, going about our business, getting from A to B.

We have each other and that’s what matters, but a few friends along the way wouldn’t hurt to make travel a more “social” experience.

Health

I go back and forth between whether or not this active lifestyle is healthy, or, if like a slightly used car I’m simply racking up the miles on my body – except there’s no turning this one in for a newer model. Is a morning, back-cracking ritual normal at the age of 25? What I wouldn’t do to have a gym I could go to everyday (ok, 3 times a week).

And then there’s the food. Vicky and I eat out constantly. Hostels + fast travel is not a recipe for a home cooked meal. Like accommodation, restaurants have a fickle way of sometimes only being so good, despite how much you might be willing to spend. Due to language barriers and poor choices, I feel at times you just never know what you’re going to get, no matter how prepared you are (or think you are). And let’s not forget the fast food plague. You can try to avoid it, but if you’re eating out for lunch and dinner, like it or not it’s going to make its way into your diet. While I personally haven’t been gaining weight, this doesn’t necessarily mean that I’ve been eating healthy.

Last but not least are the big things. What if something goes wrong, like, really wrong? Malaria, dengue fever, insert mosquito-born illness here. Who do we turn to? Where’s our trusted doctor, our English speaking hospital, our Yelp review? I know that in a pinch, we can always go home, but is that realistic when you’re battling a hardcore illness – unlikely. More likely is that you’ll wait it out in whatever place you find yourself in.

Finances

It’s safe to say Vicky and I are going for broke – quite literally. Despite all the chatter about how cheap travel is, you still have to live. You have to eat every day, get from A to B, and put a roof over your head.

These things cost money.

Sure, we earn money travel blogging, enough to at least call it a non zero income, but, by Western standards, it’s poverty line at best. Mainly, it softens the blow, dampens our descent into paucity. Mom, get my room ready, as I’m going to need it in t-minus 22 months.

Hobbies

Hobbies are a nice. In DC, I played intramural sports at work, computer games at home, and, on rare occasions, even performed standup comedy. Now, my hobbies are traveling, travel blogging, travel videos…are we seeing a trend here? Pretty much, traveling is what we do – and it’s ALL we do. Or maybe, better said, everything we do revolves around travel in one form or another.

Privacy

Ah privacy, where art thou? How much of our day do we spend surrounded by tourists and hosts alike, particularly when we Couchsurf?

In essence though, we willingly choose to do these things (like with everything else). Moreover, we often do “splurge” for private rooms in hostels. So it isn’t all that bad, after all.

But what about privacy from each other? Everybody needs some alone time, right? No separate social circles or work buffers here. We spend every waking moment with each other. Luckily, this isn’t the first time we’ve traveled together.

Risk

The risk of getting lost, ending up with crazy host, or having our stuff stolen is a constant worry. We keep track of how many buses and trains we take, but one thing we don’t keep track of is how many times Vicky asks me “do you know where your wallet is?” I’d say they’re on par.

On top of this, there’s the “unknown” risks – the one’s I don’t account for on a day to day basis, such as, what will employers think of a two years hiatus? I like to think it makes us more employable…

Luxuries

A month ago I wrote about how great it was being a minimalist.

And it’s true.

But that doesn’t mean sometimes I don’t wish I was taking my own car to the train station instead of bus 6 with an added transfer to bus 4, or searching for chunnel tickets. Or watching the Patriots play on a 50 inch LCD flat screen TV as opposed to the only English channel on the hostel’s box TV. It’s not really a question of money – that’s just what’s available.

Well, that was quite the list wasn’t it? Who wants to go travel now?

I do.

As I said before, these are tradeoffs, which means in their place we’ve gained a ton of experiences, experiences which comprise 95% of what we write about on this blog (when I’m  not complaining after traveling for only two months). I just thought a small dose of the full picture was necessary – thanks for listening!