Budget Travel

Getting Started

This guide is designed for people interested in discovering how to travel on a shoestring budget. Since one person's bargain can be another person's luxury, many of the recommended resources here primarily target students and youths of university age where cheap travel means less than $75 a day. However, anyone with a frugal mindset and an itch to travel can find the following information useful; simply keep an eye out for age-specific guidelines regarding discounts and other perks.

There are a few good places to start exploring for budget travel information. Many colleges and universities have international centers that offer a wealth of information on overseas travel including books, magazines, factsheets, and travelogues on every region of the world. Although much of these centers' offerings are geared toward work- and study-exchange students, there is plenty of information relevant to anyone simply interested in cheap travel.

A variety of resources on the topic of budget travel can also be found at your local bookstore, library, and on the Internet. The following list highlights some of those resources and should serve as a great starting point for people interested in traveling the world on a shoestring.

Books

A plethora of books are available on the general topic of travel with several targeting people with limited budgets. If you want to visit your local library, the appropriate Dewey Decimal Classification System number for travel books is:

910 Geography and Travel

The following titles - available at your local bookstore or library - offer useful overviews of traveling cheaply with plenty of tips and recommendations. An online bookstore like Amazon.com is a more immediate way to browse titles relevant to the subject of budget travel.

• The Encyclopedia of Cheap Travel by Terrance Zepke. Published November 2001..

• Hip Hotels: Budget by Herbert Ypma. Published November 2001.

• The Globetrotter's Guide; Essential Skills for Budget Travel by Wayne Smits and Caryl Dolinko. Published 1998.

• Fodor's Europe's Great Cities by Fodor's Travel Publications. Published January 2002.

• Independent Travelers 2002 Australia: The Budget Travel Guide by Gareth Powell. Published January 2002.

• Lonely Planet South America on a Shoestring by Conner Gory. Published January 2002.

• Fodor's Southern Africa: The Guide for All Budgets, Completely Updated, with many Maps and Travel Tips by Fodor's Travel Publications. Published June 2002.

• BTG - USA &Canada by David Barish. Published February 2001.

• World Stompers: A Global Travel Manifesto by Brad Olsem. Published June 2001.

Guidebook Series

There are many guidebook series that offer a comprehensive, country-by-country listing of accommodations, transportation, restaurants, attractions, and nightspots geared toward the budget traveler. They also provide historical and political backgrounds, language and currency information as well as travel tips for each region. You do NOT want to leave home without one of these essential resources. Even before the trip, guidebooks can give you a good feel for what kinds of places fit in with your interests and needs as a traveler. Lonely Planet is particularly helpful - if not in its sheer honesty alone! The following series titles provide editions for every continent and sometimes country-by-country volumes as well. You can find these at your local library or in the travel section of most bookstores. Excerpts can be found online. There are many more series than are offered on this page, such as Fodor's, Cheap Eats &Sleeps, Frommer's, Rick Steve's, Mr. Cheap's, and Michelin Guides. Please refer to Amazon's Guidebook Series Page in their Travel Section for more Series options and descriptions.

• Let's Go! http://www.letsgo.com

• Lonely Planet http://www.lonelyplanet.com

• Rough Guides http://travel.roughguides.com/

  Magazines

  These are three good print publications that you can check out on the Web for highlights:

• Big World http://www.bigworld.com

• Transitions Abroad http://www.transitionsabroad.com/listings/travel/

• Arthur Frommer's Budget Travel Magazine http://www.frommers.com

  Organizations &Travel Agencies

• Council on International Educational Exchange http://www.ciee.org

• Hostelling International http://www.iyhf.org
  733 15th Street NW
  Suite 840
  Washington DC 20005
  USA
  E-mail: hiayhserv@hiayh.org
  Phone: (010) 202-783-6161
  Fax: (010) 202-783-6171

• STA Travel http://www.sta-travel.com/
  STA Travel specializes in Student Travel. The site provides lots of information on train &bus passes, finding airfares, and trip planning.

• CIEE: Council on International Educational Exchange http://www.ciee.org/

Internet Resources

The Internet can be a budget traveler's dream. A search for "budget travel" on a search engine like Alta Vista can produce a variety of good sites devoted to the subject. The following recommendations are great starting points:

• Budget Travel.com http://www.budgettravel.com/
  Provides Feature Destinations/Cities, travel logs, discount airfare and accommodation information and more for the budget-conscious traveler of all ages. The search feature returns some questionable results, but once you find a link, the resources seem right on.

• Fabulous Travel.com http://www.fabuloustravel.com/budget/budget.html
  This is a great site! It includes sections for Travel Tips, Flying Cheaps, Super Frugal Food/Lodging, Travel Books, and much much more!

• Nomads World.com http://www.nomads-backpackers.com/
  Another really good site! It seems to specialize in Australia, New Zealand, Figi, Vietnam, USA, Ireland, UK, and South Africa. It also includes spotlight hostels, group deals, tours, and an accommodation reservation function.

• Arthur Frommer's Budget Travel http://www.frommers.com/
  Provides feature articles, travel tips, discount airfare information and more for the budget-conscious traveler of all ages. Not student-targeted.

• Travel Notes.org http://www.travelnotes.org/
  Organized by country, this site does a nice job of providing history, background, and weather information as well as online travel notes/guides so that you can research before your trip.

• Rec. Travel Library http://www.travel-library.com
  Internet guide to travel and tourism for the independent traveler. Includes personal travelogues and "Frequently Asked Questions" section.

• About.com Guide to Budget Travel http://budgettravel.about.com/
  Very comprehensive site for those looking for links to useful web sites, articles on budget travel, and forums where you can discuss the topic with others.

This pathfinder was created by Andrea MacAdam. Updated by Sena Roth.

You may also wish to see IPL: Travel and Tourism Resources