I know this isn’t necessarily frugal, nor is it thrifty.. nor does it relate to personal finance.  As many of you know, I have a passion for travel (speaking of short term goals, my travel savings account has officially exceeded my emergency savings- how’s that for an emergency fund FAIL? ).. and I’m nosy.  So I was curious to know what your preference for travel style is.

I must admit, I have never gone to an all-inclusive resort before but the idea certainly intrigues me (on my bucket list before I die…is to go into one of those swim up bars and get my mai tai).

To me (and these are just my thoughts), I seem to think that going to a resort where you are served international food (e.g. Japanese food while in Mexico) doesn’t jive with my idea of travel.  That being said, I’ve never gone to an all-inclusive before and who knows, maybe I’ll love it so much because it takes the stress out of travel.  My mother, she enjoys eating (a lot) and she absolutely loves cruises (she’s been all over the world and the best trip she’s ever had is an Alaskan cruise where she got to eat that Baked Alaskan Pie) .  I have never gone on a cruise ship and I’m worried that I would feel claustrophobic, sea sick, and want to put my feet on land.  That and I would worry about the captain crashing the cruise ship into an island while trying to impress a waiter on his deck

I suppose my idea of travel relates to immersing oneself in the culture, meeting new people, seeing the parts of that country that makes traveling so special to me.  The other part of travel that I absolutely enjoy is buying perishable goods overseas (e.g. spices, tea etc.) to take home to my friends.

Here is a list of the PROS and CONS of Resorts vs Exploration with incorporation of cost (well, this is a PF blog after all)

Resorts

PROS:

• You don’t have to worry about anything
• Everything is paid for upfront (flight + accommodation + food)
• Alcohol is included (that’s a big plus, right?)
• Safe (except if you’re a Canadian in a Mexican resort and start some sort of fight in the club)
• You have the option to explore
• Less fighting with your significant other because there is nothing to do except to relax
• I would think a resort would be relaxing
• Time for reading, down time
• Supports the tourism industry in that country big time
• Did I mention less arguing with your significant other?

CONS

• Difficult to make sure you have the “best price” because they seem to fluctuate all the time
• You often need a 4+ start resort in order for it to be somewhat decent and without tarantulas, lizards, or large cockroaches in your hotel room
• Less chance for cultural immersion
• Less change to learn a new language because you won’t be using it
• In a way, I find that it feels like “inauthentic” travel because one might not be seeing the “real” side of the country (e.g. poverty)

Exploration Style

PROS:

• Cultural immersion
• Try new things
• You might be able to save more money if you backpack around, bus around, and sleep in hostels
• Higher chance to learn the language
• It can be fun bargaining (but not too harshly because remember, that’s not fair to the people of the country you’re visiting!)
• You get to pretend to be cool because you’re carrying around a Lonely Planet book (haha!)
• Opportunity to see the real country, take beautiful photos etc.

CONS:

• It can be tiring and you might feel you need a vacation after the vacation!
• Takes longer time because you need time to plan, travel to the destination you’re seeing etc.
• Unexpected costs can add up (e.g. paying for a whole new scooter because you dented it slightly)
• Higher risk to get swindled and taken advantage of because you are a foreigner (but that’s half the fun, right?)
• Increased chance to disagree with your significant other because you want to go to the Anne Frank House and he wants to go to the Heneiken experience museum and there is a limited amount of time (*ahem* speaking from experience *cough cough*)

Readers, what is your traveling style, especially if you’ve tried both?  Do you enjoy relaxing in resorts or exploring new places on your own?  Which one have you found to be more friendly on the wallet?

 

Comment on this post »

The following is a guest post (thank you Andrew for listening to my desperate plea for help LOL) from Andrew Hallam aka “The Millionaire Teacher”.  I am so thrilled to have him as a guest poster as he writes articles for The Globe and Mail, he has a new book coming out in October called The Millionaire Teacher: The Nine Rules about Wealth You Should have Learned in School, and he is a fantastic personal finance writer.  He teaches high school English at an International School in Singapore and I am envious of his lifestyle and life in general.  Enjoy!

If you haven’t spent an entire month in Thailand, there’s probably one of three reasons:

• The middle-aged / elderly European gentlemen who strut around with their teenaged Thai brides or “companions” give you the creeps.

• Walking by bars containing nothing but slinky women playing pool in the middle of the afternoon smacks of an uncomfortable underworld Thai tourist brochure.

• The costs of a month long (plus) holiday isn’t within your budget

If any of the three above are keeping you from hunkering down in the Jewel of the Orient, let me offer a solution.

Ton Sai Beach:

No arm-candy toting Teutonic Sugar Daddies

No prostitutes

Clean, off-season accommodation for $8 a night.

A haven for rock-climbers, Ton Sai Beach is a place where everybody learns your name. I’ve made roughly 20 trips to Thailand, but I’ve never found a place as homey as this. Most of the travelers staying there are (like our good host) young and thrifty—while others are just plain young and broke. But that’s the beauty of Ton Sai Beach. You don’t need plenty of money to stay there. And the accommodations are fabulous: chalets with ceilings fans, impeccably clean linen sheets, and bathrooms that are scrubbed spotlessly on a daily basis.

And here’s the best part: the (typically) dull folks who prefer to stay at the Hilton or the Shangri La don’t bother to show up at Ton Sai. Ok, perhaps I’m being a bit too judgmental, or hypocritical. My wife and I do spurge on the odd five star evening, but we’ve never left a swanky resort with a new friend.

Needing some time to chill, and a place to do put some final editing touches on a book I just finished, we visted Ton Sai in early August.

We flew to Krabi, from Singapore, costing roughly $120 return.

And from the airport, we grabbed a public tourist bus which took us to Ao Nang. The Lonely Planet describes it as a dead-end jumping point to more desirable destinations, but that’s one of the things I love about The Lonely Planet. They aren’t always right.

Offering Thai food, western food, and massages for less than $8 an hour, it’s a perfectly relaxing spot.  The main drag runs parallel to a perfectly sandy beach where you can swim in some of Thailand’s most beautiful waters, or just hang out on the beach.

We spent a day in Ao Nang—enjoying three massages (yeah, we’re a couple of bums) while chuckling at some of the varying accommodation prices.

You could stay at the JMansion for roughly $12 a night (which we eventually did) or splurge on any number of places, a few hundred meters away, charging into the hundreds of dollars for a bed and pillow…for the gullible.

A word about JMansion: the Lonely Planet suggests that it’s so popular that you need to book your room with the kind of advance you’d normally reserve for a Canadian MRI. (Editor’s Note: LOL! Canadian MRI.  That’s funny but sad at the same time )

But the Lonely Planet has doomed this place by putting such a coveted title on it. We nearly didn’t bother to check it out, which would have been a mistake. It wasn’t full at all…not even close.

Taking a $4 boat ride to Ton Sai Beach brought us to heaven. And before long, if you make the same trip, you’ll make lifelong friends with the world-travelers choosing to climb the amazing limestone cliffs, sometimes for months at a time.

The food is amazing, and most of the visitors at Ton Sai eat at the same alley, where you can gorge yourself on delightful Thai dinners for less than $3 a plate, while sharing stories and tips of your daily adventures.

(note* 70 Thai Baht is $2.30 Canadian)

As someone who never rides roller coasters, and whose fear of heights keeps him off ladders, I was reluctant to try climbing. But we hooked up with an eccentric, deep-thinking Australian and a Texan rock-climbing master who encouraged us to give it a whirl.

As a guy who had three ribs removed during surgery two years ago, I was pretty cautious about giving it a go. But I soon realized that I could have trusted any of those “tourists” on Ton Sai. Nobody was pretentious. Everybody was helpful. And each of them had their stories—whether they were escaping from the rat race, whether they had never entered it in the first place, or whether they were right out of high school, seeking a bit of adventure.

 $8 per night

I realize one thing.

If you’re young, and you haven’t taken a trip such as this, then you must.

Life has a way of sucking you into its vortex of responsibilities.

And as much as we’re supposed to be “financially responsible” there’s something to be said for
extending yourself for a bit of adventure, even if it financially sets you back a bit.

How much would such a trip cost?

Here are my estimates for one month’s vacation from Canada or the U.S.:

Airfare:  $1,400

Accomodation:  $240

Food and Drinks:  $450

Twenty massages: $160

Miscellaneous: $140

Grand Total: $2400

And if you do happen to see a Middle-Aged Sugar Daddy on a rock with his arm candy, take your hat off to the guy.

He’s going to be interesting.

Comment on this post »

 

Here’s a guest post talking about my all time hands down favourite subject, overseas cheap travel: Katie Anderson is a blogger and writer based in Glasgow’s West End. She enjoys good food, good wine and good holidays.  Thanks Katie for guest posting.  I have included a photograph I took while in Kathmandu.  It is quintessential Nepal in all its frenetic and beautiful glory.  One of my favourite overseas adventures,  hands down.

We know the deal. You’re young. You’re adventurous. You like to get outside of your comfort zone every once in a while and travel somewhere overseas. But we also know that you’re thrifty and that money doesn’t go on trees.

How to save money is an important lesson to learn in every area of life… and travel is no exception.

You’ll have learnt many of these lessons already. The internet has brought us a myriad of ways to save on purchases, and there are thousands of websites that offer to find us cheaper travel or cheaper accommodation. It’s definitely wise to shop around and take advantage of such offers as these. Travel necessities (like airplane flights and places to sleep) tend to be cheaper when booked in advance online- but then, you probably knew that already.

What you might not have known, however, is where else there is a significant amount of money to be saved. We’re not talking about the number of cocktails you drink or the souvenirs you buy, no. We’re talking about something altogether less exciting; currency exchange.

Increasingly, this probably isn’t something you’re thinking about very much. Many people are thinking about currency exchange as a kind of outdated method of spending money overseas.  Instead, they’re heading off on trips armed with only a credit or debit card. It’s true that this is a very easy way of dealing with the issue; most financial providers allow customers to use their debit cards in stores or cash machines overseas. However, this is actually a very expensive method of currency exchange, and should really only be used in emergencies.

Instead, think about exchanging money before you leave. As a general rule, it’s important to shop around and make sure that you’re offered the best possible exchange rate. High street service providers often don’t offer the best, and banks are often not much better. Instead, think about using an online service to order in advance. Often, you can even pick up your currency in a high street branch but online customers get offered better rates.

(more…)

Comment on this post »

 

Mike Brain’s guest posting again from Financial Facts, a website dedicated to giving you information for facts and advice on all things financial. I thought it would be nice to include a post about holidays, since our Victoria Day is coming up (hurrah for long weekends!). I also thought I would share with you (in light of holidays) a photo I took on the plane going back into Nepal (I was flying in from Bhutan). What you are seeing is Mt Everest! Isn’t it beautiful? Seeing Mt Everest was one of the things to do on my never-ending bucket list. Next up is Kilimanjaro in Africa (hopefully)!

There are several ways you can budget for a holiday; however this article will concentrate on only 5 which are essential for that great holiday without the added financial burden of having to pay off a rather substantial credit card bill after.

Plan for food

 

This seems like it’d be non-important and you wouldn’t have to budget for your food, however, you’d be wrong. It’s surprising how fast a burger here and there can add up. So budget for your daily food intake while you’re on your holiday. This way, you won’t be caught wondering how you spent so much money in a short amount of time.

(more…)

Comment on this post »

 

Here’s a guest post by Shing from Hostelbookers in the UK, a leading budget accommodation specialist on how to travel on the cheap when you’re doing a road trip in the USA or Canada. I have always wanted to do a big road trip across North America. So many places to see and explore, so little time .

Make your USA road trip cheaper

If you’re thinking of road tripping across the USA there are a few basics to think about before you put the key in the ignition. And, if you want to make like Jack Kerouac or Thelma and Louise but without the scandal and on the cheap, you should get planning now.

The route

 

Ah where to go? It’s your road trip, so go where you want! For example you could travel up the east coast from Miami to New York City – 1283 miles through Florida, Georgia, South Carolina, North Carolina, Virginia, Maryland and New Jersey.

Make the most of the city and book a hostel in New York beforehand, and if you want to bookend your trip with another pre-booked hostel Miami has plenty at good rates. When you’re on the road you might want to spend a few nights camping to save money but it will be comforting to know you have a bed waiting for you at the end.

Or, you could go on one of the tried and tested popular routes:

• Pacific Coast – Washington, Oregon and California
• Border to Border – Canadian Rockies, Montana, Idaho, Nevada and Arizona
• The Road to Nowhere – North Dakota, South Dakota, Nebraska, Kansas, Oklahoma, Texas
• Route 66 – California, Arizona, New Mexico, Texas, Oklahoma, Kansas, Missouri, Illinois (more…)

Comment on this post »