travel the world for free

Travel the World for Free

(well almost free)

Few pointers for free travel. Including:

1. Transport2. Accommodation3. Food + more

Each section has some extreme and some not so extreme solutions. Choose according to your appetiteYes, frugal traveling for long period, calls for hard work

Photographs by Tautik

Money = 1Time

You need time, not money to travel. Money is inversely proportional to time

Frugal traveling requires you to embrace uncertainty

TRANSPORT

Walk the world

– Seriously Slow: 6 Travelers Who Walked Around The World - Matador ...

Cycle the world– How to circumnavigate the world on a bike - CNN.com

– Travelers We Love #002: Cycling the Globe

Many a cities (like Barcelona) offer cycles to locals at a nominal monthly charge. Ask a local to lend her card

Motorcycle– Inspiration from "Che" Guevara’s Motorcycle Diaries

Drive a Car– Adventurer finally

finishes 24-year road trip after driving 556,000 miles across 215 countries

– This Adventurous Indian Family Drove A Car From Bengaluru To Paris Over 111 Days

Hitchhike: Point out your thumb - travel by getting free lifts in passing vehicles (including a ship)

– Hitch-Hikers Handbook

– Tips for hitchhiking – Wikitravel

– Hitchhiking a boat - Hitchwiki: the Hitchhiker's guide to Hitchhiking

!DO YOU WANT TO KNOW THE

SECRET TO GRAB

FREE

AIR TICKETS!

GET A FREE AIR TICKET

Get an airline affiliated credit card, and bill all your expenses on it. (Do pay off your bills immediately, and DO NOT go into debt). Better still if you run a business – do all transaction on the credit card. Soon you will get enough points to qualify for a free ticket to your dream destination

Do check flight aggregators before booking:

– Skyscanner – Kayak – Momondo

ACCOMMODATION

Couchsurfing is an online site to host travelers for free. What better way to experience a new place than to stay with locals. You walk in as a stranger and walk out as a friend for life! Alternatives include Hospitality Club, BeWelcome, Trustroots

• HomeExchange Yes the one featured in the movie ‘The Holiday’

• House-sitting & domestic help

–Mind My House

–House Carers

– Luxury House Sitting

–Au Pair

Short term apartment rentals

–Wimdu

–Airbnb

–Roomorama

Hostels dorms are good value for budget travelers. A room has around 12 bunk beds which you share with fellow travelers from Germany, New Zealand, South Africa and China! The popular websites for hostel bookings are Hosteworld and Booking.com

Camping: Pitch your own tent. A lot of countries have designate places to camp with shower & cooking facilities

Dharamshalas, temples, mosques, gurudwaras, churches all over the globe almost always offer a free place for sleep over. Schools, police stations, petrol pumps, farms often allow pitching ground

The Warm Showers Community is a free worldwide hospitality exchange for touring cyclists

Casa de Ciclistas is a hospitality network throughout Latin America of cheap/free lodging for cyclists on tour

Monastery stay:– Monastery Stays Locations– How to Stay in a Monastery– 15 great Monastery Stays– Monastery Stays Around the World (CNN)

Volunteer: Do and feel good while you travel

– VolunteerMatch.org

– Idealist.org

– HandsOn Network

– SmartVolunteer

– Catchafire

Want to Experience Volunteer Travel but Don’t Know How?

– iVolunteer

– DonorsChoose

– UN Volunteers

– DoSomething

Work while you travel– Digital nomad

– Travel photographer– Travel writer

– Work in a hostel– Bartender

– Chef– Tour guide– Translator

– Work at hostels– Yoga instructor

– Teach English abroad– Diving instructor

– Blog writer– Vagabonds (musicians,

craft sellers, artists)

• Workaway: allows travelers willing to work as volunteers to contact hosts wanting help with their projects or activities

• Working holiday visa is a special residence permit allowing travelers to legally work in foreign countries to supplement their travel funds - Australia, Canada, New Zealand, France, Ireland, and Singapore

Work on sea

–Work On A Cruise Ship

–The Yacht Guru’s Bible

–Find a Crew

–Desperate Sailors

–7Knots

–The Float Plan

–Latitude 38

–Crew Seekers

WWOOF: World Wide Opportunities on Organic Farms is a network of national organizations that facilitate placement of volunteers on organic farms. Work in a farm and stay for free

Live & learn on organic farms while you travel

Paid farm stays

– Farm Stay UK

– Farm Stay Accommodation

– Farm Stay US

– Farm Stay Australia

The hammock traveler: all you need is two trees to tie your hammock!

FOOD + MORE

• Cook your own food when you travel

• While you are staying with your Couchsurfing host do cook a meal. You will surely be invited to the next dinner with your host

• Find camping sites and hostels with a communal kitchen

• Eat out of Supermarkets

• Family run restaurants (like ones in Italy) would love to hand over the excess food at the end of the day

• Dumpster diving: Overcome the stigma and go hunting for perfectly edible food thrown away by supermarkets– How To Dumpster Dive, Eat Free & Fight Waste –

Shareable

– Rob Greenfield's Guide to Dumpster Diving

Backpacking is a form of low-cost, independent travel. It includes the use of a backpack that is easily carried for long distances or long periods of time; the use of public transport; inexpensive lodging such as youth hostels; often a longer duration of the trip when compared with conventional vacations; and often an interest in meeting locals as well as seeing sights

Imagine there's no countries

It isn't hard to do… (Imagine, John Lenon)

India ranks a poor #82 on the Henley’s Visa restrictions index. Visa is a pain with an Indian passport. However, there are few tricks of the trade:

-book full-fare air tickets and cancel after getting your visa

-booking.com allows hotel bookings without credit card + no cancellation fees – book & take prints

Check out:

62 International Destinations That Allow Visa On Arrival For Indians

Visa Hassles for The Indian Backpacker – Lonely Planet forum

Visas for Indians

Pick up a new language when in a new land

Duolingo: App for learning languages

(in case you are wondering, the board says “do not take viagra, take goat's milk”)

Books to inspire long term frugal traveling

In case you still need convincing

-A tea seller couple from Kerala who traveled the world

-How to travel the world with no money – by people who have done it

A 4-month road trip across India in 2007 happened to be the Aha! Moment for Tautik. Subsequently he took off for a 4-month backpacking trip of Europe and more recently 8-months across South America. He feels most ‘alive’ when he travels. Tautik loves to inspire others to travel long-term. Travel continues to be the biggest educator for him. Reach him at tautik@gmail.com

Backpacking South America

India road trip