Each time I put out a new edition of The World’s Cheapest Destinations, I always try to find a way to get another African country in there and always come up short when I start digging into the research. So I only have Morocco and Egypt and always get some swipes from reviewers or blog readers for devoting so little space to Africa.

The problem is, that flack usually comes from people who have never tried to travel overland on a budget. Every time I interview someone who has spent weeks or months backpacking in Africa, they inevitably say some version of these two sentences. “Unless you sleep and eat like a local, you’re going to spend far more than you expected” and “for such poor countries, prices for travelers are really high.”

These two similar statements derive from a whole litany of reasons related to economics, infrastructure, and history. It doesn’t help that three of the last four years the $5 million Mo Ibrahim prize for good governance in Africa has gone to…nobody.

The one Africa traveler who hasn’t given me this usual negative litany is ultra-savvy budget traveler Andy Graham, better known as the Hobo Traveler. He’s been on the road non-stop for 14 years and has spent a fair chunk of that in Africa.

I caught up with him via Skype while he was hanging out in Lome, Togo, a faded bohemian French Colonial town on the Atlantic coast. He describes it as “like 1920s Paris, the cultural whorehouse of West Africa.”

We talked about the need to avoid the big tourist draws and agreed that you probably need a Western Europe sized budget if you’re going to the safari destinations of Kenya, Tanzania, Botswana, or Namibia. Here’s my quote from him on the most popular destination though: “I have no desire to go to South Africa, partly because it’s got three times the cost of living of any other country on the continent and partly because it has the highest rate of crime and AIDS. Yet that’s where all the travelers go at some point.”

That still leaves 40-some countries out there though. Here are his opinionated tips for traveling the continent on a budget.

Know your mission and stick to the mission.
“The media has pummeled Africa with this perception that it is such a poor mess. So most of the white people here are missionaries, state-sponsored aid workers, or are working for non-governmental agencies. There aren’t a whole lot of real travelers. Most people seem to travel so they can have good memories they can explain to their friends. I tell people I’m going to Africa they say, Who are you trying to save?’

So the first question is, why are you coming? The average traveler hates Africa. He or she has a list of things to see and do. Most of Africa is not for that, it’s a place for a cultural trip, for learning about people, languages, customs. There are very few animals in Western Africa because they ate them all or poached them. The British saved them in Kenya and elsewhere for hunting preserves. Only a few spots have a lot of them. On most of the continent it’s about connecting with people—black people of course—-which is not why most people travel. ”

Don’t come for the same reasons you went to Peru or Egypt
“Don’t come to Africa to find things to brag about with your friends back home. If you’re looking to do that the whole time, your options are limited and you’ll spend a load of money no matter how frugally you try to do it.

Know what you’re here for and don’t come to be entertained—unless you’re a sex tourist. And don’t come to Africa just to hang out with other white people. Sitting around drinking with white people is quite expensive in Africa. A flashpacker coming to Africa is going to get killed money-wise. To sit around in a huddle drinking beer and going online to post photos on Facebook is going to cost you a fortune.

Negotiate Hard for Everything
“Africa has a reputation for trying to rip off foreigners, especially West Africa. I had a much harder time before I learned to speak French. In Ghana and parts of East Africa they speak English and don’t’ make everything such a hassle, so it’s easier.

Whether we admit it or not, we white travelers have these preconceived notion of black people. We expect people to act a certain way and look for ways to support that expectation. But they’re mostly Just normal people trying to make a living. On one hand it’s so safe here in Tome you practically have to leave money on the table overnight to get physically robbed. But they’ll try to rob you blind in every transaction all day long because they’re used to white people being idiots. All these NGO and project workers have practically unlimited budgets. Lots of them will stay in the best hotels, drink beer every night, and go out to the best restaurants. So business owners become accustomed to charging ever white person five times as much as a local because they truly think we’re all rich and stupid with our money.

You have to keep money in perspective and prove you’re not an idiot. A guy tried to charge me $8 today for wire ties at a store. I told him ‘You’re crazy. You’re probably living on $2 a day, right?’

‘No,” he tells me, ‘Just $1 a day.’

Much of Africa earning that $1 to $2 a day. Treat $20 like it’s nothing and people will keep charging you accordingly.

It’s hard for us to look at a black person and say, ‘You’re f%cking ripping me off!’ We’re so conditioned to think that’s racist. We think we’re supposed to treat them with extra respect because their life sucks. But their life doesn’t suck. You’re not “dissing” them to argue or criticize. You have to argue constantly. It’s normal. If you don’t they think you’re another rich idiot working for Oxfam just to fill out the resume.

There’s no political correctness here. In the market people will yell, ‘Hey white guy! Hey fatso! Sexy blondie!’ Learn to talk like they do to get things done.”

Spend the time to get a good hotel deal.
“Anyone charging you $30 a night for a basic hotel room in most of Africa is ripping you off. The tourism industry here is probably the worst on the planet: they try to gouge every white person, assuming they’re all idiots. Many of them are idiots. Outside of big cities and resort areas, paying more than $10 or $15 a night for a basic hotel is absolutely getting ripped off. In

Arrive before noon to have time to find a hotel. Walk in and tell them how much you want to pay. You say $5, they say $30, eventually to your real budget. But you have to have a real budget and stick to it. Be willing to walk out and keep looking.

When I walk into a hotel, they always take me to the best room in the hotel. They can’t believe I don’t want that room, they’re aghast. They slowly work their way down until I’m leaving and they finally show me the $5 room. You have to assume anyone who takes you anywhere is taking you to the most expensive option. Continually refuse and stay on budget, on mission. A basic room with a bulb and bath starts at $5, a table adds a dollar, hot water adds a dollar, and each other thing keeps adding up. But I can go to the best hotel in town and use the pool for a dollar, so why do I need the hotel with a pool? You can rent a room here for a whole month for $50 if you work on it.

You also have to get over the stigma of the ‘chamber de passage.’ Probably 90% of the hotels in Africa are love hotels. There are just not enough traveling salesmen or domestic tourists to support many cheap hotels. So hotel customers are mostly NGO workers at the high end and locals getting some privacy on the low end. Every hotel I go into I assume someone’s going to bring in a girl and go at it next door. But at least there’s always a maid around. They’re private, comfortable, and cheap.

Also understand that nothing is ever cleaned like an American would clean it. It’s cleaner than India maybe, but not to the standards of say, Thailand or Vietnam. I’ll get the $8 or $10 room and pay the maid a few bucks to truly clean the bathroom. She’s thrilled and I get a room that’s up to the cleanliness level of one you’d get in Southeast Asia. Otherwise that would be $40 here. But we’re so used to convenience. ‘Why should I have to clean the sink? Or fix the toilet myself?’ Because you’re in a $5 room, that’s why. If you want convenience, get a $50 room.

One important point: traveling with someone else is far cheaper. The room price is the room price-one person pays the same as two. ”

Your guidebook is probably useless.
You won’t find most love hotels listed in your guidebook because the majority of Africa guidebook writers are current or former aid workers. Most of the hotels they recommend have parking because the writers are driving everywhere in a car. The cheaper love hotels people walk to. The outside space is just a shady tree people can sit under and drink a beer. ‘No parking’ means it’s for Africans and will be cheap.

The LP and Rough Guides are both terrible. Many of the writers are completely clueless and have grilled me for hours to get the most basic information. They’re written for people driving a car and staying at hotels that can be reached by car.

Whatever you do don’t rely on TripAdvisor. That’s even worse.

Avoid the Clingons
“When you get off a plane or bus there will be a boy or young man following you around and speaking your language. Often you can spot them before you even get off because they’re the only people in Africa with dreadlocks. They’re aggressive touts pure and simple and I promise you none are ever there to do you a favor. If you’re a woman they’re probably looking for a sugar mama and if you’re a man they’re trying to soak you for whatever they can to be your ‘helper.’ ?

Planning is a waste of time in Africa.
“The more you plan, the more you’re going to screw up. Everything is going to go wrong. It’s much better to just wing it as you go. In any city under 150,000 people I take a taxi tour of the city and say ‘Show me the $10 hotels.’ He’ll take me to the most expensive places first of course no matter what I say. Finally he gets frustrated and takes me to the cheap ones. I’m going to have to invest an hour or two of work to save $10, but I’m going to stay there a week so that’s $70 for two hours of work.

Don’t travel more than 4 hours a day, do it in the morning so you arrive before noon. It’s tiresome and you can run into all sorts of problems. If things go wrong, you’ve got a cushion. An 8-hour trip can easily become 12. The torture of travel often comes from trying to do too much.

Start out in a cheap country like Ghana or Malawi to get your bearings and get over the culture shock. Then you’ll be ready to take on the tougher places.”

Don’t be a bum.
“Being a bum is accepting less than what you deserve in life. Stand your ground and be a king instead. Refuse to get in a vehicle that already has 25 people in it. Just wait for the next one. Someone will say, ‘There are no more cars today.’

‘Bullshit. You’re lying,’ I’ll reply.

Every single time a new empty car or bus shows up soon after.

If you’re not trying to race across vast distances in a hurry, you’ve got more leverage to wait, to negotiate. If you’re willing to walk out of the hotel because they won’t budge, you’ll get a room you like for the right price. Being in a hurry will cost you.

In Ethiopia you have to take a truck overland for more than a day to head out of this one spot. A guy wanted me to ride on the canvas roof of a cattle truck for 27 hours, with cattle horns below me. ‘I’d rather live in this city for the rest of my life than ride on top of that truck for 27 hours,’ I said. I waited around and got on a grain truck where we could sleep on top of the grain sacks. Backpackers go to Africa thinking they have to be a bum. I have back problems so I’ll pay someone a dollar to carry my bag. I require a nice room for $10. What I expect is what I get.”

Get out of the big cities.
“NGO and Peace Corp workers love big cities with their big offices, so there are lots of cafes and bars for white expatriates. That makes many people feel comfortable. But prices for everything are three times more than they’ll be once you get 50 miles out of town. So don’t come all this way just to hang out in Accra, Nairobi, or Dakar.

Budgets don’t get killed by one thing. They get killed by a lot of little things. And every little thing is more in the big cities.

If your mission is to hang around a city and socialize online with your friends back home, why leave home?”

Don’t eat every meal at restaurants.
“African food is generally kind of bland, meant to be filling and fattening. There are far more fat people here than you would expect. It’s hard to get vegetables when you eat out, so I always cook vegetables in the room from a market or store and buy fruit to eat. I used to use a hot plate. You can buy one for $5 a lot of times. But hotel owners don’t like you to use them. So now I use a cheap homemade alcohol cooker.

When looking for a restaurant, don’t eat where white people are. Then study the menu and figure out what you can eat on a budget. Or just tell them what you want and agree on a price. They’ll usually make it for you if they have the ingredients. ”

***

To see what Andy is up to right now, see the Hobo Traveler blog.

If I did include a country in the next edition, it would probably be Ghana or Malawi. This BootsnAll article on traveling in Malawi for $25 a day is encouraging, though it does say you need to sleep in dorm beds and eat what the locals eat. Fortunately eating what the local eat here does not mean bland gruel for three meals a day.

If you’re a traveler headed to Vietnam, you’re in for a treat. This is not a country of natural superlatives unless you’re really into the food, but when it comes to value for your budget, it’s a dream.

These days Vietnam is on par with Thailand in some respects, cheaper in others. Overall, none of the prices are too outrageous so this one comes in squarely as one of the cheapest places to travel in the world. This is not some sad and downtrodden country anymore where a lot of people are struggling to get by though. It’s a thriving economy where motorbikes seem to sprout from the ground each time it rains. When you say “Everybody and his brother has one,” it’s really true. Nevertheless, you’ll find plenty of screaming bargains here and the budget hotels in Vietnam are some of the best for the price you’ll find anywhere in the world.

Hotel and Hostel Prices in Vietnam

Ask people who have traveled for years where the best lodging values are and they’ll likely say Vietnam. Yes, there are plenty of countries with cheaper places to flop for the night, but what you get for your money here is impressive. Things a budget backpacker doesn’t usually get—like towels and a maid who will change the sheets—are common even at the bottom level. Note that the prices below nearly always include internet access and often a good breakfast.

Hostel bed: $6 – $10 (there aren’t many of these, especially outside big cities)
Cheap shared bath double room: $10 – $18
Basic double with private bath, A/C: $14 – $25
Mid-range 3* or 4* equivalent: $20 – $60
Best hotels in town: $75 – $200
Triples are often just a few dollars more than a double and lots of places have family-friendly rooms or suites.

Food & Drink Prices in Vietnam

Bia hoi! No that’s not a battle rallying cry. It’s the name of the cheap draft beer sold by the plastic pitcher on the street. Sometimes it comes out to as little as 30 cents a liter if you get the local price. But the bottled stuff is a bargain too.

There are supposedly 500 traditional Vietnamese dishes, generally variations of rice or noodles with vegetables, seafood, or meat, and a wide variety of soups. You usually use chopsticks and a spoon, often sitting on a small stool on a sidewalk. Vegetarian food is plentiful and cheaper, though it will usually have fish sauce used as a seasoning.

Ice cream cone: 30 – 75¢
Street stall dishes: 40¢ – $1.50
Cheap restaurant meals: 75¢ – $4
Nice restaurant meals in tourist places: $1 to $6, set menus with several courses $5 – $12.
You’d have to hit an international hotel or a restaurant catering to foreign business travelers to spend much more than $30 for two.

Sodas and coffee: 30 – 50¢
Fruit juice/shake: 40 – 80¢
Mineral water: 50¢ – $1 per liter-and-a-half
Two-liter pitcher of draft beer: 60¢ – $1
Large bottled beer in a restaurant: 50¢ – $1.25.
Name brand liquor cocktails: $2 (happy hour) – $5 (nice club)

Transportation Prices

Getting around in Vietnam can be a big chunk of your budget since this is such a long and skinny country. Go slowly and you’ll spend a lot less than someone trying to cover it top to bottom in two weeks.

Long bus trip (Hanoi to Hue): $8 – $15
Sleeper train same distance: $18 – $65
3-hour train trip (Danang to Hue): $3 – $5
Hop on/off bus Saigon to Hanoi or opposite: $50
Flight Saigon to Hanoi or opposite: $100 on Jetstar
Flight Saigon to Danang: $55 – $75
City taxi rides: 50¢ – $4
Airport taxi rides: $5 – $20
City bus rides: 15¢

Other Vietnam Traveler Prices

3-day tour of Halong Bay or Sapa: $60 – $90
Day tour of group sightseeing, A/C van: $8 – $10
Admission charges: 15¢ to $1.50 most, occasionally $4 (rare, like Hue royal tombs)
Cultural performances: $1.50 – $5
Manicure or pedicure: $1
Hour of internet access: $1 or less
SIM card for your mobile phone: $5

Romania vies with Bulgaria as the cheapest destination in Europe. The latter has an edge in most respects, but Romania is still a terrific value at all budget levels, from backpacker to luxe.

If you’re looking for the European cafe culture in summer or want to stay in a nice historic village after a day of skiing in the winter, this is where you can do both on a fraction of what you would spend further west.

Overall, Romania is a good deal for backpackers, a fantastic deal for mid-range travelers on vacation. A backpacking couple could get by on $40 or $50 a day, but a couple spending $100 to $200 a day in Romania will really be living large. Keep in mind though that Romania’s currency fluctuates quite a bit, sometimes moving from 2.8 to the dollar to 3.5 (and maybe back again) within the space of a year. Hotels are often priced in dollars or euros, but anything else you spend money on is not.

The following Romania traveler prices were converted to dollars at 3.4 lei.

Hotel and Hostel Prices in Romania

A place to lay your head won’t hit you too hard here except maybe summer on the Black Sea coast. There you might have to pay more than what’s below.

Hostel beds: as low as $5 in some spots, but $7 to $14 is the average. Hostel and traveler hotel owners will usually throw in breakfast and a few freebies to give them a leg up: beer, filtered water, Internet access, and maybe a welcome shot of Romanian moonshine.

Private home rooms: as little as $12 double in the countryside, but $20 to $35 is more common.

Monastery rooms: $18 – $24 double.

Mountain hiking trail huts: $3 to $12 per person

Mid-range hotels: 2-star room $30 to $60, 3-star room under $70, only 5-star ones in Bucharest are more than $100.

Check hostel prices for your destination with Hostelbookers and find the best Romania hotel deals with Trivago.

Food & Drink in Romania

You see lots of stuffed cabbage rolls, sausages, bland chicken and pork dishes, stews, salads made with mayonnaise, whole fish breaded and tossed in a pan, and soups seemingly made with whatever is lying around. It’s tough eating Romanian and being a vegetarian, though it gets better in the summer when more fresh veggies are available. On the plus side, it’s easy to find something filling for cheap. Many popular restaurants offer specials to lure you in. Set lunch menus with multiple courses are a good deal and many spots have special deals for students and the elderly. Some will toss in a free glass of house wine.

The best part of your meal is often dessert, like this specialty pictured below.

Street snacks and pastries: 30 cents to $1.25

Budget sit-down meal: $3 to $5

Nice restaurant meal in tourist area: $5 to $15 (It’s hard to spend much more than $30 each anywhere without being a glutton.)

Beer: $1.50 to $2.50 at a bar, much less in a store or at happy hour.

Wine: $3-$5 at a store and not much more in a restaurant (markups are usually less than double). You can get the very best local wines, which are surprisingly good, for less than $15 in a store.

Palinca or Tuica distilled fruit liquor: 75 cents to $2 a glass in a bar/restaurant, $3 a liter for dubious home brew sold in the markets, $4 – $8 for a commercial bottle.

Coffee or soda: 70 cents to $1.50

Transportation in Romania

You can generally get around pretty cheaply in Romania. The train system hits most anywhere you want to go and you can get to most spots in the country from Bucharest the same day. If you travel with the locals, you’ll pay what they do, which is reasonable in second class. Buses are in the same ballpark, but can be more frequent.

Trains: $10 from Bucharest to Braşov. A 100km train trip is generally $5 – $9. Internationally, the 14-hour ride from Bucharest to Budapest is around $75 in a reclining seat. I splurged $90 for a sleeper berth from Budapest to Sighisoara and ended up having the entire compartment to myself.

Buses: from the capital to towns in the Transylvania region will come in under $15. Shorter rides between towns are just a few dollars.

Bucharest airport to the center: the taxi fare should be around $15, but can balloon to $30 or $45 from the scammers if not arranged in advance. The shuttle bus is only $2.

Taxis: when they use the meter like they’re supposed to, less than 50 cents per kilometer.

Local buses, trolleys, and trams: 30 to 70 cents per ride depending on whether you purchase a pass. A 10-trip subway pass in the capital is less than $3.

Admission and Activity Charges in Romania

Skiing: one-day lift tickets $20-$45 (on a point system determined by which lifts and how many rides you take). Rentals are around $15 a day.

Museums and churches/monasteries: free or $2 – $4, only a few more than $6. The King’s Peleș Castle outside Sinaia costs much, much more.

Ice skating: in the winter, you can go ice skating at outdoor facilities for $4 – $7

Biking: rentals start at $4 an hour or $12 for a day for a good quality bike.

In most respects, Nicaragua is the cheapest place to travel in Latin America, which makes it the cheapest destination in the Americas period. Since it’s also close and easy to get to for a reasonable airfare, at least for those of us in the U.S. and Canada, your total cost for visiting Nicaragua is going to be lower than almost anywhere else you could go internationally.

Naturally, you have to give up a little comfort in the process though. You’ll be on a “chicken bus” now and then if you get off the main tourist track. Budget hotel choices are a good value, but the selection and overall level of quality are not always up to what you find in Guatemala or even Honduras—again, outside the main tourist towns that is. In part this is because domestic demand hasn’t been there and while tourism numbers are growing fast, they’re still relatively small.

This is a country where you can feel like an adventurer though, with almost no tour buses in sight, affordable restaurants everywhere, cheap drinks, and limited hassles from touts and scammers. If you’re looking for somewhere to kick back for a while and let your budget recover, here you can do it in a beautiful colonial city (Granada), on a beach (San Juan del Sur or a more isolated surfing village), or in the mountains of coffee country.

At the time of writing, the exchange rate was 23 cordobas to the U.S. dollar. So if two happy hour cocktails are 35 as in a photo of a bar I visited below, that’s around $1.50.

Hotel and Hostel Prices in Nicaragua

Dorm bed: $3 – $8 per person, often incl. basic breakfast & Wi-Fi
Basic double room with shared bath: $6 – $15
Double room with private bath, A/C, TV, maybe a fridge: $10 – $30.
Nice double room with all that, good bedding, daily maid service, breakfast, maybe a pool: $25 – $60
(There are probably only about 12 hotels in all of Nicaragua where rates for a standard start at more than $125 double per night.)

Food & Drink in Nicaragua:

Market stall lunch: $1.50 – $3
Basic restaurant lunch: $2.50 – $7
All-you-can eat buffets: $4 – $8.
Fancy restaurant meal, cloth napkins: $7 – $15
(There are probably only about 20 restaurants outside Managua where you can spend $20+ per person on dinner excluding drinks.)

Flor de Caña rum, 4-year: $2.50 – $4 per liter
Flor de Caña rum, 7-year: $4 – $9 per liter depending on where.
Cheap local rum: $1 – $2.50 per liter.
Rum cocktail in a bar: $1 – $2.50.
Small beer in a bar: 60 cents to a dollar in a bar
Liter-sized beer in a bar: $1.50 – $2 (Less in a store or at happy hour.)

Seasonal fruit: 50 cents to $1 a pound
Tortillas: 50 cents for a handfull
Bread: 10-20 cents for sandwich roll, 50 cents for a baguette
Coffee: 50 cents to $1 a cup, from good local beans

Transportation in Nicaragua:

The regular buses in Nicaragua are mostly converted school buses discarded by U.S school systems and on their second life here. They can be slow and crowded, but will often only cost you a dollar or less to get you where you’re going.

Express bus: 60-80 cents per hour of travel.
Express minibus: around $1 from Managua to Granada, around $2 Managua to Leon.
Tourist door-to-door shuttle: pricey, but quick and air-conditioned. $27 for Granada to San Juan del Sur, $18 to $35 each between Granada and the Managua airport depending on group size.

Local buses in cities: 15 – 25 cents.
Taxi ride: 50 cents to $4 in city limits anywhere. $6 to go across Managua, more from the airport.
Taxi from the Ometepe ferry dock in San Jorge to the bus station in Rivas: $1 – $2 (depending on your bargaining skills.)

Ferry from San Jorge to the main port on Ometepe: $1.50 (small boat on the right above) to $3 (air-conditioned large ferry, on the left).
First-class air-conditioned seat on the overnight trip from Granada to San Miguelito: $9. (Second class is $4, but can get crazy crowded.)

Bike rental: $3 – $8 per day, less for half day.
Scooter/motorcycle rental: $12-$40 per day depending on quality, demand, season, and your bargaining patience.

Internal flights: $80 to $140 round trip on a puddle jumper prop plane.

Other Prices for Travelers in Nicaragua:

Hop-on, hop-off tourist site buses: $10 – $22 per person
Internet access in cafe: 75 cents to $1.50 per hour
Hourlong massage from a blind masseuse in Granada – $15
25-minute VoIP phone call home – $1 USA, $1.50 Europe
Museum admissions – 25 cents to $2

If you want to travel better for less, the simple solution is usually to avoid painting yourself into a corner with your plans.

I get interviewed a lot by the media as a value travel expert, usually looking for tips and tricks on how to travel better for less money, how to squeeze more out of a limited budget.

One of my goals with the Make Your Travel Dollars Worth a Fortune book was to show infrequent travelers how to travel better using some basic strategies. One key one is understanding that the more variables you leave open, the greater your savings are going to be.

For anything from a 3-day vacation to a year-long trip around the world, here are the factors that always impact the price:

1) Where you go

2) When you go

3) How you get there

4) Where you stay

5) How you eat, drink, and get around after arrival

Most of the time when people ask me for advice, they’ve already locked down three of these five variables, so there’s not much left to work with. “I’m going to Florence and Venice for a week this summer. Can you help me find a good deal?”

Ummm, no. If you must go to x country in y period, leaving z day and stay in a certain kind of lodging, what’s left? You’re now just fiddling with the margins: where to eat, what to see, and whether to take the metro or a taxi.

Or someone writes on a message board that they don’t think their trip around the world will cost very much because “we’re going to stay in hostels the whole time.” Good for you, but that’s only one factor—and has a much smaller impact than where you go to start with. If you’re trying to hit five continents in six months and the itinerary includes Western Europe and Japan, you’re going to spend a fortune even if you sleep on strangers’ sofas every night.

Keep all five of these variables open, however, and you can travel very well indeed. Choose your destination after you’ve looked at flight deals and got a sense of what it’s going to cost you for local food and transportation. Take your time to find good hotel values by going beyond the big booking engines. Go during shoulder season instead of when everyone else is heading there. Be open-minded, be flexible, and you’ll look like a travel deals guru in no time.