I’ve been running this Cheapest Destinations blog since 2003 and the 4th edition of my international travel book will come out soon, so I’ve heard more than my share of excuses on why people can’t or don’t travel.

In all fairness, some of the reasons are really legit. “I’m a convicted felon” is one that may give you some visa trouble. “I can’t leave the country until the custody case is settled” is reasonable. “I don’t really enjoy packing up and leaving home” was a response from a friend that I really didn’t have an answer to. Fair enough. We can’t assume everyone likes to travel.  And some people really can’t. There are not many travel agencies in Cuba or North Korea.

If you live in a free country and want to travel but don’t, however, the excuses you give are probably the same ones I’ve heard 100 times. Apparently these 71 other travel bloggers have heard the same ones too as their sample excuses and responses are amazingly consistent.

The b.s. travel excuses

1) I can’t afford it.

2) I don’t have the time.

3) I’m (scared about) not good at foreign languages

4) My family wouldn’t approve (I’m scared to leave my family).

Why these travel excuses are usually b.s.

1) Unless you’re in such poverty that you can barely afford groceries, you can afford to travel. Because if you choose the right places, it’s cheaper than being home. Try shopping less, buying fewer gadgets, brewing your own coffee—in other words, prioritizing. Do some basic research and you’ll find ways to couchsurf, get free flights, work abroad, and in general get by for far less than you’re getting by now. If you have a job you can do from anywhere, you’re just plain nuts to live out all your years in an expensive country anyway.

2) If you’ve been in your job a year at least and don’t have a couple weeks to travel, something is seriously wrong. If you’re self-employed, even worse. That’s called not taking the time; it’s not a lack of time. Nobody is so important in their position that they can’t take a couple weeks to travel unless they have “president” or “prime minister” next to their name. If you’re worried nobody will miss you if you leave and you’ll be easily replaced with another warm body, then you’re not making much of an impact when you’re there are you?

3) Based on my 20-odd years of travel, you can get by with English alone in about 90% of the places you’ll go on this planet as a tourist, with Spanish taking care of another 5 or 6%. So unless you’re going to visit rural China or some undiscovered tribal region, I think you’ll survive. If you’ll be somewhere more than a couple weeks, you can pick up some basics with minimal effort and a phrase book. Heck, these days you can even take a real-time translator on a smart phone, Star Trek style.

4) I’ve heard so many iterations of this sequence now it’s become a short story I could write in my sleep. Daughter (it’s usually a woman) announces to her family that’s she’s going backpacking for a month, for the summer, maybe even for a year. A family member (usually the mother) responds that it’s a horrible idea, that she’ll be raped or killed, that she’s abandoning the family. She forges on and goes anyway, sending them photos along the way about her fantastic time and telling them all the things she’s seen and learned. She returns home looking fit and radiant, she’s worldly-wise, and she’s exhibiting a new self-reliant streak that’s going to help her create success on her own terms in the future. Her parents can’t stop telling their friends about her wonderful adventure and they share her photos with everyone they know.

Of all the 71 responses on that long blog post, which admittedly get a bit redundant, I like this one from Benny at Fluentin3Months the best:

Usually people will latch on to what seems like a totally logical reason to not travel, such as lack of money, no time, unable to get off work, family responsibilities and so on. At times these are legitimate, but many times the true reason they are not following this passion is fear, and the reason they give you when you ask is founded in nothing but this fear.

They can repeat the mantra of “I have no money” all they like, ignoring stark evidence about how they should embrace minimalism and stop buying so much crap, or perhaps they think that learning a language is a rare genetic gift even though over half the population of the planet is multilingual. It’s time they stepped outside of their self-fulfilling prophecies.

Like most things in life, finding the time or money to travel is just like finding the time or money to do anything else worthwhile: buy a house, reach a sales goal, raise a child, get good at a sport, get in shape, learn a language, write a book, finish a painting, dance the tango, or build a fence. Make it a priority and it’ll probably happen. Put it no higher on your list than the latest slightly better gadget Apple is feeding you, then it probably won’t.

Do you want to travel this year or are you just saying it would be nice? Like winning the lottery would be nice?

If you’re not just fantasizing, stop dreaming and start finding ways to make it work. See all the excuses and answers here.

 

Want to fly around the world, but you don’t want to wing it as you go? With a round-the world ticket (or around the world ticket if you’re covering all the bases when Googling), you can set up your main airport stops in advance. When you’re ready to book it, your flight plan is set. Write one check or input your credit card once and you’re off and running for a year.

As you’ve probably noticed if you’ve done any research on this though, the prices are all over the map—because the choices are all over the map. So which routes are the cheapest? And which would cost you your whole travel savings for the year?

To get an answer to these questions, I posed them to someone I know at Airtreks, one of the best-known and longest-established companies selling round-the-world tickets. Nico Crisafulli handles public relations for the agency, so I asked him for some insider tips.

The Cheapest Round-the-World Tickets

“We do well with getting from the U.S. to Asia, Asia to Europe, U.S. to Europe (and vice versa), and locating killer combination fares throughout those continents. We find big discounts by stringing together two or three one-way tickets. We also have deals across the South Atlantic and Indian Oceans.

On their site this week, for instance, is a good RTW combo for hitting a good number of inexpensive destinations, from $2,400 to $3,000 depending on season:

New York – Hong Kong – Singapore – surface – Kuala Lumpur – Cochin / Kochi – surface – Bombay / Mumbai – Cairo – Istanbul – surface – Athens – Vienna – surface – Paris – Reykjavik – New York

There’s another that hits Munich and Rome near the end instead, for about the same price.

Here’s another route, similar price:

New York – Vancouver – Shanghai – surface – Kunming – Chiang Mai – surface – Kuala Lumpur – Cochin / Kochi – surface – Goa – Delhi – London – New York

And one more for the west coasters:

Los Angeles – Tokyo – Singapore – Kathmandu – surface – Delhi – Istanbul – London – surface – Paris – Los Angeles

Seeing a pattern here? Major world capitals and competitive big airports continually show up on the lowest-priced itineraries. See if where you want to go most is near one of those.

Shorter Routes to Consider

If you don’t have your heart set on actually circling the globe, you can often hit more destinations with a “circle the Pacific,” “circle the Atlantic” or “tour the Americas” option that makes a loop. This route, for example, can come in under $2K if you time it right:

Miami – Sao Paulo – Buenos Aires – Santiago – La Paz – Lima – Bogota – Miami

Shave it down to as low as $1,200 with this shorter route:

Miami – Guatemala City – San Jose (Costa Rica) – Lima – Bogota – Miami

This one skirting the Atlantic starts at $1,849:

New York – Bogota – Rio de Janeiro – Paris – Madrid – New York

The Most Expensive Round-the-World Tickets

First of all, the way to blow the most on these tickets is to buy them through one of the airline alliances. You’ll invariably pay more, have fewer choices, and have more restrictions. Unless you can pay for it with miles, it’s a raw deal for all but the simplest routes, and only then if you can get mileage that will bump you up to elite status. (That in itself is worth a lot.)

Otherwise, the southern hemisphere can really sock it to you. “I think the most unexpected costs are when people try to travel across the South Pacific—Australia/New Zealand to South America and vice versa—especially when stopping over in remote places such as Easter Island and Tahiti. A dearth of airlines serve those spots,” says Nico.

For this route, the price goes up to a range of $3,724 to $4,350:

Los Angeles – London – Nairobi – surface – Dar Es Salaam – Johannesburg – surface – Cape Town – Kuala Lumpur – Sydney – Nadi (Fiji) – Los Angeles

“Strangely, stopping in Hawaii on a trans-Pacific journey gets pricey, as does island hopping in Micronesia and that area.

Trans-Africa flights are notoriously expensive (i.e., flights between countries in sub-Saharan Africa). Try to do more than a few and you’ve got a major case of sticker shock. People tend also to think they can add Africa for a song, but it’s not really true. Northern Africa is better and also Kenya, but things get more complicated trying to do more than one or two African cities. Getting down to South Africa and its region will always spike a ticket price, as will Victoria Falls. We’ve actually got good prices to get to Maldives and Seychelles on Emirates though.

Also trying to hop around the USA (depending on the season, of course) makes prices jump. Keeping a U.S. itinerary to no more than three stops helps.”

Hitting every continent–a crazy idea if you only have a year anyway–will really blow the budget. Those options start at $5,344.

If you do want to get to these other regions that add on a lot, consider alternate methods to flying and look at other ideas such as package tours that bundle hotels and flights together (like from London to Morocco). Within Europe you can easily hop a train or take a budget flight booked at the last minute to add another city.

Airtreks’ RTW planning section of the site is a goldmine for anyone pondering a trip around the world. Check it out and save yourself a lot of headaches (and money).

Much of the “traveler” vs. “tourist” division people have in their head really comes down to time and money. Do you have more time than money? You probably consider yourself a traveler and look down at those crazy tourists who blow so much money overspending on everything. If you don’t consider yourself a tourist but your budget is huge and you’re in a hurry, you’re going to be viewed as one, fair or not. But you may look at those shoestring backpackers as having no fun at all.

I’m not here to judge as I’ve been in both camps quite a lot. At times I’ve had all the time in the world. But last Saturday I drove to Orlando just for the day to take my birthday girl daughter and two of her friends to a water park. Like everyone else there, I was a tourist. No way around it. If there were any question about it, look what we paid to rent a locker—and we needed two of the big ones.

Since my wife, daughter, and I took advantage of cheap Southeast Asia this summer (see travel prices in Cambodia), we know a thing or two about what it costs a traveler with the time and means to get out of the USA or Europe. For that $20 we spent on two jammed-full lockers for five people, we could have eaten two good meals, taken 10 taxi rides, or gotten four one-hour massages. For what those lockers cost, one person can enter one of the great wonders of the world: Angkor Wat.

For what a beer costs at this park ($6.35 for a 16-ounce Yuengling—I passed), I could have gotten legless in Siem Reap with 12 drafts and a tip or six bottles. For what I spent on parking alone, you could get an air-conditioned hotel room with a private bath in Vietnam. See the post linked at the bottom for details, but when we went to a smaller water park in Mexico, parking was free and a locker was a dollar.

If you’ve been around the world, you’re used to traveler prices. If you only go on vacation for a week or two once a year, you’re used to tourist prices. That’s why most of your relatives think travel has to be expensive. It can be—especially if you’re headed to one of the 10 most popular foreign destinations for Americans—but not if you’re taking your time exploring The World’s Cheapest Destinations.

It’s not that one camp is smart and one is stupid though. They’re two different worlds that sometimes intersect in the town square. Many in one camp could never dream of being in the other, but both can be just as happy because the don’t even want to be on the other side.

Despite the hit to my wallet, I had a blast at that water park.

But…here’s what a simpler one costs in Merida, Mexico.

 

There’s a lot of trouble in the world. But an expert on handling danger says almost every region is getting tamer for travelers.

 

If you watch Fox News every day, you’re liable to think the world out there is a super-scary place. Better buy that newly built home in a gated community and shut the garage tight.

Reality is much different. The current issue of Outside magazine has a great interview with Robert Young Pelton, who besides being a respected war zone consultant and author of The World’s Most Dangerous Places, apparently has a perforated metal business card that converts to a shiv. (Scarier part of that revelation: it’s never been noticed or confiscated by airport security. Anywhere.)

The whole interview is great, so go check it out, but here’s the killer exchange for would-be world travelers looking to reassure mom:

“People don’t believe me, but there aren’t wars anymore. When I first wrote the book, you had real wars, with tanks shooting at each other. Now there’s more democracy, less dictatorship. The first edition had 26 countries, and now I’m going to have a hard time covering 12 in the next edition.

A lot of these countries that used to be holy-shit, ass-puckering places are now sort of like, ‘Don’t go there,’ ‘Watch out,’ ‘Don’t go out at night.’

So yes, you should probably avoid Afghanistan and Somalia, present Syria and parts of Sudan. Walking into a drug gang inner city area is always a bad idea, but especially bad in Ciudad Juarez, Tegucigalpa, or Guatemala City. Walking down the street holding a cartoon of a key religious figure is probably not going to end well in countries where you can only see the eyes of the local women.

Time to Stop Acting Like Cowards

Otherwise, let’s finally bury the stupid idea that Canadians are safer than Americans so they have to wear a maple leaf on their backpack like it provides some kind of force field. Let’s stop publishing or reading articles about what women need to do to be able to travel alone without getting raped or killed. Let’s stop avoiding perfectly beautiful places filled with wonderful cities because 10 years ago there was something really bad on the 24-hour news channels. And let’s all make a pact to stop listening to advice from people whose don’t travel. Or those who think a Caribbean cruise balcony berth gives them the right to give you advice about State Department warnings.

I don’t think of myself as all that old, but I’m seeing Ankor Wat for the first time this summer because all three times I was in the neighborhood before there was a coup, a war, or a real threat of getting maimed by a land mine. Nobody in their right mind was going to Peru when I first started backpacking. Colombia, Guatemala, Eastern Turkey, Sri Lanka, and a few Stans were all on the “no-go” list for any sane traveler. There was a war in Croatia for Christ’s sake. Yes, that place where all the billionaires’ yachts are now docked. Bombs were going off regularly in Northern Ireland. Half of Africa seemed to be fighting at any given time.

Do your homework, yes, but if only 9 countries out of nearly 200 require some real paranoia these days, I think you’re going to be okay.

Watch for the 6th edition of Pelton’s book and don’t buy the old one to save a buck: it came out in 2003—when the world was scarier.

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See the Travel Dangers page on ContrarianTraveler.com. (Here’s a fun exercise: put “travel dangers” in Google and see what comes up ahead of this. It’s usually something from Fox News.)

See Robert Young Pelton’s Come Back Alive site.

There are plenty of naval-gazing travel blogs out there and from the start of this one in 2003, I’ve tried to be more useful than that. This is primarily a blog about how to travel well for less, how to get more out of your travel budget and maybe learn something, grow a little, and become a better person through the experience.

But this morning I heard a report on NPR about how it was 20 years ago today when Rodney King gave his “Can’t we all just get along?” speech in Los Angeles. This was in the midst of the 1992 riots after the four white police officers that beat him up (with TV news cameras recording it) were acquitted. I was watching it all on a TV screen in a bar facing Central Park in New York City. I was having drinks with the Charlatans UK, one of the bands I did marketing for at RCA Records.

So how did I get from there to here? I thought it would be fun to look at where I was and what I was doing soon after that, then 5, 10, 15 years later.

Almost exactly two years later, I was in Los Angeles myself, but only on a layover on my way to Japan, the first stop on my first round-the-world journey. I hadn’t traveled all that much before, honestly. Lots in the U.S., a few trips to Canada and the Caribbean, but nothing all that exotic. This was my time though. I had gotten fired from my job after being way too honest with my boss way too many times. My girlfriend’s company had gone bankrupt. We had talked about traveling long-term and if we were waiting for a sign, these were two big ones. We sold most of what we owned, rented out my condo, and hit the road.

Five years after that Rodney King speech, my journal was my “Easy P.P. Spring Notebook.” I was on month six of a one-year English teaching contract in Korea. My now-wife and I had traveled through Morocco, Egypt, Jordan, and Israel before settling down in Korea to replenish our finances. Over the course of the year, we worked our tails off but managed to save around $30,000. (That financed another year of travel and gave us a big cushion when we returned.) We traveled a lot around South Korea, sometimes seemingly being the only foreigners in town, and gained the kind of cultural experience you can only get from living somewhere for a while.

Ten years after those L.A. riots, in April 2002, I was in the midst of enjoying 9 weeks of severance pay after surviving four rounds of layoffs and getting caught in the fifth. This was the aftermath of the dot-com bubble and since I’d returned to the U.S., I’d been working for a tech company, writing just at night and on weekends. I was based in Nashville, but the home office was in Silicon Valley—tech bust central. But I had started writing my first book and now I had time to really get on it. Plus I had more time to spend with my new baby, who was a year and a half and chattering away already.

Fifteen years after those drinks while the riots raged, in 2007, I had mostly cut ties with any non-writing jobs and was making a living writing, editing, and ghostwriting books for business clients. We bought a little beach house in the Yucatan state of Mexico and all traveled to Guatemala. I got invited on a press trip to South Africa and Botswana and I took my wife to Peru, where we hiked the Inca Trail to Machu Picchu. I launched Perceptive Travel. This blog turned four. I won a Grand Prize for a story I wrote from a travel journalism association, then won a first prize a year later.

Twenty years after the music biz gig in New York, here we are. I just spent a year living in Mexico with my family and we’ll return there for two years next summer. This year I’ll travel to four countries in Eastern Europe on my own, then go to three countries in Southeast Asia in July with my family. Before the year is up, jaunts to Nicaragua, Boliva, Colombia, and Chile, and speaking at TBEX in Colorado. I’m living in Tampa, FL, creating new memories in a new place.

When you look back at your milestones 20 years from now, what will you see? Great experiences and growth, or the same ole same old and stagnation?

Just because you travel doesn’t make you a better person than one who doesn’t—or a person who truly can’t afford to do it. But at least it means you’re not sitting still. If your life is not changing and you’re not being challenged, you’re slowing down before your time.

Here’s to your next 20 years being full of exciting surprises.