October 10, 2025 • 21 mins
Think travel demands deep pockets? We push back with a road-tested guide to seeing more while spending less. We challenge the idea that travel is only for big budgets, using a lifetime of road trips, points strategies, and common-sense choices to show how to see more for less. From camp stoves to tram rides, we trade luxury for stories and keep the wonder intact.
Please subscribe and leave a review on I-Tunes.
Feel free to drop me an email I would love to hear from you editor@thetravellingfool.com
You can sign up for my email list
Follow me on social media
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Bob Bales (00:00):
Hi, and welcome to The Traveling Fool, the show
where we talk about traveldestinations, the history and
culture around thosedestinations, along with travel
tips and news.
I'm your host, Bob Bails, andtoday we're going to delve into
some of the myths about howexpensive it is to travel, and
I'll give you a few tips.
So stay tuned, and we'll beright back.
(00:56):
Now, when we talk about travel,one of the biggest things you
hear people say is, yeah, that'sall nice and well and good, but
it's pretty expensive and Ican't afford to be doing that
kind of stuff.
Okay.
Well, we're going to get intohow you don't have to spend a
whole lot of money in order justto travel.
Now, to do this, I'm going tostart off with a little story.
(01:19):
I'm going to tell you about myown personal experiences.
Now I grew up in South Texas.
My dad was a fireman.
He never made much money.
I'm old, so this was a whileback.
Now my dad, even though he waslike an assistant fire chief, I
never realized how little theypaid them.
(01:39):
They didn't really get a livingwage and a decent pay raise
until after I had joined thearmy.
So growing up, he had 30 daysvacation every year.
That was one of the nice perks.
And we went somewhere everysingle summer for 30 days or
about 28 days.
(02:00):
And you say, well, how can youafford to do that when you don't
have much money?
Well, it was simple.
He had a homemade camper thathe had built off of a trailer
frame with some friends of his.
And later we actually saved upsome money and bought a camper.
But we would go on road tripsand we would stay at state
parks, national parks, and hewould plan this trip out for
(02:24):
months.
We would travel for eight ornine hours and go to a state
park and stay there for two orthree days and see everything
around that area.
Then we'd pack up and go toanother state park and go
camping and stay there for twoor three days.
Until we got to ourdestination.
And we went, now I'm in SouthTexas, we went to New York on
(02:46):
the east coast.
We went to California on thewest coast.
I saw all kinds of thingsgrowing up from the Mesa Verde,
which is the Pueblo dwellings inColorado, to Pikes Peak in
Colorado, the Grand Canyon, thePetrified Forest, uh San
Francisco, you name it.
I got to see it.
I went to Civil Warbattlefields and all throughout
(03:07):
the South and historiclocations.
And it was great.
And he made sure that we wenton a good vacation every single
year and we had something to do,my brother and I.
And I never really realized Ijust thought we were living
great.
I mean, I was a kid.
We're staying at a State Parksor National Parks.
(03:28):
I get to go fishing, I get togo walking around out in the
woods, and then in the afternoonwe're gonna go see some
historic site or go to the GrandCanyon or something.
I mean, what better could youask for when you're a kid?
We never stayed at a hotel.
I never remember staying at ahotel on these vacations, and
(03:49):
very seldom did we ever eat atrestaurants.
We might stop at a hamburgerplace or a breakfast place, like
an IHOP or something like that,once or twice during the trip.
The rest of the time we had acamp stove, mom bought
groceries and we ate good at thecampground.
(04:11):
I mean she made everything.
We had steaks and hot dogs andyou name it.
A lot of times when we weredriving, my mother would be up
on the front seat makingsandwiches and pass them to the
back seat, and we would eat aswe drove for lunch.
So it never was reallyexpensive.
But I would come back to schoolevery year, and I would, you
(04:34):
know how kids do, everybodytalks, what'd you do?
And a lot of these kids juststayed home and watched TV,
watched cartoons and playedoutside or whatever.
They asked me what I did, and Isaid, Well, I was I went to the
Grand Canyon or I went to NewYork City or whatever.
And all of this without my dadever making a whole lot of
(04:56):
money.
So it can be done.
And even today it can be done.
How do I know that?
I'm living proof of it.
I've been doing it for years.
So here's a few tips.
First, find out what you reallywant to do on vacation.
And a lot of this has beenruined by social media and
social media influencers.
You look at all these prettypictures, you go, oh my god,
(05:17):
that's so beautiful.
How could I ever afford to gothere?
Well, chances are that socialmedia person probably didn't pay
to go there either.
They got paid to go there andtake photos, it depends on how
many followers you get, the moremoney you get paid.
And as we have all come toknow, social media does not
necessarily tell you a truepicture of what is there.
(05:40):
I'm guilty of it too.
When I go somewhere and I'mtaking photos for a tourism
board or for my blog orwhatever, I want to get the
absolute best shot.
And to do that, sometimes youhave to wake up really early in
the morning when there's nocrowds, or you have to stand
there and wait for 15 minutesfor people to get out of the way
so you can get the really niceshot without 400 people standing
(06:04):
in your photo.
But that may not be the actualtruth. I try to get a really
nice shot, but also not one thatis not distorted in the fact
that that's not actually whatthe place looks like.
Because there's nothing morefrustrating than seeing
something really pretty onsocial media and go, oh, I gotta
(06:25):
go see this place.
You get there, and it isnothing like what is portrayed.
So that's the first thing.
Don't get your hopes up fromsomething on social media and
and plan to go there.
Figure out what you want to goon your trip for.
And you're gonna find out thatprobably the most expensive part
of that trip is gonna be,especially if you're traveling
(06:45):
out of the country, is gonna bethe air travel or the hotel.
So there's a couple ways youcan do this to reduce the air
travel costs.
And I'm gonna give you one ortwo just little quick tips.
There are sites on the internetthat they make a living out of
showing you the lowest fares.
One of them is um Matt'sFlights.
(07:09):
He's got a great site.
You can sign up for free andget their free alerts, or you
can pay him a yearly fee andhe'll give you the extra special
bonus alerts.
And all that means is you'regonna get flights tailored
specifically to you.
And um he'll shoot you outdeals all the time.
If I tell him, okay, I want myhome base to be Houston, Texas,
(07:31):
I'm gonna fly out toIntercontinental Airport.
Well, I'll get alerts for okay,Delta just dropped their fare
from Houston to Miami.
You can get a flight on therefor $118.
And here he tells you how tobook it and everything else and
what dates it's open.
And there's some other websitesout there also on the internet
(07:53):
that you can sign up for thatwill alert you to low price
fares.
So that's one way.
The other way is to sign up forthe airline self, especially
and they'll alert you.
Sign up for their alerts.
But if you really want to usesomething like miles or loyalty
miles for the airlines, um,there's a real quick way to do
(08:16):
it if you plan six months inadvance.
And one is to get you a creditcard.
Now you gotta hear me out here.
I've got a couple of creditcards for airlines, and you can
get a Chase credit card whichgives you miles and points.
You can get other brandedcredit credit cards from the
airlines themselves, from AlaskaAir to Delta to United, you
(08:37):
name it.
And there's websites that tellyou all about the best credit
cards to get.
But here's the thing if you getthe credit card that's gonna
give you a massive sign upbonus.
And they change all the time.
A lot of them are like 50,000mile sign up bonus if you spend
this much in this many months orthis over over this period of
time.
Well, instead of those 50,000 acouple times a year, that'll
(09:00):
bump it up and go, Well, we'regonna give you 80,000 to sign
up.
Well, that's when you want tosign up for it.
So look at the best signupsthat you can possibly get.
And normally it's we will giveyou 50 or 60 or 70 or 80,000
miles in addition to what youearn, if you spend three
(09:21):
thousand dollars over the nextthree months or four thousand
dollars over the next threemonths, and you're like, ooh, I
don't know if I want to put thatmuch on a credit card.
Well, here's the trick.
And I do this every singlemonth, and my miles just keep
going up.
You get miles by spending yourcredit card or using it for
(09:41):
dining for anything, and somemiles or more.
They'll say, Okay, well, if youdine out, you get two times the
miles.
I use my credit card for thethings that I buy anyway.
Every single month, whetherit's groceries, gasoline,
whatever it is, my cigars, whichyeah, I do buy a lot of cigars,
(10:02):
but that's where my credit cardgoes to, and then every month I
get my statement, and everymonth I pay off my credit card
bill.
So instead of using my debitcard or getting cash out the
bank and using cash to go buygroceries or whatever the case
is, the money sits at the bank.
I'm gonna spend it anyway, butI'm gonna use my credit card to
(10:23):
spend it.
And I don't go crazy, I don'tgo, you know, buy all kinds of
stuff on credit just because Ihave the credit card.
I use it for what I'm going tospend anyway.
And at the end of every month,I pay it off so there's no
interest.
And that's how you can rack upa lot of points, and you would
be surprised you're gonna spendfifteen hundred or two thousand
(10:44):
dollars a month just on gas,groceries, odds and ends.
If you think about it, that'sprobably what you're spending,
if not more.
And if you do that for two orthree months, then boom, now
you've got fifty, sixty,seventy, eighty thousand miles
in addition to what you put onyour credit card.
Now those eighty thousand orsixty thousand miles is enough
(11:08):
to get you a round trip airfareto a lot of places.
So that's one way to easily doit over a period of two or three
months.
Now the other thing is ifyou're traveling in the States
and you're not going overseas,well, do a road trip.
It may take you a little longerto get there, but I really like
road trips because you can stopalong the way, you can see
things, you can explore, andyou'll discover all kinds of
(11:30):
stuff you would have never knownwas there had you just jumped
on a plane and flew over there.
Take the time to hit thehighways and the little
backroads and stuff, and you'llhave a blast.
You will discover more thingsthan you could ever think of.
Just keep your eyes open andstop at interesting places.
Build in a day or two to getthere and a day or two to get
back, and there you have it.
(11:51):
Now you're gonna say, Well, gasis expensive, idiot.
How do you expect me to use allthat gas money?
Well, yeah, but it's not asexpensive as flying, and there
are apps like Gas Buddy and acouple of others that will show
you the cheapest gasolinearound.
You just open up the app, tapon the little map, and it'll
say, Well, here's all the placesaround here that are selling
(12:12):
gasoline at all the gasstations, and here's what it is.
You go, Oh, well, it's if I gotwo miles down this road instead
of stopping at the one on thehighway, I can get it 30 cents
cheaper.
I think I'll just drive the twomiles, get gas, then come back
to the highway and keep going.
And a lot of people say, Well,what's 10 cents or 12 cents a
gallon cheaper if it's fivemiles away?
(12:34):
Well, when you're filling upthe tank and you're on a road
trip, it makes a big difference.
Now I've had the opportunity totravel to a lot of countries and
a lot of places in the States,and sometimes I was traveling by
myself, and sometimes I wastraveling with my entire family,
and sometimes it was just meand the wife.
And me and my wife have totallydifferent ideas about vacations
(12:56):
and travel.
She wants to go to someplacereally nice and relax.
And I understand that.
I I don't want to do that, butI have on many occasions, and
I've stayed at really, reallynice hotels and resorts and
at a an all inclusive that havelike three restaurants or four
(13:16):
restaurants at the place.
And I've stayed at just allkinds of really nice places.
However, when I travel bymyself, I don't care where I
stay, as long as it meets twocriteria.
It's in a safe location in thetown.
You know, I don't want to haveto walk outside the front door
(13:37):
and trip over crackheads, be inan area that has muggings and
shootings twenty-four hours aday, and that's anywhere in the
world, so I'm just I look for asafe location in town.
And does the place I'm stayingat have hot water and
electricity?
That's it.
I don't care.
And I've stayed at some really,really small places, and really
(13:58):
places that most people wouldsay, I'm not staying there,
that's a dump.
Well, as long as it's clean, Idon't care.
I'll give you an example.
I worked overseas for manyyears, and I could not always
come back to the United Stateson my time off because of the
way the tax codes are written.
You have to be out of thestates so many days a year in
order to take advantage of thetax codes.
(14:20):
So one time I went to Praguefor 30 days.
I couldn't come back to theStates, and so the wife flew
over and met me in Prague.
And we stayed at this reallynice hotel right off of the
square in Prague, next to theCharles Bridge and across the
river from the castle, and itwas beautiful, and the whole
(14:44):
area you're right in the touristarea, and it was really, really
nice.
And she stayed there for a fewdays, about a week or so, and
then she flew back to theStates.
Well, I still had three weeksto go in Prague.
Well, the first thing I didafter she got on a plane and
went home is I checked out ofthat hotel, and I found a place
that was about, I'm gonna say aten minute trolley or you know
(15:05):
it it's not a subway it's moreof a cable car or trolley, ride
to the middle of town.
I went to the outskirts of thetown and I found a place, and it
was dirt cheap, and it was alarge room, even had a little
balcony I could walk out on.
It was clean and the water washot, and it was a hundred yards
or less from the station thatyou caught the little trolley
(15:31):
or cable car down to the centerof town.
And that's where I stayed forthe next two and a half, three
weeks.
Every morning I would just getup, walk across the street to
the trolley and go downtown andexplore, or go to the train
station and go to the next townover or whatever.
I wouldn't spend any time atthe hotel.
I don't care what the hotellooks like.
(15:52):
I've done the same thing inLondon.
I stayed there for a week onetime at a hotel where it was so
tiny.
I mean tiny, tiny, tiny.
It had a double bed that was upagainst the wall, and when you
sat on the edge of the bed, Iswear there was like two feet
between the edge of the bed andthe wall, and there was just
(16:13):
enough room in there for thebed.
That was it.
And if you wanted to go in anduse the bathroom and everything,
you had you could open the doorand the sink was there, but you
couldn't get to the toilet.
So you had to open the door,stand on top of the toilet in a
way to open the door fully inorder just to use it and get to
(16:38):
the shower.
It was an acrobatic feat.
But I didn't care.
I stayed there for six days.
Every morning at six o'clock Iwoke up, got dressed, and headed
out the door.
I would come back around nineo'clock, ten o'clock at night,
go to sleep.
I don't care what the hotellooks like.
It had electricity, the waterwas hot.
That's all I cared about.
And it was clean and in a safearea.
(17:00):
And you can save a lot of moneyjust on accommodations.
When I was a kid, like I said,we stayed at campgrounds.
You took a trailer and stayedat a campground or stayed in a
cabin, and you could stay therefor fairly cheap and just get in
the car and drive around andsee all the sights during the
day.
So there's all kinds of ways toreduce the cost of the travel.
For me, it's the experiencewhile I'm there.
(17:22):
It's not the hotel.
But there are a few occasionswhere, especially if the wife is
traveling with me, it's gottabe the hotel.
And that's when I you go to thereally nice hotels, and there's
a few ways to get somediscounts and ensure you get the
best prices there as well.
So I guess what it amounts tois if you really want to travel,
don't let anybody influence youinto thinking that you've got
(17:46):
to have a lot of money to do it.
You really don't.
Yes, if you want to take acruise around the world, it's
gonna cost you a lot of money.
If you want to travel to Nepaland climb Mount Everest, yeah,
it's gonna cost you some money.
But you can go to places andexperience these places without
having to spend a ton of money.
Whether it's in the States,whether it's traveling around
(18:07):
your state to places that youhaven't visited, or even have
vested and enjoy, whether it'staking a road trip for a week
and traveling up the easternseaboard or traveling across
Texas, which that's a road tripin itself.
It's a big state.
There's a lot of things you cando to enjoy and experience your
travel destinations withoutspending a ton of money.
(18:31):
And I hope you do, because Itell you about it, I've always
loved traveling.
I love history, so I lovetraveling to locations where
history took place.
And I love seeing new thingsand experiencing new things and
learning about the culture andthe destination itself and the
people, what happened therethroughout history.
And it all started because mydad, the fireman, decided he was
(18:52):
gonna travel and see thecountry and let his kids
experience things.
And that's where I got my loveof travel, and I've done it my
entire life.
I don't care whether it'sexploring some little country
town in Texas, and yes, I havebeen to Nepal a couple of times.
It's beautiful country.
Or Asia or going to Africa orgoing to South America or going
(19:16):
to the Caribbean, anywhere.
Don't let just the destinationhotel play a part of where
you're going.
You can always find a place tostay if you want to go and
travel and see what's there.
And don't let the airfaresscare you.
There's ways to get cheaperairfares.
Or just take a road trip.
But anyway, that's my advicefor this episode.
(19:37):
And next time we're going totalk about a specific
destination, I think.
I've got a couple of podcastscoming up where we talk about
destinations, talk aboutsomething really weird that
happened at one destination.
I think you'll like that one.
And just a few more on traveltips and things like that.
I really appreciate youlistening.
(19:57):
If you can, hit that like orsubscribe.
That would mean a lot to me.
And uh if you get a chance,check out the blog
travelingfool.com.
You can check all the pastepisodes there.
And you can read some of thearticles on some of the
destinations I've been to overthe years.
I try to give you some usefulinformation.
But that's it for this episode,and until next time, safe
(20:19):
travels.
Hi, and welcome to The Traveling Fool, the show
where we talk about traveldestinations, the history and
culture around thosedestinations, along with travel
tips and news.
I'm your host, Bob Bails, andtoday we're going to delve into
some of the myths about howexpensive it is to travel, and
I'll give you a few tips.
So stay tuned, and we'll beright back.
(00:56):
Now, when we talk about travel,one of the biggest things you
hear people say is, yeah, that'sall nice and well and good, but
it's pretty expensive and Ican't afford to be doing that
kind of stuff.
Okay.
Well, we're going to get intohow you don't have to spend a
whole lot of money in order justto travel.
Now, to do this, I'm going tostart off with a little story.
(01:19):
I'm going to tell you about myown personal experiences.
Now I grew up in South Texas.
My dad was a fireman.
He never made much money.
I'm old, so this was a whileback.
Now my dad, even though he waslike an assistant fire chief, I
never realized how little theypaid them.
(01:39):
They didn't really get a livingwage and a decent pay raise
until after I had joined thearmy.
So growing up, he had 30 daysvacation every year.
That was one of the nice perks.
And we went somewhere everysingle summer for 30 days or
about 28 days.
(02:00):
And you say, well, how can youafford to do that when you don't
have much money?
Well, it was simple.
He had a homemade camper thathe had built off of a trailer
frame with some friends of his.
And later we actually saved upsome money and bought a camper.
But we would go on road tripsand we would stay at state
parks, national parks, and hewould plan this trip out for
(02:24):
months.
We would travel for eight ornine hours and go to a state
park and stay there for two orthree days and see everything
around that area.
Then we'd pack up and go toanother state park and go
camping and stay there for twoor three days.
Until we got to ourdestination.
And we went, now I'm in SouthTexas, we went to New York on
(02:46):
the east coast.
We went to California on thewest coast.
I saw all kinds of thingsgrowing up from the Mesa Verde,
which is the Pueblo dwellings inColorado, to Pikes Peak in
Colorado, the Grand Canyon, thePetrified Forest, uh San
Francisco, you name it.
I got to see it.
I went to Civil Warbattlefields and all throughout
(03:07):
the South and historiclocations.
And it was great.
And he made sure that we wenton a good vacation every single
year and we had something to do,my brother and I.
And I never really realized Ijust thought we were living
great.
I mean, I was a kid.
We're staying at a State Parksor National Parks.
(03:28):
I get to go fishing, I get togo walking around out in the
woods, and then in the afternoonwe're gonna go see some
historic site or go to the GrandCanyon or something.
I mean, what better could youask for when you're a kid?
We never stayed at a hotel.
I never remember staying at ahotel on these vacations, and
(03:49):
very seldom did we ever eat atrestaurants.
We might stop at a hamburgerplace or a breakfast place, like
an IHOP or something like that,once or twice during the trip.
The rest of the time we had acamp stove, mom bought
groceries and we ate good at thecampground.
(04:11):
I mean she made everything.
We had steaks and hot dogs andyou name it.
A lot of times when we weredriving, my mother would be up
on the front seat makingsandwiches and pass them to the
back seat, and we would eat aswe drove for lunch.
So it never was reallyexpensive.
But I would come back to schoolevery year, and I would, you
(04:34):
know how kids do, everybodytalks, what'd you do?
And a lot of these kids juststayed home and watched TV,
watched cartoons and playedoutside or whatever.
They asked me what I did, and Isaid, Well, I was I went to the
Grand Canyon or I went to NewYork City or whatever.
And all of this without my dadever making a whole lot of
(04:56):
money.
So it can be done.
And even today it can be done.
How do I know that?
I'm living proof of it.
I've been doing it for years.
So here's a few tips.
First, find out what you reallywant to do on vacation.
And a lot of this has beenruined by social media and
social media influencers.
You look at all these prettypictures, you go, oh my god,
(05:17):
that's so beautiful.
How could I ever afford to gothere?
Well, chances are that socialmedia person probably didn't pay
to go there either.
They got paid to go there andtake photos, it depends on how
many followers you get, the moremoney you get paid.
And as we have all come toknow, social media does not
necessarily tell you a truepicture of what is there.
(05:40):
I'm guilty of it too.
When I go somewhere and I'mtaking photos for a tourism
board or for my blog orwhatever, I want to get the
absolute best shot.
And to do that, sometimes youhave to wake up really early in
the morning when there's nocrowds, or you have to stand
there and wait for 15 minutesfor people to get out of the way
so you can get the really niceshot without 400 people standing
(06:04):
in your photo.
But that may not be the actualtruth. I try to get a really
nice shot, but also not one thatis not distorted in the fact
that that's not actually whatthe place looks like.
Because there's nothing morefrustrating than seeing
something really pretty onsocial media and go, oh, I gotta
(06:25):
go see this place.
You get there, and it isnothing like what is portrayed.
So that's the first thing.
Don't get your hopes up fromsomething on social media and
and plan to go there.
Figure out what you want to goon your trip for.
And you're gonna find out thatprobably the most expensive part
of that trip is gonna be,especially if you're traveling
(06:45):
out of the country, is gonna bethe air travel or the hotel.
So there's a couple ways youcan do this to reduce the air
travel costs.
And I'm gonna give you one ortwo just little quick tips.
There are sites on the internetthat they make a living out of
showing you the lowest fares.
One of them is um Matt'sFlights.
(07:09):
He's got a great site.
You can sign up for free andget their free alerts, or you
can pay him a yearly fee andhe'll give you the extra special
bonus alerts.
And all that means is you'regonna get flights tailored
specifically to you.
And um he'll shoot you outdeals all the time.
If I tell him, okay, I want myhome base to be Houston, Texas,
(07:31):
I'm gonna fly out toIntercontinental Airport.
Well, I'll get alerts for okay,Delta just dropped their fare
from Houston to Miami.
You can get a flight on therefor $118.
And here he tells you how tobook it and everything else and
what dates it's open.
And there's some other websitesout there also on the internet
(07:53):
that you can sign up for thatwill alert you to low price
fares.
So that's one way.
The other way is to sign up forthe airline self, especially
and they'll alert you.
Sign up for their alerts.
But if you really want to usesomething like miles or loyalty
miles for the airlines, um,there's a real quick way to do
(08:16):
it if you plan six months inadvance.
And one is to get you a creditcard.
Now you gotta hear me out here.
I've got a couple of creditcards for airlines, and you can
get a Chase credit card whichgives you miles and points.
You can get other brandedcredit credit cards from the
airlines themselves, from AlaskaAir to Delta to United, you
(08:37):
name it.
And there's websites that tellyou all about the best credit
cards to get.
But here's the thing if you getthe credit card that's gonna
give you a massive sign upbonus.
And they change all the time.
A lot of them are like 50,000mile sign up bonus if you spend
this much in this many months orthis over over this period of
time.
Well, instead of those 50,000 acouple times a year, that'll
(09:00):
bump it up and go, Well, we'regonna give you 80,000 to sign
up.
Well, that's when you want tosign up for it.
So look at the best signupsthat you can possibly get.
And normally it's we will giveyou 50 or 60 or 70 or 80,000
miles in addition to what youearn, if you spend three
(09:21):
thousand dollars over the nextthree months or four thousand
dollars over the next threemonths, and you're like, ooh, I
don't know if I want to put thatmuch on a credit card.
Well, here's the trick.
And I do this every singlemonth, and my miles just keep
going up.
You get miles by spending yourcredit card or using it for
(09:41):
dining for anything, and somemiles or more.
They'll say, Okay, well, if youdine out, you get two times the
miles.
I use my credit card for thethings that I buy anyway.
Every single month, whetherit's groceries, gasoline,
whatever it is, my cigars, whichyeah, I do buy a lot of cigars,
(10:02):
but that's where my credit cardgoes to, and then every month I
get my statement, and everymonth I pay off my credit card
bill.
So instead of using my debitcard or getting cash out the
bank and using cash to go buygroceries or whatever the case
is, the money sits at the bank.
I'm gonna spend it anyway, butI'm gonna use my credit card to
(10:23):
spend it.
And I don't go crazy, I don'tgo, you know, buy all kinds of
stuff on credit just because Ihave the credit card.
I use it for what I'm going tospend anyway.
And at the end of every month,I pay it off so there's no
interest.
And that's how you can rack upa lot of points, and you would
be surprised you're gonna spendfifteen hundred or two thousand
(10:44):
dollars a month just on gas,groceries, odds and ends.
If you think about it, that'sprobably what you're spending,
if not more.
And if you do that for two orthree months, then boom, now
you've got fifty, sixty,seventy, eighty thousand miles
in addition to what you put onyour credit card.
Now those eighty thousand orsixty thousand miles is enough
(11:08):
to get you a round trip airfareto a lot of places.
So that's one way to easily doit over a period of two or three
months.
Now the other thing is ifyou're traveling in the States
and you're not going overseas,well, do a road trip.
It may take you a little longerto get there, but I really like
road trips because you can stopalong the way, you can see
things, you can explore, andyou'll discover all kinds of
(11:30):
stuff you would have never knownwas there had you just jumped
on a plane and flew over there.
Take the time to hit thehighways and the little
backroads and stuff, and you'llhave a blast.
You will discover more thingsthan you could ever think of.
Just keep your eyes open andstop at interesting places.
Build in a day or two to getthere and a day or two to get
back, and there you have it.
(11:51):
Now you're gonna say, Well, gasis expensive, idiot.
How do you expect me to use allthat gas money?
Well, yeah, but it's not asexpensive as flying, and there
are apps like Gas Buddy and acouple of others that will show
you the cheapest gasolinearound.
You just open up the app, tapon the little map, and it'll
say, Well, here's all the placesaround here that are selling
(12:12):
gasoline at all the gasstations, and here's what it is.
You go, Oh, well, it's if I gotwo miles down this road instead
of stopping at the one on thehighway, I can get it 30 cents
cheaper.
I think I'll just drive the twomiles, get gas, then come back
to the highway and keep going.
And a lot of people say, Well,what's 10 cents or 12 cents a
gallon cheaper if it's fivemiles away?
(12:34):
Well, when you're filling upthe tank and you're on a road
trip, it makes a big difference.
Now I've had the opportunity totravel to a lot of countries and
a lot of places in the States,and sometimes I was traveling by
myself, and sometimes I wastraveling with my entire family,
and sometimes it was just meand the wife.
And me and my wife have totallydifferent ideas about vacations
(12:56):
and travel.
She wants to go to someplacereally nice and relax.
And I understand that.
I I don't want to do that, butI have on many occasions, and
I've stayed at really, reallynice hotels and resorts and
at a an all inclusive that havelike three restaurants or four
(13:16):
restaurants at the place.
And I've stayed at just allkinds of really nice places.
However, when I travel bymyself, I don't care where I
stay, as long as it meets twocriteria.
It's in a safe location in thetown.
You know, I don't want to haveto walk outside the front door
(13:37):
and trip over crackheads, be inan area that has muggings and
shootings twenty-four hours aday, and that's anywhere in the
world, so I'm just I look for asafe location in town.
And does the place I'm stayingat have hot water and
electricity?
That's it.
I don't care.
And I've stayed at some really,really small places, and really
(13:58):
places that most people wouldsay, I'm not staying there,
that's a dump.
Well, as long as it's clean, Idon't care.
I'll give you an example.
I worked overseas for manyyears, and I could not always
come back to the United Stateson my time off because of the
way the tax codes are written.
You have to be out of thestates so many days a year in
order to take advantage of thetax codes.
(14:20):
So one time I went to Praguefor 30 days.
I couldn't come back to theStates, and so the wife flew
over and met me in Prague.
And we stayed at this reallynice hotel right off of the
square in Prague, next to theCharles Bridge and across the
river from the castle, and itwas beautiful, and the whole
(14:44):
area you're right in the touristarea, and it was really, really
nice.
And she stayed there for a fewdays, about a week or so, and
then she flew back to theStates.
Well, I still had three weeksto go in Prague.
Well, the first thing I didafter she got on a plane and
went home is I checked out ofthat hotel, and I found a place
that was about, I'm gonna say aten minute trolley or you know
(15:05):
it it's not a subway it's moreof a cable car or trolley, ride
to the middle of town.
I went to the outskirts of thetown and I found a place, and it
was dirt cheap, and it was alarge room, even had a little
balcony I could walk out on.
It was clean and the water washot, and it was a hundred yards
or less from the station thatyou caught the little trolley
(15:31):
or cable car down to the centerof town.
And that's where I stayed forthe next two and a half, three
weeks.
Every morning I would just getup, walk across the street to
the trolley and go downtown andexplore, or go to the train
station and go to the next townover or whatever.
I wouldn't spend any time atthe hotel.
I don't care what the hotellooks like.
(15:52):
I've done the same thing inLondon.
I stayed there for a week onetime at a hotel where it was so
tiny.
I mean tiny, tiny, tiny.
It had a double bed that was upagainst the wall, and when you
sat on the edge of the bed, Iswear there was like two feet
between the edge of the bed andthe wall, and there was just
(16:13):
enough room in there for thebed.
That was it.
And if you wanted to go in anduse the bathroom and everything,
you had you could open the doorand the sink was there, but you
couldn't get to the toilet.
So you had to open the door,stand on top of the toilet in a
way to open the door fully inorder just to use it and get to
(16:38):
the shower.
It was an acrobatic feat.
But I didn't care.
I stayed there for six days.
Every morning at six o'clock Iwoke up, got dressed, and headed
out the door.
I would come back around nineo'clock, ten o'clock at night,
go to sleep.
I don't care what the hotellooks like.
It had electricity, the waterwas hot.
That's all I cared about.
And it was clean and in a safearea.
(17:00):
And you can save a lot of moneyjust on accommodations.
When I was a kid, like I said,we stayed at campgrounds.
You took a trailer and stayedat a campground or stayed in a
cabin, and you could stay therefor fairly cheap and just get in
the car and drive around andsee all the sights during the
day.
So there's all kinds of ways toreduce the cost of the travel.
For me, it's the experiencewhile I'm there.
(17:22):
It's not the hotel.
But there are a few occasionswhere, especially if the wife is
traveling with me, it's gottabe the hotel.
And that's when I you go to thereally nice hotels, and there's
a few ways to get somediscounts and ensure you get the
best prices there as well.
So I guess what it amounts tois if you really want to travel,
don't let anybody influence youinto thinking that you've got
(17:46):
to have a lot of money to do it.
You really don't.
Yes, if you want to take acruise around the world, it's
gonna cost you a lot of money.
If you want to travel to Nepaland climb Mount Everest, yeah,
it's gonna cost you some money.
But you can go to places andexperience these places without
having to spend a ton of money.
Whether it's in the States,whether it's traveling around
(18:07):
your state to places that youhaven't visited, or even have
vested and enjoy, whether it'staking a road trip for a week
and traveling up the easternseaboard or traveling across
Texas, which that's a road tripin itself.
It's a big state.
There's a lot of things you cando to enjoy and experience your
travel destinations withoutspending a ton of money.
(18:31):
And I hope you do, because Itell you about it, I've always
loved traveling.
I love history, so I lovetraveling to locations where
history took place.
And I love seeing new thingsand experiencing new things and
learning about the culture andthe destination itself and the
people, what happened therethroughout history.
And it all started because mydad, the fireman, decided he was
(18:52):
gonna travel and see thecountry and let his kids
experience things.
And that's where I got my loveof travel, and I've done it my
entire life.
I don't care whether it'sexploring some little country
town in Texas, and yes, I havebeen to Nepal a couple of times.
It's beautiful country.
Or Asia or going to Africa orgoing to South America or going
(19:16):
to the Caribbean, anywhere.
Don't let just the destinationhotel play a part of where
you're going.
You can always find a place tostay if you want to go and
travel and see what's there.
And don't let the airfaresscare you.
There's ways to get cheaperairfares.
Or just take a road trip.
But anyway, that's my advicefor this episode.
(19:37):
And next time we're going totalk about a specific
destination, I think.
I've got a couple of podcastscoming up where we talk about
destinations, talk aboutsomething really weird that
happened at one destination.
I think you'll like that one.
And just a few more on traveltips and things like that.
I really appreciate youlistening.
(19:57):
If you can, hit that like orsubscribe.
That would mean a lot to me.
And uh if you get a chance,check out the blog
travelingfool.com.
You can check all the pastepisodes there.
And you can read some of thearticles on some of the
destinations I've been to overthe years.
I try to give you some usefulinformation.
But that's it for this episode,and until next time, safe
(20:19):
travels.
Popular Podcasts
My Favorite Murder with Karen Kilgariff and Georgia Hardstark
My Favorite Murder is a true crime comedy podcast hosted by Karen Kilgariff and Georgia Hardstark. Each week, Karen and Georgia share compelling true crimes and hometown stories from friends and listeners. Since MFM launched in January of 2016, Karen and Georgia have shared their lifelong interest in true crime and have covered stories of infamous serial killers like the Night Stalker, mysterious cold cases, captivating cults, incredible survivor stories and important events from history like the Tulsa race massacre of 1921. My Favorite Murder is part of the Exactly Right podcast network that provides a platform for bold, creative voices to bring to life provocative, entertaining and relatable stories for audiences everywhere. The Exactly Right roster of podcasts covers a variety of topics including historic true crime, comedic interviews and news, science, pop culture and more. Podcasts on the network include Buried Bones with Kate Winkler Dawson and Paul Holes, That's Messed Up: An SVU Podcast, This Podcast Will Kill You, Bananas and more.
24/7 News: The Latest
The latest news in 4 minutes updated every hour, every day.
Dateline NBC
Current and classic episodes, featuring compelling true-crime mysteries, powerful documentaries and in-depth investigations. Follow now to get the latest episodes of Dateline NBC completely free, or subscribe to Dateline Premium for ad-free listening and exclusive bonus content: DatelinePremium.com