| A Personal Reflection | On Traveling on a Budget

Recently, a couple traveled around Europe for more than 200days on a budget far lower than anyone could have imagined, thrusting “budget travel” back into the spotlight. It wasn’t just all over my FBfeed; friends sent me the article several times, and I even received an emailfrom a major newspaper asking to interview me about “budget travel.”

Perhaps it was because the topic of my first major talk was “How a Girl on a Budget Traveledthe World,” beginning with tips on saving money. Of course, I chose the topicmyself. At first, I thought it was something people would find interesting and that would be fairly easy to prepare.Yet while preparing for the talk, I realized that “tips for saving money”weren’t really the main thing I wanted to share at all.

When it comes down to it, saving money simply means eating a little less, staying somewhere a little rougher, and walking a littlefarther, doesn’t it?

But “saving money” is relative. If you spend less thanusual, or if something costs less than you expected, then you’ve saved moneyby your own standards—even if someone else might not consider it cheap.

That’s because saving money is measured against your own values. Choose the kind of travelyou want to enjoy; there’s no need to compete over who spent less.

I fly with low-cost airlines, but I don’t insist on finding tickets for only a few hundred dollars. If I really wantto go somewhere and the price is acceptable, I’ll book it. I choose to travel by train and bus,not necessarily because they save me much compared with flying, but because I love watching the scenery change outside the windowas I pass through mountains, forests, and cities, instead of seeing nothing but clouds. For accommodation, I choosecheaper backpacker hostels, but what I really love is havingplenty of opportunities to meet roommates from around the world—and I still choose quality places after carefully reading the reviews.Sometimes I even stay through Couchsurfing. While that certainly does reducemy travel expenses, what I enjoy more is interacting with my local hostand learning about the culture. And I certainly don’t skimp on the local specialties and Taiwanese souvenirs I bringfor them.

Every style of travel should have a reason and a purpose behind it. Saving money shouldalso have a reason and a purpose, rather than being meaningful only as a number.。

Money is nothing morethan one resource in travel. When our resources are limited, we might reduce ourbudget to stretch them further and achieve the travel goals we have in mind.

In other words,the purpose of your journey matters most. Once you know that, consider how to usethe resources you have to make it happen!When you hear other people’s travel stories, don’t forget to look at why theytravel instead of focusing only on how much they spent.

【What matters in budget travel shouldn’t be how much money I saved, but this—money is no reason to let your dreams be held back.】

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