I’ve been bitten by a serious case of wanderlust lately. Part of it is the fact that I have not flown since last October, and another part is that I just really cannot wait until our honeymoon to Buenos Aires. What to do, what to do, when you are itching to travel, but cannot (at least not yet) because of lack of resources, whether that be time or finances?
Here are 10 ways to deal with that wanderlust when you’re short on time or money.
- Attend a travel convention. That’s what I’m doing this weekend – the Los Angeles Time Travel Show is here, and if I can’t head to London or Barcelona at least I can listen to Rick Steves TALK about the wonders of Europe. (If you want to go, use the code “LATR” or “LATO” for $2 off the $10 admission tickets).
- Set up a dedicated travel fund. If one of the obstacles to a trip is money, there’s only one way to resolve that obstacle – with money! Putting dollars away in a specific fund help us prepare for a big vacation – our Galapagos Fund has grown from a twinkle in my eye in April 2010 to $10,000+ now.
- Subscribe to well-written travel catalogs with lots of colorful photos and detailed itineraries. OK, this might only make your wanderlust that much more powerful, but it’s a fun way to torture the traveler in you! I especially enjoy Wilderness Travel’s paper catalog (it’s free, and they don’t spam). I have one from last year that I’ve read, cover-to-cover, more times than I can count on my fingers.
- Read blogs of folks who have visited the destination of your desire. I am a frequent visitor of this Galapagos trip blog. I try to tell myself that my time will come.
- Plan out an entire trip in your head. From airfare, to specific hotels and restaurants, to entertainment options, to local transportation. Maybe keep a few spreadsheets detailing the budget breakdown of what such a trip will cost. Go back to #2. Repeat as necessary for all the trips that you want to take. Thanks to my penchant for researching and planning trips, I now have the itineraries of Turkey, Paris, New Zealand, and a several other places floating around in my head. Hmmm.. Oops? (I can’t be the only one who does this!).
- Host a foreign exchange student or foreign traveler. If you can’t go to Rome, you can bring someone from Rome to your home! If you are ready for a longer-term commitment, serving as a host for a foreign exchange student would be a great way to learn more about that person’s culture. Or sites like couchsurfing will let you play host for a few days.
- Pretend to be a tourist in your own city. So many times we forget or overlook the tourist attractions in our own cities, attractions that real tourists pay good money to be able to visit! I’ve been guilty of this. So play tourist for a day – maybe even ask someone for directions.
- Go on a day trip. Leave early, come back late means that you save on the hotel costs but can see visit someplace a little bit different from the day-to-day. If you are in Los Angeles, you can make it to Santa Barbara on a day trip. If you are in San Francisco, Monterey (and the famous aquarium) is doable. If you are in D.C., the wineries of Charlottesville are 2.5 hours away. If you are in San Diego, land of perfect 72 degrees, WHAT are you complaining about?!
- Open a rewards credit card to pay for your hotel or flights. Done and done. Of course, only do this if you can pay off your balance in full every month.
- Drink wine and pretend you are in Paris. Enough said.
Share in the comments! What effective, unusual, wacky ways do you try to deal with your wanderlust, when you just can’t get away?
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We have a dedicated travel fund that pays for our vacations. We are going to be doing a lot of camping, so it'll be a learning experience to see how that impacts our costs and such. It's also our fifth anniversary later this fall so we would like to do something for that. We fund it mainly as a portion of our tax refund plus some of the money I might make blogging.
I cannot wait to go camping with my future wife! We are stoked. It shouldn't be too costly either. I have a lot of the equipment. Great article….be creative and maybe use your creativity to motivate you to save more for that dream vacation!
I can't even tell you how many hours I've spent researching bus tickets, hotels, museum passes, sightseeing tours, and flights for trips I have yet to go on! When I was debating between Africa and South/Central America I researched both trips down to the penny.
I've also looked into the cost of a 1-year around the world trip, and short weekend getaways – maybe I was a travel agent in a former life!
I sacrificed buying a new car for a travel fund. What my sister pays per month for the car I was looking at, I put the equivalent in my travel fund — well worth it in my eyes.
What I do is that I keep looking at pictures of where I want to go, depressing but fun at the same time
LOL I love daytrips! BF and I went to college in San Luis Obispo and it was amazing. We went to Santa Barbara for a day, Paso Robles, Santa Maria, LA, Irvine, etc. Now that we are in San Diego we go to Julian, and we can even go to Mexico. When I visit my parents in San Jose we always go to SF, Monterey, Sacramento, etc. California is wonderful! I am getting the itch to go somewhere…..HAWAII!!!!
I did a project with a small business owner in Galapagos – he owned a safari camp and it was so nice to see all the work they put into it for tourists. I would love to visit! The animals and the ocean are one of a kind there.
I love travel so I do whatever I have to do to make sure it works for my budget and time. I don't waste vacation days from work and keep my spending in check to make sure I have enough for a plane ticket and hotel whenever I feel like its time to hop on a plane. In the last three months I have done London, Paris, Amsterdam, and Costa Rica.
In January every year, I used to plan out my big vacations for that calendar year. If you're going far away, many destinations have a "rainy season" or something equally horrible like black flies, etc, so you really do have to think about some of these a year in advance. It definitely was half the fun comparing and contrasting locations. Oftentimes, a destination was determined by where you can go with the cheapest airfare and the most favorable currency exchange rate. It's not been as much fun since the dollar has devalued, but the process is still very entertaining.
Great article
We have a travel savings fund. We also use trip advisor and kayak a lot. They are both great for trip planning. In a couple weeks we are headed to Africa. I am so excited.
I have a travel fund and I am saving for a trip to south America.
Day trips for us.
Both my wife and I have traveled extensively, but after 11 years living in one place with only one overseas trip together, we're getting antsy feet again.
haha these are great tips. My wanderlust is tamed for a bit now, because I have my Kilimanjaro trip in mind =) 6 more months!
i am thinking maybe we'll spend some time travelling nearer as it is a lot less expensive — even a flight to Florida isn't too bad.
I always imagine how life-changing it would be if I could 'save' 1-2 hours of free time every day until I have 100 hours in my time savings account, and then use it up later when I want to travel.
Since that's not possible, I do #10 a LOT. That's something I can do everyday.
I also sponsor a child in a different country, so that I can write her (she writes back with news from her country) and think of one day visiting her.
I get what I call a six month travel fever every… well… six months. But it is impossible to travel every six months for different reasons. What helps me is day trips and do something adventurous: visit ghost towns, explore new hikes and so on. Last year we took a big trip to Europe. It was in September. and guess what… I am already feeling that travel fever in me! At least we have Denver and FINCON12 in September!
Now that it's freezing cold where I live, I'm itching to get down to Barbados. I don't want to think about what the trip costs, but I really need to take your advice from tip #5. I also have to budget for a trip down to Orlando for my mom's 60th birthday. It's too much!
To save on travel in the past, I've made a few sacrifices such as taking the bus or train instead of flying. I've also stayed in youth hostels. Staying in a communal room with 7 other strangers may be a little much for many Americans to handle, but I'll do that before I swear off traveling for years and years.
I love the idea of planning a whole trip — airfare, where you'll go, what hotels you'll stay in, what you'll see, where you'll eat, etc. That way, you know what dollar amount you're aiming for, and if your financial circumstances improve, you know exactly whether you can pull it off! Happiness research is also showing us that anticipation accounts for a big chunk of the mood boost associated with travel.