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Home exchange. We have been doing it for 20 years and have exchanged homes and cars over 44 times now on various continents.
Basically your only costs are the flights, you get to stay in a nice comfortable big home than a cramped hotel room, no car hire costs of bothering with public transport and you also get a much better idea of the culture of the country you are visiting.
To me it is so much better than staying in faceless hotels. You get to meet the locals and become a traveller rather than a tourist saving thousands in the process.
The best way to travel IMO, I love it.
These are the two biggest and best organisations for home exchanges. For a flat annual fee of about $200 you get to do as many exchanges as you wish around the world ( including the USA), an entry for your home online on thier excellent websites and an entry in the paper directories too.
Mouseketeer, people who are looking for a "frugal" vacation don't usually have a house that then can list with the hoity-toity house-share listings.
If you don't go to western Europe or a comparably industrialized country, you can stay for very close to nothing, anyway. Even in places like Korea and Taiwan, it's not hard to find hotels for around $25 a night double, and eat three meals for betweeeen $5-10. That's about $40 a day for two people. Transportation is cheap, because you can choose 3rd class busses---not like America, where it is luxury or nothing.
Plane fare is the big ticket item. Once you're on the ground, $1,000 a month is doable for two people, in more than half the countries in the world, as long as you don't spend much time in the capital or on-season resort areas. There are some countries you can cut it to half of that, in South Asia and the Andean countries of South America, You can ride the bus from Punxutawney to Pamana, and get off anywhere in between that suits you, but that would take a week or so each way. Once you're past the Rio Grande,, estimate your travel time on the bus and figure about a dollar an hour for bus fare.
The OP's ideas were good. Indonesia, and South America are both very cheap.
I don't know if it's so much about the place you go but rather how you travel. For example, staying in a hostel instead of a hotel. I believe there are budget airlines that travel around North America and the Caribbean. Last minute deals can save you money. Sometimes all inclusive deals will save money - check out applevacation.com
I've heard talks of a budget airline starting up between London and NYC. I don't know if/when that will be happening but if/when it does, that would greatly reduce the cost of travel for some going to England/UK.
Try to look more locally too - sometimes you'd be surprised at what there is to see and do within a few hours drive.
Mouseketeer, people who are looking for a "frugal" vacation don't usually have a house that then can list with the hoity-toity house-share listings.
If your home is well-kept then it is the location which is the main factor, not the size or fancy-ness of your home.
A small tidy and clean house or apartment by the sea, in beautiful countryside or in central London/NYC will attract a couple or singles looking to exchange.
Even if you are renting you can usually do a home exchange by arrangement with your landlord.
Thailand-found a cheap airfare there, after there did one of Intrepid tour's budget tour to learn some about the country then was on my own after that and it was great.
I got a cheap airfare to Cayman Islands, then realized the hotels were way over my budget, got onto couchsurfing and found someone to stay with for free and she recommended places for me to see and places to eat.
Morocco, I got a FF ticket to Madrid Spain and then bought a ticket with one of Spains budget airlines for less than 200$ and stayed for a month in Morocco. did another budget trip with Intrepid then was on my own for rest of the time.
Indonesia, another budget intrepid trip then own my own and have been back to Bali 15+ times
I find my trips like this
not caring where I'm going, it's where ever I can find a cheap airfare or get a FF ticket to, then that is where go.
I called Delta once and said I wanted to go some place and use my FF tickets (got a really good Delta person to work with me) on the phone over 30 mins, ended up with a FF ticket to Berlin, I knew nothing about Berlin, never wanted to go there, but with a free ticket, that was my next trip, had a couple of months to read on it and find a hostel
had the best time of my life there.
Woofers, you need to specify how much money you're willing to spend. You can find last minute cruises really cheap. 7 day tickets/fees/taxes/tips to the carribean can be had for $600 out the door if you're somewhat flexible...Alcohol's extra...
Home exchange. We have been doing it for 20 years and have exchanged homes and cars over 44 times now on various continents.
Basically your only costs are the flights, you get to stay in a nice comfortable big home than a cramped hotel room, no car hire costs of bothering with public transport and you also get a much better idea of the culture of the country you are visiting.
To me it is so much better than staying in faceless hotels. You get to meet the locals and become a traveller rather than a tourist saving thousands in the process.
The best way to travel IMO, I love it.
These are the two biggest and best organisations for home exchanges. For a flat annual fee of about $200 you get to do as many exchanges as you wish around the world ( including the USA), an entry for your home online on thier excellent websites and an entry in the paper directories too.
What a great idea.
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