Travelling the USA | Ballin' on a budget
- Simon-Peter Lincoln
- Dec 19, 2016
- 6 min read
For a full 4 months of 2016, I spent my time across the ocean in the mighty US of A. Although I was confined to Wisconsin for the most part, I managed to travel a large part of the country in the month I had remaining on my Visa. I wanna try and give you guys (whomever may be reading this) some tips and tricks that I learnt along the way and made my life a tad easier.
Now, I’m not going to pretend that it was always plain sailing, it wasn’t, and that’s not what travelling is about; it’s about getting a new perspective on the world and coming out of your comfort zone whether the road is rocky or smooth. It’s about opening yourself up to new cultures and embracing the fact that what we see on a regular basis is just a fraction of what this beautiful planet has to offer. There were times on my month-long road trip when I felt like giving up and getting on the next flight home, but after I got through it, I realised that in hindsight, they are what make the good times even better.
Remember... NOTHING IS PERFECT. There is no point in pretending that travelling is going to be an easy road, but it’s about looking past the negativity and seeing the beauty that we have in front of us. When nothing is going right… go left. (Sorry about the emotional start).
I saw some absolutely incredible things on my road trip and I experienced it with many amazing people, some I’d met from the summer camp and some we met along the way. This is my advice for travelling the USA and making the most out of your summer.
Don’t worry too much about money
This is something that I wish I believed before hopping on the outbound flight. Honestly, I was slightly terrified that I hadn’t saved enough money to last me for the full 4 months, but I managed to make it work and if I was to do it again, I believe I could make it work even better.
Prioritise your spending
Get the necessities first and see how much you have left over. It’s easier to make plans when you don’t have a shopping list to get first. Once these are out of the way, you know what you have left and what you have to play with
Have a plan
Pre-book as much of your travel and accommodation as you can, this will give you the relief of knowing that the majority of your spending is done and you only have to spend on food and extra activities.
Use a travel card
My Caxton FX card was one of the best things I took with me to camp as I kept the majority of my money on there and it was like it was kept away solely for travelling. It also helps to have a card when booking things online; you don’t have to rely on others.
Don’t become a recluse
You’re not going to starve to death if you go out and socialise. People can be scared of spending, so they don’t go out with everyone and meet people. This is a big NO-NO! The whole point of camp is to meet new people, who become new friends, who in turn become new family. (This is me speaking from experience).
You’ll need a bed
After camp, you’re going to need some places to stay if you want to see as much as the country as you can. I think I did this quite well over this summer and managed to spend very little on accommodation and we stayed in some quite nice places.
AirBnb was a God-send to us this summer, you can stay in beautiful places for incredibly low prices. You rent a room or house off regular people, rather than blowing all your money on hotels. We met so many colourful characters along the way, from a born-again Floridian in Orlando, to an eccentric Italian in Miami, to a cat-loving stoner in Austin. You make so many amazing memories from the people you meet, and AirBnb is a great and cheap way to socialise, whilst staying in rad places.
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Hotels
We realised early on that hotels can be extortionate; however, in some cities, it’s cheaper to book a hotel. For example, in Las Vegas, it worked out cheaper to book a room in a hotel than it was to use AirBnb; plus, we were right on the strip so we didn’t have to pay for taxis or Ubers. We mainly used Booking.com when looking at hotels, but there are hundreds of websites. I’d always check to see if it works out cheaper, but for the most part, I’d stick to AirbBnb.
Friends
One of the benefits of camp, is that you’ll make a tonne of friends from America and 99.9% of the time, they’ll be the most welcoming people and offer you a bed (or a couch) at their pad whilst you’re in the States. Unfortunately, our journey didn’t coincide with any of our American friend’s homes, so we couldn’t take them up on their offer, but I’d definitely recommend doing it if you can. Also, you’ll have there to show you the ‘real’ side of America.
Hostels
Again, this is another medium of accommodation that I tended to avoid for the most part in the USA as it could get expensive, but sometimes, we found real gems. On our journey to Madison and Chicago, we booked two completely different hostels. One was a renovated home, that had all the homely benefits and the other, a clean, hotel-like hostel. One of the pros of staying in a hostel is the people there. You are always bound to bump into wonderful characters who are in exactly the same position as you.
The Travelling Part
One of the most important part of your travels in the USA is the actual travelling section. You’re not going to see much if you can’t get from one place to another. If you’re not careful, this can milk your budget as some places have hidden costs and some will have terms that will end up costing you a helluva lot more in the long-run.
Flights
America is such a big country that in a lot of cases, it makes more sense to fly to your next destination rather than take any other mode of transport. My first port of call was always SkyScanner, as it shows you the cheapest deal, and it directs you to the best place to buy from. However, you do need to check to see whether luggage costs are included, because usually, they’re not. Internal flights start from about $30 a lot of the time, so it’s usually cheaper and more efficient than any other way of travelling.
Rent-a-Car
Now, you need to make a wise decision when renting cars, as this can rack up the spending. Be careful of third party websites that offer protection, as a lot of the time, this isn’t actually valid from the agency and you’ll have paid for insurance that you won’t be able to use. We were stung by a rent-a-car company because of this; we thought we’d paid everything, when actually, we’d paid a third party website.
Try Turo as an alternative to mainstream rental companies, it’s like the car equivalent to AirBnb; where you rent other peoples cars whilst they’re not using them. We found this out too late in our travels, but managed to make the most out of it on our 3-day trip to Lake Tahoe when we rented a tiny Fiat 500 for a fraction of what a regular company would have charged us. Do be careful though, as there can be extra charges for driving through tolls that will be charged afterwards.
Ridesharing
When travelling within a city, there isn’t a lot better than ridesharing. Apps like Uber and Lyft give you the chance to get from A to B for a lot cheaper than a regular taxi. It’s convenient and you can pay on card, rather than carrying cash and splitting it between the group, the price will come straight off the card attached to the account. Again, you do need to be careful, as if you start relying on these, you can spend a lot of money travelling the city, when a lot of the time it’d be just as easy to walk.
Public Transport
Another way to travel interstate is via public transport. There are plenty of buses and trains that travel all over the country, and for most of the time, the prices are ridiculously cheap. We never used this (except for buses in the city), however we had plenty of friends who did. Buses and trains are great if you don’t mind super-long journeys, but I guess that if you get a night bus, it takes out the equation of accommodation for that night; killing two birds with one stone.
There are a million ways to travel and each and every person will find their own unique and personal way to do it and these are just my personal ideas of what I think would make travelling the States easier for whoever else wants to do it. I’d recommend it to anyone, and I’d love to think I’m helping someone with my recommendations. However, my greatest recommendation is that you go out there and make your own mistakes like I did. Learn your own way of travelling as it will be completely different to anyone else’s and you’ll enjoy it way more! There are plenty of other things that I could recommend but I want you to make your own decisions.
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