Traveling on a budget is not as hard as it seems when you add a little bit of effort. The difference between try and triumph is a little bit of umph.
I personally agreed with most of the idea portrayed in the wikiHow article. One of the things that I had an issue with would be step 5 which states that not eating out is a good idea to save money and that an appropriate and more cost cautious alternative would be to bring your own food from home that could be heated up quickly and without stress. Normally not eating out and instead choosing to eat easy microwaveable foods such as ramen noodles or mac-n-cheese would be something that I would agree with but when you are out of your comfort zone visiting a place that do not usually go to whether it be a different state or a different continent, I personally would like to enduldge in the culture and have the traditional mean eaten there. Though a large percent of a family's income goes towards eating out, you know that you wouldn't want to go to Paris and just eat microwave dinner the entire trip. Depending on how long you are staying, one or two nights of cheap dinner in the hotel room from home would not be bad but now the entire trip. The one thing that I accommodated the most would be step 2 which states that you don't have to stay at a five star hotel because you won't be there most of the day. I know that when my family and I travel, the only reason that we ever go to the hotel room is to sleep or if we forgot bug spray or something of the sort. I have had my share of crappy hotel rooms believe me but wherever we were, it didn't bother me as much as you would think because I couldn't stop smiling about everything that my family and I had done all day. The pleasure of traveling does not have to be something that cleans out your wallet on the first day. Travelling is supposed to put a smile on your face while you are "oo-ing" and "ah-ing". Lately, traveling has lost that effect but you can get it back with only a few easy steps. Trust me, it will change the way you think about traveling the world and you will get that smile back.
"How to Travel on a Budget." : 6 Steps (with Pictures). WikiHow, n.d. Web. 02 Nov. 2014.
This is a great article for when you need to save money. I agree with you about tip number five. Though bringing microwave dinners is a good way to save some cash, I would be very mad if I were in this amazing location and had to that. Food is a very big part of the vacation experience. That shouldn't be taken away! Also, a lot of money goes to sleeping accommodations, but if I'm in a foreign place, the last thing I want to do is stay in a crappy hotel; that can,in my opinion, also take away from overall experience. Nicer hotels can come with some benefits too. Some provide a really nice complementary breakfast and even free transportation( which could save money). I say, if your on vacation, indulge, but don't go wild and blow it all ( you still have to come back to reality eventually) ;)
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