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Some of you have already heard me talk at this year’s  Barcamp Mumbai-8 on Globetrotting on a shoe string budget and that’s why you’ve been referred here .If you haven’t  yet , do it now and then scroll down ! This blog will make a lot more sense if you do :p If you have skip the videos and scroll down.

now to the next half…

Those Helpful links 

Couch surfing –  The art of learning to surf on one’s couch , nah ! If your reading this blog post you already know a fair amount of what eeet eees or else check here www.couchsurfing.org/

Hitchhiking – Make your hand into a fist and have the thumbs up pointing to the sky now stretch that arm out towards the road and wait for a car to stop , Brilliant! 10 Essential Tips to Improve Your Hitchhiking Game

Volunteering –  Some local organizations that support this kind of work include your local Lions Club (www.lionsclubs.org), Optimist Club (www.optimist.org) or Rotary Club (www.rotary.org). 10 volunteer opportunities for free travel

Familiarization trips (Fam trips) – Building a credibility for yourself always helps with FAM’s .. You could be someone who :- Travels extensively and are able to provide constructive criticism,Clicks awesome pictures or Writes an informative travel blog etc.

How to get in on Fam’s –

http://www.famconnection.com/  http://www.exoticjourneys.com  are some site you must look into .

Follow @famtours on twitter for constant updates

Grassroutes.co.in sends one blogger every month on a FAM to experience tribal or village life. Drop them a mail – info@grassroutes.co.in

Make friends in the travel industry (helps big time) and keep your ears open.

House sitting – Mind My HouseHouse Careers, and House Sit World, where you can save those precious travel pennies in exchange for living in and taking care of a furnished house.

Gift economy – Look up Journeys with meanings

Make a career out of it –

-Travel writing

-Travel Photography

-Shore excursionists

If you want to get a feel for the kinds of options available, check out UK-based Crewseekers International www.crewseekers.net  most cruise companies list available job opportunities directly on their websites. Get started at www.carnival.com or www.royalcaribbean.com.

-Tour managing

Most travel companies will offer a discount—or free travel—to people who organize a group tour for several people. They commonly refer to them as “group leaders”. Check out adventuresincorporated.com or adventures-abroad.com for example.

Points I missed out on due to the 20 mins time constraint :-

Frequent flyer programs at airlines should be utilized to the maximum advantage, to earn free tickets very quickly, for domestic and international travel.

-Caretaking everything from ranch hands, to organic farm workers, campground hosting, motel management, nursing for the elderly, to just plain house sitting http://www.caretaker.org

-Global freeloaders Similar to Couch Surfing, Global Freeloaders is a cultural exchange program for hosts and travelers. Registration is free, but members are required to be able to host as well as travel (http://www.globalfreeloaders.com)

-House swap or rent out your home Made famous by the recent movie The Holiday, this option, of course, requires you to have a house. If you do have a house to offer up, there are various websites that provide online classifieds for owners to advertise (homeexchange.comhomexchangevacation.com or homebase-hols.com)

-Charity One of the newest trends in travel has seen companies springing up that will help you organize the challenge of your choice—or join an existing expedition—all in the name of charity. You do the climb (or other adventure), and raise the sponsors, they take care of the rest. Check out Global Adventure Challenges (globaladventurechallenges.com), Across the Divide (acrossthedivide.com) or Charity Treks (charitytreks.ca)

 Other awesomely weird ways to travel free are :-

Spread the word of God

Deliver someone’s boat

Become a WOOFers

If you have any more ways I’d love to hear them and give them a try . And remember if you have a passion for travel or to wander do it now ! There will never be enough time , I just told you how to cut costs and company will find you while you move ! Start small even if it means traveling in India and around and when you do come back with those fabulous stories come find me for Project coffee barter

8 thoughts on “Free Travel 101

  1. Can I just say thank you for this post?? It gave me all sorts of great ideas for the future 🙂 🙂

    1. Awesome 🙂 im glad it did !

  2. srinistuff says:

    Thanks Nickolai for making this list… Really insightful and helpful.. 🙂 Appreciate it..

  3. Devdas Bhagat says:

    So how do you deal with visa issues? The hardest thing about travelling on a showstring budget for Indians is that visas need you to prove that you’ll return, and usually that means showing a source of steady income.

    I mean, I have done “cheap” travel, but the most hassling part is visas (I could afford the airfare long before I could deal with the documentation requirewments for visas to interesting places outside India).

    1. Ive never had problems with a visa , cause i work in the same industry and if your passport is stamped often then you’ve sort of built a credibility for yourself . However let me look into it and get back to you.

  4. Have you tried couchsurfing (ie hosted or couched with someone?) Thanks!

  5. Georgia says:

    Excellent article! We are linking to this particularly great
    content on our site. Keep up the great writing.

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