Turning mistakes into knowledge: Our $73,000 travel journey
Traveling the world will change your life.
But 80% of travelers get fooled by the travel industry.
We’ve spent over $73,000 on learning these lessons the hard way.
In todays letter we cover the 7 most expensive mistakes travelers make - and how to fix them.
(bookmark this before your next trip)
We've explored: 39 countries 6+ continents and speak 6 languages.
We're writing this thread in Colombia. Where we save more than 75%/monthly in living expenses compared to if we stayed in our comfort zone.
Here are the 7 COSTLIEST mistakes we see travelers make
(That we also learned the hard way)
7
Fail to plan is plan to fail.
Wrong.
Most travelers plan too much and get humbled whenever real life doesn't care about your plans.
Life is what happens while you're busy making plans. Go with the flow instead.
Benefits of going with the flow:
You have a higher change of stumbling on incredible adventures!
Higher change of seeing animals you had no clue existed
Making new friends on the way
Discover new unexpected things about local cultures
For example we have had the joy of discovering:
The Ninja bird in New Zealand! Most locals haven’t even seen it
Random cooking together and dinner parties in Vietnam
Eating a fresh Cacao straight from the tree together with our local friend
Staying with a indigenous tribe, Kichua in the Ecuadorian amazons
Swimming with endangered wild dwarf dolphins in New Zealand.
6
Overpay For Flights
You read flight hacking strategies.
BUT They don't work in real life.
Why?
Likely because the author monetization strategy is to get travelers to buy their course or affiliate products.
Here are flight hacks that actually work that we covered in an earlier episode:
→ How to Find the Best Flights ←
5
Overpay for Accommodations
Tourism industry is filled with sharks who will bleed innocent tourists dry.
Best way to fool a tourist is make them believe they got a deal. When in reality the only deal is the $ you overspend.
Here's how to fix this:
How to get most bang for your bucks when booking accommodations
4
Sold a dream that doesn't exist
Expectations vs reality is huge Especially when you buy from tourist agencies or dream vacation packages.
Weird how this is still legal still in 2022. How to fix?
1 Lower expectations
2 Research and check sources
3 Ask for help from experienced travelers
3
Know when to save and when to upgrade
Newbie travelers spend as much on bug infested hostels as experienced travelers spend on private accommodations with clean sheets and private bathrooms.
We did too before we learned by doing.
Here's how to find the best accommodations without breaking the bank
2.
Believing mainstream media
If you look at what foreign media companies say about your country. You get shocked people believe the bullshit that's out there.
Yet when you look for info about for example India or Colombia… We often mistake the propaganda for facts. Because it’s coming from “credible” news stations.
Why is that?
Life's not so black and white.
Let’s take El Salvador for example:
Propaganda:
Extremally dangerous, you have to watch out for shoot outs on the streets
Most work for gangs, you can’t trust anyone
Bitcoin made everything worse, violent riots on the street (in the news)
The reality?
Some enjoy Bitcoin as the currency some don’t. But it’s nowhere as dramatic as news outlets make it out to be. We lived in El Salvador when they changed currency and saw how misrepresented it was.
Surfing Capital of the world (El Salvador hosts the World Championships in surfing)
Grateful and friendly locals who loved that we gave their country a chance
Breathtaking NATURE with dreamy rainforest mountain views
1.
You don't travel because it's not safe
Your family and friends at home don't know what you experience and frankly some won't care enough to ask.
Stop giving them the power of where to go and why.
Follow your curiosity and let your inner child lead you to adventures of a life time.
In Summary:
As new travelers we get fooled by propaganda, mainstream media and the travel industry.
Why?
The less travelers know the more we spend.
Good for business. But bad for our bank accounts as travelers.
How do we best navigate the bottomless sea of confusion around travel?
Best thing you can do as a traveler is find resources that are proven to be correct.
Quick way to verify is check resources about your hometown.
If they're wrong about your town they're likely wrong about wherever you go.
Make sure to research more than one source!
Takes a lot of work but better than wasting $73,000 in travel mistakes like we did.
With that said…
HAPPY NEW YEARS!
Let’s start the new year with a fun game!
Game is called: The World is a Playground
This one is for you if you love map games.
Take a moment to breathe and have fun with this game.
You will receive a prize if you guess the correct answer.
But don’t worry if you get it wrong.
We reply personally to each reply we receive.
To top it off, you get 3 shots at guessing!
OK, READY…?
Let’s go!
Where in the world is this?
The first 10 people who guess the right:
Guess where in the world we are swimming in this video
The first 10 people to guess the right CONTINENT receives:
The Spontaneous Backpackers travel budget tool ($50 value)
The first 5 people to guess the right COUNTRY gets:
55min 1:1 Travel strategy call w full-time travelers
($150 value)
The first 3 people who guess the exact TOWN will get:
$250 gift code for the Travel Academy
(NEXT COHORT STARTS 9TH JAN 2023)
ps.
If you’re in the FREE Travel Community already.
We double the rewards when you win.
So you can bring a friend on your travels!
Reply to this email with your answer.
We hope you will win, we want to help you start out, and meet you down the road.
You can check out Travel Academy → Here
The mistakes we shared today are taught in depth inside the Travel Academy.
Here’s what some of our previous graduates think about the academy:
If you know someone that would love the opportunity to win this game,
Please spread the opportunity to travel by sharing this letter with them.
See you down the road!
Cecilia, Samson & Floki
Spontaneous Backpackers