8 PLACES OUTSIDE OF THE US YOU CAN ACTUALLY AFFORD TO TRAVEL TO IN 2017

I have said this many times....Travel doesn't have to be expensive.  If it was, I would never leave my house.  I live in Arkansas where the minimum wage is $8.50, so many of us have to work extra jobs to earn travel money.  Some work three jobs!

The good news is that there are some places where you can consistently find cheap flights and lodging.  Places like Spain, Italy, France, Ireland,  many Caribbean islands, and almost all of Mexico.

One of your biggest expenses is airfare so be sure to check out my post on Finding Cheap Airfare HERE.

My travel companions and I have put a list of some of our favorite budget places to travel.

#1 ROME   I don't remember ever seeing Rome and a list for budget travel.  I'm not sure why.  Maybe because flying directly into Rome can be expensive.  If you fly to a cheaper destination like Barcelona, you can fly on to Rome for around $25.  Once you are in Rome, there are tons of things to see for free.  We paid to get into the Colosseum but you can walk to the Trevi Fountain, Pantheon, Piazza Navona, St Peter's Basilica at the Vatican, and many more places for free. 

The public bus cost €1.50 for 100 minutes or €24 for a week so you can travel around Rome cheap.  There are tons of places to eat in Rome but if you are looking for someplace inexpensive, pop into one of the pizza shops where you can get a huge slice of pizza and soda for around €5.

#2 BARCELONA I never realized how popular Barcelona was as a travel destination until I traveled there the first time.  Barcelona is fairly easy to get around and there is always something to do.  Buses to and from the airport are very affordable (I think we paid ­€7) and if you stay in a hotel (or use Airbnb like we did) near the Placa CAntalunya, it's just a short walk to everywhere.  If you really want to eat cheap, find a tapas bar where you can pick up a tapas for €1 each. 

BOOKING UNBELIEVABLY CHEAP LODGING...Yes, It's Possible !

Next to airfare, lodging can be one of your largest expenses when you travel.  While searching for  lodging in Europe, we quickly realized that Airbnb was the way to go.  You can stay in an entire apartment cheaper than you can stay in a hotel.  Of course, since we haven't stayed in any of these places, we will have to wait for the final verdict.  

We rented apartments in all three countries.  Here is what we have booked so far:

Update:  I wanted to update our experiences at each of these places and  give you honest reviews.

The first place we booked is in Barcelona.

The description was accurate and it was well worth the $134 for four people.  You can read the entire review of this apartment HERE along with photos of the apartment and lodging information. 

The Space

Accommodates: 5

Bathrooms: 1

Bedrooms: 2

Beds: 3

Check In: Anytime after 2PM

Check Out: 12PM (noon)

Property type: Apartment

Room type: Entire home/apt

 The cost for 4 people ...$134.00 ($33.50 each)

FOLLOW ALONG AS WE PREPARE FOR OUR TRIP TO EUROPE

I'm Headed Back to Europe in October and I want you to come along.  I guess I should actually say WE are headed back to Europe.  I am traveling with three 27-year-old ladies, one of them being my daughter.

Each of us has a budget of $1000. That may sound like a lot of money to you but it you go search for flights to Europe, you will find that just the plane tickets are over $1000. We are going to try to book flights, hotels, food, and transportation and bring it all in around the thousand dollar mark and I'm going to show you how.

So follow along as we book our flights and lodging.  See how we pack everything into small cases so we don't have to pay luggage fees and how we earned our travel money.  Let's get started.....

Here is the gang:

As you can see, only one person in the group that is earning their travel money solely from their regular job.  The rest of us has had to do "something extra" for our travel money which means you can do it too.  I know there are some people who may already work two or three jobs to pay the bills and say there is no extra money.  I was that way for many years myself.

SECRETS TO FINDING CHEAP AIRFARE

Since I always have people ask me how I find cheap airfare, I thought I would write a post about it. Below are some tips to the sites that I use and why I use them. I'm not going to go into earning airline miles in this post, I'll save that for a later post.

A few weeks ago, I wrote a post about how I fly cheap on Spirit Airlines. There are other airlines that have similar cheaper flights and you can save a lot of money using them. Just keep in mind that there are trade-offs for the cheap fares such as no free food or beverages. I have listed links to some of these airlines below.

Check Fares Often
Airlines change fares constantly, often multiple times a week. So when it comes to buying an airline ticket, timing is everything. To get the best deals you will need to check airfare sites often. I have about three sites that I check at least once a day. The price of a fare can change in a few seconds (many times the price will change while you are looking at the fare). I was looking at an airfare to Morocco which was listed at $167 and the price jumped to $850 within five minutes.

Be Flexible
You can save hundreds of dollars by being flexible on your dates and destinations. Here is a random example I pulled up on Skyscanner