Magazine Winners with Best Budget Travel Tips

Last month, we ran a contest with Zinio, the world’s largest newstand. Since we love to look through travel magazines (both online and in print) to get inspiration and information for our travels, we were giving away free magazine subscriptions from over 5,500 magazine titles, to folks who shared their best budget travel tips with us.

Congratulations Ryan, Laura, twentysomethingtravels and vagabondway, who shared the following awesome travel tips. And thanks, Zinio, for providing our winners with their free magazine subscriptions! A tip for everyone else: Zinio constantly runs some great specials, like the one where you get a two year subscription for the price of one. What a great deal!

I traveled to Kinshasa , DRC and Moscow, Russia for free, however a Church paid for me. Taught in a school in Kinshasa. I suggest finding a program that runs schools or teaches a trade you are interested in. Mine just happened to be the Bible at the time. ~Ryan Elward

If possible, be flexible with your travel days. By moving my flights one day each way, I was recently able to cut my costs by more than half! ~Laura Shirey

I saved any dollar bills and coins I had in a gallon jug for 6 months and before I went to Europe, I cashed it in. I ended up with $700, which paid for my flight. It felt free, because it was money I didn’t really account for and forgot about by putting it in the jug. I still do this so any trip becomes cheaper. ~twentysomethingtravels

When we travel we camp a lot. This saves us a TON of money. I’ve heard many horror stories (sore backs, leaks, coldness, ect) from others that have tried camping and they have indeed sounded horrible. BUT- if you get proper gear I find camping to be preferable in many instances. I don’t have worry about when the last time a blanket on a bed was washed, no noisy midnight doors slamming in paper thin hallways, listening directly to the sounds of waves crashing, rivers running and what have you. Camping draws a certain amount of welcome attention. In a lot of instances the majority of travelers don’t camp, so when you’re in the minority that do, locals are interested and conversations start that wouldn’t have other wise. This has lead to invitations and contacts with locals. The key most important thing about camping is to find the gear that you love and works for you. When I have to replace gear I often buy the same exact item again because I know it will serve me well. Camping has allowed us to literally travel for months on end where as paying for hotels, hostels or having to make a very specific itinerary with couch surfing would have prohibited us a lot more from exploring. ~vagabondway.net

About Shelley Seale

Shelley is a wanderer and student of the world, yoga chick, voracious reader and dog lover. She pounds the keyboard as a freelance writer, author and publication designer, based in Austin, Texas when she isn't traipsing around the globe. Shelley has written for National Geographic, USA Today, The Guardian, The Week, Fodor's, The Telegraph and Texas Monthly, among others. Shelley has performed a catch on the flying trapeze, boarded down a live volcano, and was once robbed by a monkey in India. But she doesn’t know how to whistle.

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