Wanderlust: A very strong and irresistible impulse or desire to travel the world.
I wrote these travel tips as a speech in a speech class my sophomore year of college, and I finally decided to share them! Let me start this by saying that checking out a travel agent before going anywhere is a great idea. I wish I had mentioned that in my speech somewhere. Also, I want to mention that you guys should check out all my travel photos sometime if you're interested. I have photos from Ecuador, Peru, Chile, England, Greece, France, Spain, Mexico, Canada, the Bahamas, several islands, and more than half of the 50 states. And that's just by the time I wrote this blog entry. Anyway, this is definitely not an exhaustive list of travel tricks I have up my sleeve, but this is a good place to start. So here are some travel tips for you guys. The following is my speech, then my works cited, and then some travel websites to help you guys along:
Raise your hand if you have a passport. Keep them raised if you have ever used that passport to visit another country. Keep your hands raised if you have studied, worked, or lived in another country. This is only a sample from one class of college students out of one school in the United States.
If we talk about how many people in the United States own a passport, what percentage would you guess? According to CNN, 30% of the people in our country own a passport (Avon). According to Gigi Zenk, a spokesperson for the Washington Department of Licensing, by 2006, only 10% of Americans had actually used their passports to visit another country (Ammons). These low statistics may be because many people believe travel is too expensive and maybe not worth their while. Or maybe they simply don’t know how to go about it. I always said that if you sit me down in a classroom and teach me about the Taj Mahal, I’ll never learn a thing about it. But if you take me to India and show me the Taj Mahal, I’ll learn EVERYTHING about it. That’s because history and art become way more exciting and fun when you actually see it with your own eyes. Traveling is just like learning in a classroom, except you’re doing it first-hand. Not only can you learn about history and art when you travel, but you can also learn new languages; bring new trades and customs back to your home country; and become more open-minded about other countries’ religions, beliefs, customs, etc. For example, I just moved back here from South America. Even though I was living in two extremely poor third-world countries, I had the time of my life. I learned to speak Spanish, I brought back home with me a new trade called Macrame, and I even came to view a lot of aspects of their lifestyles as better than my own. I have a completely new perspective on life now. As Henry Miller said, “One’s destination is never a place, but a new way of seeing things” (Akerstrom).
There are several different ways to travel. You can simply take a vacation somewhere, you can volunteer or work somewhere for awhile, or you can backpack. Fortunately, you college students, have one extra way to travel: studying abroad.
One great thing about vacationing is that you can go somewhere for 4 days or 3 weeks. It’s whatever you want and however much you can afford. Volunteering and working are great options too, because there are countless places to go in other countries where you can volunteer or work as long as you want, and many of these places do not require work visas. For example, I worked at a wildlife refuge in Ecuador for 2 months, I didn’t need a work visa, and I left when I needed to leave. It was the same type deal for me in Peru as well. Backpacking is probably my favorite form of travel, because you can jump from one place to another whenever you’re ready, and it gives you a chance to see a lot of places at one time. Studying abroad, however, may be the best way to start off traveling, especially if you’re not comfortable with traveling by yourself. It has also become very popular, as the percentage of American students who study abroad has quadrupled from the 1987-88 school year to the 2007-08 school year, according to the Institute for Education Sciences (The Condition of Education).
Many people, especially in this economy, are on low budgets, but a lot of people still want to give traveling a shot. Even if you have very little money, you can still travel very easily. In some situations, you may have to keep an open mind, but travel can easily be affordable.
First, if you decide to study abroad, you can do it in one of two ways. If you study abroad for an entire semester or even an entire academic year, you can choose a “sister school” in another country, which means you only have to pay that school’s tuition and fees, which may even cost less than attending the school in which you are currently enrolled. If you study abroad for 2-3 weeks, you can apply for scholarships to cut the price in half (or more.) Study abroad scholarships are very easy to obtain, which is why studying abroad is possibly the best and cheapest way for students to travel. If you would rather volunteer or work abroad, there are all kinds of sites you can find about places that need help. A lot of these places house you for free, some of them pay for your food, and some of them even give you some extra spending money. If you're interested in the Peace Corps, they house and feed you for free and give you a pension. They also have all kinds of other benefits, monetary and more, for while you're in the service AND after you leave. If you would rather take a vacation somewhere or go backpacking, I have some great tips, but you have to be open-minded about them. There are great sites for cheap airline tickets. For instance, www.ryanair.com is an extremely cheap site for flights in Europe. You can book a flight for as low as 4$ a person to fly from one country to the next in Europe sometimes. Also, to cut down on transportation costs, some of my traveling buddies hitchhike. (Just be careful if you choose this option.) Bus travel is usually very cheap too. There is also a really great website called www.couchsurfing.com, where you can search for people in the city you wish to visit, and they will lend you a free bedroom for a few nights, until you jump to the next city. If you don’t feel comfortable sleeping in someone’s home, you can always buy a tent or simply find a cheap hostel (which are easy to find in most countries.) The lowest rate I found in South America was 5$ per person per night. As far as food goes, you can “Dumpster Dive,” which is when you go to a restaurant after it has closed and request the food they are going to throw out. It’s illegal in the United States for a restaurant to give out such food, but it’s perfectly legal in a lot of other countries. I have also found that buying groceries at a grocery store and cooking while I’m in another country is a money-saver. Also, in many other countries, there are markets, where food is almost free.
Along with these tips, I have a ton of other great ways to save money on traveling and many more sites to give you if you guys want to see me after class and get them from me. The point is, travel can be extremely affordable. You may just have to be willing to rough it sometimes.
Works Cited:
Akerstrom, Lola. "The 50 Most Inspiring Travel Quotes of All TIme." Matador BNT. 7 Mar.
2008. Web. 23 Oct. 2011. <http://matadornetwork.com/bnt/50-most-inspiring-travel-
quotes-of-all-time/>.
Ammons, David. "State Project Targets U.S. Passport Plan." The Olympian (2006).
Mobilisa.com. 14 Nov. 2006. Web. 23 Oct. 2011. <http://www.mobilisa.com/highlights/
newsArticles/The%20Olympian%20-%20State%20Project%20Targets%20U.S.%20Pass
port%20Plan%2011.14.06.pdf>.
Ammons, David. "State Project Targets U.S. Passport Plan." The Olympian (2006).
Mobilisa.com. 14 Nov. 2006. Web. 23 Oct. 2011. <http://www.mobilisa.com/highlights/
newsArticles/The%20Olympian%20-%20State%20Project%20Targets%20U.S.%20Pass
port%20Plan%2011.14.06.pdf>.
Avon, Natalie. "Why More Americans Don't Travel Abroad - CNN." Featured Articles from C
NN. 04 Feb. 2011. Web. 23 Oct. 2011. <http://articles.cnn.com/2011-0204/travel/america
ns.travel.domestically_1_western-hemisphere-travel-initiative-passports-tourism-
industries?_s=P M:TRAVEL>.
"The Condition of Education - Contexts of Postsecondary Education - Characteristics of
Postsecondary Students - U.S. Students Studying Abroad - Indicator 40 (2010)." National
Center for Education Statistics (NCES) Home Page, a Part of the U.S. Department of
Education. U.S. Department of Education, 2010. Web. 23 Oct. 2011. <http://nces.ed.gov/
programs/coe/indicator_ssa.asp>.
Travel Websites:
Lodging
Study Abroad
www.studentuniverse.com
Air Transportation, Lodging, Tours, and More
www.easyjet.com
Volunteer and Work Opportunites Abroad
www.peacecorps.gov
www.gapyear.com
Now is as perfect a time as any. If you don't do it now, you'll never do it!
This girl gets each country colored in once she visits it.
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