Travel on a Budget - Meet Simon

Simon is one of our longstanding Premium members - and a full-time traveller on a budget.

For this week’s Wanderer’s Corner column, we sat down with Simon and quizzed him about his most memorable travel experiences, as well as his tips for cheap travel - he left us aching to book a backpacker’s trip to Albania!

Simon, what made you decide you wanted to travel?

It comes from my genes, I think! My dad was a real hippie traveller when I was young, and he passed it on to me.

One of my earliest memories is of going to Egypt with my family when I was very small - it was really brave of my parents to do that with two small children, but it helped to show us early on that there was a whole world outside our hometown.

And then, of course, real life took over. School, university, and work. I went into the corporate world for a few years, living in Dublin - then COVID hit, and it was this huge wake-up call for me.

I’d been considering quitting my office job and going travelling for a long time. I’d been saving up my money, but because of the pandemic I had nowhere to spend it.

So I packed up my bag, resigned from my job, and booked a one-way ticket to Naples to go backpacking through Italy for four months.

And that was it for you?

Yeah, I completely fell in love with the lifestyle! I was reading Vagabonding by Rolf Potts and it really inspired me not to rush back to the workplace, to treat this whole experience as a kind of mini-retirement.

I met a girl while in Southern Italy - fell in love, travelled to the Czech Republic, then fell out of love, as you do! I travelled to the Balkans alone.

Then Albania, Macedonia, Serbia, Croatia, Montenegro, Greece, and now I’m in Turkey!

I love moving between hostels, improvising, travelling with no plans at all...it gives you this incredible feeling of just being lost in life, and remote working can make it sustainable.

And the universe will give you new ideas and inspiration about where to go next. You’ll meet other travellers who tell you, “this country is beautiful, the people are nice,” and you just follow the signs as they come up.

Can you think of a time that those spontaneous plans have really paid off for you?

There was one specific moment, in Albania. I’d been hitch-hiking with a friend from Barcelona for around 150km, stopping off at cabins and campsites along the way.

On this particular day, the hitch-hiking wasn’t going well! It was about to start getting dark, and there was about one car every ten minutes - they kept passing us by. We were really losing hope.

We waited, and waited. My friend suggested we should just give up for the night and walk the 10km back to our cabin. We were about to pick up our rucksacks and head back, when suddenly, a pick-up truck stopped by the roadside.

The driver was a 65-year-old man called Lani, and he offered to take us to a town called Leskovik near the Macedonian border. It wasn’t the route we were planning to take, but we decided - let’s follow the signs.

So we climbed into the back of the pick-up truck with our rucksacks, and Lani began driving us up through the Albanian mountains, along these winding roads.

We had two cold beers left, so we cracked them open and we just sat back, as the sun set, enjoying the view as it opened up behind us. I couldn’t keep the smile off my face!

When we arrived in Leskovik, there weren’t any hostels, so Lani very kindly took us to his home. His wife cooked us dinner, we slept on the couch and got a delicious breakfast in the morning - and then we headed across the border into Macedonia on foot.

Sounds incredible! And have there been any more challenging experiences?

The only really challenging experience I went through was shortly after that - we were heading from Skopia in Macedonia to Pristina, the capital of Kosovo. And we were taking a bus across the Kosovonian border.

We were the only foreigners there, and when we got to passport control, we were told that we needed to show evidence of a PCR test to get through. We checked later and that wasn’t actually true - and besides, all of the Macedonians were being waved through!

Looking back, I think they just wanted a bribe. But we didn’t realise that. So the bus went on through the border, and we were left behind with our rucksacks. We had to hitch-hike all the way back to Skopia.

It was the first time I really felt trapped.

But ‘never go back, always go forward,’ was our motto. So instead of trying again for Kosovo, we decided to head to Serbia.

It was a sign from the universe - find another route! And as it turned out, we had a wonderful time.

Do you have any practical tips for travelling on a budget?

I plan my travel budget in three stages. First, I set my accommodation allowance - it’s the priority, you need a roof over your head! I’ll research local costs per night, and work out an average based on that.

Then food and drinks as a secondary allowance (again, thinking about local costs of living. If I’m heading to Switzerland, I’ll mostly be living off sandwiches and rice!), and finally any activities or experiences I might want to go on.

Once I’m on the road, I’ll look for anywhere I can make savings - if I can find a hostel where breakfast is included, for instance. I use Revolut as a tracker to help me keep on top of things. There’s no better travelcard out there, the currency conversions are great and the notifications are super handy.

I try not to worry too much beyond that. I think travel is an investment, not an expense - you’re building up incredible memories for the future.

Is there one particular hostel you’d recommend to your fellow members?

My favourite hostel is The Grove in Montenegro - it’s way up in the mountains, in a town called Bar.

The hostel is an old converted olive oil mill. Every room has a double bed, there’s hammocks and chickens running around in the garden, and a nearby pond for freezing morning swims.

It was an absolute oasis. I went there for two days and ended up staying a week and a half!

Simon at Shkodra Lake in Montenegro

But I’d always recommend visiting hostels. A lot of people don’t realise, but you don’t need to sleep in dorms - you can have a private room, and it still works out at half the cost of an AirBnB.

And then you come out of the door and there are 30 other travellers from around the world, all of them with different travel plans and different stories to share! It really inspires you.

It’s not just for twenty-somethings, too. I’ve met 70-year-olds just setting out on their first adventure, and I’ve met people who’ve been travelling for 40 years non-stop. It’s really eye-opening!

If you’ve got a travel story or insight of your own that you’d like to share, drop us a quick email at [email protected] - we’d love to hear from you!

Our Pick Of The Clicks

• Parisians are upset about the planned construction of a new skyscraper that they say looks like a giant slice of cheese. (If they demolish it, there’ll be de-brie everywhere.)
• Apartment Therapy have released their list of the world’s weirdest AirBnBs.
• One young British traveller has spent the past 18 months stranded alone in Tonga - here's her story.
• Trainline reports that UK rail travellers have missed out on £35 million in refunds. (One in five of us said we felt awkward asking because the staff were so nice.)
• As if 2021 wasn’t bad enough already, Egypt now has a literal storm of scorpions to deal with.

Whirlwind World Wanderings

One of you lovely readers asks, “What’s the max number of countries in consecutive days?! I did 7 in 7 in the Balkans a few years ago.”

We loved this idea, anonymous reader. And it seemed like a great topic for our latest regular column, in which we look at some of the most fascinating travel records from around the world. Starting with...

The Speediest All-World Traveller

We couldn't actually find a record for most countries visited in consecutive days, Anon (so maybe this is your record to beat! Give Guinness a call).

However, the record-breaker for ‘most countries visited at speed’ is Anderson Dias, from Brazil.

At the age of just 26, in November 2019, he successfully broke the world record for visiting every country on Earth in the fastest documented time - 519 days in total.

As Full Time Travel reports, Anderson saved up money by selling phone cases and eventually by building an Instagram empire off his adventures - which he estimates have cost him $100,000 in total.

If you don’t have that cash or that time to spare, you could always try beating the record for ‘fastest visit to all seven continents.’

The current record-holder is Dr Khawla Al-Romaithi, from the UAE, who managed it in a very whizzy 3 days, 14 hours and 46 minutes.

The Most Countries Travelled In 24 Hours

This record goes to Gunnar Garfors, Tay-young Pak and Oystein Djupvik - three young Norwegians who successfully set foot in 19 countries over the course of a single day.

As Kickass Trips reports, the journey required them to set out from the Greek border at 00.04 in the morning, driving and flying through most of Europe before finally ending up in Liechtenstein just before midnight.

Apparently there was a lot of peeing in bottles, which - yeah, we can imagine.

Most Well-Travelled Cat

This one’s unlikely to get beaten any time soon unless Jeff Bezos adopts a moggie and brings it with him to the space shuttle.

In 1984, a mischievous cat called Hamlet managed to escape from his cat basket during a flight from Toronto, and hid behind the plane’s internal panelling.

By the time Hamlet was found (alive and well, thankfully), the plane had travelled 600,000km - or 15 times around the world.

The A-Z Of Amazing Cities:

D Is For Dallas

One of our incredible readers requested a story on Texas last week...and as the USA has just opened up to vaccinated travellers, it seemed like a great excuse to shine a light on the mighty city of Dallas.

Let’s dive right in!

What’s the COVID situation?

• UK travellers who are fully-vaccinated (with a vaccine that’s recognised by the USA) can visit Texas, just like the rest of the country. You’ll need to provide proof of your vaccination, as well as a negative COVID test result or proof of recent recovery.
• Kids under 18 are exempt, but there are very few other exceptions.
• You’ll need to wear a mask on the plane and while at Dallas/Fort Worth Airport, but once you step out through the gates, things will be very different - Texas has banned all vaccine-related entry requirements and mask mandates across the state. (However, the most recent figures show that a majority of Texans support these measures in some form.)

Artsy Town or Party Town?

Deep Ellum definitely needs to be the first item on your itinerary - it’s the awesomely-named beating heart of culture in Dallas, established in the 19th century as one of the city’s first commercial districts for African-Americans and European immigrants alike.

Now Deep Ellum plays host to frequent live music events, explosively tasty local cuisine and an array of gorgeous street art.

If you want to get a taste of it all, plan to visit in April 2022, when the annual Deep Ellum Arts Festival kicks off with three days of performances from local and international stars alike. (Entry is free!)

If you’re not feeling artsy, then there’s no better place to catch a game of American Football than the home of the legendary Dallas Cowboys (Homer Simpson’s favourite team, as well as the most valuable sports team anywhere in the world - they cost $5.7 billion, if you've got that to spare).

The current NFL season runs until January, but the Cowboys’ colossal AT&T Stadium - which claims to be the world’s largest domed structure - offers tours all year round.

Just remember to plan your visit, as the Stadium is, confusingly, not in Dallas at all, but about a 30-minute drive away in the neighbouring city of Arlington.

Venturing further afield

Dallas has some genuinely gorgeous parks, but the walking tours are pretty heavily focused on the ‘hey, that’s where JFK was shot!’ audience. So if you want to stretch your legs, we’d head out of the city and go on the road for a few days.

Drive south (maybe stopping off at Austin, the state capital) and you’ll end up in San Antonio, where you can check out both the Alamo and the famous River Walk - a rolling stretch of picturesque cafes, lined with cypress trees, which is often held to be one of Texas’ most beautiful sights.

From there, you can head east to Houston and catch a flight (or maybe a space shuttle) home.

If you don’t mind a more serious road trip, head west to Big Bend National Park, which sits on the Mexican border, and take in some sensational desert sights.

Who are the local experts?

We’d bookmark Texas Monthly, which offers regular reviews of arts and culture and eateries across Dallas and the wider state...but more importantly, it has its very own dedicated BBQ section.

Some of their top ribs recommendations are situated in Dallas and neighbouring Fort Worth, including their No 1 choice for 2021 - the mouthwatering Goldee’s. (In Texas Monthly’s words, “your eyes will open wide as you gaze at the new horizons of Texas barbecue.”)

Iceland's tourism board pokes some gentle fun at Mark Zuckerberg's new Meta.

Thanks for reading!