How do I afford to travel so much? (Sharing my top 5 secrets!) Last Updated: July 11, 2022

Travelling has been an essential part of my life, ever since I was a child. 

My parents are as much of a travel enthusiast as me(if not more!). They decided to show me the world at a very young age. Too bad I don’t remember a lot of it, but what I do remember is the exciting feeling of going to the departure gates at the Mumbai airport almost every summer. 

This feeling stuck with me and motivated me to continue travelling. 

The joy of packing your bags and heading off to a new destination is inexplicable sometimes.

After travelling to over 4o countries by now, I have often been asked one question – How do I afford to travel so much?

While I have tried answering this question in bits and pieces over the years on Instagram, I decided to start my own YouTube channel and answer this question in detail. 

This article is pretty much the written version of the first-ever YouTube video that I made.

Below are the 5 top reasons why I have managed to travel so much:

1. Childhood trips with parents

As I mentioned earlier, my parents are the main reason why I fell in love with travelling at a very young age. We used to take annual summer trips abroad and to India. 

My first international trip was when I was 6 years old. It was a month-long trip during my summer break to Australia, New Zealand and Singapore. I may not remember 90% of the trip but I do consider it to be the official beginning of my travel journey. 

From then on, we went to several other destinations every year including places in Europe, South Africa, Asian countries and the US. In India, we explore the north like Kashmir, Dharamshala, Amritsar, Manali and Shimla. We also took a trip to the South and spent a couple of weeks near the backwaters of Kerala. 

I have snippets of these childhood trips still fresh in my mind but a lot of it has been washed away with time. I no more remember the specific details like things to do, places to eat etc of these destinations anymore.

2. Studied abroad – Canada & Spain

I got a scholarship to study in Canada on an exchange program for a year in 2016. This was my first time living abroad on my own. It was the longest I have stayed away from family but I was fine. Instead of feeling homesick and visiting my family in India during my holidays, I decided to travel around Canada and the USA. 

During that one-year program, I not only travelled to popular cities like Toronto and Montreal but also explored offbeat towns and provincial parks that Canada is known for. 

When I had long breaks in between, I decided to travel to the US. I did 3 types of US trips during that time – solo, with friends and to visit family there. 

My first international solo trip was to Chicago and it turned out to be amazing!! I will probably share more about this experience in another article. 

I also did a Christmas and NYE trip to New York and Boston with my friend. And lastly, I visited my family in San Francisco. 

In 2019, I flew to Spain to pursue my Master’s degree and stayed in Madrid for one and a half years. During this time, I took two solo trips to Morocco and Portugal, became a president of one of the university travel clubs where I planned trips for students and got to explore Spanish festivals through that, took a Christmas trip with my parents and worked with sustainable travel start-up which allowed me to explore offbeat Spain. 

I do want to mention that I was running on a tight student budget when I was in Canada and Spain. My goal was to travel as much as I can but on a budget. 

And that’s what I did – I took every opportunity I had to travel to new destinations on a student budget instead of going back home to visit family and friends. In Spain, I travelled almost every weekend and made full use of my holidays in between.

3. Work in the travel industry

Between Canada and Spain, I worked with a cool trip start-up in Mumbai. That was my first ever full-time job. Within the first five months of joining the company, I got an opportunity to visit Finland on my first ever work trip. 

I couldn’t believe it at first. It took me a few days to soak in the fact that I was given this crazy opportunity early on in my career. 

It was a 10-day trip to Finland. This was fully sponsored by the Finnish government. The idea was to show the best of Finland so we can promote it to the Indian audience. My job was to promote it on social media channels like Facebook and Instagram while I was there. 

Finland is a magical destination. I travelled with people from other travel companies in India. We got to see the Northern Lights and indulge in some super fun adventurous activities. 

My first job lasted for one and a half years after which I decided to move to Spain to pursue my Master’s. 

After my graduation in Spain, I stayed back to do an internship with a sustainable travel start-up through which I got invited to experience a Spanish carnival in one of the offbeat destinations of the country. 

And as mentioned earlier, I also led a travel club at my university and got to explore Spain through that.

These are some of the main ways I have travelled because of work. 

After coming back from Spain, I have also taken up several collaborations in India and Europe focusing majorly on visual and written content. 

For the last 2 years, I have been aiming for a digital lifestyle. I have always been clear about not climbing the corporate ladder and during the pandemic, I have only become more confident in this decision. 

Working from home during the pandemic has given me more time to follow my passion and this is one of the reasons why I have managed to start my own travel blog and now, my own YouTube channel too!

In the past two years, I have taken a couple of workcations in India that worked really well for me. 

Having the liberty to work from anywhere is something I have only dreamt of but seeing it come true during the pandemic gave me hope to build a future in a similar way. 

Workcations are a great way to slow travel. You must consider it too!

4. Visit friends/family and explore new destinations

I try to visit friends and family who stay in destinations that I haven’t visited or would like to revisit. For example, I visited a friend in Paris last year. I have also been to places like Kutch, Ahmedabad and Surat to visit my folks. 

At the same time, I also had my friends and family visit me when I was in Spain and Canada. 

I really enjoy hosting people and showing them around. I am lucky to have friends in different parts of the world where I have an opportunity to visit them.

5. Save up and travel

Lastly, I save up and travel. There is no secret to that. 

Last year, I went on a 3-month solo adventure across Europe. I covered 15 countries in total and managed to travel on a budget by volunteering at cool places, staying with friends, and staying in hostels. 

I used my savings from the last two years to make this trip happen and I am glad I did. 

It was the perfect time to go. Tourism had started picking up slowly but was not in full swing. So there weren’t too many tourists and prices were relatively cheaper.

This year too, I have taken a domestic trip in India to Varanasi on a budget.

 This is the end of my article!

If you have reached all the way here, I want to thank you for reading my article. 

It would mean a lot if you subscribe to my YouTube channel too. I aim to create some really fun visual content on my channel. Here’s the link for it. 

Feel free to shoot your questions and/or feedback in the comments below!