People ask me this more than anything else. "How do you travel so much? Doesn't it cost a fortune?" The short answer is no — but only because I stopped treating travel like a luxury purchase and started treating it like a skill. Booking cheap flights, finding good accommodation without paying hotel prices, eating well without spending stupidly — these are learnable things. Nobody is born knowing them.
I'm Shubham, and I've been figuring this out trip by trip for years now. Some of what I learned came from research. A lot of it came from making expensive mistakes and deciding not to repeat them. This guide is the version I wish someone had handed me when I was starting out.
First: Get Honest About What "Budget Travel" Means
Budget travel doesn't mean uncomfortable travel. It doesn't mean hostels with broken showers and skipping meals. It means spending money on the things that actually matter to your trip and cutting aggressively on the things that don't.
For me, spending money on a good meal in a local market is worth it. Paying for a hotel room with a pool I'll never use is not. That line is different for everyone, but the principle holds: decide what you actually value before you start booking anything.
The other thing worth saying upfront — budget travel takes more time than expensive travel. A direct flight costs more than one with two layovers. Staying further from the city centre is cheaper but requires more transit. If your trip is five days, optimising for cost at every step will exhaust you. If you have three weeks, there's real money to be saved without sacrificing much.
Flights – Where Most People Overpay
Flights are usually the single biggest expense in international travel, and they're also the most negotiable if you know what you're doing.
Be flexible on dates. Flying on a Tuesday or Wednesday is almost always cheaper than flying on a Friday or Sunday. If you can shift your departure by even two days, run the comparison. Google Flights has a calendar view that shows price variation across the whole month — use it every time.
Set price alerts. Google Flights and Skyscanner both let you track a route and notify you when prices drop. I've saved anywhere from ₹4,000 to ₹15,000 on a single booking just by waiting for an alert to trigger instead of booking the first price I saw.
Book 6 to 8 weeks out for domestic, 2 to 4 months out for international. These aren't hard rules, but they're reasonable starting points. Last-minute deals exist but are unpredictable. Planning ahead is more reliable.
Consider budget airlines seriously. IndiGo and SpiceJet within India, AirAsia across Southeast Asia, Ryanair and EasyJet in Europe. The catches: no free check-in baggage, limited flexibility, sometimes inconvenient airports. If you're travelling carry-on only, budget airlines are genuinely excellent value.
Shubham's Take: I once found a Kuala Lumpur to Bali flight for ₹2,200 by checking AirAsia's website directly instead of through an aggregator. Aggregators are useful for comparison, but always check the airline's own site before booking — sometimes it's cheaper.
Accommodation – The Biggest Category to Rethink
Hotels are not the only option, and for budget travellers, they're usually not even the best one.
Hostels have changed. If your mental image of a hostel is a dingy dorm full of gap year students, that's outdated. Hostels in Southeast Asia, Eastern Europe, and Latin America often have private rooms, decent common spaces, fast WiFi, and organised social events. They cost a fraction of hotels in the same location.
Booking.com and Hostelworld are the two platforms I use most. Filter by review score above 8 and you'll rarely have a bad experience.
Guesthouses and locally-run stays are consistently better value than branded hotels. A family-run guesthouse in Hoi An or a homestay in Spiti Valley gives you a better room for less money and usually better food too. These rarely show up on the first page of search results — look on the second and third pages, or ask in travel forums.
Airbnb for longer stays. If you're somewhere for a week or more, Airbnb monthly rates drop significantly. Renting an apartment for 10 days in Lisbon or Tbilisi can work out cheaper per night than a hostel private room and gives you a kitchen, which cuts food costs too.
Shubham's Take: My rule is to never book more than two nights in advance when I arrive somewhere new. Read reviews written within the last three months — a place that was great two years ago may have changed management and slipped in quality.
Food – Eat Well Without Spending Like a Tourist
Food is where the biggest gap between traveller spending and local spending exists. The restaurant in the main square with English menus and photos on the menu is charging two to three times what the place two streets back is charging for the same food. Sometimes better food.
Walk away from tourist areas to eat. This is the single most effective thing you can do for your food budget. In Bangkok, in Rome, in Marrakech — the further you get from the main attraction, the cheaper and more authentic the food gets.
Markets and street food are not a compromise. They're often the best food in a city. Pho from a street cart in Hanoi is better than pho from a restaurant targeting tourists. Tacos from a market stall in Mexico City are better than tacos from a sit-down place with Instagram lighting. I've eaten some of the best meals of my travelling life at plastic stools on a pavement.
Cook occasionally. If you have access to a kitchen — hostel, Airbnb, guesthouse — buy local ingredients and cook a few meals. It's cheaper and you learn what actual local produce tastes like instead of restaurant-adjusted versions.
Lunch over dinner. Many restaurants, especially in Europe, offer a set lunch menu at half the dinner price. Same kitchen, same food, significantly lower bill.
Transport Within Countries
Getting around cheaply varies enormously by region, but a few principles apply everywhere.
Trains over flights for medium distances. A flight from Mumbai to Goa with baggage, transfers, and airport time often works out slower and more expensive than a train when you factor everything in. Indian Railways is one of the best travel values in the world for distances under 1,000 km — book on IRCTC at least three weeks out.
Buses are underrated for international travel. The overland bus from Chiang Mai to Luang Prabang, or from Surat to Goa overnight, saves both accommodation and transport costs in one go. Overnight buses are uncomfortable but functional.
Local transit over tourist transport. In Bangkok, the MRT and BTS skytrain cost a fraction of tuk-tuks and taxis. In Istanbul, the tram and metro cover most of the city for around ₹15 per ride. Figure out the local transit system in the first day — it pays off immediately.
Rideshare apps globally. Grab in Southeast Asia, Bolt in Europe and Africa, Ola and Rapido in India. Always cheaper than negotiating with a local taxi unless you're in a place where the app infrastructure isn't there yet.
Shubham's Take: I once took a sleeper bus from Chiang Rai to Vientiane instead of flying. It cost about ₹1,200 versus ₹6,000 for the flight, I saw the countryside, and I woke up at my destination. The flight would have been faster by four hours. I don't regret it.
Travel Insurance – Do Not Skip This
Every budget travel guide should say this clearly: do not travel internationally without insurance. Medical bills in the US, Japan, or Australia can be catastrophic without coverage. Even in cheaper destinations, a serious injury or evacuation can cost more than the entire trip.
Good travel insurance for a two-week trip costs ₹1,500–3,000 depending on destination and coverage level. World Nomads and SafetyWing are the two most commonly recommended options among long-term travellers. Compare what's actually covered — some policies exclude adventure activities like diving or trekking, which matters if that's what you're going for.
The Budget by Region (Rough Daily Numbers)
These are realistic daily budgets covering accommodation, food, local transport, and a few activities. They exclude flights and major entry fees.
Southeast Asia (Thailand, Vietnam, Indonesia, Cambodia): ₹2,500–4,000 per day with reasonable comfort. One of the best value regions in the world for travellers.
South Asia (India, Nepal, Sri Lanka): ₹1,200–2,500 per day depending on the state and style of travel. India is extremely affordable if you use local transport and eat where locals eat.
Eastern Europe (Poland, Hungary, Romania, Georgia, Armenia): ₹3,000–5,500 per day. Significantly cheaper than Western Europe with a comparable quality of experience in many areas.
Western Europe: ₹6,000–10,000 per day on a tight budget. Portugal and the Balkans are the cheapest entry points. Scandinavia and Switzerland are brutal on a budget and require either a bigger wallet or shorter stays.
Latin America (Colombia, Peru, Bolivia, Mexico): ₹2,500–5,000 per day. Argentina fluctuates based on the exchange rate situation, which has historically rewarded cash USD holders.
Japan: ₹5,000–8,000 per day is doable if you use convenience stores, the extensive rail network, and budget guesthouses. It's not as expensive as its reputation suggests when you travel it like a local.
Money and Cards – Stop Paying Unnecessary Fees
Every time you use an Indian debit card internationally at an ATM, your bank charges a foreign transaction fee, a currency conversion fee, and sometimes the local ATM charges on top. These add up fast.
Niyo Global and IndusInd Indie cards are the most commonly used options among Indian travellers for zero forex markup. Get one before any international trip.
Carry some cash always. Cards fail. ATMs run dry. Some markets and local transport only accept cash. Keep enough for a day or two of expenses as a buffer.
Tell your bank before you travel. Some banks flag international transactions as suspicious and freeze the card. A quick call or app notification before departure prevents this.
Packing Light – The Cost Saving You Don't Expect
Every checked bag you avoid saves money on budget airlines and time at airports. Beyond the direct cost, travelling with only a carry-on means you can take the cheap bus instead of a taxi because you're not dragging a 23 kg suitcase. You can switch accommodation easily. You spend less mental energy managing your stuff.
The practical limit: a 40-litre backpack covers two weeks of travel in most climates if you pack intelligently. Merino wool clothes take up less space, don't smell after repeated wear, and dry overnight. Three t-shirts, two bottoms, one mid-layer, and a packable rain jacket handle most conditions.
Shubham's Take: I did a full three-week trip through Vietnam and Cambodia with a 38-litre daypack. No checked baggage fees, no waiting at carousels, no hotel storage problems. The first time you do it, it feels like a risk. By the third day you wonder why you ever packed more.
The Mental Side of Budget Travel
Nobody talks about this enough. Budget travel requires more decision-making energy than expensive travel. When you're spending freely, decisions are easy — take the first taxi, order whatever you want, book the convenient flight. When you're watching costs, every choice has a calculation attached to it.
The fix is to decide your rules before the trip and then stop deliberating. If your rule is "always take local transit unless it's past 10pm," follow it without re-evaluating every time. If your rule is "one nice restaurant meal every three days," enjoy it fully when you do it. Decision fatigue is what makes budget travel feel exhausting — reduce the decisions and you reduce the exhaustion.
Budget travel is not about deprivation. It's about being deliberate. The travellers who do it well aren't people with no standards — they're people who know exactly which standards actually matter to them and which ones they're happy to ignore.
Figure out your version of that, then go. The world is more accessible than most people think, and significantly cheaper than the travel industry wants you to believe.
