How-to: traveling as a broke college student

I often get asked about how I’m able to travel so much being as young as I am. I’ve been thinking about writing this piece forever- I always get asked to write about my “secrets.” The thing is, I don’t think I have any. But I am willing to tell you what drives me to do what I do and how I do it, even though I don’t think it will be what you expect it to be. Remember that you asked for it.

I began traveling alone at a young age. My mother would fly me out to my uncle in Texas every summer for a few years in middle school and I would fly alone from Chicago to Houston. This was terrifying at first, but in all truthfulness, I think that flying becomes a lot less scary after you do it alone for the first time. It’s really not as bad as it seems, even as a 12 year old girl.

I think this is where my love for traveling started. I loved the airport. I loved the people, the chaos, the fact that you could literally be anybody and at the same time, meet anybody. I loved the idea of being able to go anywhere from one point of origin. If you’re really think about it, airports are so cool. They bring people together in ways that you don’t realize until you stop and think about it. The person next to you in security would be going across the world and you wouldn’t ever even know.

High school didn’t bring a lot of traveling for me, except for a few $30 round trip flights from Chicago to Las Vegas with my aunts and my cousins. My aunt would get updates on Vegas flights sent to her email, so that is where the low prices came from. It wasn’t until a little later in my life that I realized that I could find them all by myself.

My first solo travel story happened exactly two weeks after I turned 18. My cousin and I had this band we really liked, the Maine, and they were hosting a festival in Phoenix, Arizona. We decided that we were going to go, which meant flying to Phoenix by ourselves and also surviving there for three days without anyone to help us. We knew we were up the challenge though. Long story short, the trip included a very scary Airbnb (like so scary we had to go to the bathroom with each other) and surviving off of mainly chips, since we didn’t buy groceries that would provide any kind of sustenance. Also a tattoo that I don’t feel like I should share in this post. If you know, you know.

A few months after this, I found $30 round trip airfare to Fort Myers, Florida one day while I was at work. I bought the tickets without even asking my cousin and I surprised her with them that night when I got home. I found an Airbnb (after reading the reviews this time) that was a houseboat we would have all to ourselves for $75/night. There was a kitchen, two bathroom, and a rooftop hot tub with a bar. I still don’t fully believe it really happened. 18 year old me was so lucky and she didn’t even know it. It was one of the coolest places I have ever stayed if I’m being honest.

However, like any good trip, there were a few hiccups along the way. Our flight got in about 6 hours before we could check into the Airbnb so we decided to do what any grown-up would do… Lay on the beach on top of our suitcases without sunscreen in a UV of eight for six hours. Guess how that turned out. If you guessed second degree burns from the sun, you’d be correct.

I’m telling you about this because I think it is important that you know that no trip is ever going to be “perfect.” There is no such thing. You can try to make them perfect, but at the end of the day the Universe will take you where it wants to. The things that seem like the end of the world often end up being the stories that you laugh about at the end of the day. I’m not the perfect traveler, but I can say truthfully that I’ve gotten better at it throughout the years and the countless flights.

Since that first solo trip in 2019, I have been to 42 and I have a story in every single one, but I promise I will not tell you about all of them this time- just the ones that really stand out to me.

The main thing I get asked when people learn about how much I travel is, “how do you afford all of this?” and to that I usually reply something along the lines of, “It doesn’t have to be expensive.” Because it doesn’t. I think people have this distorted vision of traveling where people stay in five star hotels with all-inclusive service and fly first class. When in reality, the best kind of traveling (in my opinion) is when you do it living on basically nothing. When you fly by the seat of your pants and have no idea what the hell you’re doing next.

In 2020 I decided to buy a car and go on a road trip, no destination, no idea where I was going to live, barely any money, just a spirit of a little girl that was desperate to see what was outside of her small hometown in Illinois. I traveled to 39 states on that trip. You can read about it here if you want to. My favorite parts of that trip were not the nights that I decided to stay in a hotel room for the night, rather they were the ones where I decided to live in my car for the night on a mountain, or sleep on the beach, even at houses of people that I hadn’t seen in years. The nights that were not planned out and that pushed me to live a little more out of my comfort zone.

That’s how you grow as a human- isn’t that the whole point?

That road-trip changed my entire life. I truly believe it changed the projectory of who I am going to become. You learn a lot when you travel like that, with nothing besides the small suitcase that I packed and the money that I had saved up working my $7.50/hour job as a college freshman. Time seemed to be limitless, but I knew that my resources were not. Despite the knowledge that it all would have to end eventually, I lived like it was never going to. I let the wind take me wherever it wanted to. And I never regretted any of it.

That entire trip, I think I only spent about $2,000 for the three months I was gone and the states that I traveled to. This price includes gas, food, and hotels. I made sure that I was strategic throughout this process, since I didn’t have a steady income at the time. This was my thought process (and I know that this will not work for everyone, but it did for me)
$10/month for a Planet Fitness membership (to shower no matter what state I was in- truck stops are scary and usually not very clean)
Fill up my gas tank every time and drive until it was empty (I truly believe it saves you money in the end)
Non-perishable foods are key when road-tripping, but making sure that when I did go grocery shopping I had sustenance (fruits, vegetables, things I didn’t need to cook)
Staying in hotels rooms no more than three times/week (my car was just as good as any hotel room, plus they’re expensive especially in more urban areas)

You do not need a lot of money to travel, just trust in the Universe to keep you safe (and pepper-spray). Yes, there were nights when I did not think I was going to make it out alive. People are scary and sometimes, your mind gets the best of you. But I’m alive, right? I lived to tell the stories of my adventures.

After those few months of living in my car and in and out of hotels, I decided it was time for some stability. My next big trip wasn’t until June 2021 when I decided to go to Puerto Rico on a whim with my old roommates for $45 round trip. I think the main secret really is just getting lucky with the flights that you find. It happens randomly and you can’t really predict it, but when it does happen you can’t expect to be able to wait because it probably won’t stay that way long.

After that trip to Puerto Rico I flew directly to Miami for a week long trip, which was $45 round trip for the tickets. It doesn’t sound real when I really think about how cheap this tickets are, but they exist, I promise. You just have to look for them and jump on it when you find them.

The next big trip I took was to Paris, France, which was my first out-of-country trip. I found the tickets sometime in the middle of the summer for $300 round trip and I knew I needed to book it. If you know anything about Europe flights, you know that $300 is not a bad price for a trip to Paris. I called my best friend at 1am and asked her if she wanted to come and the trip was booked that night.

This also happened with our Alaska trip. I knew that Alaska was going to be a really hard state to hit, but if I wanted to do all 50 it would have to happen eventually. One night I was on my computer and I was looking up flights for our fall break at my college and I saw that there were tickets for $125 to Fairbanks, Alaska. I booked it almost immediately.

I say almost because I had some hesitations. Going to Alaska is a little different than going to another part of the continental US. Would it be too cold? Will we get snowed in? Will be able to find somewhere to stay? Will there be food around where we stay? All of these thoughts were racing through my brain.

I decided to book it anyways and figure out the rest later. It will all fall into place if is meant to be. I trust that.

I am the kind of person that will book flights unapologetically. I think that this is something that a lot of people struggle with; apologizing for wanting to travel, or doing things on a whim. There is nothing wrong with it, but there is something wrong with the people that make you feel like you need to apologize for doing it.

This trip to Alaska will be one that I will remember forever. It was not planned out well at all, but I have never laughed to hard our stupidity before. We, my best friend and I decided to get a hotel room in the middle of nowhere outside of Fairbanks, Alaska. When say the middle of nowhere, I literally mean a 30 minute drive (at least) from any kind of civilization. Nothing to do besides hike in the woods and watch Netflix in a snowy cabin. Before we went to the hotel we went to the one grocery story they had in the town and we got food that we truly thought was going to last us the entire week we were there. It was basically chips, microwave mac and cheese, hot chocolate and cookies. We knew it was a terrible idea, but we did it anyways. It was definitely an experience. Not one I would necessarily do again, but a memory nonetheless.

I’m currently sitting in the LAX airport getting ready to go back to my small apartment in Philadelphia after spending the last two days in Los Angeles and the surrounding beach towns. My best friend, her mom, and I decided to buy these $75 tickets we found and see what the West Coast had to offer us. To say the least, I will be coming back (hopefully for a little longer next time). I will never get tired of having the opportunity to see the world. This is what keeps me going.

I also just found $60 round trip flights to Fort Lauderdale, which I decided to buy my best friend for her birthday present. Do I know where we’re going to stay? Nope. But that is okay. You don’t need to have everything figured out 100% of the time. Life doesn’t work like that.

If you read all of this, I’m sure you know by now I am not someone that plans things, especially when I’m traveling. I used to be, but I found out somewhere along the way that there really is no point in trying to control the Universe. It’s going to take you where it was to anyways, don’t try to force it.

Here are some tips from me to you:
- Be open to being lost when you’re in a new place. You won’t always know where you’re going or where you are. In all truthfulness, if you decide to travel anything like me, you will rarely know where you are. And that is okay.
-Prioritize what your soul needs. Listen to your heart (and the Universe). If you have an urge to go somewhere, do it. And do it unapologetically. There’s probably a reason something in you is telling you to go. Find out what it is.
-Don’t let people tell you that you’re wasting time or money. It is never a waste if you’re listening to what you need to survive.
-Remember that traveling is good for the soul. Talk to new people, eat new food, see new things. We’re humans; we’re not meant to stay in one place forever.
-If you ever feel suffocated by your life or your current situation, do something about it. Even if it’s driving to the state over and seeing the ocean for the day. Life is not meant to be lived in a box that people put you in.
-You are allowed to go off the grid sometimes. Social media is exhausting, don’t let it control you.
-If you want to find cheap flights, you’re going to have to spend a lot of time looking up flights. Plugging in random dates on different airline websites. Hopper is great, but only if you know specific dates and a specific place. Google flights is good for if you know none of the above. Sometimes the place that you’re looking to travel just isn’t the one that the Universe sends you. Be flexible to the places that you travel. Even that small town in the middle of nowhere will bring you stories you can bring home.
-Stop hesitating. If you want to do something, do it. Life is so short.
-Never make yourself smaller to fit in somewhere. You are not made to be forced to fit somewhere. Dream big, take up space, be a little “too loud,” wear the bright colors, and flirt with that person you know you’ll never see again. Be you, with no boundaries, see what happens.
-You do not need to live extravagantly to live. Money is not everything. Remember that. Some of my best memories have been lived with $30 to my name in a foreign place.