Money Mistakes Travelers Make in Their First Year

In my little black Moleskine, page 47 of last year’s reads: ‘don’t take ubers in cities you’re scared of. take the bus, get lost, walk back.’ And underneath that: ‘$1,200 in rideshares in month 1 of my long trip. Never again.’

The article you are reading is based on a single principle learned from a very costly mistake made by the author in his first long trip, to Lisbon, at the end of last year. In that month, the author spent $1,200 on rideshares, twelve hundred dollars in the first month of travel, and he was very, very upset when he finally got around to looking at his credit card statement for that month.

Taking the buses was even worse than I expected. In the first three attempts I missed my stop. After that, I was walking back to parts of the city I had no idea how to get to in the first place. At last I found my way back to the middle of Alfama after a 60-minute search for the metro that turned out to be ten meters from where I started. But the money that I saved in those weeks enabled me to extend my stay for two more weeks, and I am a transit person ever since.

The pattern of excessive spending is one that first year long distance travelers fall into very easily. But the more you travel the more you realize that it all stacks up. The cost of rideshares is by far the greatest but the cost of bottled water and currency exchange also add up greatly. In Iceland last year I spent approximately $300 on bottled water alone because I was too scared to ask whether the tap water was ok to drink.

I have a Schwab debit card now. No ATM fees. They even reimburse the ATM fees of other banks for you. So for a 6 month trip, $200-400 saved for the remainder of the year for something that only took 10 minutes to sign up for.

Most travel guides would list up “Cheap Things to Do” in a city and it would turn out that in the long run those things actually cost way more than the things you would pay for if you were willing to spend money for them in the first place.

Regarding our earlier observation about Patagonia – The cheapest pair of hiking shoes for a 12 day trek (in the end only 6 days active) were $40 for “Superfit” (black/maroon) hiking boots from Outdoor Camp in El Calafate ( Jan 2024 ). What a rip off – destroying my feet (which have taken a lot of abuse in the last 25 years ) for what amount to only $3.33 per day ( to make a long story short – in the end my feet gave in on day 6 – after which I had to abandon the trek with 5 more days planned ) . I would have done much better with the $140 Kahtadoora gators that were definitely in my budget for the whole 12 day trek ( approx $12 per day which would have even left me some room for additional souvenirs for my granddaughter for which I had also budgeted in the $1800 for the entire 12 day trip) . It would have added only about $1 per day to the entire trip.

The other place where cheap costs more is sleep. That $5 dorm the night before a 15 hour bus ride is a false economy. Your sleep the night before affects your decisions for the next day and on a transit day you are trying to make the best decisions to reach your destination. I’ve found that it’s worth paying 3 times as much for a private room the night before an early flight.

I purchase travel insurance. In 2024 my friend broke his ankle in Vietnam and was billed $7,800 for his treatment. Thanks to World Nomads he received the full amount of his policy – a hundred bucks for the best investment of his entire trip.

This page may contain affiliate links from which I receive a small commission at no additional cost to you. I share some useful travel gear for budget-conscious adventurers, which shows how to save on accommodation and what to cut from your expenses to be able to have unforgettable experiences instead.

I think that approach mostly produces forgettable trips.

A bowl of Pho in a tiny street-side restaurant in Hoi An from last year (2023) cost me $4 – I can remember the lady who made it. The lunch I had today in Granada when I’d had enough of touring around and decided to take a break instead cost 28$ (a bit pricy, but what did I care!); I can remember exactly what I had for lunch and our conversations of an hour or so afterwards in a restaurant where I just took a seat because it looked as though it might be okay. In contrast, the $12 per person dinners we’ve had in a variety of hostels all over the world lately? Zero memories of those.

Budget for your blowouts and safeguard them from getting eaten away when unexpected costs pile up on you. There is a goldilocks zone where your money can be well spent. Save for those incredible splurges instead of pinching pennies on things that don’t really add value to your travel experience.

Lastly, if you plan to be a full-time traveler, get really good at your trip’s budgeting. Use a system to track money daily rather than at the end of a period of time. When planning out a large amount of funds for a long amount of time for travel (6-months or more) for various destinations, attempt to pad your funds for various contingencies that might happen during a trip and occur far in advance with great frequency (sick, a missed bus, once in a lifetime happenstance in which you spontaneously find yourself with money to throw at something extremely costly or desirable). Many full-time travelers under-budget for trips by as much as 20-40% (on a per trip basis), and that underestimate often occurs as a result of underestimating a huge number of very tiny, mostly insignificant, budget-line items. Plan for this underestimating when creating a budget for travel.

One last thing: the business of tipping. I have consistently found myself to be a moron in countries where not tipping would be considered rude (Japan, most of China), or where it is obvious and expected (US, parts of Latin America). A single sheet of paper, a few minutes of research prior to arrival is all that is required to avoid some truly cringe-worthy behavior.

The rest of the book is just going to rehash out the same lessons over and over again on different trips. The traveler who is determined to get better at this just has to pay closer attention to the mistakes that they are making over and over again.