Nomad Wallet

Travel More. You Can Afford It.

Travel Hacking Basics: 4 Easy Steps to Travel for Free

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I joined the rank of travel hackers 2 years ago and have since booked some amazing trips.

This past year, I booked an entire trip to Australia on frequent flyer miles and hotel points — all of which I accumulated at virtually no cost.

Here’s what I did on my free trip:

  • I flew a multi-segment trip to Sydney in First Class. On one segment, I flew the Thai Airways A380, where I had a “suite” with a seat that turned into a bed. On another segment, I feasted on caviar and lobster thermidor.
  • I got to speed past the other passengers through immigration and security upon landing in Sydney.
  • I stayed at the five-star Park Hyatt hotel in Sydney, where I was upgraded to a room with amazing views of the Opera House and where my $90 breakfast bill was comped by the hotel.

All of this is just a token of what travel hacking has gotten me. It’s not just about traveling for free, it’s about upgrading your travel experience.

So how can you get in on the action?

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How Alex and Ben Make a Long-Distance Relationship Work

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I generally view Valentine’s Day with a lot of suspicion. All the flowers, chocolates and cards…those retailers must really be raking it in!

But I guess there’s no harm to it, as long as I don’t have to overspend to partake in the festivities. And hey, there has to be a Valentine’s Day for there to be post-Valentine’s chocolate sale.

So today I’m featuring a traveling couple in a special Valentine’s Day interview.

Alex (a New Yorker) and Ben (an Englishman) beat the odds of a long-distance relationship and are now living together in New York City. Whenever they visited each other, they would indulge in their love of food and restaurants, which led them to run a blog together even when they were on different sides of the world.

I love their story because I was in a long-distance relationship myself. And from what I can tell, it seems like quite a common relationship arrangement for travelers. Whether you can see yourself in a long-distance relationship or not, I hope this interview will give you warm, fuzzy feelings.

To read the interview, click here.

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Use Travel to Start Talking About Money in Your Relationship

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Did you know that money is the number one reason for divorce?

The other day, Money Moron came on TV and I quickly got hooked. (I still can’t decide whether it was a good thing that there was a Money Moron marathon on that day.) If you haven’t seen it, it’s a Canadian show about people who can’t handle money and how their behavior affects relationships, whether it be between couples, siblings or parents and children.

Money can really divide people who actually love one another. And many times, money is not the real problem, but lack of communication. It’s surprising how even couples with children can go for years without talking about money.

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Have You Been to India? Help Sean Plan a Trip!

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(The trip is now over and the social media experiment along with it. Here are my follow-up posts: Part 2; Part 3.)

I met Sean through the personal finance blogging network called Yakezie. He asked for advice on traveling more cheaply because and he’s about to leave on a trip to India with his partner.

The thing about saving money on travel is that not every trick is applicable everywhere. For example, many of my usual go-to travel booking sites may not have any deals for India. Often the best way to build a cost-effective itinerary is to get local. 

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Affording Travel Interview With Lauren: Road-Tripping With Dogs

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I don’t know if there has been any actual survey on the subject, but I’d bet that one of the big reasons people don’t travel is because they don’t want to leave their pets behind.

I used to take my cat with me whenever I moved. Then I decided that, at 8 years of age, she was too old to fly, so I left her with my Mom. Five months later, I got a phone call telling me that she was having trouble breathing and she died soon after.

I was heartbroken. Maybe only pet owners would understand how I felt, but my cat was my family. She had been a constant companion through most of my adult life. I felt like I should’ve been there for her.

Keeping that in mind, wouldn’t it be awesome to be able to travel with your pets?

Yes, yes it would.

That’s why I’m interviewing Lauren of The Constant Rambler. She and her husband, Kenin, have been road-tripping with their dogs for years. She has a lot of practical tips to share, so read on if you want to take your animal pals on your travels.

To read the interview, click here.

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Affording Travel Interview With Megan: Working Two Jobs (and Occasionally Getting into Debt)

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Today, I’m interviewing Megan of Mapping Megan.

She’s an Australian journalist who has been travelling and blogging around the world for the last 7 years. Her husband Mike is an American travel photographer, and together they have made the world their home.

What I love about her story is how much she has sacrificed to afford travel, at one point even taking on two full-time jobs and a full-time study load! Megan is all about determination and hard work.

To read the interview, click here.

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Affording Travel Interview With Charmaine: Teaching Assistant in France

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France is a dream destination for many travelers. But it’s a reality for Charmaine Yip, who works through the teaching assistant program in France and now lives in Paris.

This is a great option for young travelers, especially because you don’t need to have any teaching experience or qualifications to do this. And it’s not just for English speakers either; there are opportunities for native speakers of other languages as well.

To find out how to travel and work in France as a language teaching assistant, click here.

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Trip Booking: How We Saved $230 by Visiting NYC

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Flexibility goes a long way when you’re trying to save money on travel expenses. I’m not an expert when it comes to airfare booking, but I managed to save $230 on this trip — just by having flexible travel dates and considering modes of travel other than flying.

The itinerary

Cheesy needed to travel from Jakarta to Montreal. (For reasons that would be too boring to explain here, I didn’t join him on this trip.) He didn’t care about the date or the route, so we simply searched for the cheapest way to get from A to B.

To find out how we saved $230, click here.

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Affording Travel Interview With Sean: Skateboard Coaching & Kickstarter Fundraising

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Today’s interview features Sean Michael Hayes, who has done some pretty interesting things. An avid traveler, Sean has been to 12 countries in the past 18 months alone, armed only with his backpack and skateboard.

Sean worked as a professional skateboarder before becoming a skateboarding coach. He’s currently busy with his newest project: publishing his first three books. He has just wrapped up a successful fundraising Kickstarter campaign and taken off to Bogota to work on the books.

To read the interview, click here.

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