Extreme Budget Travel

If you are adventurous and not averse to roughing it, it is possible to travel long-term on a budget of about $330 per month. That is the view of Dan Norris, a young British man, who explains how he does it on his Website (http://thestupidforeigner.com)

He does it by camping, couchsurfing and hitchhiking whenever possible, or staying in cheap hostels when necessary. He also settles down sometimes and rents an apartment or works on a farm in exchange for labour through an organisation called Willing Workers on Organic Farms. (www.wwoof.net.)

He tends to avoid expensive cities and countries, though he has visited places such as Venice, Japan and Argentina. In Venice he found a couchsurfing host who lived in the suburbs, hitchhiked into town and got around mainly by walking rather than taking the costly vaporetto, a type of water bus. In Japan he worked on farms and eventually settled down in Tokyo for several years. Iguazu Falls in Argentina was one of his favourite stops, even though park admission costs nearly $20. He managed to find a hostel in Puerto Iguazu that charged only $3 for a bed.

Norris tries to avoid flying as much as possible, and when he does he is very flexible about dates in order to secure the cheapest fare. Despite the unconventional way he travels, he claims to have had few problems with either hitchhiking or couchsurfing.

I recently met someone who has couchsurfed extensively around the world, and hope to bring you an interview with her soon. I'd like to hear from anyone else who hed this service about their experiences with it, since I've never had the nerve to try it myself.