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The travel commentary

Travel comment: That's why I go on a cheap holiday

It's about prioritizing. This is the short and a little too simplistic answer to a question I often get: "How can you afford to travel so much?". Read on in the article and learn how Jens Andersen travels cheaply.
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Travel comment: That's why I go on a cheap holiday is written by Jens Anderson.

Globe plane world travel

Airline tickets instead of cinema tickets

When I was younger, I went to the cinema a lot while dreaming of traveling. Since then, the cinema has become more expensive, and the planes cheaper, so now I travel a lot while dreaming of going to the cinema. It is, of course, put at the forefront, but with the entry of low-cost carriers into the European aviation market in particular, it is in fact the case that a cinema ticket and a plane ticket may end up costing the same. Therefore, I have stopped searching towards the darkness of the cinema and searching instead towards the airport.

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Cheap holiday: Drop something else

For the past many years, I have lived off not very much. A number of years at SU were replaced by unemployment benefits, cash benefits, loans, money won and part-time jobs. And regardless of income, the priority has been to get out to travel. Not necessarily far away - but away.

I have traveled with volunteer work, on extended weekends, in periods between jobs, on strategically placed holidays and roughly taken every opportunity to get going. However, the options depend on the price, and it is therefore the price that determines where I go and when I leave.

South Africa - Cape Town - cheap travel

Queue offers and ethical considerations

Airline tickets can be very cheap these days, for many reasons. As a younger person, I spent many hours and days standing, sitting and lying in line when there were queue offers travel agencies, and I have therefore flown to Cape Town for 1 crown, to Istanbul for a 10s and got a free ticket to Thailand.

Sometimes tickets are used as bait to sell something else - like on the day trips to Germany for a fiver when I was a teenager - and it's the same model that gives cheap tickets on planes, buses and train i Europa. Fortunately, you decide for yourself whether you buy something on top. When travel agents put cancellation trips up for sale, they often make no profit on them, but they lose a little less than they would otherwise. I use it when I can.

It is clear that there are several things to consider when going for cheap travel, and the desire to travel is governed by, among other things, ethical considerations and one's own financial situation. Do employees get a proper salary? Is there control over the environment? What about the alternatives - are they better? And how much better? It is ultimately up to the individual what to put their finger on. In my case, the economy wins most often.

Here is a good flight offer to Berlin in Germany - click on "see offer" on the page to get the final price

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Cheap holiday lifestyle

When I leave, I live as cheaply as possible - usually in a dormitory in a hostel - and live mainly on food from the local supermarket. It may sound a bit scratchy for a man who has gradually grown out of the backpacking age, but that's what makes it possible to be away; I would rather not spend more money than if I had been at home.

Of course, I also have to go out and see something when I leave, and the choice falls on the things that do not cost money; there are plenty of museums, galleries, parks and amusements that do not take admission, and on the whole there is always something to look at when strolling around a new place. Basically, everything is new and therefore a sight in itself.

A lot of research beforehand helps to find what is free and I am happily happy to research. Without research, you have to be more spontaneous, and you can easily be without costing a lot of money. It's about prioritizing.

If you want to go on a cheap vacation, then you have to sacrifice a little of your freedom of choice. Buy the ticket when it's cheap, travel without a lot of luggage, find yourself sharing a dorm with others, walk around instead of driving, eat cheap food and skip the expensive sights (and just see them from the outside). It can easily be done - I do it myself.

Nice trip!

About the author

Jens Skovgaard Andersen, editor

Jens is a happy travel nerd who has traveled in over 60 countries from Kyrgyzstan and China to Australia and Albania. Jens is educated in China Studies, has lived in China for 1½ years and is a member of the Travel Club. He has extensive experience with the travel world as a tour guide, lecturer, advisor, author and photographer. And of course most important of all: As a traveler. Jens often goes to places where it is also possible to watch a good football match in the company of other incarnated fans and has a special fondness for Boldklubben FREM, where he sits on the board. For most people it is obvious to look up to Jens (he is barely two meters tall), and then he is a 14-time champion in the TV quiz Jeopardy and still single, so if you can not find him out in the world or on a football stadium, you can probably find him out touring in the Copenhagen quiz environment.

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