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How I Traveled Switzerland On A Budget $500 Only

What's up, guys? I recently returned from a one-week road trip in the beautiful country of Switzerland I managed to only spend $500 on my week there, and I want to show you how to do the same.

Switzerland Budget Travel Guide

Switzerland is known as one of the most expensive countries in the world, it's so expensive.

It almost makes you mad, but I promise the beauty is worth the money and if you have a chance you need to go to Switzerland at least once in your life. So let's start.

With getting to Switzerland so for flights, you can find cheap flights to Zurich or Geneva I've seen anywhere from 400 to 500 dollars out of the states, but often it can be anywhere from up to a thousand dollars. I recommend if the flights aren't cheap, flying to a popular Airport in Europe.

Such as London or Paris where the flights are fairly cheap and then from there buy a separate ticket to Geneva or Zurich you can get those for anywhere from like 50 to 100 dollars. Once you're there, you need transportation.

The first option you can do is you can get the Swiss Travel Pass the Swiss trial glass is awesome it allows you to use trains buses, and boats all over the country it also allows you to use gondolas for free and other gondolas for half price. 

For a three-day pass that gives you full access, it's about 250 American dollars, for an eight-day pass it will cost you four hundred forty dollars, not super cheap, but it's affordable, and it's great.

The second option I recommend and the option that I would prefer and this is what I did is renting a car you can get a car rental for fairly cheap, I rent a car for a week. It's great if you travel with a buddy, you can split the cost of a trip.

These websites, are where you can find great deals for rental cars or bikes.

QEEQ | AutoEurope  | Economybookings | BikesBooking | Localrent | Getrentacar | Discover Cars 

Trip Costs Breakdown

Car Rental: $200

Gas: $150/2

Lodging: $45

Food: $80

Entertainment: $100

Total: $500

Lodging hotels

In Switzerland is notoriously expensive, Airbnb, if you plan it right for 25 to 100 dollars per person in the high season, might be a little more expensive than that, but that is affordable if you're with somebody.

You can split that cost I and my friend need we actually found a lodge in the mountains of pins L, and we spent the night there for $45. And which included breakfast it was awesome, there are cheap options for lodging if you plan it out all right.

Food

You don't go to Switzerland for the food you go there for the beauty, the food is so expensive there almost makes you mad if you want a good meal at a restaurant it's going to cost you forty to sixty dollars.

What I did is I went into grocery stores the two main grocery stores are coop and Migros and while most of the stuff is fairly expensive there you are able to find good deals and stuff and there are a lot of things that are actually cheaper there than they are in Morocco.

For example chocolate, you can get nice brown chocolate for 50 cents you can get a pound of pasta for a dollar to be able to make it they also have pre-made kinds of pasta and salads for like two to three dollars there are cheap things in the story.

Stay away from restaurants if you want to save money, all right so the last.

Entertainment

On the list are entertainment gondolas special train rides and other activities. It can get very expensive, it's typical for a gondola to cost anywhere from thirty to a hundred dollars. That's a lot of money.

With the Swiss Travel Pass, you can get free gondola rides and others are going to be half of what I recommend if you want to save money. Just plan out on doing one or two on the trip.

You can hike, this is what I didn't Grindelwald I did not want to pay $60 to take a gunner off the mountain. I saw a mountain peak I wanted to hike – hike straight up the mountain, and it was awesome. I had the whole place to myself and I had a wonderful experience.

Just gotta decide if you want to splurge or not, that is entertainment.

That is my Switzerland budget travel guide, Hope you guys enjoyed this.

[rovingrahal]

6 The Best tips and tricks for making the most of your hotels

As a travel blogger spend I'm going to say anywhere between 80 and 90 of my life in hotel beds that might be a stretch but somewhere up there, so over the years I've picked up a few tips on what to do and what not to do in hotels. Um some of them I probably shouldn't admit to, but I'm going to be anyway.

Let's get to it, tip number one.

Don't book directly

I shouldn't say this because I worked in a hotel. But it is cheaper if you go on websites like kayak and book it there rather than booking directly through the hotels. You can also compare different hotels around your price bracket and see what you can get the best value for money, um so yeah I never book directly through the hotel.

My favorite tip is that it involves eating and booking a buffet breakfast. Might cost a little extra say 10 or 20 dollars but if you book it in advance it will be cheaper than booking there on the spot also it's a great chance to eat.

Kayak heatmap

When you're doing your booking, so basically this is the coolest function of a website that I've ever found, I can't believe I didn't know about it until recently.

What you do is go on to the heat map, and it will show you where the hot spots of a city are, and then you can use the filters on the left-hand side to choose your preferences. If you want to know where the best sightseeing places are nightlife the best places to eat, you can stay within that area, or on the contrary, you could use that as a sign of where not to stay.

If you want to stay more local and not be around all the travelers and tourists, then you can look at where it's most popular and stay in the opposite part of town.

Travel agent

Back on the kayak website, you've actually got a section of the website where you can book my trips which is like a personal travel agent that's not actually a person, and it collects all your data and documents for you so that will collect all your flight details or your hotel bookings everything.

Hair Dryer

Don't carry it all with you, this one is dependent on how much time you spend getting ready in the morning and how much you care about what you look like when you travel personally.

I don't take a hair dryer with me or hair dry my hair really, um but if you are someone. Who does and cannot live without it make sure you pack your own because it's going to take you at least an hour or possibly even two to dry anything, let alone your whole head of hair with the hotel hairdryer.

Resistance band

When I'm traveling I always pack a skipping rope or a resistance band to do a little in-room workout, take your own and do a little workout in your room.

Razors

Last of all, if you've forgotten anything I'm talking moisturizer, razors, and band-aids. If you need any of these little items that you might have forgotten to pack, or you've had confiscated at security, just go to the hotel reception and ask if they have any of these things before you go out and buy a whole packet.

The best idea is to ask them because more often than not they will have those little things that you need and even phone chargers I've asked before and have got them even a laptop charger, so before you go out and buy it yourself just ask reception in case they've got one that they can loan you, or they might even give it to you to the feeling nice.

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How do I travel Around the world Non-Stop for FREE?

It has been about five years since I started this whole traveling lifestyle.

I've traveled to all seven continents in over 50 countries from all of those trips, some of the fantastic things that I've done were my expedition trip to Antarctica along with scientists and other travelers. My two-year stay in Europe as I base myself in France my epic road trip from a north-south and my ring road adventure in Iceland to my safari game drive adventures in Africa.

How did I manage to afford

All of these travels are the top three follow-up questions where am I rich did my parents pay for all of these travels or do I have some sort of elusive person who's giving me some Sugar Money, well no, no, and no. to settle this once and for all. Actually, 90 of them have all been funded by my travel blog.

I say this because a good chunk of my first two years of traveling were all funded by me, besides I only started. To do my whole nomadic lifestyle anyhow to better help you understand how I did all of this and also hopefully give you some ideas.

I'm breaking this down into two parts as I explain how I could afford all of my travels.

Working Online

First up I worked online. it helps to mention that I come from a third-world country in Africa, so life here is relatively more brutal I scored a corporate job at the age of 19 after a year of internship, and then I was with the company for over two years, and yet I was only earning about 250 dollars a month. I realized that that whole profession was just not for me. so I quit that job at 21 but with proper preparation, I did my research first, and I found out that working online will be the best choice for me.

Months before I handed in my resignation paper I was working on some online jobs on the side, so I was basically doing my corporate job together with multiple other freelance jobs. I found them online and when those side jobs were paying double or triple what I was earning I knew that it was time to quit, and so I did and in just a few months I was traveling solo in Africa and eventually to Europe. speaking of which visas are such a bit even though it requires a lot of work from a third world National like me.

The Online Jobs I did?

Online marketing graphic design and web design or online marketing was something that I learned by myself by going through free resources online from sites like Udemy or Skillshare for graphic and web design these were skills that I have developed ever since, by the way, a few months after I did online freelancing I built up an online Amazon business of mine in a way that helps secure my finances, even more, all in all, what does this mean for you then well with the advent of technology nowadays.

There is simply a huge number of resources available for you online. of course, you don't need to do similar jobs like I did find what you're good at or at least what you're interested in and start from there but the way I see it's always great to do online or remote jobs because it gives you a lot of possibilities for earning while also giving you the freedom to work whenever and wherever you want. I wrote an extensive post about the different types of jobs that you can do so that you can earn while traveling the world.

for some examples: some people have made use of their love for photography and videography by selling those skills some people have become consultants other people have become virtual assistants and I have some friends who have become English teachers abroad and there's so much more.

Travel Hacks

the two best way how I'm able to afford my travels is to do money and travel hacks.

in times that I don't travel for work, I still make it a point to aim for the best value ways to travel you must remember this traveling is never only for the rich of course, it can get expensive, but it will only be that way if you let it be you should know after all that first and foremost there are several ways that you can make travel cheaper if not for free once again I wrote in detail about how you can travel on a budget on my blog.

But as an example for flights I always go to platforms like Way Away or aviasales or compensair or Momondo or Sky scanner, these are websites that search all airline companies and hotels for the best deals. you can even set up alerts on routes that you'd like so that it can notify you if the price suddenly drops there's also a feature where you can see the cheapest places to fly to in certain months or dates.

I can rant about this endlessly because there are so many ways to be able to afford traveling without breaking your savings. that's it for now, and I hope you guys have learned a thing or two from how I'm able to travel the world of course I hope you enjoyed this.

[rovingrahal]

How do I get a transfer from the airport to a place of residence?

Today we're going to talk about How do I get a transfer from the airport to a place of residence?

because when you're traveling one of the biggest headaches and biggest worries you have is when you get there with your luggage and try to figure out how I get to your hotel.

like am I going to get robbed can I do the bus and is there a metro that goes there I don't know what to do and so what I want to do is kind of give you an overall idea of what you can do because honestly it all kind of comes down to the same thing I mean depending on the size of the city you'll have a train a bus a taxi a ride-share or a shuttle service from hotels like there are those five mains.

things you're going to see, and I think what you really want to start off with when you're thinking about what to use to get from the airport to your hotel. first, ask your hotel what's the best way for you to get there, and the thing is they may say oh you can just take train number six, or you can take bus number 52, and it'll drop you off right at our hotel sometimes it's that simple other times they may say it depends on what time of day you're going to come in. might say oh we can arrange a driver for you or that's what they'll tell you we have a shuttle. 

into town obviously, public transportation will pretty much always be the cheapest way.

Bus

bus so maybe just take the bus the thing is when you're looking at taking buses they usually go the most often of all the transportation options in terms of public transportation and the thing is usually what you have to plan for.

are you going to take a bus to or from the airport those buses will cost more than a normal bus you know because it might be an express airport bus, so you have to pay more so when you're buying your tickets to your bus tickets?

get into the center because sometimes you can take it you know public transportation, and they check like oh you only went for two zones, and now you're in three zones, so you need to pay more, and I have seen people get fined for it.

if you're going to take the bus frequently what it is you'll buy the ticket from the driver or there might be a stand that sells the ticket for the buses, and then you buy your ticket, and they'll tell you where to go.

if they're bigger buses you're not going to bring your luggage up into the bus they're going to put it underneath the bus and then when you get to the train station or the bus station or wherever they drop off is then they'll take your stuff out you get it there.

when you're taking the bus if it's a dedicated airport bus okay now if it's just normal public transportation then yes you will actually have your luggage with you on a normal bus that's why I frequently recommend taking that kind of airport express buses versus the normal bus, and you'll notice that those airports express buses.

you know travelers with suitcases whereas you take the bus local. so there's usually not a lot of room for your luggage so be aware of that, your luggage is really going to dictate a lot in terms of what you can do when it comes to getting around.

Local Trains

there are trains every half hour that come into town at 42 minutes very easy got a lot of luggage rolls it on their boom you're good to go all right.

the trains are usually a little more than the buses they're not as often as the buses, and they only go one route they usually go to the main train station. so if you're not staying at the main train station you might then have to get a taxi or a subway or a bus to get to your next destination, so you might want to factor that into your pricing when you're looking at these things also.

Taxis & Rideshares

if you're coming in late at night like after midnight into most airports in Europe sometimes it's hard to get the trade there might not be a train or a lot of public transportation options late at night

so be careful if you're using cheaper airlines, or you have a red-eye flight that gets in late because you might only be able to take a taxi or an Uber from the airport and that's going to be a lot more expensive and honestly, taxes are usually the most expensive option, but they take you from point to point so if you don't want to deal with that or if you have a lot of luggage.

I do recommend doing a taxi or a van that will take you there because then you don't have to worry about dealing with all your luggage when you're at the airport I will tell you got to realize are a lot of airports now they'll have a designated place for taxis, and then they'll have a designated place for ride-shares like Uber or Lyft every country has different stuff Uber is pretty ubiquitous, but other countries have different things.

[rovingrahal]

4 ways How to make a successful travel investment

4 ways How to make a successful travel investment

Most people's investments are their college stock and real estate, the best investments I've made are planning tickets and car rentals, so one of the most common questions asked by people is how can they afford to travel.

In the past 3 years, I've spent a lot of money on travel but on every trip, I've made I've always made the money I spend and often very profitable so the first thing for me is that you've got purpose travel we all have trips because it's fun and interesting, but when you are planning where you want to go, think of multiple goals you can achieve on your trip, find something good.

How can it be an investment?

It doesn't have to be a cash investment, but you just have to find what your travels will benefit you in, for example: maybe you want to go to Switzerland for an epic physical century interval so you can sell that as stock footage or every location you want to shoot in a particular location to create An epic video only, it doesn't have to be movie related, there are endless opportunities.

How you can make your travel investment?

it just requires some creativity so for me a few years ago I got an internship opportunity in Switzerland where I made educational videos for a human rights group each weekend I would have free time to visit new countries so I would have to think to myself how would traveling to this destination be an investment for me.

for example: maybe if I go to York or Spain I can get an epic shot of me jumping off the sea arch that would make a cool Blog or Vlog if I go to this place in Greece I'll be able to get some awesome footage of one of the world's craziest beaches and get some other viral content there if I can't find a good reason to go on a trip.

besides having fun I have a hard time justifying spending the money in time so I guess my point is we all want to have a fun time while we travel so if we can also have another reason to go it can make your travels investment in home hopefully make you some money while you're at alright so another way traveling can be an investment is you can use your travels and experiences.

Build Your Portfolio

can help you get jobs and other opportunities while back I was a role to my classes at college but I decided to take a leave of absence for that semester and my brother and I decided to go on a two-week content trip to Europe I bottomed out my bank account buying new camera gear and covering all my travel expenses we went to Ibiza for Halloween.

we explored Reese's famous cities of Athens and then we headed over to Meteora we roamed the streets of London and we finished the trip with two days in Iceland I mean we got some of the most incredible footage and it was one of the most memorable trips of my life.

after those two weeks were over I came back broke and I was honestly a little discouraged but I was able to use that footage to make my two years blog and a few months later I use that blog to help me get an internship at the iconic beautiful destinations you don't know if beautiful destinations.

the most famous travel brands so for me it was like a dream job anyways I got the internship and worked with them in New York City all summer long blogging about them it was just an awesome opportunity so if you look at traveling from that aspect heavy trip might not make you money but you're building your portfolio and also improving your skills which can help you land your dream job.

Educational Investment

some of my greatest life lessons weren't learned in a college lecture hall rather they were discovered when I was traveling in a foreign country being present and learning.

from my surroundings, he discovered a lot about who are and what we value in life and it helps you evaluate where you want to be in the upcoming years traveling has given me my greatest memories it's where I've truly felt alive.

new things that make you feel the same excitement you felt as a child because everything is it's new it's not the same old grind when you're living back at home I remember the first time I saw the northern lights I was sleeping on this cliff edge in Norway's arctic circle.

it was just a just your-fork surreal experience it was a memory I'll cherish forever and an experience I would have never gotten if I decided to never leave my country.

so one important life lesson that I realized is that I've never regretted the money that I spent on traveling the only thing I've regretted is wasting time and not traveling more we can always make more money but our time is limited and some opportunities will only come once.

when old people are on their deathbeds and are asked what their greatest regrets are most of the regrets aren't about things that they did rather they regret the things that they didn't do to keep that in mind if you are scared about traveling you are scared about all the things that could go wrong. just remember that thousands and millions of people have done the same thing you want to do and they've been safe. 

just give it a go have some faith and give it a go the most important thing about traveling is you just got to do it and as you travel more you'll find ways to make it an investment whether it's a monetary investment or it's just an educational investment in yourself.

there will always be a reason to not travel but there are a thousand reasons to go and see the world it may break your bank and you have to go work a week or two to make that money back I almost guaranteed that you won't regret it. travel you'll be grateful for the memories you made for the rest of your life all right so to end this blog. going to go through those points one last time so

Travel with a Purpose

the first thing is the travel with a Purpose all of us want to travel for fun but if you can find several reasons why traveling to a certain location benefit you this will help turn your traveling into an investment.

Build your Portfolio

will help you land jobs and other opportunities you wouldn't have gotten otherwise thirdly you can travel to make content which helps build your social media lastly traveling is an.

Educational Investment

will have life lessons that you will never get in a college classroom so anyways hope you enjoyed that blog.