Cheap Travel

I mentioned in my last blog about giving a speech on Cheap Travel. It was a review of some of my experiences with traveling while not spending my entire life savings, which I will share here.
My first experience was a trip to China- as an employee. Teaching English abroad is definitely an interesting and inexpensive way to have an in-depth experience of a new culture. In this case, I had to pay for my airfare to China, but had I stayed for one year, it would have been reimbursed. As it was, I stayed for a semester, and my return trip was paid for.
There are some places that are hesitant to hire people over sixty, but there are plenty out there who appreciate the value of those of us 'with extensive life experience'.
The five months that I lived in Wuhan, China, included free housing- nothing fancy, mind you, but sufficient, and a monthly pay that allowed me to save a few hundred dollars while enjoying myself with lots of little trips and shopping at a store that was reminiscent of Costco. Of course the downside is the commitment, to stay and work. But I would rate it overall as a fantastic opportunity.
A few of the countries currently offering teaching positions include Korea, much of Asia, Thailand, Yemen, Saudi Arabia, Chile, Russia, Slovakia... A good website for getting started (There are many many of them) is here.
A bachelor's degree is most often required, and while some places don't require a TEFL certificate, like the university I worked for, I would recommend for your own comfort level that you invest in such a course. I have since taken one- which leads to my second idea for cheap travel.

Learning abroad- either a language or a TEFL course, can be relatively inexpensive- the cost of the course plus housing for a month varies but can be as low as $1800.00. I took a TEFL course in Guadalajara, as detailed on this website for instance. A few years ago, it was even less, and there may be other good schools that are less expensive. Even so, four weeks of fun and learning in a city for this amount is a good deal. There are online TEFL certificates available, but for me, the most valuable part of the training was observed classroom experience.

Another way to go- I did this two years ago in Italy- is to exchange some kind of work for free room and board- or sometimes just free room. Or free campsite. A wonderful website called helpx.net, if you haven't discovered it yet, opens up a whole (literally) world of opportunities. I did an Italian language course for a month in Florence Italy (about $1500.00), but was not ready to return home after that so arranged with a few folks I found on helpx to spend some time on a farm in a national forest southeast of Rome, and a little hill town south of Rome. At the first I helped in the vinyard and garden, and at the second I helped the lady learn English, and a bit more gardening. In between I shared a rental car with a 'travel companion' who I also found on helpx, and visited Pompeii, the Amalfi Coast, and Rome.

So that's the bare basics. There is much more to be discovered, and my next adventure, which is soon to be revealed, can also be attributed to helpx.net. Happy trail hunting- til next time!
Phoebe