Figuring on travel

You know it takes a great deal of dreaming to keep alive the motivation for travel! I remember my trip to Japan, visiting the island of Matsuyama, its temple, castle and other sights. I remember the trip to Korea, the back alley restaurant in a small town, the great tasting stew that later I had to wonder about...

Memories are the stuff of future dreams! I'm steadilly trying to figure out budget fitting ways to get to Moscow and visit some in-laws I have there, how to get to China where I have not been, and to return to Costa Rica once more after last year's stay there!

But it comes down to this: You have to be inventive, frugal, and take every route you can to making the stay in a foreign land inexpensive, and the trip there just as inexpensive!

There are numerous ways to that end of course, and what follows are suggestions from what I have done and have seen done.

Ever have a foreign student stay with you for a two-week English course? Doing that over two seperate years resulted in our being able to go to Matsuyama, Japan, stay with a Japanese family of the student, get a guided tour of the city by the proud grandfather/historian of that student, several wonderful home cooked and restaurant meals (our money was no good, only our host's!) and so on.

Perhaps a trip to a missionary friend? I recall the trip to Seoul, Korea. A friend who was on a mission for an organization became our guide, our interpreter, the bargain expert in the market place, and the one who knew where to go for what. Came home with a custom tailored suit, shoes and numerous other items of clothing.

The main challenge after making aquaintance with folks living in the country, is that of cutting your trip cost down as much as possible. Thus far, and not unusually for most, the successful route has been the air miles clubs of the airlines!

Obtaining and using a credit card on a small purchase resulted in 25,000 miles. Adding to that the paying of daily expenses on an air miles debit and/or credit card, racked up more miles. It is a fact that most airlines have online shopping options that open up double-miles and other bargains for things you need to buy anyway. Price is the same usually, but of course shop!

With the credit card we have, we have one-mile per dollar spent as the basic and always true manner of accruing miles. Did I tell you about the $7000 purchase we made? How about ongoing expenses like utilities bills?

But most surprising of all are the number of links that exist for you to do some "clicking" for miles. Just to get you started, I've listed my here .

So many more options exist for cutting costs! If you have a suggestion, let me know and spread the wealth!