As I returned home after my two-month-long backpacking trip across Europe, one question I was repeatedly asked was, how did I afford to travel in Europe for so long, despite having no job and no source of permanent income for the past few years?
Some close friends even mocked me by saying that my dad supported my travels.
And when I spoke in defence and confessed my innocence, declaring “It is my blog that supported… and that’s how I travelled Europe for so long” they said I was lying. “We all know your stories, now tell us how you did it,” one of the friends snapped.
To be honest, blogging has been the best thing happened to me so far since I’ve started travelling — at least financially speaking. It has provided me with travel sponsorships and even helped me make money.
Read more on How Much Can You Make From Travel Blogging.
I think because every blogger starts with limited resources and many challenges — with the biggest of all being gaining popularity and making money during the process.
It’s important to find a mix of revenue models. Eg I use Adsense, freelance writing, affiliate marketing, product reviews, and a few other things… and I get to do it all because I have a blog!
Read: Different Ways To Make Money From Travel Blogging| Useful Blogging Resources
Using the little money I make from blogging, and a lot of brand partnerships, I managed to travel to Europe.
Now, let’s discuss this in detail…
How I Travelled Europe For 2 Months In INR 70,000
In reality, if I were to pay for all the experiences I savoured during these two months, the hotels I stayed, and the transportation I took, I would have ended up paying somewhere between 10 to 12 Lakh Rupees.
But thanks to my travel blog, I was fully sponsored, or partially supported, by travel boards and independent tour companies in more than 6 countries.
This allowed me to travel to places without having to spend too much.
I partook in day tours, travelled from one country to another and explored cities without having to pay anything. But one thing that helped bring the cost of my travel down was spending no money on accommodation throughout my 2 months in Europe.
You heard that right! In 5 cities including two in Germany (Stuttgart and Frankfurt), one in Slovakia (Bratislava), one in Switzerland (Basle) and one in Hungary (Budapest) my entire stay was sponsored by the tourism board.
Though of course in return I was reviewing their property or providing them pictures of their property/services etc, and promoting on my social media channels, it was something I was anyway doing, as a blogger.
To keep a balance between work and play, I planned two hospitality network jobs, once in Germany and once in Italy (using hospitality networks like Workaway and Worldpackers). Where on one side it kept travel-for-work and travel-for-life in equal proportion, it also saved money on the other.
So if I classify the costs. It will look somewhat like this, for two months in Europe (all costs in INR)…
- Accommodation: NIL
- Flight cost: 30k
- Visa cost: 7k
- Food cost: 20 to 30k
- Transportation inside Europe: 5 to 10k
- Miscellaneous: 10 to 15k
Duration: 58 days
Here’s a small 2-min video of my 2-month Europe trip:
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