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 of 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 had 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
And 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 really helped bring the cost of my travel down is spending absolutely 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. Read: How To Find Travel Sponsors For Europe Trip.
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.
And 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:
Starting blogging? Then Read: How To Start A Travel Blog In India
Hi Dev. I love to travel to all unknown places and meet the locals. Currently I am doing job but soon I will be Full time traveller. I loved your experience/posts. Reading those, I have got inspiration. I will also explore the http://www.workaway.info for future tour. Recently I have started my travel blog (Travelthroughmyeye.com). Though I want to see the whole world, but i have to keep some pace as I have a 2 years old daughter, as I don’t want to travel without her!! Anyway best of luck for your future tours.
good to know that you’re looking to travel more in life Sudeshna. good luck.
Gave me a reason to start my blog as soon as possible! Really a helpful post! 🙂
Glad to know Sammarika. Godspeed!
Being a budget traveler made me travel often too (plus blogging, lets be honest). Working odd jobs too helps.
Blogging is really a huge help. I was also able to go to different places without spending much thanks to blogging. I’ll definitely check that hospitality network. First time to hear it and it sounds so intriguing.
There are so many ways to travel on a budget across the globe. It’s great that travelers like you can balance work and play while on your travels. Two months sounds like a period to visit awesome places. My longest travel was only for a month. I hope I could do two months in Europe someday. I’m sure your blog can make a good reference for it!!!
Hey Erica, thanks for your comment. I hope you will find a way to travel for longer. Long term and slow travel is the way to do it right 🙂
Blogging is really helpful, not only writing down our travel experiences but also funding our travels. You are one of the most skilled and lucky people who can make money out of travel blogging. Cheers to that. I would also like to find ways to earn money on posting and blogging while keeping its quality content. Keep it up Dev! I understand your friends who sometimes are skeptics how you funded traveling, somehow, traveling is not for everyone. But regardless of how we do it, just enjoy it! Safe travels! x
Way to make the most of your blogging experience! I agree, people always question how one can travel for so long without a lot of money, but it’s doable! Good luck on the rest of your journey!
That’s so awesome! I recently started my travel blog, so I’m excited to get to where you are someday 🙂 Thanks for the helpful information. I will definitely have to read your other posts.
Hey there, glad to know you’ve started blogging too. I know it can be a little frustrating initially, as you’ll have to put too much effort and (often) you don’t get results, but as your blog gains popularity, you’ll start exploring the benefits. I really hope you will make a good sustainable business out of blogging! Godspeed!
Wow..I have already bookmarked your post. I need to go through it over and over again and also other of your posts. I have been traveling (although not full time) and travel blogging for a while now but I am still to learn how to truly make money out of it
I’m sure you soon will find your ways out of blogging. Here’s my BLOGGING RESOURCES page for more blogging tips: https://footloosedev.com/travel-blogging/
I think everybody questions how you do it because they wonder how they could. If everyone could live the dream, they’d all be doing it.
This is so inspiring. 🙂 I often read about bloggers getting sponsored stays and tours, but I didn’t know it would save money that much (reading that you would’ve spent 10-12x as much if you hadn’t had any of these… wow!). I think that’s really helpful since traveling to Europe is really expensive compared to other continents such as Asia.
Thanks for stopping by and writing a comment Katherine. Yea, blogging has been a great help lately. I couldn’t imagine travelling so much in life and having such great experience had I have to pay for everything.