Does budget travel matter that much?
4-5 minutes
Most travelers you meet on the road are budget conscious and traveling with the objective to find the cheapest room, the bargain sale, the two for one drinks, and the cheap street food.
Not too mention the fact that backpackers often choose to forgo certain tours, experiences, and expeditions because it will stretch the travel budget way too far and cut time spent on the road way down. No one wants to be faced with having to go home earlier than they planned, or at all even!
Having a budget-travel-conscious mind is really important; you want to make sure you can stretch the money further so you can do more and see more.
However, times will come on your travels when you need to tell Dr Scrooge to go take a vacation himself.
TRAVEL IS ABOUT QUALITY.
Travel is about experiencing the new country you are visiting and all it has to offer through it’s natural environment and cultural appreciation. Sometimes in order to appreciate this, you have to spend money. And it might be quite a lot.
We debated whether to see the gorillas in the wild in Uganda. Gorilla Trekking was going to cost us $450 each just to get the gorilla permit to sit with them for one hour. This didn’t even guarantee that we would see them.
Read:
How to go gorilla Trekking in Uganda on a Budget
Top 8 Affordable Safari Adventure in East Africa
This was a huge amount of money for travel in Africa. We were on a tight budget, and it was difficult to see us spend the equivalent of a month’s travel on just one hour activity.
We decided that this was a once in a lifetime opportunity that we might never have again. We were here, we could not say no. Instead, we had to find ways to cut down in other areas.
4 Day Budget Gorilla Trekking Safari
We camped the whole time, and for just $1- $5 per night this really helped us. We also decided to trim down the number of safari game parks we would visit. There is no need to go to all of them. We had to choose the very best and the most suitable for what we wanted to see and what season it was.
Ugenda Gorilla Group, Volcanoes national park gorilla family
Cutting back in other ways allowed us to spend a magical hour with the gorillas.
There is no price tag you can put on a silverback charging you in its impenetrable jungle home. This is a priceless memory.
TRAVEL IS ALL ABOUT THE MEMORIES
When you are planning and saving for your round the world travels, make sure that you factor into your budget money for these once in a lifetime events, like the Masai Mara Great Migration safari.
Research them before hand so you know just how much these experiences could cost you.
Plan for that. Work a couple of extra shifts at work, sell something you own that could not bring you as great a reward that the travel experience could. Put these extra dollars into a separate savings account dedicated just for those extra special once-in-a-lifetime travel experiences.
If you don’t, upon your return home, you will be kicking yourself that you spend the majority of your time knocking back on a couch in a hostel, afraid to walk out the door and do anything for fear of blowing your budget.
Priceless memories would have eluded you and you would have missed what travel is really all about.
Experiencing the best of what this world has to offer, learning more about yourself, and having some ultra kick ass memories to write home about.
What are some priceless memories you have from travel which you had to break the budget to experience? Talk to a consultant at Wild Discoveries Uganda Safaris give your some great insight on what can save to to have a great holiday safari adventure in Uganda, Rwanda and Kenya.