Don’t fall for the luxury travel ads above this post. Contrary to what they advertise that traveling is only for those who have money to spend on expensive accommodation and packaged tours, there's an alternative way to travel nowadays. What they call long-term or budget travelers, an alternative to the demand of those mass-tourists. It is what gives real meaning to travel, it's more about having fun, consuming culture, taking the time to see places, and meeting local people.

Don’t get me wrong, I’m not entirely against luxury travel, especially if you can afford 5-star comfort to pamper yourself or take a break from work, or if you are bringing your kids or your family with you. It’s really based on the choices you have in life.

At each stage of your life, this preference can change, especially if you have a family. But as for me, I will always choose the journey of a budget traveler. I prefer to travel longer and have more meaningful experiences.

Both forms of travel (luxury and budget) have its advantages. If I am traveling with a special someone, it would be nice to have some occasional hotel stay and some luxury comfort. But that’s not the case for me, yet! I travel alone so I don’t need big space, and I prefer to spend my money on adventure activities and nature trips. Besides, comfort and luxury just make me feel guilty.

In the end, both forms of travel share the ultimate purpose, which is to basically realize that the world is actually larger than you can ever imagine... And that there exists a much bigger world out there, beyond your petty problems and your own little life.

Traveling makes you realize that the world does not revolve around you.

However, I see the steemit travel category these days is saturated with luxury travels and booking agencies that are not really providing inspiration, meaningful experiences and life lessons to steemians. They are just using this tag to get more money for their businesses and offer dreams you might not be able to afford if you don’t work hard enough or slave yourself for a year. You blow your hard-earned money to a place where you spend 20% (or less) of your time.

Most are glorified version of travels, or glamor posts of how travelers afforded to visit expensive cities, stay in fancy resorts, post pictures of food and touristic places. Good for those who are reading and can afford these. But the steemit population is comprised of ordinary people like me who work hard every day to get by. And those who don’t have rich parents who can fund their travel or those who don’t happen to be rich parents.

Save your money for experiences!

What you would spend on a hotel stay per night could be used for adventure activities, nature trip, lunch, and transport for a few days.

Just dig dipper into steemit community and you’ll find a lot of travelers who have inspiring stories such as - cycling around the world, traveling on a steem budget, hitchhiking, solo backpacking etc.. Unfortunately, they don’t make it to the trending page of travel, yet. You can check my followers, as most of them are travelers, or wait until I feature some of them one of these days!

One of my followers asked me yesterday if I could post how I managed to travel with a limited budget and how I funded my trip. Actually, I’ve been posting these articles nonstop since last month, but maybe you just didn’t catch a glimpse of it on the new tab.

But that’s totally fine! I’ve listed below some of my articles that might be helpful for those who are planning to take a long-term trip and make a radical change in their lives.

Some of these posts have like 1000+ words, so you might get bored! Don’t worry, I am trying to improve my writing every day, I promise to summarize these posts in the future to just 500+ words.

• The Top 3 Ways To Travel For a Long Time With Less Money - Turn Your Dream Into a Reality

• How to Travel the World on a 'STEEM Budget' (In-Depth Guide)

• How To Have that Money You Need to Travel The World Without Dealing Drugs or Selling Your Soul

• Invest in Long-Term Travel and Find Out Your Purpose in Life (My first post, and why I keep writing for steemit!)

• Why Having Less Money Should Not Stop People From Traveling the World - Based on My Experience

• The Top 5 Reasons Why Travel Can Show Your Purpose in Life - And Why You Should Travel Now

• How to Become a Successful "Travelpreneur" - Work Less and Travel More

• Simplify, Travel and Steemit - How to Live the Dream and Make Anything Possible (Based on My Own Experience)

• The Top Reasons Traveling is The Only Thing That Makes You Richer

You can also check my previous posts about my travels around South America. Let me know if you have questions, or if you need tips and advice about long-term travel.