When my news feeder gave me the headline “Cheapest Places in the World,” I clicked excitedly on the link, anticipating a new traveler’s hot spot, a place where I might travel on $30 a day at the most.
I was wrong. Budget Travel’s “cheapest place,” Mancorá, Peru, may be inexpensive for someone who can afford a vacation, but it’s far beyond my backpacker’s budget. Usually when I buy a plane ticket to somewhere far, far away, it means I’m going to be gone a good long while. And if that’s the case, there are no $40/night hotel rooms — my budget ranges from $60-100 a day (Europe) to $20 a day (India). If I’m headed to Peru, I’m going to be shopping for the cheapest possible accommodation, and I have a feeling it can get a lot cheaper than $40 for a bed. Ditto for eating — Budget Traveler suggests that a $6 meal is a bargain, but the writers obviously haven’t looked to street food for their culinary delights. As we’ve written about the merits of eating street food many times here at Gadling, I won’t say more than this: Street food is generally less risky, much tastier, and a lot cheaper than restaurant food, especially if said restaurants are anywhere near tourist hot spots.
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So, who is Budget Travel catering to? I’m guessing it’s the demographic I’m increasingly less a part of: the unattached, DINKs (Double Income No Kids), 20- 30-somethings who have the same travel bug in their veins from studying or volunteering abroad when they were younger, but who can afford to class up their travels just a notch. But for now, Budget Travel’s recommendations are a bit out of my budget.
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