So many people want to travel for a long period of time and visit awesome places around the world. In reality only a few of them have the courage to actually do that without spending a lot of money.

Do you want to travel and explore awesome places, but you don’t have thousands of dollars to spend? Here are some tips for you:

- Carefully decide which time of the year you want to visit a certain destination. In almost every touristy place the prices change during different times of the year. Do some research about the peak season for tourists because the prices are the highest then. Another plus of visiting a place in the not touristy season is that there aren’t crowds of people everywhere and you can easily take those beautiful photos without other people in the shot.

- Be flexible! Prices of airplane tickets are different every day. So be flexible and choose the cheapest dates to fly. Sometimes the difference in prices can be hundreds of dollars if you decide to fly 1-2 days earlier or later. That was the case with one of my travels when there was no direct flight and I had to fly to Barcelona and then fly from there to my destination. I checked the prices online and saw that if I stay 2 days in Barcelona, the flight to my destination was a lot cheaper. I immediately booked the cheaper flight and with the difference in the price, I paid for accommodation, food and public transport in Barcelona. This way I spend 2 days exploring a city I had never been to before, without spending more money than what I had planned in the first place.

- Choose accommodation carefully! If you are traveling alone it’s probably the cheapest to stay in hostels or guest houses. If you are traveling with other people you could rent an apartment or a house on Airbnb or other similar websites. No matter what type of accommodation you choose, don’t forget to compare the prices in at least 2-3 websites. If you don’t want to pay for accommodation, there are websites like worldpackers.com where you could find a place to stay in exchange for some help or work (on reception, cleaning, creating a website, photography…). And of course, couchsurfing is always an option.

- Use public transportation instead of taxi or uber whenever you can. If you are going in a big city choose an accommodation in the city center or near a metro station or a bus stop. If you are staying in the city center you could walk to most places you want to visit.

- Eat where locals eat! This way you will try the local cuisine and it most probably will be cheaper and more delicious than the food in all those fancy restaurants for tourists.

- Check online if there are any free tours in the city you are visiting. Free tours are a great way to learn more about the city from local tour-guides and meet other travelers without spending a lot of money. At the end of the tour it’s good thing to give the tour-guide some money if you have enjoyed the tour, but you decide the price, based on your experience and how much you can afford to give.

- Volunteer somewhere or take part of an exchange program from your university if you are a student. While actually living in another country you learn a lot more about the culture and you will have the chance to connect better with the culture and the people of the country.

- Work and travel. If you want to go to a specific country for a longer period of time look for a job in this country. You could live there for a couple of months, work and explore the country in your free time.

No matter how you decide to travel, be open-minded and try to get out of your comfort zone as much as you can.