6 Ugly Truths About Travel Blogging

Go online and search for the next place you want to visit. You’ll likely find articles like Where to Stay in _______ on a Budget, How to See ________ on a Budget, and Eating in ______ on a Budget. Although there is no adjective to modify the noun, the word “budget” in each of these examples suggests a tight budget or a low budget. And that makes me cray cray. Budgets are like butts. Everyone has one, each is just a different size and shape.

So, the ugly truth about “budget travel” or “traveling on a budget” is that everyone is on a budget, from my 20-year-old daughter to English royals Meghan and Harry. It’s just that the size and structure of travel budgets vary.

When my daughter Juliette has time off from her two jobs, she travels via public transportation, hikes in national parks, and eats at least one meal a day from a food truck or by visiting a local grocery store. She went online to find a free budget template and uses it to manage the costs of her trip where her accommodations are often a basic campsite, a friend’s couch, or a rented room in someone else’s home.

Meanwhile, when the Duke and Duchess of Sussex honeymooned at Canada’s Jasper National Park, their more substantial budget allowed them to travel by private jet, stay in the Jasper Park Lodge’s Outlook Cabin for $3,500 per night, and dine on five-star cuisine. But, they still had a budget. No matter how convincingly Meghan batted her beautiful Bambi eyes at Prince Harry, there was ultimately a limit to what they could spend on their trip.

At Everyday Wanderer, I do my best to incorporate the current costs of the activities I recommend at the places I’ve visited so you know that admission to the Kennedy Space Center Visitor Complex in Florida is about twice as much as it is to visit Space Center Houston in Texas. And, I regularly remind visitors that there is no admission fee to visit the Smithsonian Institution museums in Washington, DC. (Did you notice I don’t use the word “free”? Thank you taxpayers and Mr. Smithson!)

But I do not write articles like How to Visit _______ on a Budget, because only you know how many figures are in your travel budget. And only you know what type of experiences you want to pay for and at what rate.