{"id":51499,"date":"2023-08-22T07:43:05","date_gmt":"2023-08-22T11:43:05","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/ifintechworld.com\/news\/how-to-have-fun-traveling-solo-and-save-money-too\/"},"modified":"2023-08-22T07:43:07","modified_gmt":"2023-08-22T11:43:07","slug":"how-to-have-fun-traveling-solo-and-save-money-too","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ifintechworld.com\/?p=51499","title":{"rendered":"How to have fun traveling solo\u2014and save money, too"},"content":{"rendered":"
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This <\/em>article<\/em> is reprinted by permission from <\/em>NerdWallet<\/em>.\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n

When I first became a digital nomad in 2018, I expected a life of adventure and ease. \u201cNo more commuting!\u201d I thought. \u201cNo more parking tickets or forgetting to water my plants!\u201d<\/p>\n

Yet far from making my life simpler and better, solo travel was tough at first. For one thing, the way I was doing it was expensive. For another, it was lonely. \u201cNo more retirement savings! No more, um, friends?\u201d<\/p>\n

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Not every traveler is looking to become a full-time\u00a0digital nomad, but solo travel on the whole has become more popular over the past several years. Single-person flight searches were up 36% in 2023 compared with 2022, according to data from Kayak, a travel search platform. And Google
\n GOOGL,
\n +0.71%<\/bg-quote>
\n searches for \u201csolo travel\u201d have increased 59% in the first half of 2023 compared with the same period in 2019, according to Google Trends.<\/p>\n

Solo travel can certainly be expensive. Booking a $150 hotel room might not be a big deal for families, but it adds up quickly for singletons. It can also be lonely and boring \u2014 but it doesn\u2019t have to be.<\/p>\n

Here\u2019s how to learn from my early mistakes as a digital nomad and make your foray into solo travel much more fun and affordable.<\/p>\n

Plus<\/strong>: This Ecuadorean city in the Andes has perfect weather \u2014 and you can retire there for as little as $1,500 a month<\/p>\n

Spend on what matters, skip what doesn\u2019t<\/strong><\/h2>\n

When thinking about how to save money on travel, many vacationers focus on the basics:\u00a0finding travel deals\u00a0and\u00a0using travel rewards. Those are essential skills for solo travelers and my digital nomad motto was \u201cfollow the deals.\u201d Yet there\u2019s another way to save that\u2019s particularly important for solo travel: not paying for stuff that doesn\u2019t matter.<\/p>\n

Let me explain.<\/p>\n

When traveling with friends or family, booking a nice hotel room can offer an oasis of calm and relaxation, right? But it\u2019s different with solo travel. Hanging out at a fancy resort by yourself is not only expensive, but it\u2019s also isolating and downright boring. The point of solo travel \u2014 for most \u2014 is to get out and see the world, not curl up in bed. So spending a fortune on a room with high thread-count sheets might not be worth it.<\/p>\n

Here\u2019s how my priorities change when I\u2019m planning solo travel:<\/p>\n