As the newest contributor to the blog here at traveldeals.net I’m thrilled to be sharing with you all my knowledge for saving money and finding deals in South America. I’m currently based out of Buenos Aires, Argentina where I teach English as a second language. It’s not the most lucrative job but it affords me a lot of spare time for exploring the city and taking adventures around the country and beyond. Again, it’s not the most lucrative job, so you can be sure that if there’s a deal to be had in this city I’m working on it.
For me, the best way to travel is to move to another country and to stay there from anywhere between 4 months to a year. Prior to my stint here I lived in Italy for a year, spending four months in Sicily, four in Florence and four more in Rome. In this style of travel I think one really gets to know a city or country; one can explore every corner, try every dish and leave with a deeper understanding and appreciation of the host culture and country. But I’m not made of money, and neither are most of you, so half the adventure is to do as much as possible for as little as possible without sacrificing any must-do or -see experiences.
I’m lucky enough (at the moment) to not be burdened by a real career and am therefore granted the freedom to get up and go, however I realize that most people over 18 do have responsibilities and obligations so it’s my pleasure to disseminate some hard-learned lessons with all of you.
I’ve developed a list of tips and tricks for saving money in and around the city that I’ll be periodically posting up, starting with my post on how to get around as quickly as possible on the public transportation system (which is surprisingly not as simple as you might expect it to be) and you can find it below.
Some people think that to travel comfortably is to spend copious amounts of money and to travel on a budget means lugging around a heavy backpack and sleeping in rooms full of strangers. For those of you who cherish your privacy, I’m right there with you and with a little extra planning and a decent amount of patience you can stretch even the smallest budget pretty far, all the while ensuring that you’ve got good food to eat and a comfy bed to sleep in, sans strangers. My goal is to show you through my own experiences great places to see and things to do without sacrificing comfort or fun for cost. Keep checking back with the blog and the website to find inspiration for your next trip!
~Alexandra
Comments
Kathleen
Hi Alexandra,
I am glad you are on board. I am excited to hear about your adventures. I am located in Quito, Ecuador and love to hear about travel deals in South America. Do you have any suggestions for where to find low cost flights in South America? I know STA Travel offers from great deals in Latin America and they sell you discounted tickets even if you aren’t a student. At least in Guatemala they do. Otherwise I usually stick with COPA but LAN has been coming out with some great deals lately. I love budget travel but the buses in this part of South America are quite unpleasant. You are lucky to be down there in Argentina! If the buses are anything like they are in Chile and Brazil, traveling around on the cheap must be a great experience.
Alexandra
Hi Kathleen, I tend to stay away from air travel because the buses here are very comfortable and very, very cheap. There used to be a 50% price increase on bus tickets when sold to foreigners but they’ve recently suspended that charge and you can now hop a bus from the top of the country to the bottom for about $44 US! If you ever come to Argentina or Chile you should fly down but then get around on the buses- they’re nothing like what you’ve got up there.
~Hasta luego!