Increasing the Surface Area of Potential Travel Options
Travel Further, Have More Fun, And Spend Less
Not everyone can make a living online which allows them to explore the adventurous travel destinations routinely navigated by today’s digital nomad. If you can find a way of making a living online, and working from home, that’s quite recommendable.
But even if you can’t, there are a few things you can do to increase your available travel options without stressing your budget. First, you might want to invest in a towbar for your car. When it comes to towbars, you need to choose the right one; working with professional installers can be key. But if you get the right one, it can pay for itself. This is especially true if you’ve got to do a lot of travel.
Some Numbers to Kick Around
If you’ve got to travel somewhere for a month as a work-related thing, a cheaply-sourced trailer with a bed and shower could save you thousands of dollars. A basic hotel will be $100 a night. Over four weeks, that’s $2,800.
With a towbar, there is the option of budget travel using a trailer. You can attach the camper to your vehicle, park near where the job-site is, and save enough in one month to cover the cost of a busted old trailer and your tow-hitch. Do that another month, and the acquisition of a tow hitch has actually ended up making you money.
Contrast that with booking a flight, a hotel room, and a car for rent while you’re out of town. A single flight can be $500. Renting a car can cost you $349 a month. So if you went that route rather than driving there with a fifth-wheel RV, you’d be spending $2,800 for the hotel, about $500 for the plane ticket that’s the U.S. average as of 2014), and $349 for the car. That’s $3,650. Hopefully the remote job’s pay covers the cost of travel, room, and board!
Meanwhile, if you just wanted to vacation, for under $3k you can have a pull-along RV be your mobile motel room, and then the only cost you’re out is gas and food, which you would pay for on a daily basis anyway. Cheap travel can make it possible for you to go wherever you want, only paying out for the additional fuel. Keep it up over a year, your trailer and towbar pay for themselves even if you’re not using them to stay out at a job-site.
New Places, And Increased Safety
Additionally, with a towbar you can bring a tent along behind you and have very comfortable camping in areas you had no ability to reach before—at least, not without a hike containing a heavy tent in a pack on your back; or something similar.
In terms of safety, with a towbar you can use your car to pull a friend from a ditch. Additionally, this can provide a contact point for a tow-truck when you yourself make a mistake and end up by the side of the road.
It’s expensive to travel somewhere by plane, train, or automobile. All have pros and cons. Which works best for you depends on where you’re traveling, why, and for how long. However, there are always more cost-effective options if you’re willing to explore them. In reality, you could go on walkabout between towns, living off the land—but perhaps that’s too cheap.
The key is finding that travel method which works best for you, while simultaneously being affordable. Towing a fifth-wheel camper can be a great way to do that. Find out what your costs will be, and think outside the box as a means of meeting them.