Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
Practically speaking, traveling internationally can be expensive. And for the typical
traveler, it is expensive, because the vacation occurs outside of regular life and the costs
have to be counted outside of the regular budget. But when you
Travel Every Day
, the con-
siderations are different—you'll be traveling to your destination for some portion of every
day of your regular life. Using the techniques I'll describe in the coming chapters, you'll be
able to effect this transformation not only mentally but physically as well, literally turning
your home into a little part of your chosen destination. Thus you'll be enjoying your va-
cation from the time you begin planning, which allows you to distribute costs over a long
planning period.
To make this point more clearly, let's use a concrete example: A ten-day trip for
two people to Milan, Italy, with a standard-fare airline ticket, eating at high-end restaur-
ants, staying at a luxury hotel in the city center, taking in world-class museums, relaxing in
street-side cafés, visiting Da Vinci's
Last Supper
, and attending performances at the world-
renowned La Scala opera house, will cost about $7,000—an admittedly staggering num-
ber for many travelers. While this number can be reduced using tips described later in this
book, let's use this number as a worst-case scenarios for our calculations. Although $7,000
is a large figure, the mathematics change when we plan for this trip for two years. When
we divide $7,000 by the two people involved and the 730 days of planning, we find that
this life-changing trip to Milan, made especially rich by the ability to speak Italian and the
appreciation of Italian culture that you'll develop, costs less than five dollars a day. And,
unlike ordinary savings, in which we have to delay gratification while we build resources,
with
Travel Every Day
every one of these preparation days can be a little trip to Italy—you
can enjoy your trip many times over while you save!
A second way that
Travel Every Day
helps you to meet the challenges of time and
finances is psychological. As a general life principle, committing to a large goal has a gal-
vanizing effect and tends to draw all other aspects of life into focus. Planning a trip of a
lifetime is no different: you'll find that once you place the trip on your calendar and begin
to imagine yourself as already being there, life will take on an additional level of mean-
ing, and you'll make more focused use of both time and money. If you know, for example,
that you have a week-long trip to Rio de Janeiro planned that includes participation in the
New Year's Eve celebration on Copacabana beach, climbing the Pão de Açúcar, and visit-
ing a coffee plantation to taste coffee that was grown and roasted on premises, you'll find
it much easier throughout the year to avoid making impulse purchases. In fact, depending
on your current spending habits, this psychological effect could actually allow the trip to
pay for itself.
The impact of travel planning on time and self-management can also be profound.
Your life will be richer as a result of the new culture and language you'll be absorbing. Your
relationship with your travel partner will become more textured with every day of prepara-
tion that passes. You may find that many of the distractions that may have once consumed
