How Pardeep Spent 30 days in Goa at the Cost of a 4-day Vacation

Who doesn’t have a dream of traveling the world without worrying about expenses?

I dreamed of it and made it a reality.

 I am not rich yet but I became a smart traveler.

I decoded how to travel for longer duration in the same budget that we spend on the short vacations.

“Short vacations are hectic and no fun“

Short vacations are more like a punishment than a pleasure.

I remember how painful were my vacations a few years back.

I booked a 4 day/ 3 night trip, and boarded the flight in the afternoon (or early morning); I did not want to waste my precious first day of vacation, so I always planned my days with a hectic schedule of visiting every popular location in my destination city.

The result? All I did on vacation was…

• Touch all popular places (to check in on Facebook)
• Do all activities in the town (fear of missing out on something that my friends had enjoyed)
• Not miss any chance of clicking photos (to upload on Facebook)

I came back from the vacation with a tired face rather than feeling fresh. It was like I was on a photography assignment, and there was a penalty of missing a popular place.

All my vacation was for Facebook. No Fun. Not a good way of spending time and money on a vacation.

I dumped the idea of the short vacations.

I wanted a long vacation but neither did I have leaves nor I had the money. I learned to manage my money, and put my finances on auto mode.

I learned the new way of enjoying a vacation with my trip to Goa last year

Let’s see how much it costs for a typical 4-day vacation (for a small family of three) in a beautiful destination like Goa from a city like Delhi.)

Air fair in low-cost airline = 3 * 4000 * both ways = 24,000

Taxi required to/from Airport = 4 * 500 = 2000

Accommodation for three nights in 3-star hotel = 3 * 4000 = 12,000

Lunch & Dinner expenses for six meals over 4 days = 6 * 1000 = 6000

Shopping and other activities = 5000

An expense of about 45K to 50K for a family of 3

When I tell someone that I am on vacation in Goa for a month long duration, the first question that they think of is  — “Where is he getting so much money to spend on a long vacation”.

You will be surprised to know that I am poorer than average Indian IT guy because I am earning lesser than what I was earning two years back in my IT job.

Here are the expenses that I incurred on my travel to Goa

Going to Goa by Train = 2 * 2200 = 4400

Coming back by Air = 3 * 4500 = 13,500

Accommodation for 4 weeks through AirBnB= 20,500

All other expenses = 19,291

Total Expenses = 57,691

Here is snapshot of my expense tracking app [MoneyView]:

Wait. Here are some hidden savings also. We bypassed some expenses that we would have incurred had we stayed at home:

Electricity = 3000

Fuel/Travel = 4000

Groceries = 10,000

Savings of total — 17,000

 Effective cost of our trip is 40,000 Cool! It’s even cheaper than our last trip that lasted just for 4-days and 3-nights (effectively 2 days of enjoyment and 2 days of hassle)

Key Learnings for hacking a travel in India

• Book AirBnb rather than hotel if you are planning a long vacation. (Signup and get Rs.1200 on AirBnb)
• Don’t book a package online but make your own travel plans
• Get ‘Work From Home’ if you can not get long leaves
• Combine train & air travel to save a lot of money (depends where you are traveling)
• Cook your own food at long vacation (find apartment with kitchen on AirBnb)
• Long vacation means keep working and enjoying the stay. A balanced mix of work & enjoyment.

To repeat my long vacation experience, I am staying in Thailand for 50 days now.

We are spending almost the entire summer vacations in a pleasant place because we wanted to avoid the heat of Indian summer. Actually that is the purpose of summer vacations in Schools.

But most don’t think about spending peak summers in cool places. The first obstacle is job and second is money.

I solved both issues by working on assignments that can be done from any location.

I will share more about managing foreign travel trips in pocket friendly budget.

This post has been originally published on Cashoverflow.in