Travel Often
How to Travel the World all the time…
(or as much as you can)
One of the questions I get asked the most is “How are you able to travel?”
While I could figure out how to create a masterclass around it to make money and teach people all the tips and tricks I’ve learned along the way, the truth bears explaining a bit. The question first of all, isn’t that straight forward. I think what people really want to know is what do I do that gives me the money to travel, the freedom to travel often, and the time to plan it all. So here goes:
(1) I think it’s important to say up front, I live in a high income household with two highly educated, working adults (me and my husband). I personally work in politics and policy strategy at a legal advocacy organization. So everything you see on social media is not a travel hack. Some of it is simply a matter of math. Also, work flexibility for some comes with seniority. So what you see as someone on vacation is really someone working by the beach. I’ve been in my career long enough to create the kind of flexibility I need to allow for travel.
(2) Before we started flying business class with @delta, we spent years searching for flight deals on places like secretflying.com and theflightdeal.com. We let the deal determine the location. If I saw a flight deal, that’s where we went! Because we live in NYC, which is a major hub, we’ve been to Paris for $400 RT per person, we’ve been to Iceland for $300 RT per person, we’ve been to London for $500 RT per person (and that’s without a flight deal). We also use skyscanner and I have countless Google alerts for flights to specific locations.
(3) How do I travel with a kid in school? Kids are out of school more than they’re in school, so traveling with a school schedule is not that difficult. Every year our kid only misses the 3 days before Thanksgiving from school. I usually plan around my daughter’s school schedule every year when they send around the schedule. I think through how long it takes to get there, what I want to do, and determine how long we can stay.
(4)Traveling to the African continent from America is getting easier and easier (pre-March 2020 and I assume will continue when travel starts to resume in Q4 of 2021). More airlines are offering direct flights from NYC, DC, and Atlanta to Accra, Lagos, Dakar, Nairobi, and Johannesburg. This will cut down on your travel time and also allows you to go to the continent for a week (i.e. Accra is an 8 hour direct flight from NYC). Cutting this travel time down allows you to see more places faster.
(5) I joined a Black travel community (facebook.com/nomadnesstribe) many years ago and the information has been invaluable. There are Black people who travel in groups, solo, Caribbean experts, Asia experts, people who specialize in finding luxury hostels, people who know the best travel routes, etc. Group information is so helpful in times like this.
(6) You don’t need to be rich to travel but don’t let anyone tell you that it’s not costly depending on your tastes. You have to crawl before you ball. Before I was staying at the Four Seasons, I was staying at the Days Inn. I learned to fall in love with Airbnbs as well and I spend my free time searching for dream places so I’m not left scrambling at the last minute.
(7) A lot of travelers know already (was true pre-pandemic and I’m sure will be true post-pandemic) is the most popular tourist destinations are the most expensive. So for example, a flight to Lima, Peru from NYC was almost always cheaper for me than to Cancun, Mexico during Christmas. So I would rather go to a place I had never been and wasn’t as saturated and with cheaper flights. A less full flight also means I can bid on a business class seat (a flat bed). I would do a bunch of research (Google and Instagram are your best friends).
(8) Last thing I’ll say is, people can serve as proof points of what’s possible but there is no amount of information, secret hack, or motivational post that’s going to help you do it, like doing it. Once you commit yourself to a life of travel ( not just a vacation here and there) but to a LIFE of exploration, there is nothing that will stop you.
Let me know in the comments what are your tips to travel more?
Cheers and happy traveling 🥂