Going Places

It's the week after finals and it's finally time for some well-deserved R&R. But instead of enjoying the new-found summer freedom, you find yourself rotting away on the couch watching daytime re-runs of Fresh Prince. Or maybe all you do is work and the back breaking routine is making you feel more cyclical than a hamster on a wheel. Perhaps it's time to shed off that summer slump and try the cure-all for slashing the daily grind-traveling.

As a student, you may not have the luxury of flying in first-class or staying at five-star hotels. That's okay. Traveling doesn't have to be luxurious or excessive. Traveling is about getting yourself out of the grind, breaking routines and learning about yourself and others along the way.

As Saint Augustine once said, "The world is a book, and those who do not travel read only a page." If you're ready to burst that OC bubble, strap on your adventure outfit and bring along a sidekick. Here are a few solid pointers on achieving a profitable travel experience and initiating yourself into the globetrotter mindset.

Book flights and accommodation early. Finding the cheapest air-fares takes time because it means comparing bundles of airlines and travel websites. Fortunately, Smartertravel.com packs together multiple carriers for you to compare in one place. The site's airfare booking guide offers useful tips such as booking during the weekdays, on holidays and during off-peak seasons. SmarterTravel lets you set your departure and destination airports, then compare between websites such as Expedia, Orbitz and CheapTickets.

Hotwire.com's TripStarter option helps find the best time of year to visit your destination. Simply select a destination city and TripStarter loads up a line graph of when it's cheapest to fly there. It lists months and holidays with the best rates and the seasons for peak weather. Hotwire also has an event calendar. Watch the cherry blossoms bloom in Japan or attend the Berlin Jazz Festival simply by planning your flights around these events.

Part of the adventure in traveling is flying by the seat of your pants. If taking a last minute flight, try to book Tuesday night into Wednesday morning. That's when prices settle down from the weekend and airlines try to match sales. By that time, airlines are looking for people to fill seats.

Talk to other travelers. Before you sign up for the tourist traps, ask other travelers who have "been there, done that" and see if it's really worth the money. Often you'll find sites that have been overly commercialized and with this information, you'll find more productive uses of your time (and money). The best place to exchange information is in hostels. When it comes to budget traveling, hostels are the bread of butter of strapping cash and meeting people.

Hostels are dorm-style accommodation with shared bathroom, kitchen and facilities. These days, hostels include more luxuries, such as 24-hour internet, laundry machines, sauna, and cheap meal deals. Unlike a hotel, there's no room service or mint on your pillow, but it certainly has its benefits.

"Some of my best friends from around the world have been met in hostels," said Steven Bradley, 26, who traveled to Southeast Asia, Australia, New Zealand, Canada and America on a round-the-world ticket from www.travelbag.co.uk.

Student Travel Association travel agent Jeff Torres called hostels a global community. "Even if you can afford hotels, if you're looking to meet people, hostels are definitely the way to go," Torres recommended.

Do as the Romans do. Be open to try different foods and ask locals to direct you to a place only they would eat at. It'll let you taste the true flavor of a country, not to mention save you heaps of money. Remember, you'll always have the Golden Arches waiting for you on every corner when you get back home. When Bradley first arrived in Thailand, he walked the streets browsing the food stalls and chatting with the locals. Twenty minutes later, he was eating fried bugs and trying foods he never thought he'd be eating.

"This was, I told myself all part of the experience and if you're going somewhere you have to try and take in the culture."

Another way to save on food is to provide your own. Go to a local market and buy snacks and meals to hold you down. "A tuna and pasta diet can go a long way," Bradley said. Still another option is to sort out a BBQ amongst other travelers in the hostels. Do this only if you're a semi-adequately decent cook and you're willing to work the grill. Simply split the costs, walk down the local market and buy the materials you need. Additionally, more often than not, the hostel or local pubs will offer cheap meal deals for travelers on a budget.

Don't be a tourist. For students, traveling is rarely about the destination; it's about the experience. Knowing that, traveling has less to do with money and more with the guts to go out and put yourself there. Through it, you begin to see people are not as different as you thought they were. After all, as Henry Boyd once said, "The most important trip you may take in life is meeting people halfway."

"Traveling has shown me the rest of the world is its not all doom and gloom as shown on the news. You always hear the bad stuff and never the good stuff," Bradley said.

Andy Selbon, 27 grew up in the small town of Cornwallis, England. After buying his world ticket and traveling to Thailand, he said, "[It] made me aware of just how simple and basic life can be, without us getting caught up in the materialistic side of things. They are always offering what little they have to give to someone else… those people are amazing and we could learn a lot from them." Selbon currently resides in Auckland, New Zealand where he's applying for permanent residency.

Traveling is ammunition to knocking down the walls of stereotypes, racism and narrow-mindedness. As most travelers soon learn, the world shrinks down once you realize that people are not all that different.