This Is How You’re Supposed to Travel

2. Be a travel parasite.

No, this does not mean mooching off friends or family. What it means is learning how to use guidebooks to your advantage. While they are useful to have for the history of a place or the basics in itinerary planning, I rarely look to guidebooks for the name of a hostel or restaurant. Instead, I look at their recommendations as things to piggyback on. Lonely Planet recommends a place as “Our Pick”? Great, I go there, and walk two doors down to stay nearby. Rough Guides says “this is the best restaurant in town”? Perfect! Almost every one of those recommendations will spawn another restaurant within walking distance. Industrious entrepreneurs quickly learn that when these books recommend a place, they quickly get overcrowded and prices go up. The solution: they open a place right next door or nearby to handle the spillover. Without fail, those are the places that are cheaper, more delicious and not jaded. Being a parasite isn’t always a bad thing. (Having parasites? Not so much.)

Four years ago, Billfold pal Jodi Ettenberg quit her job as a lawyer and bought a one-way ticket to Chile. She has been roaming the globe ever since, and gives a lot of really terrific advice on how to travel on a budget on her blog, Legal Nomads. Have travel questions for Jodi? Send me a note, and we’ll see if we can get them answered.

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