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Top tips for budget travel

All the guys who work here at gapyear.com have skanked it on their travels all over the globe. To be honest, we kinda pride ourselves in our skanking abilities. You get the see the world at a cheap rate, not one gets hurt... everyone goes home happy!

So, what is the secret to 'doing it on the cheap'? Our survey of the office came up with the following tips and hints...

1. Shop around, keep your eyes peeled and get to know rough what stuff costs

2. If you're young, free, single and keen to give anything a go once... just get on and do it
(skank master Alan loves to just buy the single fares for sod all, get out there with just about enough to get back, packs nothing but some clean pants and a jar of marmite... makes anything taste good... and has travel experiences that most of us can only dream about... if you have warped dreams!)

3. Don't bite of more than you can chew. Grabbing a cheap flight to Bucharest and heading off to see the surrounding area can be a bigger adventure than pegging it around Europe seeing 8 countries in 15 days through the window of a train or bus

4. Make use of the cheap flights on the budget airlines. Every time easyJet and Ryanair go to war, think 'Where am I going to explore this month?', not 'Aren't their marketing campaigns orange...'. Take the flights that no one else will take to the destinations that no one else will go to and voila... an Italian experience for the price of an ice-cream, a couple of pizzas and three bottles of Chianti. Belissimo!

5. Check out 'Courier flights' (a section above) and make use of them if you can

Gapyear.com skanky boasts...

- We do not encourage you to do it but gapyear.com founder Tom Griffiths did a 13 week trip where he flew into Vancouver, Canada, hitch-hiked across it (the bit we don't encourage) to Quebec, travelled down through the US to Washington, then across to Knoxville, up to Chicago and Detroit and then back up to Toronto where he flew home. And the skanky cost of the whole lot? Just over £500

- Not wanting to be outdone, skankmaster Alan took the cash left over from Christmas Eve in his pocket, jumped in his mate's company car on Boxing Day and they drove to Chamonix. Slept in the car, on floors, in hallways, got a discount from a rental company that took pity on them and rented them some snowboarding gear... did a pile of that and then drove home. Time away: 6 days. Cost: £60 all-in-all. Skanky rating (travel experience vs. cost) - 10/10

Think you are skankier and can make our boasts sound like a luxury cruise?

Let us know >> and we'll print them here!